Margaret Hamlin's Blog

Walking along the Thames

2010-08-28T17:50:00.007+01:00

In the morning after breakfast Toby and I set off by tube for London Bridge. When we left the station we turned right and walked along the river.

We soon came across the courtyard between office blocks which was roofed over with glass.
There were shops and cafes there, and a very strange and interesting sculpture of a boat in water..

Leaving there, we continued walking along the river, looking at the modern buildings and the battleship which is now a museum. The further we walked the nicer it became as there were no other people around. There were tree and bush lined walkways, and communal gardens set between the buildings, and no litter or graffiti anywhere.

We had not been to Rotherhithe before. We saw the site of Edward II's manor house, and St. Marys church Rotherhithe which has been a place of worship for 1000 years, and possibly earlier. Christopher Jones was the captain of the Mayflower which took the Pilgrim Fathers to North America in 1620.

The Mayflower Pub

We walked as far as Canary Wharf, which was on the opposite bank of the river.

We had a snack in an old pub by the river before walking all the way back again. We noticed that small conservation areas had been set up to protect the local flora and fauna which was very encouraging. The weather was bright and windy, blowing in gusts. I really enjoyed this day.

Once home Mas suggested we go to the Man in the Moon as it was their steak night. After this Toby went off to see another friend.

After breakfast we took Toby off to Mill Hill where he got the train to Brighton so he could stay with Pete. I felt sad to see him leave, but I felt so lucky that he could visit us.

Keeping busy

2010-08-23T18:32:00.004+01:00

On Saturday we drove off to St. Albans and met Tania and Robert for lunch at the Bua Thai restaurant, where we saw the friendly owner who has just come back from a long visit home, and we caught up with all the news.

On Sunday we called round to Margaret and John's and had tea in their lovely garden. Eddie and Christiane were there too, as they had returned from France for a month. It was fun seeing everyone again, even if it was just for a short time.

Toby came back from Wales in the late afternoon, and we had a nice dinner with him in the evening, with lots to talk about.

Toby had been working on my computer, and un-networked it from Mason's one, and took it back to the state it had been in when it left the factory, and it seems to be working again.

On Monday, after a leisurely breakfast Toby and I went off to Euston on the tube. Euston seems a different place from when I used to work there years ago. We walked around town, past London University where Toby got his second degree.

We noticed with approval that Barclays Bank had set up a bicycle for hire scheme, but the first half hour was free. Later we saw people using them, and they are quite distinctive.

We had a coffee at this pub, and sat outside watching the world go by for a while, and most people seemed relaxed and friendly.

This chalk drawing was on the outside of the door to the ladies toilet, and inside several ladies were laughing, and saying they felt like that about their husbands too!

We passed the British Museum, and noticed that a temporary garden had been set up in the forecourt with plants from Africa, so we looked at them for a few minutes.

The small tree below is called a Silver Tree because on the underside of the leaves there is a thick covering of silvery white hairs.

Later there were periods of heavy rain. I left Toby up town, and returned home as Mas and I were due to have shots from our surgery in preparation for the visit to Costa Rica.
In the evening we had dinner with Toby before he sped off to spend the evening with friends.

Frustrations and friends

2010-08-20T18:11:00.001+01:00

On Thursday Toby spent most of the day trying to fix our computers with little success, but much frustration. Later Toby went out for the evening, and at 7.00pm Barry and Linda came over for a meal, and we had a really nice evening chatting to them both.

Today Toby went off to Wales with a friend, so that they could visit Danny and his family.
Mas was busy with his work, and having maddening problems with his computer. As it was Mason's birthday I suggested that we have a lunch break and go off to the Three Horseshoes in Letchmore Heath, as I think it is his favourite Pub. We did this, but Mason was so mentally involved with his business project, that we sat and stared at the walls without any conversation or anything to talk about. After looking at the ducks on the pond for a few minutes we went home.

Later, on the spur of the moment we called Poppy and Ben and invited them for dinner, and had a really enjoyable evening after all!

Toby comes to stay

2010-08-18T18:53:00.000+01:00

On Monday we went to St. Albans to try to get Mas some comfortable trainers, and ended up buying two pairs. As the computers are not functioning, I spent time gardening, and sorting out the plants in the conservatory.

As we are expecting Toby to come for a visit tomorrow I prepared his bedroom and generally straightened out the house. We also went off to get some shopping, so that we do not have to do it when he is here.

Toby arrived early at Gatwick, but had to travel up to Mill Hill. I saw Barry next door, and Linda who is presently staying with him, and invited them for dinner later this week. When Toby arrived we spent most of the day talking, and had a very nice rib dinner which Mas cooked and we had a tasty bottle of wine with it too.

Today Toby and I went off to Hampstead, leaving Mas to work peacefully at home.
We took the Tube, and walking down from Hampstead station, found a cafe to have a quick coffee. Then walked through Hampstead looking at all the familiar places. We walked over Parliament Hill Fields with lots to talk about on the way, then wended our way back to the Flask Pub, and had a bite to eat there.

Flask Walk

Later we walked up Heath Street to the White Stone pond, which had an ecological area of reeds planted in it. We walked past what used to be the historic Jack Straw's Castle and went the back way to the Hill Garden and walked on the terraces there, before going to Golder's Hill Park looking at everyone enjoying the nice weather.

Eventually we walked down the sandy path and down to Child's Hill, where both I and Pete had been born. We walked to Golders Green and took the tube back to Edgware and then walking home! I was pleased that I could walk so far in one day still.

Mas had made another nice evening meal for us, and afterwards Toby left to spend the evening with friends, and Mas and I watched a TV programme about the Normans.

Treading water!

2010-08-13T16:02:00.002+01:00

On Monday I walked off to Stanmore for exercise, then in the afternoon Mas and I went off to the forest in Edgwarbury Park and collected blackberries and plums from a tree while we were walking. Later Mas had an appointment with the doctor (not because of the fruit).

Mas began to feel a bit unwell in the evening, so we watched the Sixth Sense; I had not remembered it being such a good film.

Mas was feeling better this morning, and the computer man came to try to fix at least one computer. He was here trying his best most of the day, and then came back in the evening. He was paid £120.00, but in fact the computers are worse than before! Ben came and had a look at the computers too, but did not want to try anything too radical.

The rest of the week passed in a haze of computer anxiety interspersed with comfort gardening, at this rate I will soon be a serial gardener! I tried to get on with the paintings for Toby and Romy, but things were too tense. On Friday my computer gave up the ghost completely. Mas went to the doctor for a routine check up, and found his weight and blood pressure are the same as they were last year. I don't know how he does it, but I know if things continue like this, the men in white coats will soon be coming to take me away.

In the evening we settled down to watch Wallendar, escaping into the Swedish countryside, then Salty burst in through the curtains carrying a very alive rat. Pandemonium ensued, and by the time we had sorted it all out we had lost our storyline! Talk about last straws!

Rupa and Wynford's wedding

2010-08-07T20:29:00.001+01:00

Today Rupa and Wynford got married. They have loved each other for many years, but at last the time was right for them to wed. We all went to St. Margaret's church (which is catercorner from the Mason's Arms pub) in Edgware. Wynford plays the organ there for the usual church services.

During part of the wedding service Wynford played and sang a song he had written for Rupa telling her how much he loved her, a very romantic touch which she had not known about before.

After the service photos were taken outside the church, and guests and family began chatting too.

Mas and I went home and changed cloths, then went off to the Hilton Hotel near Aldenham for the wedding reception in the afternoon.

The hotel seemed to be running late; it had been arranged that there would be a meal served at 3.00am, but in fact it was not done until 5.30pm, by which time the guests were very hungry indeed. Despite this, everyone seemed to be having a good time chatting to each other, and listening to the speeches of appreciation. I sat next to a very nice couple, friends of Wynford, and we had lots of animated discussions about music, and Brenda and I seemed to have a lot in common with each other.

Mas and I left the celebrations before the dancing began; it was due to go on until midnight, but we were both feeling a rather tired by this time. When we arrived home our road was filled with parked cars due to another celebration nearby, so we parked some way off. Much later as we were going to bed, Ben and Poppy rang the front door bell; they did not see our car so they thought that we may have had a problem, and be stranded on a motorway somewhere! How nice to have friends who care!

Good friends and bad computers

2010-08-06T19:53:00.000+01:00

On Saturday we drove up to St.Albans for Mas to drop off some papers for Robert although it was not our usual day to go shopping there. Once there Tania told us we were to stay for lunch, and she presented us all with a tasty meal of plaice, asparagus and sweet potatoes which was a nice surprise.

The computers were almost completely useless today; it is enough to drive you to drink!
In the evening we watched another episode of Wallander.

The next week passed with more computer frustrations, and Mas spent lots of time and energy trying to track down anyone who might be able to put things right. I kept myself busy gardening, walking and keeping in touch with friends and relatives by phone. I was trying to paint a picture, but did not feel relaxed enough to paint.

On Friday Mas went to the hospital to see a chiropodist as he had been having pain in his feet. After a thorough examination it seems that he has been wearing shoes and trainers that do not fit well, and that has caused sensitivity.

Later that day we went to Brent Cross shopping centre to see if we could find some well fitting trainers for Mas. We looked in all the sports shops there, but did not find anything that was good enough. We did talk to one really nice shoe salesman about computer problems and he made several good suggestions. Later Mas phoned a computer technician, but he could not come over for a few days!

Computer madness and a blackberry escape

2010-07-30T18:42:00.001+01:00

Today I spent most of the day gardening, and dug up a large patch of pampas grass which was home to a thousand snails. Later I went round to Margaret and John's as I had borrowed instructions on how to set a timer on the lights from them. We had all been given one by the local police as we have been having so many burglaries in our area.

On Thursday Mas went into London for a meeting. The computers were refusing to work all day, so I did more gardening. At this rate we will soon have an excellently tidy garden, and various neighbours will be provided with potted up cuttings. I also did some shopping, and later chatted to the boy next door who is to have another knee operation soon.

On Friday I put another dose of anti flea medication on the back of the cat's neck. I also had an early (for me) appointment with my doctor to try to get an epipen to use in case of allergic reaction to bee stings, while we are in the jungle later on this year, and I don't mean an asphalt jungle! I had to stop keeping bees because of this allergy, which was a shame. These days grants are available to try to encourage people to keep bees.

Mas began calling the AOL help lines at 8.00am today, and was still at it when I left at 2.00pm to go blackberrying with John. I do not know how Mas can do it, just listening to the endless numbing phone calls almost gives me a nervous breakdown.

I got lots of succulent blackberries with John, it was fun, and John was pointing out all the best pickings to me. As we were walking there, he said we should keep our eyes open for dropped money. He immediately found 20p! Afterwards I called in for a cup of tea with Margaret.
Mas and I had fresh blackberries and yogurt later, and I froze the rest for later in the year.

Socialising with friends, struggling with computers

2010-07-27T17:53:00.002+01:00

On Sunday Mas thought it would be nice to go to the Man in the Moon and have one of their roast dinners, and he also invited Poppy and Ben. We had a long lunch with them, with lots of joking and silliness which was really fun.

Later in the evening we watched another of the new Sherlock Holmes episodes which was entertaining.

On Monday I tried to catch up with all my 'to do' things, but both of our computers began acting oddly, and Mas spent a lot of time trying to sort out his. We were expecting some difficulties as Mas had upgraded the service with AOL. To get away from all this I went off for a walk, and on my way back picked up some shopping.

On Tuesday our computers were still on the blink, so having no patience at all with computers I left Mas struggling with the problem most of the day.

I had noticed a strange thing in the garden. We have a Pieris forest flame tree in the garden which the wasps have been clustering round. They have made small holes in the trunk, and are sucking the sap from the tree. I have never seen them do this before, and think it may be because we are having such a hot dry summer, but the tree is losing its leaves fast.

To try to stop them, I smeared vaseline thickly over all the small holes, but it had no effect, apart from making them clean their faces a lot. I asked Joan's advice, and she suggested putting bleach all over the bark. This sounded a good idea, so I did, while listening to a Jay calling raucously nearby.

I went round to Margaret and John's and had chats and tea with them for a while, which made a really nice break. Later I looked in the garden at the tree again, and saw that the wasps were sucking away at their bleach and sap coctails, nonchelantly.

Mark and Nina's Silver Wedding

2010-07-24T19:16:00.003+01:00

On Saturday I went to Woodford, by train, to attend Mark and Nina's silver wedding celebrations. Mas could not go as he had a meeting to discuss business.

It was a lovely warm day, and when I arrived I found the house and garden full of their friends and family. A lot of the people had been at their wedding, and all the friends that they have made since were enjoying themselves and talking to each other. It was lovely to see Mark and Nina, and catch up with their news. Nina had put out a delicious buffet that everyone helped themselves to while chatting.

