Totally unprepared...

Sophie and I were supposed to have had another dentist appointment this morning, but I cancelled it. I have too much to do at work, and I couldn't lose any more hours. I spent all of my shift dealing with emails and rejoined Keith at 2pm to go home.

I'd received a call from the registry office that my appointment at 4pm had been brought forward to 3.30pm, so we barely had time to get the things together that I needed to take with me when we arrived home. I knew I had to have two forms of ID and pension details for my Dad, so I made sure I had them.

We set off for Kettering in heavy rain and went to the building where I thought we needed to be. However, the email I'd received said something about the office being closed, so I checked the address, and it was another building entirely, near Tesco's in Kettering...

We drove there in abysmally heavy traffic and dashed into reception. The lovely woman behind the desk said we were in the wrong place, but she would call ahead and tell them we were on our way. The correct place? The building we had just left!

By now, I was stressed out, and the traffic was awful. We crawled back into Kettering, parked and ran down to the main council building, where we stood in a queue behind a rambling man who was making no sense, much to the annoyance of the receptionist there! Luckily, the security guard offered to show us the correct building, and we sat in the waiting room until we were called.

The registrar was lovely and kind, and I apologised for being fifteen minutes late. She ran through all the details and printed out six copies for me. She also advised me of the Tell Us Once service, where you can inform all the relevant authorities of a death.

We sloshed our way back to the car and drove the short distance to the florist's to see if we could collect Dad's plane, but they were closed. It just about summed up our day! Driving home was horrible, with the darkness and the unremitting rain. I didn't have the heart (or the time) to go and see Mum, so we just went back, and I did the usual evening chores before Sophie arrived home.

Keith had made his North-East dish of Pan Haggerty for dinner, and after we'd eaten, we watched Shetland. It's getting good, and I have a feeling I know who the murderer is!