Coronavirus castaway chapter 2: All this way and no milk tray!!

What happened next to our coronavirus castaway?

If you don’t know which polo-necked, dare-devil hero the title refers to, search for the Milk Tray man (and please note – other chocolates are available!).

Imagine our excitement yesterday when we get a call from one of our elderly neighbours. Stuart is in his late 70s and his wife is 75 this week. She has forbidden him to out and get her a card, so in response to our flyer – please could we go to the supermarket and pick one up?

Project ‘Clive’ is now in full operation!! Now this is where is gets interesting – bear with me.

A cunning plan…

Stuart has called us because his wife is out. She knows nothing of his plan to use the village ‘dynamic duo’. She does not like romantic cards and is prone to a bit of smut/humour, but nothing too ‘pornographic’ (I wasn’t aware that our local supermarket dealt in this line of cards, but you live and learn!).

Can we drop the card around and slide it under the garage door so he can pick it up in the morning, write his message and hand it to his loving wife?

We agree to do this and keep the card in a plastic bag with the receipt to stop it getting damp. He can then use the same bag to put the money in for the card and post it though our letterbox later in the week.

To ensure his wife does not see us, we sneakily agree with Stuart that we will do this at around 10pm after they are in bed.

Embracing the dark side

So at 10pm we decide to embrace the situation and dress in dark clothes. We live in the countryside with not much in the way of lighting, so we take a torch. We creep down the side of their driveway (just in case they are having their late-night cocoa) but the curtains are drawn and all is quiet.

I slide the bag under the garage door…but this is when things start to go awry!

The plastic bag snags on a screw jutting out from under the door. I am now lying full length on the driveway trying (with the torch) to see where it is caught.

What Stuart didn’t tell us is they have motion sensors – which I set off. The whole area, which was pitch-black, is now flooded with blinding light.

We ‘down tools’ and run!

The day after the night before

This morning we get two calls. The first is from Stuart thanking us for the card.

The second is from Trish, wondering what we were doing last night lying in her neighbour’s driveway? She hadn’t seen us, but Cath (her nextdoor neighbour) was drawing her bedroom curtains when it looked as if a solar flare had hit the village. She could have sworn that Chris and Jack were getting off the floor of her neighbour’s drive and running down the lane, laughing.

I’m still half expecting the police!

Can we help?

Chris is one of our Client Relationship Managers here at PES. When not not helping elderly neighbours or setting off their alarms, he can be found providing excellent customer service to PES clients.

Many businesses are struggling during this crisis and we want to help. Find out what support we can offer to you and your employees. Please get in touch – we’d be delighted to chat with you.