We had not seen each other for about five years, and resolved to meet up again in September. It is too easy to get caught up in the daily activities and not have time for the really important things in life. I am going to try and remember this from now on!

It was also interesting to see what charming people their children have become.

It was a lovely day which I will remember, but I still find it strange to think how long I have known them both, and how lucky that I joined Mark's evening class where he was teaching jewellery making, mostly from silver, so long ago.

I left their lovely home before it got too late as I was a bit worried about Mas as he has been working so hard and dealing with a lot of stress. As I walked to Woodford station I felt really glad that Mark and Nina had spent their married life in such a nice area, it makes such a difference.

Life cycles

2010-07-22T16:53:00.000+01:00

Thursday, and Mas went off for a meeting, and I collected some shopping. Pete called and chatted, and we had a series of thunderstorms. I put some peelings into out green recycling bin, and noticed something strange holding onto the inside of the lid. Eventually I worked out that something was trying to pull itself out of its own transparent skin, so I rescued it and put it onto a leaf in the passageway.

I got myself a stool to sit on, and watched the whole process. It took a long time, but it pulled itself free, and while I watched it turned bright green and expanded, muscles forming on its hind legs, and the transparent wings were stretched and dried, and turned green as well.

Later I identified it as a great green bush cricket, and I felt priveledged to have seen the whole process.

Fruitless shopping and hospital check up.

2010-07-21T16:35:00.002+01:00

Mas needs some new cloths, so we drove off to Watford, and before we started looking had lunch at Yummies; the Chinese owner always recognises us even if we have not visited for a couple of years! We walked around the Harlequin shopping centre, but Mas could not find anything he liked, so we returned home.

Tuesday, and I did some more gardening, and began fasting for my hospital visit tomorrow. We watched Murder She Wrote in the afternoon for a break.

On Wednesday Mas took me down to the station, and I went off to the Royal Free hospital for my 1.30pm appointment still starving, but worse I was not allowed to drink anything and it was a really hot day. I had my sedation and investigation and was told afterwards that everything was fine and clear. Mas was coming to pick me up in case I was a bit wobbly from the anaesthetic, but he was a bit late as I had not told him the department was called Endoscopy, and he had been searching the hospital for me. We left after I had some tea and biscuits.

As I was no longer sedated, we walked to the station and squeezed into a crowded lift. By mistake Mas pressed the wrong button, and the alarm went off, and we all had to get out and wait for the next lift. If he had not been feeling so anxious it would have been funny.

Life as usual.

2010-07-18T16:13:00.000+01:00

Mas was due to meet David at lunchtime, and as he was a bit late I drove him over to his meeting. Later I walked to the Two Jays secondhand bookshop to see if they had any Deepak Chopra books, but ended up buying one by Alan Coren called Toujours Cricklewood, which later made me laugh aloud when reading it.

I then walked on to Queensbury and walked around a Morrisons superstore to see what they had. Taking the bus back to Edgware I sat next to a young woman who had a huge scar down the front of her chest which looked as if she must have had heart surgery.

Poppy and Ben called in briefly.

Friday morning I spent doing despicable things like renewing the car's road tax for next year, the car breakdown cover and car insurance. It is amazing how much you can spend sitting in front of a computer.

Mas and I went off to the Mill Hill Garden centre, and bought some sacks of top soil for the garden. It appears that all the plants cost twice as much as they did last time we visited.
After loading up the boot we headed off to the swimming pool.

Over the weekend things continued as usual, but I did plant my strawberries in a strawberry pot, and Toby phone while I was doing this, and we chatted.

Good film and a good book.

2010-07-15T15:36:00.002+01:00

Maheena and I could not go for our meditation today, so instead, Mas and I went to Edgware and did practical things. I walked home later for the exercise. I saw two Red Admiral butterflies in the garden today.

In the evening we watched this film about Elsenheim the Illusionist in early 20th century Vienna. For once a really interesting film.

Today, while we were having our morning coffee, I was just thinking about Pete's book, and looking forward to reading it, when the postman delivered it to us and it was signed by both Pete and Richard, each on their part of the book. I spent some time reading both parts of the book which are both very good. Later I called Pete to thank him and talk about it.

I had an email from Diane who says that Paris is still very hot, and she told me that P.G. Wodehouse's Summer Lightening was on the BBC, so that I could listen to it.

On Wednesday I listened to Summer Lightening, which of course was funny, then Mas and I had lunch at The Man in the Moon and got shopping. Reading Pete's blog I saw he had fallen downstairs and hurt his leg so I called him; luckily he was mostly bruised and shaken, but nothing broken.

I took some videos round to John and Margaret's, then Margaret sat in her garden drinking tea. They have a lovely interesting garden, and although it is fairly small it is crammed full of flowers, fruit and vegetables with not an inch of wasted space.

Later I finished off my mending; I hate sewing! We watched a Midsomer Murder later on.

Dusty work and teasing Marines

2010-07-11T19:41:00.005+01:00

The weather is still very hot, but Mas and I spent most of the day gardening. Mas topped our Yew tree last year, and it got stuck inside the tree, so he spent some time sawing off branches which I then cut up to be recycled. Very hot and dusty work.

Joan sent these photos of lovely lilys that are growing in her garden (and her award winning idea for a picture involving the use of Lily Beetles, but we won't go into that here, in case sensitive people may hear about it).

On Saturday we had lunch with Tania and Robert in Sazios and caught up on all the news. Later Mas and I did more gardening.

Today Mas finished cutting out the dead part of the Yew tree. This sounds easy, but it involved him standing on a ladder while cutting off large branches. It was very hot and dusty work, with dead needle shaped leaves falling on him with various assorted insects and arachnoids; I was holding the ladder and passing cutting tools to him. When it was done he climbed down the ladder pleased that he had overcome both fears while doing this: spiders and heights!

I am always teasing him (as an ex-marine). When I first met him he was only able to walk in straight lines and turn smartly at a right angle when we reached a corner. I had to hold his arm when walking to teach him how to walk in curves. To this day, he groups and lines up his morning vitamins and pills in military formations, and should I disturb them he looks at me in a resigned way; luckily he is unable to speak before his first cup of coffee in the mornings. When spiders come into the house he calls me, so that I can put them outside, and I jokingly ask if all marines are like this.

Having teased him over the years has been a lot of fun, but really I know that bravery is overcoming your fears and doing the right thing in spite of them, and I know he is a very brave person indeed.

At the Jolly Badger Harvester

2010-07-08T14:19:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I went off to the library, and, after walking for a while, went home and caught up with emails.
Tania and Robert drove down to us, and we went off to the Jolly Badger Harvester for dinner. While we waited for a table we had a drink, then very soon a nice meal in the attractive farmhouse style surroundings.

Afterwards Tania and Robert came back to our place, and while Robert and Mas talked, Tania and I went into the garden and looked at plants. Tania really loves my Salvia ( Hot Lips), and took some to make cuttings. Later she will give me some of her Fennel. I love the taste of it chopped up, and sprinkled on new potatoes with butter.....another slimming snack!

We all talked until we were ready to drop, then Tania and Robert went home, and we went to bed.

Today I woke at 5.00am, feeling very tired, but not able to go back to sleep. Mas left to meet up with David for lunch, and I hung about all day, and watched Murder she Wrote. I noticed that we seem to be in the flight path of some small damsel flies, and I have to rescue them when they get trapped in the conservatory. I also saw some rose leaf eating caterpillars which had skeletonized some of the leaves.

We went to bed early, and I found I still could not relax; later I discovered that I had taken a double dose of my medication which had wound up my metabolism.

BBC Guernsey radio: Jenny Kendall-Tobias

2010-07-06T19:24:00.001+01:00

Today I listened to the Jenny Kendall-Tobias, BBC Guernsey radio, programme. She talked on air to Pete and Richard for two hours, and the whole session was very interesting and it sounded as if they were all getting on well together, and enjoying it too. Pete and Richard could not have had better publicity for their book. Pete mentioned I was listening, and said hello, and so did Jenny! Someone phoned in and requested that Pete read one of his poems that is in the book, so he did.

My hip is better today, so I did some gardening; I jumped when I heard a huge crash in the peaceful garden, guess who's fault it was! Salty had knocked some empty plastic flower troughs off the shed roof!

Pete called me from the airport while he was waiting for his flight back to the UK; he was very happy with the events of the last few days.

Twisted Hip and grasshoppers

2010-07-05T14:48:00.002+01:00

We did not go to the Tom Merrifield exhibition on Sunday, but went instead to the Man in the Moon pub for a Sunday lunch, after I had cut and washed my hair. Myk called round with one bag of videos, and another bag full of heavy glossy magazines from Maria, for us which was a nice surprise.

In the afternoon I planted my herbs and did more gardening, the weather remaining very hot. Later in the evening we watched a strange film called 'Clue' with Tim Curry in it, based around the board game Cludeo.

Today I did not go to the meditation as Maheena could not make it this week. Playing with Salty on the bed I somehow twisted a hip or something, and found it difficult to walk, so, in a ploy to walk it off, I walked to Stanmore and back to get some shopping. For a break we watched Murder she wrote in the afternoon, my hip feeling somewhat worse for wear.

Pottering in the garden I noticed that we have lots of grasshoppers now.

In the evening we watched Crocodile Dundee 2, which I had not seen before, so that was fun.

A relaxing day

2010-07-03T19:34:00.005+01:00

This morning we decided to go off to the real Elstree car boot sale.

Once there, we looked at as much as we could, before getting too thirsty as it was so hot. I managed to buy a tray of herbs to plant later. Leaving there, we drove to Letchmore Heath and went to the Three Horseshoes for a long cold drink.

It was very pleasant and cool in the bar, and the landlady played a tape that she loves of Spanish guitar music, which we liked too. It is a very friendly place, and before long everyone was talking to each other. Mas visibly relaxed which I have not seen him do for a while, and we had lunch there. The last time I had visited this pub was with Jana when she was on holiday. The landlady's dog Angel was keeping cool in the pub too, and when we left we spent a few moments looking in the duck pond.

In the evening we watched 'Tell No One', a French film with François Cluzet as lead, a thriller

which was excellent, and kept us guessing to the end. It had more twists and turns than the zig-zags on a dragon's tail, and we found ourselves talking about it the day after too.

Book launch and book signing session

2010-07-02T18:48:00.003+01:00

Yesterday Pete and Richard were doing their book launch, but before that, they had an interview on BBC Guernsey radio with Jenny Kendall-Tobias. Surprisingly she read three of their poems, and very well too, but it was obvious that she became quite emotional as she read them. It was very interesting to listen to it all, and good publicity for A Guernsey Double.

Pete said that the book launch in The Greenhouse went very well, with Pete and Richard reading about five poems each. They had also been asked to give another interview on Guernsey radio.

Today Pete and Richard did a book signing session at The Guernsey Press shop. The Press was displaying their book in the window, The Guernsey Double of The Boy Who Fell Upwards, and The Man Who Landed. (picture copied from Pete's blog) Lorraine is due to fly over and join Pete tonight.

Back home, Mas and I had to go to Stanmore, but as the weather was so hot we called in to The Man in the Moon where Mas had a cold lager and I had an icy shandy.

Radio interview and book launch of A Guernsey Double

2010-07-01T20:33:00.004+01:00

Today Pete and Richard are doing the book launch of their Guernsey Double book of poetry, in Guernsey.

Before that however, they had been invited to give an interview on BBC Guernsey radio about their book, their poetry and themselves. Mas and I listened to the interview which I thought went very well. Jenny Kendall-Tobias did the interview, and read a few of their poems, and was obviously moved by them. When Pete and Richard had left the studio she said that reading the poetry had made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end!

Pete called shortly afterwards and said that the book launch would start around 5.30pm, and that Jenny had asked them to do another interview on BBC Guernsey on Tuesday the 6th of July, so he would stay an extra day in Guernsey for that.

You can take a horse to water...........

2010-06-30T20:02:00.000+01:00

I spent nearly all day gardening on Sunday, and left Mason trying to sort out various problems with his project. I managed to catch up with a few emails which were overdue.
On Monday I went off to Pinner for a change, it is a beautiful bus ride and made a change. The weather is still terribly hot. When I got home I tidied up a bit.

On Tuesday Margaret called round, and we sat outside in the shade and had icy lemonade. Poor John was at home recovering from having a tooth taken out by the dentist. It was nice to chat to Margaret as we had not seen each other for a while. As Mas had spent all day on the computer or phone, we decided to go out for dinner at the Man in the Moon to break the monotony.
It was steak night, so we both had one. Ken came in, and said his TV had just gone wrong, and he had come to watch the football match so he sat where he could watch it, and we went off home once we had finished our meal.

On Wednesday we went swimming in the afternoon. As usual we separated to go to the changing rooms, Mas saying he would see me in the pool in a minute. I swam alone for 50 minutes, knowing he must have got talking to the guys in the changing room.
Another lady was swimming too, the pool was fairly empty, and I got talking to her. She was from Croatia, and had lived here for 15 years, she was wondering where her partner had got to, and I suggested that he and Mas were talking together; before long they both appeared.

After swimming for an hour I got cold, and with lots of protests from Mas, left the pool, showered and dressed, and walked around several football pitches looking at the variety of bushes and plants. After two hours of this, Mas came out, and we left! He had not done any exercise, just talked in the pool!

More dancing than you could shake a stick at!

2010-06-26T17:35:00.001+01:00

On Saturday we went to St. Albans to get shopping and have lunch. Tania and Robert had gone away for the weekend so we thought we would have lunch in the White Swan which is a pub that many years ago used to have wonderful home cooked lunches, but sadly the cook left some time ago.

The weather was very hot so we decided to have a long cool drink. We got talking to a group of people sitting near to us who were Morris Dancers and had been invited to St. Albans to dance to raise money for charity; they were from Lewisham, and were a very friendly group.

The Dacre Morris dancers

We left the White Swan and looked in the shops, especially Past Times where I accidentally bought an Art Nuveau butterfly ring.

Everyone seemed to be out enjoying themselves.

There was another Morris dancing group by the clock tower.
The sound of the drum made our chest cavities reverberate!

After watching them for a while we succumbed to hunger, and went down to Sazio's where it was cool and quiet, and we had a nice meal.

Anniversary and Sports Day

2010-06-25T19:52:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary, the 24th! I spent most of the day gardening and doing a belated spring clean, and Mas went out to see a friend. Pete called and chatted which was nice.

Today Mas was busy, so when Oktay called round I left Mas for the day and went off to Cheshunt with Oktay. Monika had prepared an excellent lunch, and one of her friends had come round with her two little children too.
Afterwards we sped off to see Milan's school sports day; the weather was very hot.

I think we saw everyone in the school race, including a brave boy who seemed to be wearing leg irons, but all the parents gave him applause and lots of clapping, so he looked quite pleased with himself.

When we got home again Milan was still full of energy and springing about in the garden; Monika showed me her white currant bush and gooseberry bush too, and a beautiful peony, and we had the chance to chat for a while.

Oktay cooked a really nice BBQ, using his new garden barbecue, which we enjoyed. Later Monika and I took the boys off to the local park, to the playground, and at one point Milan and I were climbing a tree together, and Monika remarked that it was a good thing Mason could not see what I was doing.

Milan asked if I could sleep over and read him some stories, but I told him that Mas would be lonely on his own. Eventually it was time to go home, Talu was tired so Monkia was going to put him to bed. Milan came for the ride too, but before long he was fast asleep in the car. It had been a really nice memorable day, but very tiring too!

Busy doing not very much.

2010-06-23T19:10:00.002+01:00

On Sunday morning I walked off to the car boot sale, and John and Margaret passed in their car, but stopped to chat for a moment. There was nothing very interesting at the sale so I came home again to find Mas had been working non stop at his desk, so I suggested we go swimming in the afternoon.

When we arrived at the leisure centre we were told that as there was a swimming gala we could not swim today, so we walked in the woods for a little while instead, where we could hear children cheering in the distance, probably doing sports of some kind.

On Monday morning I went off with Maheena to have another meditation session which was a peaceful break in the day. Later I wrote to my credit card people as we keep having deductions from our account taken by a company in California, these have been refunded once, but they are trying it on again.
Ben called in later bringing back some garden tools, and in the evening we watched an episode of Lewis.

We managed to go swimming on Tuesday which was good, and I spent most of the day gardening. Mas thought he would scoop out the leaves, from the fountain in the garden, with a small fishing net. Salty pushed himself between Mason's arms and was trying to catch them as well, he did pull out two leaves.

We went to Stanmore, and had lunch at the Man in the Moon, then got our shopping. Normally we pay £1.00 to park, and if we get back to the car after shopping within an hour and a half we get our money back. If we take too long we forfeit the money. This time we were late back, and expected to lose the £1.00, but I was warned that if we were late again we would have to pay a £90.00 fine. Sadly we will have to change our routine now.

Joan sent these pictures from Canada, she came across the white roses when walking in the forest, and the turtle shaped rock has been added to their garden.

Toby's birthday and a possible transformation

2010-06-19T19:10:00.000+01:00

The rest of the week was spent doing our usual things such as going to the library, shopping, paying bills and so on. It was Toby's birthday on the 17th, so sent him an ecard. I have always thought that the Star Trek idea of beaming people from place to place was a good idea.
In the evening we went to the Curry Club where we met Ken, and we had a nice meal.

I also sent off a Premium Bond tracing letter, as I used to have some Premium Bonds many years ago, and cannot remember cashing them in. There is a distinct possibility that I am really a millionaire, as there are apparently millions of unclaimed winnings.

On Friday I went off again with Maheena to do some meditation, and to listen to some of the teaching, some of which I could not go along with, but the teacher suggested that it was because I had joined towards the end of the course, so we agreed that I should not come on Fridays until a new session begins.

I had a breakthrough on Saturday. I always sleep badly, consequently I am an authority on world news, as I listen to the World Service BBC radio programme during the night, the shipping forecasts, and then when it hands over to radio 4 , the farmer's news and then the Today programme. Now, once I get into bed I fall asleep almost before I am in a comfortable position (which usually takes hours of tossing and turning), and sleep soundly all night. My secret is to dab a couple of drops of essential lavender oil onto my neck, on the pulse point. What knockout drops! I expect that when I catch up with years of missed sleep, my personality will be transformed!

Storing wills, and print to be sent.

2010-06-15T18:04:00.000+01:00

This morning I went off to High Holburn and deposited my will for safe keeping in the records office. If I was still trying to trace my family tree this would probably be a very useful place to find vital clues, but as I have live ones that I do not know, it seems a bit pointless trying to trace dead ones.

While I was out Pete called and chatted to Mas. Dominic phoned later and said he wanted one of my prints, 'Softly as in a Morning Sunrise', which was very cheering.

We watched a Midsomer Murder episode in the evening.

Lessons of different kinds

2010-06-14T16:27:00.001+01:00

This morning I went off with Maheena to Darshna's house where we had a Raja Yoga Meditation session with about a dozen people. The lady who was taking the meditation had a very calm and peaceful voice, and we meditated for about an hour, and then she handed each person a piece of fruit. After talking and asking questions Darshna gave everyone a bowl of fruit salad, and shortly we went back home as she had to go to give lessons elsewhere.

I have always had difficulty meditating in an accepted way, but if I try to do it on my own I can visualise colours on the inside of my eyelids, moving rather like the shapes in a lava lamp and I watch the colours change; if I do this listening to music it produces unexpected colours.
I think when I was young it was very easy for me to think of nothing at all, in fact it was probably my default mode. This caused me no end of trouble at school and subjected me to public ridicule, and I was always told off for 'day dreaming, and living in a world of my own,' perhaps this is why I find it difficult now.

In the afternoon Mas and I went swimming. Sometimes when we are swimming, part of the pool is sectioned off for children's swimming lessons. The instructor is really good at his job and encourages the children in a very positive way. He says things like 'keep going, excellent, good boy, well done, keep it going.....' and so on for about half an hour without a pause! By the time we go home his messages of encouragement go with me too, except for the 'good boy' bit.

Lunch with Robert and car boot sale

2010-06-13T20:27:00.001+01:00

On Saturday we went to St. Albans and had lunch at Sazio's with Robert; unusually, the waiters recognise us, and when I entered the restaurant they told me that our friend was waiting for us, and told me which table he was sitting at. Tania could not come as she was busy today. We had a really nice lunch and lots of chat over a mellow bottle of red wine (or perhaps we were mellow).

On Sunday I walked over to the car boot sale that they hold in some local fields. It was fun, but I did not buy anything. I did notice that the blackberries were looking healthy, so I will definitely come back to collect lots later in the year. I think later we should also make rose hip syrup as it is very nice poured over yogurt, and full of vitamin C, so I was looking at the wild roses too.

In the afternoon I gardened, cutting back, tidying up and clearing things. The garden has been looking very colourful with clematis, roses and rhododendron flowers, and in the conservatory the Amaryllis is flowering.

The man who lost his trousers, and another fine art.

2010-06-11T18:50:00.003+01:00

We seemed to have another busy week, Mas was busy on his computer, and I did a lot of gardening and walking. Pete called, saying that his visit to school had gone well, and they liked my pictures of the Skelly characters.

Mas and I went swimming, and when he went off to town on Thursday I went swimming again. This time, talking to another swimmer, he mentioned that he had all his kit stolen yesterday, including his wallet and car keys. When Mas came home he was really tired; he hates travelling on the tube. We decided on the spur of the moment to go off to the curry club, and have a meal there. Luckily our new friend Ken was there, and we had a nice meal, but an even more interesting conversation, and amongst other things he told us about his recent holiday in India, and we talked about meditation and French films.

The next morning I walked down to the station, and on the way saw the two Jims who are neighbours. Irish Jim, talking of Lilu, (Ben and Poppy's small white dog,) said he would not take that dog out. He said he had seen Lilu (who was on a lead) tear the trousers right off a man she did not like the look of. This made the other Jim and me laugh a lot. On a more serious note, Jim's neighbours, on either side of him, were recently burgled. That makes five burglaries on one side of our road.

I met Christiane at Hendon Station, and we travelled off to Olympia as she had free tickets to the International Fine Art Fair that was on today.

We spent a long time looking at

everything, there were beautiful carvings from Japan in ivory, wonderful hand stitched

sculpture over animal skeletons, and lots of jewellery too.

We stopped for a cup of tea, and we had bought some biscuits with us. Eventually tired, but feeling we had seen everything we left and went home again, another nice day!

Once home again I had a quick tidy up, and before long Manu came round, and we sat in the conservatory and had some cool white wine and chatted. Manu wants me to check with the local church hall to see if we could use one of their rooms, one evening a week, so that our art class people can use it. I will check with them. We had a nice evening, but both Mas and I felt really tired and staggered off to bed as soon as we could muster up the energy to climb up the stairs.

Untitled: an excellent art fair.

2010-06-05T18:16:00.002+01:00

On Sunday Mas and I went off to Chelsea Town Hall where there was large artists' fair called 'Untitled'. There were over 150 artists selling, direct, and commission free, work. It was a really good exhibition, and the general standard of work seemed very high. It was a very hot day, and we had a glass of white wine in between. I talked to several of the artists, it was interesting as there were lots of original ideas.

One picture I would have liked to have is this one by Kit Boyd. http://www.kitboyd.com/

Mas thought the show was very good as well.

Eventually, when we had seen everything we left the Town Hall, and went to the Chelsea Farmers Market where we thought we would have a meal at the El Gaucho restaurant. Unfortunately it was an execrable meal, and very expensive for what they served up. We definitely will not go there again.

By the time we got home both of us felt really tired, but it had been a good day.

Time for friends

2010-06-04T18:35:00.007+01:00

On Wednesday Mas and I went off to Stanmore, paid bills, got shopping and had breakfast at the Man in the Moon for a change. Later my consultant from the Royal Free Hospital called to tell me that my recent blood test was fine. Christiane called, and we arranged to meet up to go to the art show at Olympia soon.

On Thursday I went with Mas to the Man in the Moon, where he was meeting his friend David. I had a cup of tea with them and chatted for a few minutes before leaving them and going for a walk.

Later I managed, with Mas helping me, to give Salty his worm pill. I had to break in in half, and pop it in past his tonsils (if cats have these), he kept spitting them out, but eventually I succeeded, then gave him a treat to eat as compensation.
I tidied up a bit and did various chores before going off to Belsize Park and meeting Diane at The George pub. We had a long cool drink as it was such a hot day while we decided where to go for lunch.

We decided to go to Chez Gérard which is situated across the road in what was once The Post House. It was in this hotel dining room that I had my first date with Mas so many years ago. He had met me the previous evening when I was out with Diane, and invited both of us for breakfast at 9.00am!
We had champagne, and later all went for a walk, and eventually Diane and I returned home in the afternoon.

Diane and I had a nice light lunch and a glass of wine, and caught up on all the news. She has been in Normandy for a while, and will be leaving soon to live in Paris for six months!
Later we walked to the tube, and went off in different directions.

When I got home, as planned, Monika and Oktay were there with the children and Mas. Oktay has recently had an operation on his shoulder, and has to have physiotherapy so it is a chance for us to meet up. Monika has finished her exams now too. We put on some children's TV programmes, and I was surprised at how nice they were, especially the Cbeebies Tinga Tanga Tales which are so beautifully animated. It was lovely to see them all, Mas had given everyone some snacks, and before too long they left to go home again.

Memories of Maureen

2010-06-01T19:28:00.003+01:00

This morning I had to hurry off to the Royal Free Hospital for a routine check up and a blood test. I saw my Consultant; she always makes me feel cheerful and well looked after.

Walking back from the hospital I remembered that while Mas and were having our breakfast coffee they had played some music by Sir Arnold Bax on Classic FM which had reminded me of my friend Maureen. She had liked his music, and his romantic love of Ireland. While walking I began to list all the things that Maureen had shared with me, or introduced me to! Here goes:

Gin and tonic.

Perfume: Jolie Madam, by Balmain.

James Thurber's quirky humour.

Funny holiday meetings in Guernsey.

Lunch time meetings at The Phoenix, Oxford Steet.

French music.

Jacques Loussier's jazzed up classical music, and going to a concert together.

Seeing Swan Lake together.

The Stockpot at Leicester Square.

Pink gin: drinking this and looking at the setting sun through it, several times, as the anchor had been lowered while the sails were still up!

Sitting in an Emsworth cafee after a sailing adventure, both covered in mud up to our eyeballs, and she said " We look as if we are in camouflage....eeeh! I can't wait till I am in nylons and high heels again!

Intermittent conversations about the merits of Trad jazz as opposed to Modern Jazz.

Evenings when she wound Mas up about who the best American President had been, and he always rose to the bait!

The funeral service she had taken fun in planning, during which 'Take Five' by Dave Brubeck was played, and I knew was a nod in my direction.

The list is too long, but what a wonderful thing friendship is! I feel so lucky to have known her for so long.

Finding Beneficent Law

2010-05-31T12:26:00.000+01:00

On Sunday morning we sprang out of bed (or we would have, if our springs had not already sprung), had breakfast, put on tidy cloths, and prepared to go off to the art show in Chelsea. At the last moment, I looked at out tickets again, and realized we were a week ahead of ourselves; the art show is next week! As we had our neat going outdoors cloths on, we decided to go for a pub lunch, so we went off to the Man in the Moon and had a feast.

On the way back we bought some strawberry plants and a black currant bush. Now I have to find a few inches of space to squeeze them into our garden. In the evening we watched another episode of Lewis.

Today I managed to find places for the fruit plants, and it was a pleasure doing this as the weather is so nice.

I had been thinking of making a will recently, and called in to a local solicitors office previously, to find out how much this might cost, and was quoted a price of £500.00 for a simple will. I did not make an appointment as I thought that I could write my own will.

I began researching how to do this on line, looking at various government sites and will writing services. By luck I found http://www.beneficentlaw.co.uk . Beneficent Law is a community interest company and a "not for profit, for good" legal service that deals with wills and probate. They have fixed fee charges, and a single will, which they write, costs just £25.00! I had various queries, and got replies to all these and lots of good advice, and service that was kind and efficient. The whole process took about a week, with them telling me what to do at each step of the way. Now it is done I feel very relieved; it had been on my 'to do' list for a long time, and now that it is done I do not have to think about it again. I cannot recommend their service enough, and it is so unusual to deal with such nice people.

Green rinse folowed by Robin Hood and Wallander

2010-05-29T19:16:00.003+01:00

This week I was busy gardening, walking, and socialising with friendly neighbours. Mas and I managed to go swimming twice this week, which is always a good thing.

Before one swim, however, I made a special hair rinse by blending lots of elderberry leaves in some water, and pouring it into an empty milk container. After the swim I washed my hair, then poured the dark green juice onto my head, which felt very good, then I realised I was standing in a dark green pool of water, with dark drips running into my eyes. At this point two other ladies came in for a shower, and looking at me, moved to the furthest corner of the shower room. I think it was at this point I decided perhaps the next treatment should be done at home.

We also went off to the cinema to see Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe. I was surprised because I had expected the worst, and it did not live down to my expectations, although I think Russell Crowe is rather a wooden actor. Mas did not like it at all, as he thought the story line had been interfered with, and he prefers the swashbuckling variety of Robin Hood. The cinema always plays films so loud I have to put cotton wool in my ears while we are there, otherwise it is painful.

On Saturday we went up to St. Albans and had a nice lunch in the Bua Thai restaurant. Tania picked up her new car yesterday, but someone bumped her while she was stationery! I think it is quite good that we have an old car so an odd dent here and there does not matter so much. Later we were walking through the market and talking; I forget the reason why, but Robert kept breathing on Tania's specs. and steaming up her view, much to Tania's irritation and disbelief that he could be so childish, and sorrow that men never really grow up!

Once home again Mas and I watched another Wallender with Krister Henriksson.

Busy times and beautiful eggs

2010-05-24T18:51:00.001+01:00

We all got up early as we thought that Pete and Lorraine had to get away early. This meant that we all looked tired at breakfast, but we managed to get in a fair bit of chat before they headed off into the wide blue yonder.

We planned things to eat in the evening as we were expecting Tania and Robert, and Poppy and Ben to come round. I cleared up and Mas went off to get a couple of things we needed. Consequently he came home with all kinds of odd things to eat, and his menu got a bit muddled.

Poppy brought round this tasty flan!

We had a nice time sitting in the garden, but kept the food indoors to simplify things.

We had fun, but both Mas and I felt a bit tired.

On Monday it was very hot and we resumed our usual routine, but I spoke to Ben and Poppy and Toby phoned.

Joan sent this lovely picture of robins eggs taken on her sisters farm; they are protected from raccoons by a small electric fence surrounding them!

We watched an episode of Midsomer Murders with John Nettles in the evening.

Friends, family and birds

2010-05-22T18:06:00.001+01:00

This week went by quickly in a frenzy of gardening cutting hedges and doing the lawns, swimming, buying window box flowers and planting them out and talking to neighbours and friends.
Maheena came round on Thursday morning and we caught up with all the news, she always has a sense of humour and we find a lot of small things to laugh about. We walked around the garden, and she saw some Mind your own Business growing all over the place and asked if they needed roots.....I said "yeess" slowly, which made her laugh as she was wondering if they could be propagated from cuttings. She also saw our Salvia, (Hot Lips,) plant, smelled the leaves and said she thought it was the same as a plant that grows in Keroula which is considered sacred, as it has so many medicinal properties. Looking it up later I found that our plant was a relative of Sage and Mint, so it is hardly surprising.

Salty bought two live birds into the house through his cat door, on different days. Luckily I was there to take them from him, one of them looked dead, so I moved his legs and wings which seemed to be undamaged and went to lay him on a bush, and he flew out of my hand and away, and the second bird was quite lively and flew off as soon as I got him outside.

On Saturday we went to Borehamwood to get shopping and look at pet supplies, and thought we would have lunch at our favourite fish and chip restaurant. When we got there it was very busy, and we ended up sitting at a table with another couple. They were very interesting people, and we had a lively time talking of politics, religion, history and all manner of things. They had lived in the village of Elstree for years, both being very socially active in the community. I mentioned that I had been evacuated to Elstree during the war as a toddler, but could not remember which house I had been staying in. They said they would try to find this out for me, and were very keen that we should keep in touch.

We went home and tidied up as Lorraine and Pete were coming to stay overnight as they were going to a party in North London. When they arrived we had a couple of drinks and talked, but not for too long as we were all a bit tired, but it was fun seeing them.

A meal at Veer Dhara withTanya and Robert

2010-05-16T17:40:00.001+01:00

Yesterday we met Tanya and Robert in St. Albans and decided to try a new restaurant which is called Veer Dhara, and specialises in cuisine which uses recipes originating from the aristocratic families in India. The restaurant was beautifully appointed, and the cooking was wonderful; we had a really nice meal together!
In the evening we watched a Wallander, and went to bed fairly early.

Today there was more volcanic ash in the air and some airports are closed. The weather was odd with thunder, cloud and occasional sun. Pete called today and chatted,and Toby too. While I was talking to Toby this rainbow appeared.

We watched another 'Lewis' in the evening.

After the concert another nice day

2010-05-14T15:38:00.003+01:00

We had breakfast with Pete, while playing with Calliope. Afterwards Mas and I had a short wander around town, then went back to the Sussex Yeoman with Pete where we met up with Maureen, Pat, Beth and her boyfriend and all had a cheerful lunch together with much talking. I found I had a lot in common with Lorraine's parents. They lived close to Folkestone, and that is where my grandparents lived too. We had all spent holidays in Folkestone, and used the same beach, and knew the same places.

Afterwards Mas and I collected our things, bid farewell to Pete and headed off to the station, hoping that the last night of the concert would go well.

Pete and the 'Terror of the Twitten'

We had a rather fast journey home, despite having to change trains twice.
Once at Mill Hill, we took a cab home, where we found a mouse on the mat, and Salty waiting for us. We both felt really tired, but before long Manu called round clearly wanting to make an evening of it. Regretfully I had to explain that we were too tired to play tonight, and we went off to bed early, for us.

This concert will fall in love with you.

2010-05-13T19:13:00.002+01:00

Today Mas and I (after leaving huge amounts of food for Salty) took the train down to Brighton, and from there to Pete's place. Before too long we walked around the corner to The Sussex Yeoman where we met up with Beth and Mark. Mas was looking forward to their home cooking because he had really enjoyed a meal there before.

We all had a cheery time, and later Mas and I went for a short walk in Brighton as we did not want to get in the way, Brighton is a stimulating place, especially when the Brighton Festival is being held. We were surprised at the really nice shops so close to Pete's house, home made bread and wholesome groceries available.

We had a coffee and walked slowly home to Pete's. When the time was right we went to St. Michael and All Angels Church where This Concert Will Fall in Love With You was to be performed. The music written and conducted by Matthew Pollard will be performed by The Tacet Ensemble with Pete reading his work.

The church is quite beautiful, and has windows made by William Morris and Burne-Jones, and decorations by other members of the Pre-Raphaelite group.

Mas and I found seats near to Maureen and Pat, Lorraine's parents. To start the programme Glen Capra played Liszt, followed by Elgar's Salute d'amour with Ellie Blackshaw on the violin as well.

Pete read three of his love poems: Train in snow, Exorcism and Our Song. This was followed by a percussion duet played by Adam Bushell and Tom Norrel on vibraphone and marimba, then madrigal singing, with Lorraine included in the singing group.

There was a short interval with wine and biscuits, and I had a chance to talk to Janet as I am interested in the textile projects she is working on.

In part two, Matt and Pete's piece was performed. Pete was dressed as a flamboyant Victorian, with purple ruffles and cummerbund, and a black silk top hat. The music was extremely beautiful, and Pete spoke his lines in dramatic form. It was all very impressive!

After the performance people drifted off to the nearest pub, and everyone had a chance to chat with each other for some time until it grew quite late and everyone gradually left. Mas and I went back to Pete's with Bob. We met a very friendly cat on the way, and Pete pointed out where Anton lives.

We had tea, and caught up with Bob's news, and then, before too long Mas and I went to bed.

National Gallery visit with Pat, and visit from four friends

2010-05-12T20:15:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Mas was feeling a little less stiff and sore, so I did nor feel too guilty leaving him for the day.

I went off to Victoria station where I met Pat as arranged. We went into the National Gallery and saw an exhibition of Christen Købke's work; he is known as the Danish Master of Light, and I must confess I had never heard of him before, so it was interesting. We then spent more time looking at more of the pictures; we thought we should take one section at a time, and methodically look at everything over many visits, but I cannot think we would ever be that methodical.

Pat's favourite picture is Ophelia, but at the time I could not remember who painted it, but later remembered it was Sir John Everett Millais, one of the Pre-Raphaelites. http://www.tate.org.uk/ophelia

When we got tired, we left and walked through Leicester Square to the Stockpot and had lunch there. We had missed the lunch time rush, and got there before the theatre matinee people came in, and the staff were playing the radio. I heard a familiar tune which I like, but did not know what it was. Pat was astonished that I was familiar with it, and said it was a Rolling Stones number called 'Paint it black.'

Today Mas was feeling much better, we thought we might go swimming in the afternoon, but unexpectedly Margaret, John, Christiane and Eddie paid us a visit, and we spent the afternoon chatting. It was really nice to see them all, but I was sorry things were not a bit tidier!

Today is the first night of Pete's concert, so we were thinking of him; we will see it tomorrow though.

Marion's birthday party, and a painful back

2010-05-10T19:34:00.003+01:00

This morning we woke up to find two dead mice on the floor; this is becoming a carnage hot spot!
Mas still has a stiff and painful back, but as it was Marion's fiftieth birthday we could not miss it.

We got round to her house at the right time, and found her place full of interesting people. Everyone seemed even more flamboyantly dressed than usual, and Marion's hair was bright red! We found out later that it was a fancy dress party, but were never able to establish what the theme was, and after a glass of wine we did not feel out of place. We met up with some of the usual suspects and chatted, and Marion had roped in a few new people, one she had only met that day, and everyone was having a good time and laughing a great deal.

I had a long conversation with Marion's neighbour who has a Philippina wife. They spend some time here, but a lot of time in the Philippines where they have a large farm with a mansion for their home. It all sounded very colourful. It was a fun way to spend the evening, and Marion changed her fancy dress again, and I wished that I had bought my camera!

Eventually we thought we should go home, and Mas by this time had a worse back problem,
and we crept carefully off to bed.

This morning Mas was in such pain that he went back to bed to lie on his back after I had given him one of my muscle relaxant pills; he spent most of the day asleep. I spent most of the day gardening.

Mas got up in the evening, and we watched a programme about a garden being constructed on the cliffs above Saints Bay in Guernsey. There were several stunning views of Guernsey scenery which was lovely. After which, we watched another excellent Lewis episode, set in picturesque Oxford, so for once it was worth watching TV.

u7777777777777777777777777/+++++++++++++* this was typed by Salty who always has a few things to say!

Fun at craft show and computers sorted!

2010-05-07T18:46:00.001+01:00

This week we did our usual things and tidied up the conservatory, took cuttings and re potted a large pot with geraniums and an Amaryllis. We continued to have computer problems and Mas bought a new router for his. I finished the deaths head moth picture for Pete.

On Thursday morning I voted, and then we went off to Hatfield House for the Living Crafts Fair for the rest of the day. This was much better than last year's event because the weather was so much nicer. There was a huge array of marquis to visit with every kind of craft displayed. We really enjoyed the day, and had snacks while listening to the band play. Children were obediently doing Morris dancing, and everyone seemed to be having a good time and admiring the workmanship and innovation. http//www.livingcrafts.co.uk/indexh.htm

Today I had to go off early to the Royal Free Hospital for the results of my recent CT scan. While I was waiting to see the doctor, a lady sitting beside me gradually worked herself up into an indignant rage at having to wait so long. We talked for a while; she wondered why I was so calm, and I turned over the book I had been reading with a front cover which said RELAX, which made her laugh.

When I saw my surgeon, he said I was fine and well, but that they would keep up with the normal monitoring. Then I went off home.

Mas had been working on the computer problems, and later a really nice IT techno. person came to help. Mas had actually almost fixed the computers, but this nice man completed it all off for us. What a relief! Poor Mas had got a very painful back ache by this time though.

An unusal experience!

2010-05-02T19:26:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we went to St. Albans and had lunch at the Waterend Barn with Tania and Robert, and caught up with their news before getting shopping as usual and going home. It is lovely to see the countryside greening up again.

In the evening we watched another excellent episode of Wallander, while we could hear the rain pounding down outside.

Today when we woke up we found the cat asleep on the bed. As soon as he woke up he began meowing and looking under the bed in such a way that we realised he must have bought a mouse upstairs! We took off all the bedclothes and mattress, and Mas began unscrewing the bed as it can be separated into halves.

The cat was overjoyed and purring as he thought we were joining in the game with him.
Elbowing him aside, Mas lifted up half of the bed, and the mouse ran into a corner. I tried to catch him, but he ran up the inside of my trouser leg! I did a quick tap dance, and it came out. We immediately realised it was no mouse, but a rat! I threw a towel over him and caught it where he struggled in a muscular way.

Mas then asked what I was going to do next and I said put it outside. We thought we would put it into a container while considering various options; Mas thought if it went into the garden we may get it back again. Luckily we tried to do this outside, because he wriggled free and escaped!

To add insult to injury the computers would not work, so Mas spent all day trying to sort them out. In the evening we watched a Lewis, and Lost Kingdoms of Africa which was interesting.

More aggravation

2010-04-30T19:58:00.000+01:00

My computer is still dead, and Mas spent most of the day trying to sort it out and making various two hour long conversations with different IT people. I did gardening as I could not stand listening to it all; if left to my own devices I would have thrown my computer out and gone back to writing with ink and quill.

In the evening we were so fed up we watched an old episode of Jeeves and Wooster to relax, but I still had a poor nights sleep.

Friday was a ditto of Thursday, except that we went swimming in the afternoon, and in the evening watched a Pie in the Sky and the Mentalist, which seems increasingly stupid to me.

At a later date I found Joan had sent me this picture of spring flowers in her garden.

A very tasty treat.

2010-04-28T19:38:00.002+01:00

Yesterday the weather was nice enough for us to go into the garden and have tea on our swing for the first time this year. While we were doing this Salty unexpectedly jumped onto the canopy which made Mas jump violently and throw most of the tea over the garden which made me laugh a lot. Mas could startle for the Olympics!

Later I planted out the geraniums into our window boxes, watering them in afterwards.

This morning we found a small dead mouse in the hall which we disposed of before breakfast.

Later we travelled down to Leicester Square, and then walked to the National Portrait Gallery. We were going to have lunch at the restaurant there; this was a present from Romy and Toby which we had been looking forward to. We had several drinks and a three course meal with another bottle of wine while looking out of the window at this London view.

The restaurant was full, but we took our time and really enjoyed the meal. We were so full that on the way home we both fell asleep on the tube. It is a good thing that our stop is at the end of the line!

Bad health and setbacks overcome by laughter

2010-04-27T18:52:00.004+01:00

Jana is flying home today. Mas is still feeling ill although his eyes are much better. I did more on my Deaths Head Moth picture. I heard from Pete and Toby, and a couple of friends called. In the evening we watched another episode of Wallender.

Sunday was a horrible day as we had problems with AOL all day, and the computers seem to have a problem too. The cat bought in another mouse.

Mas has started coughing badly again, and he gets so breathless that he passes out. As the doctors are not open today we went to the drop in centre at Edgware hospital. After waiting for a couple of hours Mas saw the doctor who thought he should have an x-ray. Once this was done we went off home again, and Mas took it easy until bedtime.

On Monday morning Mas was feeling better, and the weather is cooler again. AOL is still not working properly, and our computers are useless. To cheer ourselves up we had lunch at the Man in the Moon and then collected some groceries.

In the afternoon I painted a bit more of Pete's picture. In the evening we watched The Burbs which is funny, and one of our favourite standbys to cheer ourselves up.

A long days holiday

2010-04-23T19:15:00.005+01:00

As arranged Jana arrived shortly after breakfast, and we set off for a walk, leaving Mas happily to his own devices until we got back again.
We walked across fields until we came out near the Elstree golf club; we were hailed by one of the golfers who said we had bought him luck as he had just played a very good shot. As we passed the golf club we decided to see if we could have a coffee, even if we were not members. We had a really nice coffee which was surprisingly inexpensive. We sat outside, in a friendly atmosphere where a group of golfers were joking with each other.

Once we left we crossed the road and walked a familiar way over the fields
and passed lots of horses. All the hedges were topped by blackthorn bushes in flower.

We passed a large home, close to the sheep below, which had its own helicopter parked in the garden. Its body was covered in protective clothing. We speculated on who would need their own personal helicopter. I suggested it may belong to a heavy duty criminal who may need a quick getaway, but as Jana said it would take at least half an hour to get the 'copter's jacket off, so we discarded that theory.

We walked through woods heavy with the scents of spring, and then across fields again. Eventually we came out near Aldenham School, and walked to Letchmore Heath.

Jana treated us to lunch at The Three Horseshoes, and we sat outside in the sunshine where groups of people were enjoying themselves and celebrating St. George's Day. Jana was also playing with the landlady's dog. As we left, after we had eaten, we looked at our favourite houses there before setting off across the fields again. We walked until we came to Elstree Aerodrome. As we skirted around the airfield a small plane, with circles on its wings, took off behind us, and then did a loop the loop in salute before flying off into the distance.

click to enlarge as usual

We also came across a beautiful dead fox at the perimeter. Continuing across fields we came across the reservoir where we admired the beautiful birds for a while; people were sitting around enjoying the sunshine. Walking further we walked to (the Winnie) the Poo field only to discover that the North Pole had been stolen!

We found that we were running out of time, but nevertheless we took the long way home as we were enjoying the walk so much. At Elstree Village we caught the bus for a couple of stops before hurrying home. We were late, and Oktay had been waiting with Mas for our return as Monika had a last evening planned for Jana. It had been along day filled with sunshine, I felt as if I had been on holiday, and I was sad to see Jana leave.

Treading water, and a surprise out of the blue

2010-04-22T18:06:00.001+01:00

I walked to Edgware, meeting Myk briefly, and a friend I had not seen since we did our 'alternative' classes together. Mason's cough is bad again, so we have made an appointment for him to see the doctor.

I did some gardening, and re potted the parsley , and saw a rather moth eaten fox twice in the garden next door ,before trying to catch up on phone calls and emails. Romy invited us to go on holiday with her, Toby, Joan and Dick!

I took Mason's temperature which was 106 which gave me a terrible shock, luckily I had another thermometer and was relieved that his temperature was almost normal. I drove him off to the doctor and he was given antibiotics and antibiotic eye drops for his eye infection.

Today Mason's eyes are much better, but his cough is still troublesome. I did some painting; the Deaths Head Moth for Peter, while Mas was trying to take things a bit easy.

Busy time with friends

2010-04-18T17:41:00.000+01:00

We went to St. Albans and had lunch at Sazios with Tania and Robert. Robert is still having computer problems which is stressful. The weather is now warm and sunny, and we got our fruit and vegetables before driving home. There are still no planes flying.

We took the opportunity while Jana is still grounded over here to have her, Monika, Oktay and the boys to come over tomorrow for a visit.

We watched an episode of Wallander in the evening.

On Sunday our friends arrived as expected, and we had a really nice time with them all. The boys were being very sweet, and Milan was making jokes, the weather was nice enough fotr the boys to go into the garden. Mas made a nice meal which we enjoyed, but they had to leave before too long as Milan is back to school tomorrow, and Monika is studying too.

Natural disasters and IT problems

2010-04-16T22:41:00.005+01:00

Yesterday morning I had to go off to the Royal Free Hospital to have another blood test and routine CT scan, and on the way home collected some shopping.

There had been a volcanic eruption in Iceland, and because of the clouds of ash that had been discharged all the planes had been grounded temporarily so the skies seemed very empty. There was also an earthquake in China with 760 deaths reported so far.

Robert called and said to Mas that his computer had blown up, and he was urgently trying to sort out the problems.

We woke up listening to Salty going nuts rushing up and down the stairs letting out yips as he went, but he was simply playing, it had sounded as if the Pied Piper and all his friends had been passing through.

Today Mas and I tried to catch up with our usual things, and I walked off to the library and got out some books and music. The street trees are all in blossom now which always looks so optimistic. The weather has turned warm at last.

A sociable day to remember

2010-04-14T18:12:00.004+01:00

After Pete, Mas and I had a light breakfast and chats Jana arrived. Jana had not met Pete before, but said afterwards that she felt as if she knew him already as I have talked about him so much. Sadly Pete had to go off to Brighton so could not spend more time with us.

Leaving Mas to work on his computer Jana and I headed off into the countryside where we walked over fields from Alum Lane and through woods; the weather was grey and cold which was a shame. We neared The Waggon and Horses pub in Elstree (built in 1471), and decided to have a coffee there. We found that the pub was not open because the decorators were working in the back, but the barman kindly said that he would make us a coffee, so we sat and chatted, and there was a lot to talk about as we had not seen each other for a year; it was hard to believe that Jana had returned home to live in the Czech Republic four years ago!

We sat near this fireplace which had a lit fire in the grate.

Before long we headed off home because Oktay was coming to pick us all up around 1.30pm, to take us off to his home in Cheshunt.

As arranged Oktay called in for us and we drove off to Cheshunt; it was lovely to see Monika and the children, Milan and Talu who were both looking well and happy despite having recently been under the weather. Monika and Oktay are having a new garden made, and although there is still more work to be done it is already looking very interesting.

Monika made a huge and interesting dinner with many courses which we ate in a leisurely way, talking and drinking. Monika had taken a course in making cake decorations, and she made this cake and the decorations too.

Jana and I played with the children upstairs for a while, me playing noughts and crosses with Milan who was cheating, when I mentioned this he agreed and said he always cheated! Jana took him aside and had a quiet word with him about this, while I played with Talu. Milan then demonstrated how he can turn cartwheels!

When we went down later we had a glass of Slivovitz and more chat and snacks until it was time to go home again. It was sad parting from everyone and saying goodbye to Jana who will be off to Spain, and taking a weeks lessons while she is there.

Once home again Toby called and had a quick chat. A very nice but tiring day!

Routine days then a visit from Pete

2010-04-13T17:41:00.005+01:00

We spent all week doing our routine things, interspersed with gardening, cleaning the stonework and garden furniture, and Mas fixed the canopy over the garden swing which had broken with the weight of snow in the winter. For a break we had lunch one day at the Man in the Moon.

On Tuesday Jana phoned and said she could go for a walk tomorrow, and she would arrive around 9.00am. Mas and I took some videos over to Margaret's and John's and had chats with them. Pete came round in the early evening, and we sat around chatting about his concert, and looking at the score; Pete unreasonably refused to drink some beer which we had discovered at the back of the cupboard that was less than ten years past its' use by date! Mas made a lovely turkey dinner which we drank with some wine. It was a nice evening.

Entertaining and a sad event

2010-04-06T19:16:00.001+01:00

This morning I tidied the house, and we thought about the meal that we would have when Barry, Wynford and Rupa came for dinner tonight. Mas was feeling somewhat depressed about what he had been working on as there are problems. Both Joan and Pete liked the illustration I had done of Grimsby the dog for Pete's book.

Barry, Wynford and Rupa arrived (from next door) at 8.00pm as arranged, and we sat about talking until dinner was ready. Mason had made a scrumptious meal which everyone enjoyed in a leisurely fashion. After desserts and coffee we talked some more, and we went back into the sitting room until they left to go home. It had been a nice evening.

Today we had the very sad news that a young relative had died, and had various communications which set Mas back a bit. For a change it was warm and sunny, and I saw the first bumble bee, ladybird and hover fly of the year which is always cheering.

I spent most of the day painting as I am trying to finish these pictures for Pete in a reasonable time.

Mostly a working week, interrupted by the TV

2010-04-04T18:46:00.002+01:00

I went off for a walk this morning, and spent time in the afternoon trying to do illustrations for Pete's Skelly book. Mas went off for an appointment with a business associate, then afterwards off to the doctors at the end of the day, and we had a late dinner.

Friday, and I walked for an hour on this grey and dreary day. For a break we watched an old Diagnosis Murder, and I sent off a few e mails, and listened to a lot of religious classical music. Later, during the night it rained really heavily, and Salty spent an hour frenziedly rushing up and down the stairs during the night and occasionally yelping loudly, sooo restful!

On Saturday, we went as usual to St. Albans, and met Tania and Robert in Sazios and had a long and cheerful lunch before shopping and driving home again. Driving is quite hazardous at the moment as there are such large and deep potholes in the road surface after the icy weather.

Both Mas and I felt really tired in the evening, but watched another excellent, understated, episode of Wallendar . Luckily Salty did not put in an appearance all night, so we felt quite rested when we got up on Sunday morning.

Today was warm and sunny, so we did a lot of gardening. I did some drawing while listening to an old Hancock's Half Hour on the radio; the famous one about the Blood Donor. In the evening we had a bit of a TV fest, watching Monk, Foyle's War and A Touch of Frost, then we went off to bed before the men in white coats came to take us away!

Original Thinkers and mouse, not monkey, business

2010-03-31T18:29:00.000+01:00

On Monday I pottered around doing my usual things, and Mas went off to Brent Cross to meet up with an acquaintance. I had been listening to the radio on which there was a programme about Delia Derbyshire. She had worked for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and was responsible for creating lots of weird sounds and music. At the time, on the Third Programme (which became radio 3) they used to put on experimental and avant guarde plays which owed a lot of the atmosphere created to the work by the Radiophonic Workshop. Delia Derbyshire was most famous for realising Ron Grainer's theme tune for the original Dr. Who programmes.

Tuesday, and Diane is off to France. Mas spent all day meeting up with various people he is trying to work with. I walked to Edgware, picked up a little shopping and spent time browsing in the library. I began painting Grimsby, a dog character from Pete's book, but after a while I had to see Barry next door so I could look at his dog's feet, to his amusement.

I watched a programme called The Genius of Omar Khayyam. I was familiar with his poetry, I knew he was an astronomer but had not realised what an important mathematician he was also a philosopher. It is amazing what some people achieve in a lifetime.

This morning Salty bought in a mouse which immediately hid under the sofa. After a lot of cunning tracking I had the mouse backed into a corner (having excluded Salty from the room). I thought I would pick him up and then put him into the garden, hoping I would not be bitten too badly. As soon as I tried this, the mouse ran up my arm with the speed of light, and onto my head. I rushed out into the garden hoping I was still carrying him. Later, Salty seemed to have lost interest in the whole project, so I assumed the mouse had made it into the garden.

I went off for a walk, then later finished off the Grimsby painting for Pete.

Trundelling along as usual

2010-03-27T18:48:00.003Z

Mas and I spent most of the week doing necessary but uninteresting things, and me going for rather dreary walks whenever I could. One good thing was that Mas went off to the hospital and got fitted with hearing aids. He said that they improved his hearing, and were so comfortable that he forgot he was wearing them, and they were almost invisible. We watched and listened to TV at a very low volume which I really liked.

I listened to the last part of the Jacques Brel series that I have been listening to on the radio, and spoke to Diane who is heading off to France soon. Pete came back from Guernsey, and I caught up with his news.

On Thursday Tania and Robert came down and we went off to 'the curry club'. We all felt a bit tired, especially Tania who was still suffering from jet lag. Ken arrived and had dinner too before he left to talk to other friends; he is off on holiday soon visiting India for the first time. We did not linger too long, but had a nice evening together.

I watched a programme about Sacred Music which included interviews with Arvo Pärt which I found interesting; I think his music is amazing on so many levels. Later we watched 'Lewis', and although we had seen this episode before we still watched it again because it is a good one.

On Saturday Mas and I went for a walk to Stanmore, by the time we were there Mas had got the familiar painful tightening in his calves, so he bussed back home. I picked up a couple of things from the shop and walked home again. I tried my hand at painting more peculiar animals for Pete, as illustrations for his Skelly book. I watched an episode of Poldark which were first shown in the 1970s; I had enjoyed them then. We also watched another superb Wallander with Krister Henriksson as the detective. Mas has not been wearing his hearing aids and says he will wear them when necessary!

St.Albans visits, and Tania's return

2010-03-21T15:06:00.001Z

Saturday, and we drove off to St.Albans to get shopping, and meet Robert at Sazios for lunch.
Robert had bought me some of the lovely business cards he had made for me, now all I need is the business. It is quite evident that Robert is missing Tania, but thankfully from his point of view she will be coming back tomorrow.

The fruit and vegetables in the market seemed rather expensive today, so we did not stock up with much. It still makes Mas laugh to hear all the market traders shouting out their wares for sale; they must be hoarse by the time they return home in the evenings.

On Sunday morning Wynford came round and gave us an enormous collection of videos, mostly Sherlock Holmes, Poirots and Agatha Christies. They have replaced these as they do not have a video player now. This will cause Mas to go through his collection, weeding some out so that the new ones can be put away, in the meantime they are stacked up in the sitting room.

We then drove up to Robert's house, and before long we were headed off to the airport to meet Tania as she arrived. Once at the airport we had a pizza snack and drink while we chatted until Tania arrived. Robert drove back home, and we stayed for a chat and tea. Tania has bought a karaoke machine which she wants Robert to set up for her. She showed pictures of her family which seemed to be full of laughing children and sunshine.

We left before too long, thinking how devastatingly tired Tania must feel after such a long journey, although she did not really seem as tired as we had expected. By the time we got home it was 8.30pm. We watched one of the new videos called the Fifteen Streets starring Sean Bean,
but I am not really a fan of gritty northern realism.

Cheerful friends and cheerless weather

2010-03-19T14:38:00.001Z

I went off for a short walk this morning, and could not seem to settle down to all the things I should be getting on with.

As planned Robert came down to us early in the evening, and we went off again to The Man in the Moon as it was their curry club evening. Luckily we were early enough to get a booth to ourselves, and immediately the place filled up with customers. Before long Ken came in and joined us, and we had dinner and chatted, with many laughs, till 11.30pm when we all left to go home.

The cat woke me at 5.50am this morning, and I felt quite tired all day. The weather was depressingly grey and drizzly. I called Pete briefly, then listened to a Jeeves and Wooster on the radio. Later Toby called and chatted as he has returned home after visiting Alex in California. I watched 'Coast', and later Mas and I had a G & T to cheer ourselves up after such gloomy weather all day.

A bitter pill to swallow

2010-03-18T14:09:00.003Z

Today the cat was due to have a worm pill, so I cut it into quarters and cunningly inserted them into his treats. Salty ate the first one, neatly spitting out the quarter of the pill, and regarding the rest of the treat with suspicion. Mas had to hold Salty, and I managed to drop the pill pieces one by one into his held open moth and down his throat; I was so surprised that this strategy worked! Mas cleared out the garden shed today, at last we can walk in without having to climb over things.

I spoke to Pete and found his hospital appointment had been cancelled. We talked about the Skelly illustrations he would like; I will try to do them soon. I did all kinds of boring necessary things and then went for a short walk. In the evening I watched 'Coast' which I find interesting.
In the evening I listened to the first of three programmes about the wonderful Jacques Brel, and they played lots of his music too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2wmKcBm4Ik&feature=related

The song 'ne me quitte pas ' has a lovely phrase in it expressing that he will be less than the shadow of a dog if she leaves him.

Sark Voices and gardening

2010-03-15T13:15:00.003Z

On Sunday I did not do very much, except colour my hair with 'Mahogany' which came out an unlikely shade of red. Pete phoned and chatted. I had been listening to radio 3, Late Junction, where they played a traditional song by 'Sark Voices' sung in Sark French. I had not known before that Sark had its own patois which is now almost extinct.

Today it was warm and sunny for a change and I did some gardening. It was nice to be pottering about outside despite being ambushed and pounced upon by Salty. He seemed to have gone completely batty seeing me doing things in the garden again and kept running up and down trees.

In the afternoon I sat with Mas and we watched a new series called 'Missing' with Pauline Quirke in it, but I found it rather annoying and dreary.afterwards I went for a walk around Stanmore; it is odd how so many of the roads have now become 'private' with 'no entry' signs up everywhere. A sign of our troubled times I suppose.

Deja vue

2010-03-13T17:25:00.002Z

I put the new 'spot on,' that we had bought from the vet, onto Salty before leaving with Mas who was going off to do some shopping. As I had another exhibition ticket I had arranged to go back to the Affordable Art Fair with Diane, for a day out together before she goes off to Normandy for a while.
After a difficult and slow journey, and because several of the underground lines were closed today,I had to take the bus, and after a roundabout journey I got to Sloan Square. I had told Diane about the Oriel, and so we met in the cafe bar of the Royal Court Theatre and had a glass of wine before going off to the art show.

We walked about looking at the art for a few hours, and I had the chance to talk to one of the gallery people about painting watercolour on a gesso primed board or paper, which was useful.

After a while Diane suggested that we go to the Civil Service Club for tea as she is now a member, and after another long and noisy bus journey we got to Trafalgar Square and walked to the Civil Service club.

We had some Earl Grey tea and chocolate cake and talked for a while. Diane will be leaving for France at the end of March.

Afterwards we walked to the station and managed to get a train back to Edgware without changing trains.

The Affordable Art Fair

2010-03-12T17:00:00.002Z

Today we were going to The Affordable Art Fair at Battersea Park, so we took the train to Sloan Square to meet Pete in the Oriel. We could not believe that the Oriel, one of our favourite haunts, has closed down due to the recession after 25 years. This is odd as the place was always busy, with the restaurant upstairs and the hidden away bar downstairs!

We sloped about disconsolately for a while, but eventually went to the bar cafe of the Royal Court Theatre, almost next door to the Oriel, hidden down the side.

After a second restorative glass of wine and a modest snack, the surroundings looked less dusty and drab. We went around the corner and took the courtesy minibus to Battersea Park.

We looked at the artwork which is always enjoyable, and halfway through the exhibition we sat down for a while and had some sparkling water to drink, and more chat. When we all felt thoroughly tired we got the courtesy car back to Sloan Square and thus back home again.
A nice but tiring day.

Almost a car catastrophe

2010-03-11T16:35:00.003Z

This week I spent a lot of time researching things, and sorting out direct debits. Boring but necessary. I called Margaret and talked to her for a while, and I spoke to Pete as well.

On Wednesday Mas and I went off to the Man in the Moon for lunch, only to find out when we were going to go home that the power steering in the car had gone wrong, and it was difficult to manoeuvre out of the car park. Mas dropped me off and I walked home with the milk we had bought, and he drove down to our local garage which luckily is within walking distance. The garage called later, saying that they may be able to part exchange something, if it was in good enough condition, also that the fan belt had gone as well. The car should be fixed tomorrow.

On a more cheerful note Joan sent a picture of Ethan's lovely cat, Skrimshaw, who is trying to fit in with the other cats and dogs ( his face is like my childhood cat Jimmy Lizard)

Today the garage called, the car was fixed, and for £100 less than we had expected. We cancelled the vet appointment as Salty is completely back on form now, but still taking the pills.

In the evening Robert picked us up, and we went, as planned, to The Man in the Moon as it was the evening for their Curry Club. When we went in all the tables and alcoves were being used, and we wondered if we would eventually get a table. While we were dithering we were invited to join someone sitting at a table as there were three available seats. In no time at all we were all four of us chatting and having an interesting time as well as a tasty meal. His name is Ken (from Kenya). We did not stay too long as Robert had to go home and work.

The Museum of London

2010-03-08T13:31:00.003Z

On Saturday we went off to St. Albans and met Tania and Robert at the Waterend Barn pub for lunch. We has a good time chatting; Tania is off to the Philippines on Monday for a few weeks, and there was a lot to talk about.

Afterwards we got some shopping from the market and went home, and relaxed for the rest of the day. Salty seems much better, and loves his antibiotic pills and thinks they are special treats for him.

On Sunday we did our usual chores, relaxed and I went off for a walk just as the weather was turning colder, just for the exercise.

Today I went off to Old Street Station and met My brother Peter. We walked off through the city towards the Barbican. Peter pointed out these grim looking flats to me saying it was the highest residential block in London.

This 'sculpture' is a 500 year old tree, under which it is said Mendelssohn sat while he wrote the music for A Midsummer Nights Dream.

The highest London residential flats.

We walked through to the Museum of London ;I had never been there before, and in fact did not even know it existed. The display began in in London's pre history showing flint cutting tools and worked it's way through to modern times. There were lots of French schoolchildren looking at things.

The displays were very good, showing the kinds of rooms that people would live in during different ages, the food they would have eaten, and all the artifacts of their lives. Some of the displays were interactive which the children enjoyed. We worked our way through to Henry V11 times, by which time I was exhausted, and suggested we do the rest on another day.

The London Wall

This is part of the London Wall which is visible from the museum, which was begun around 194AD, if I remember correctly, and was added to and changed over the centuries.

Once we left, we went to the Watling Street pub and had a drink and chat until we got our walking legs back again, and Peter bought some exotic sausages from a bespoke butcher.

We walked off towards Trafalgar Square and took the tube home in different directions.

By the time I got home I was happy to sit and watch TV for a while, but I had enjoyed the outing with Peter.

Another visit to the vet

2010-03-05T19:40:00.002Z

Yesterday I put some Frontline spot on onto the cat as it is now time to do him again. It got very cold in the evening, and Salty spent quite a bit on the night indoors.

Today I noticed that the cat seemed to have lost fur on his lower stomach, and that the skin was very red, so we made an appointment to take him in to the vet early in the evening. I had ordered some cat food and some of the usual Frontline spot on earlier in the week, and that arrived today. I walked down to the library as the weather was bright before taking Salty to the vet.

We tried a new, closer, vet today, but Salty was still very stressed even by the shorter car journey. The vet, after examining him, said that he had an allergy to flea bites, and although we had been using 'spot on' it was not working for him, so we have to use a more expensive one as the fleas in our area seem to have become resistant to the usual one. She gave him a quick injection of antibiotics, and we got more pills to give him tomorrow to start a course of antibiotics. After this consultation Salty got back into his carrying box, which surprised us because when we tried to put him in it earlier he had held onto the doorway with his arms and legs; he knew it was the only way to get home again, and he was ready! This short visit cost another £80.00! The good part was that he seemed to begin feeling better almost immediately.

I vacuumed and sprayed the house, and washed all the covers that he normally sleeps on. Florence had called earlier, so I phoned her and talked for a while, and spoke to Diane too.
I watched 'Coast ' on TV

Cooking and 'Writing a World'

2010-03-04T18:36:00.000Z

Yesterday we spent time doing comfort cooking: rock cakes, (unfortunately they got a bit overcooked so turned out as the kind of cakes visitors would hide behind cushions to avoid eating them in case they broke teeth,) soup and shepherd's pie (without adding a shepherd).

This last, reminds me of Mason's mother: she had a statuette of an organ grinder with a monkey who was holding out a hat for the money. When visiting her one day, she asked if we had seen her monkey grinder which made Mas and I snicker more than somewhat, until she lost patience with us.

Today I went to Borehamwood, and went window shopping and bought some Frontline spot on to put on Salty later. I saw this poem which I really liked :

Writing a world.

'While I talk and the flies buzz,
a seagull catches a fish at the mouth of the Amazon,
a tree falls in the Adirondak wilderness,
a man sneezes in Germany,
a horse dies in Tattany,
and twins are born in France.

What does that mean? Does the contemporaneity
of these events one with another
and with a million others as disjointed
form a rational bond between them,
and write them into anything
that resembles for us a world.'

David Morley

The Jersey Boys musical

2010-03-03T17:02:00.004Z

It was sunny and bright in the morning which was cheering. Both Mas and I seemed to busy all day, but I did go for a walk as it began to get dark. I enjoy walking through the streets, and as I pass brightly lit rooms I wonder about the people who live in them; it is like viewing stage scenery from the anonymous darkness. I was rather puzzled as some of the homes seem to have wall sized TV sets which were on and displaying a variety of happenings, but the rooms were empty, and no one was watching.

Salty seems rather off colour still, so we decided not to give him any more treat snacks in case he had an alergy to them or something. In the evening we watched the Holcroft Covenant with Michael Caine, neither of us had seen this film before so that made a pleasant change; it was based on a book by Robert Ludlam.

Today we went into London to see the Jersey Boys musical which is a present from Romy and Toby. We had to get there a little early as we had to collect the tickets from the Box Office first. The people at the Prince Edward theatre were very nice. After a quick drink at the bar we found our seats, which were well placed with a central view.

As it was a matinee performance the audience were largely elderly folk who did not have to spend the afternoon working. The atmosphere was very good.

The performance was outstanding, the actor palying Frankie Valli had an amazing voice. All the cast performed really well, the dancing was excellent, and there were a few light touches of humour. The scenery was effective, and the lighting set the mood for each scene.

We both really enjoyed it, and it bought back memories for Mas of listening to the music while driving. It was very inspiring to see how hard everyone concerned in this production has worked to make the show so good. At the end of the show the audience gave a standing ovation to show their appreciation.

When we left the theatre we went to the nearest Stockpot eatery

And we had a glass of wine; Mas said he needed one to gain his eqinimity again. We then had dinner. I have a new plan which is to have a starter, no main course, and then to have a dessert. Mas is following the traditional plan.

We went home on the underground, and Mas avidly read the programme while we travelled and was surprised when we reached Edgware so soon. What a day to remember!

Peace and quiet after the storm

2010-02-28T17:43:00.000Z

Today we went to Stanmore later than usual, and bought some cat treats in the form op chewy strips. Mas had bought him some earlier in the week, and Salty loves them. We then went to the Man in the Moon, which was empty except for the staff cleaning and tidying everything up. Apparently we had arrived at the perfect time as a football crowd had been partying there earlier. We had noticed the police van, and five policemen chatting together outside the pub as we went in which had given us a clue. We had a nice roast dinner, and gradually the locals drifted back in, and things got back to normal.

When home again Mas gave the cat some of the treats; I have never seen him react to food like this before, and am convinced that they must put some special cat drugs into the food.

In the evening we watched LadyHawk which was entertaining. Salty seems rather lethargic, and did not go outside as much as usual.

Chinese meal with Poppy and Ben

2010-02-27T18:33:00.002Z

Friday morning, Mas and I went for another short walk; as we left we saw Poppy and Ben and invited them for a meal when it was convenient for them. They said they would like to come over this evening. We saw Margaret, and gave her a birthday card, and chatted briefly.

I tidied up somewhat, while Mas went off to gather up a few missing ingredients for the Chinese meal he wanted to make tonight. Poppy and Ben came over as planned, and we had a fun evening chatting and eating; so much more fun than watching TV.

Today we had a bit of a lazy day, Mas spent time on the computer, and I went for a walk looking at the architectural styles around Edgware. In particular at some houses in a small road called Garden City where each house is painted a different pastel colour. They were built in 1920 by an E. Appleby.

In the evening we watched one of the Rosemary and Thyme series.

Hearing tests and electrocuted cat

2010-02-24T18:28:00.001Z

I spent most of the day pottering about, and in the afternoon I went for a walk and picked up a little shopping. Mas went off to Edgware General Hospital for a hearing test; he has some hearing loss and will see if he finds hearing aids helpful.

We watched an NCIS in the evening, and went to bed fairly early.

Today after breakfast Mas and I went off for a short walk together for the exercise,and later I went for a longer walk on my own. It rained heavily all afternoon; Salty rushed indoors looking as if he had been electrocuted...all his fur was stuck together in points, he was really soaking, and his tummy was all muddy. He threw himself down on the carpet, and within half an hour he was dried, fluffed up again and white!

In the evening we watched an old tape of The Hudsucker Proxy which was a very strange film with Tim Robbins and Paul Newman in it. The scenery and graphics of the film were strange futuristic/ art deco for the period of the 1950s, but fascinating.

A treat to remember

2010-02-23T18:19:00.000Z

It was raining all night, consequently, the cat was running boisterously around the house, and tearing up and down the stairs, going head over heels, but catching onto steps with his claws to prevent himself from crashing down the flight of stairs in the nick of time. All this kept me awake, so I listened to the radio quietly for hours, and felt tired all day.

While we had breakfast we watched the snow swirling down, but it did not settle. For some exercise I vacuumed violently and excessively, before settling down to more peaceful occupations. I am so bored by this weather.

Today I walked with Poppy and Ben in the park, watching Lilu frolic around. There were other dog walkers too, and we met Jim with his elderly dog. I had not seen him around for a while, and he told me he had recently had a hip replacement, and had been staying with his son while he convalesced.

Mas had invited Poppy and Ben to come for one of our cheapy pub lunches, but Ben was on call, and had to urgently leave. Poppy called to say this may take some time, so Mas and I went off to the Man in the Moon, as we came back it snowed, and then sleeted.

Later, Poppy and Ben invited us to go out for an evening meal with them, and have some Persian cooking. We drove off with them to Finchley Central and went to a restaurant called Shiraz which was peacefully appointed, and with friendly service. We had a really nice three course meal with wine, and Poppy and I had Persian tea afterwards, which was amber coloured, clear and delicately scented. Mason, unusually, really liked the wine very much. Really, just the very tasty starters would have been ample, but it was interesting to try all the different flavours, and we had a really nice evening.

Later on, just as we were thinking of going off to bed the cat bought in another minute mouse. I managed to take it away from him and put it outside again, but I don't know if it had been hurt too much to survive. At this rate I think I will have to try and find a small robot mouse for him to chase, otherwise the area will be denuded of wildlife, or at least mice.

All's well that ends well

2010-02-21T17:26:00.001Z

We had breakfast, with the sun shining for a change. Salty was particularly happy as he could pounce on, and watch the small rainbows that came from the hanging crystal.

We arranged to meet Tania and Robert at Sazios for lunch. Just before we left, I realised that I had written down the date for our visit to the theatre in the wrong month in my diary, and that we had missed the show by four days! I was so mad I felt like stabbing myself, especially as this was a gift from Romy and Toby.

We drove off to St.Albans, and had a really nice lunch with Tania and Robert, and I told them about some of my pictures being used on television. As I was driving back home the weather got colder, and it began to snow, and we thought how lucky we had been with our timing, getting lots of fruit and vegetables from the market before the snow came.

In the evening we watched an NCIS, and then I left Mas watching TV while I listened to my new Nocturnes CD and did some knitting for a change, but kept thinking about our missed theatre outing. We had eaten so much at lunch that we did not bother to have an evening meal.

We had breakfast with a snow shower, and this gradually changed to rain. Mas phoned up about the theatre tickets, and they were very nice saying we could go on another day, but to return the tickets. I felt so relieved.

I called Jean in Devon and talked to her for a long time; there was a lot to catch up on as we had not seen each other for years. I felt really happy to talk to her, and will try to call her more often.

I discovered that my pictures had already been shown on the BBC, on Click Bits on Friday, and L J Rich the presenter thought they had looked lovely on screen. Toby called to talk, and Pete too, so it was a great day for communications.

Good news

2010-02-19T17:09:00.001Z

After having pains in one calf all night I got up early and went off to the hospital in case I should have DVT. After having my leg examined the doctor thought it very unlikely, as my leg was not swollen, the veins did not hurt, and the calf was soft when relaxed. I left reassured if somewhat sheepish, but reminded myself it was better to be safe than sorry.

Walking home, I met Ben who was walking towards the park with Lilu. We chatted for a while, and as it happened Ben had been out for a coffee with Mas while I was out. I had a lovely surprise when I got home as Jana had sent a letter full of news together with a CD of Chopin Nocturnes; the good news is that she will be coming over in April for a holiday. I really like these Nocturnes, and recalled how often while waiting for the Wednesday or Saturday play on the radio, BBC Home service, they would play a Nocturne first, which is how I became familiar with them.

In the evening we watched The Mentalist which is silly, but entertaining.

The Night of the Great White Hunter

2010-02-18T18:22:00.001Z

We woke up with snow falling, but later in the day it turned to rain. We made some French Onion soup, with bread and toasted cheese on top, for lunch, and watched a Murder She Wrote in the afternoon.

L J Rich accepted all the pictures I had forwarded for Click Bits, so I cheerfully, and carefully, sent them off again in a higher resolution.

Mas called me while he was watching TV; Salty had bought in a mouse which was running round the room. We tried to catch it before the cat did, but he went under the couch and we could not see him. Later in the evening the cat found him again, so we were rushing about trying to get him into the conservatory with the help of a soft broom, so that he would not set up house in our home. Eventually after we had opened the conservatory door he left quickly.

We settled down to finish what we had been watching, and after a while the cat went out. In a short time the cat bought the mouse in again, but this time it was dead. As it did not appear to have any injuries we thought he must have had a heart attack. The cat in the meantime was very excited and playful, and obviously thinks he is the Great White Hunter.

Walking and dental adventures

2010-02-17T17:38:00.000Z

Mas and I got shopping in the morning, and despite it raining most of the day I walked with Margaret, and Henry the dog, over to Edgwarebury Park. The ground was very boggy and waterlogged, but despite this, Henry spent some time joyfully rolling on the grass. Even though the weather was so bad we felt better for the walk.

I spoke to Pete today, and later had an email from Mex telling me that Click Bits on the BBC was looking for artwork, so I sent off six pieces to L J Rich the presenter in the hope that one would be suitable.

Today I had a dental appointment for a small filling which left my nose numb almost till bedtime. Luckily the weather was bright, but cold, and I went by bus. Waiting at the bus stop after the dental visit, the bus queue watched warily as a man hurled abuse at a kebab eatery close by; the owner meanwhile locked his glass front door to keep the man out, and we watched in disgust as he spat at and licked the window.

Mas in the meantime went and got some more shopping that we needed, especially fish for the cat. In the evening we watched an NCIS.

Salty snoring!

Walking in the woods with Margaret and John

2010-02-15T18:16:00.000Z

Today Mas and I went to Stanmore to get shopping, but went to lunch instead at the Man in the Moon. I had to hurry back as I was to meet Margaret so that we could walk Henry. As I approached their house I saw John was getting his car ready.

We all drove off to Berry Grove woods, near Aldenham, and walked for more than an hour chatting and watching Henry cavort about joyfully. It was a very cold day, with the occasional snow flake feathering down. We saw tree fellers felling trees, looked for Muntjack deer, but did not see any, saw some signs of life with buds on trees and catkins.

Wall Hall was built in the 1800s, later it became a teacher training college, and now has been converted into flats.

Snowdrops

As we began to head back to the car the snow started falling faster, but luckily did not last for too long. I really enjoyed this walk, and felt about twenty years younger when I got home again.

Mas had been for his doctors appointment, luckily just a routine one. In the evening we watched Romancing the Stone, which although we had seen this before was quite fun.

Family visit, Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year

2010-02-14T17:44:00.000Z

We had a quick tidy up, and organised the meal we would make for Eileen, Nina and my brother Alex. Diane phoned and chatted for a while during the afternoon. Both Mas and I were feeling particularly tired today, and think that the dreariness of the cold day does not help.

The family arrived just past seven in the evening, and we sat in front of the warm fire drinking gin and tonic by candlelight while the meal finished cooking. We had plenty to talk about as we have not seen each other for a year.

Mas made a Christmassy meal with turkey and all the fixings, which we had after the nice sweetcorn soup he makes. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal and the conversation. Alex and I having the chance to snicker at things a couple of times, as we share the same sense of humour.

After a nice but exhausting evening we tottered off to bed without clearing up first, which is unusual for us. It had been fun though.

This morning I cleared up, but still felt tired. Later as it was Ashworthy's birthday I dropped off a birthday card and set off to walk for an hour. After a short walk I saw Margaret walking with Henry the dog, so I walked home with her chatting; it was too cold to stand and talk. As we approached her house it began to rain, so instead of walking I went in with her and had tea and bread pudding with her and John and chatted for a while. We planned to walk tomorrow with Henry if it was not snowing.

Back home again Mas mentioned regretfully that he had forgotten it was Valentine's day. After all this time together I don't think we need reminding how we feel about each other!
In the evening we watched The Lost World with Bob Hoskins, James Fox and Peter Falk which was entertaining.

Busy days with the Brotherhood of the Wolf

2010-02-12T16:50:00.002Z

Mas and I went to Stanmore to get shopping, and had lunch at the Man in the Moon which was a welcome break.
Pete sent me some of his poems to read, and I heard from Joan too.
In the evening we watched this French film, Brotherhood of the Wolf which was a stylish historical horror film, but very entertaining, and ate homemade bread and butter pudding.

Today we had a busy day catching up with correspondence and doing various chores. Diane called with family news, and Alex called to confirm that they would be coming over tomorrow for a visit.

The Stafforshire Hoard, but not the Year of the Mouse

2010-02-10T22:39:00.003Z

Today I went off to the British Museum and met Pat as arranged on the steps outside with the odd snowflake falling.

Pat wanted to see the exhibition about the Staffordshire Hoard. This is one of the most significant archaeological finds for the UK. At the end of last year a Metal Detectorist unearthed part of a hoard of treasure, and he and the farmer who owned the field reported their find. It is believed that some of the artifacts date back to AD 700. There are in the region of 1,500 pieces valued around 3.28 million pounds. http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/

Inside the British Museum

We wandered around the museum until we found the Staffordshire Hoard display : two small cases displaying a few broken sword handles, coins and broken bits and pieces. Pat was very disappointed at how little there was to see, and she said if she had found any of it she would not have bothered to pick it up. The bulk of the hoard is being cleaned and valued.
After this disappointment we decided to go off and have lunch, so we went to Leicester Square,

and found The Stockpot for an economical lunch. The Stockpot was filled with people; it was mostly the pre matinee crowd. We had a filling lunch, and when we left decided to walk to Covent Garden and see what was going on there.

We passed this interesting bridge which I had never seen before.

Once in Covent Garden we heard this lady singing opera to a small audience as it was so cold.

There were all the usual stalls set out, but not many people around looking at them. When we left, we walked to China Town to look at the decorations.

I saw these interesting cakes in a baker's window, and a tall man asked if I wanted a picture of me looking at the cakes longingly. When I showed him the cakes, he told me it would be the year of The Mouse soon, but the cakes didn't look like mice to me.

Later, walking back, the same man hurried over to me and said he was sorry, but the next Chinese year would be the year of the Tiger, he said he never made mistakes, but when he did he wanted to put them right.

Pat and I walked back to the tube, and took the Northern Line home, to the opposite ends of the same line.
In the evening Mas and I watched a new episode of Midsomer Murders with John Nettles which was fun.

Snow and visit to dentist

2010-02-09T22:23:00.000Z

Monday it snowed all day, and was very cold. I walked to the post office and renewed my travel pass and chatted to the nice post lady for a moment. Christane dropped of some shopping bags for us that she had collected from a travel exhibition.

Mas was busy all day, and I felt bored an lifeless because of the weather. I have many things I could be doing, but can only manage enough enthusiasm to read; thank goodness for books!

Today we had snow while we had breakfast, but it did not really settle. Mas dropped me off at the dentist ( a new one to us) who is quite near to where The Red Lion pub used to be in Colindale. The dentist seemed quite pleasant, and thorough; I have to go back next week for a small filling. After this I went for a short walk before going home again.

Catching up

2010-02-07T19:51:00.000Z

Today we drove off to St. Albans; the weather was still very cold. We met Tania and Robert, and as the place was filled with youngsters, as there must have been some event going on in town today, we decided to go to another Thai restaurant for a change, which was situated in a quiet alley way. We had a lot to talk about which was fun, but I thought that the food was very bland compared to the Bua Thai.

In the evening we has a colourful salad with lots of pungent guacamole. I watched another episode of Island Parish which is currently my favourite programme.

On Sunday we kept ourselves busy catching up with things and people. I phoned and chatted to Astrid who I have not spoken to for a couple of years, but we have known each other for a long time now; she has a distinctive laugh. Toby called as well which was cheering. Poppy has been ill, but is feeling much better now. I also called Pat and we arranged to meet up next week.

Flea bane

2010-02-05T19:34:00.001Z

Yesterday morning I noticed Salty was covered in fleas; I had forgotten to Frontline him a week or so ago. I took all the fleas off him that I could see, which took a long time, and I put the Frontline liquid on the back of his neck. Not long afterwards I found I was covered in bites too, so stripped off my cloths and put them straight in the washing machine, and had a shower. I sprayed around the house in places that Salty sits, and washed his blankets and cushion covers.

Mas and I went out after all this, paid bills and had lunch at the Man in the Moon. Later I went for a walk for the exercise, and bought a flea collar to put in the vacuum cleaner.

Today I noticed I had more bites, so took the same procedure as yesterday, and vacuumed the whole house, and gave Salty fresh bedding again. I noticed that he was not sitting or lying in any of his usual places which must be a natural defence mechanism for cats who have had fleas.
At the end of the day I had no fresh bites so believe the fleas have packed their bags and left! Whew!

A BBC concert with Christiane

2010-02-03T18:49:00.001Z

I met Christiane as arranged at the bus stop at 11.30 in the morning. We sat upstairs on the bus and went to Watford. We walked up the High Street, and I photographed this statue, and then my camera batteries ran out!

The weather was very cold, but we had time to look in one of the charity shops before deciding that we had better see exactly where the Watford Colosseum is. Having found it, we went into MacDonald's and had a small sandwich and coffee each, and Christian had bought some very nice French cake with her too.

Feeling better we walked to the Colosseum where there was now a long line of people waiting to go in for the concert by the BBC Concert Orchestra, a programme for radio 3. While we hesitated, a man asked us if we would like to know a short cut to the entrance, and following him we went through the council offices, and out again, and came out near the end of the queue. I noticed how smart he looked, and as if he had just left the barbers, as his hair looked immaculate.

We were soon seated in the Colosseum with an excellent view of the orchestra. We listened to music by Balakirev, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Benjamin Britten (Four sea interludes from Peter Grimes), Copeland and Ravel. We had a short interval, but did not leave our seats. We noticed that the man who had shown us the shortcut was playing a cello in the orchestra. The conductor was Keith Lockhart.

It was a very good concert which we both enjoyed. When we left, Christiane bought a butterfly dish as she was going to make a grandchild a butterfly birthday cake, or more accurately, a two butterfly cake. We took the bus back, me getting off in Edgware, and Christiane travelling further. It had been a really nice day.

Avatar

2010-02-02T18:58:00.003Z

When we woke there was another thin covering of snow outside and as it was sunny we got some shopping in Stanmore, and I bought myself a blue fleece top.

On Sunday we went to The Man in the Moon and had a roast Sunday lunch which we enjoyed and lingered over. the barman let us buy several bottles of the wine which was very nice, and we took them home for another day.

Later Florence called and chatted, and I called Poppy who is starting a new job tomorrow.

On Monday I went off early to have a blood test at the hospital, and then I walked up to Hampstead looking at the shops, and getting some stamps at the post office. On the way home I bought two fresh herrings for my lunch ( Mas does not like herrings as they, inconsiderately, have too many bones; the cat enjoyed the leftovers (minus the bones).

Today I went back to the Royal Free Hospital where I saw the specialist with the smiling eyes. He said my blood tests were all normal, and reminded me that I must walk each day, and not gain too much weight. Further appointments were set up for me, which makes me feel very secure in the knowledge that they are looking after me so well.

I hurried back home as we had planned to see Avatar in the late afternoon. It was a beautiful film, the scenery was amazing, and the love story good too. I was surprised that they had made such an obviously political statement, without any use of subtlety, which I think would have made the message more meaningful, instead of using crude stereotypes.

It did make a change for us to go to the cinema, and go out after feeling so confined by bad weather.

Cold cure

2010-01-29T18:22:00.003Z

This morning was much brighter, and the sun was shining while we had breakfast. My cold was much worse, so bad in fact I thought it time for desperate measures. Mason's father had a remedy which I thought I would try although it seems very gross, to put it as Mas describes it.

Basically you have to suck up some tepid salty water with your nose using one nostril while shutting the other one, and spit it out when the water comes down the back of your throat, then you do it with the other nostril. You keep doing this until you have used up a mug full of saline, being careful not to swallow by mistake. ( It is essential to do this while completely alone)

Although this took some doing, I felt immediately better afterwards. I did this two more times during the day and am convinced I have almost killed the cold.

In the evening we watched a rerun of Pie in the Sky, and an episode of An Island Parish which I really enjoy. It is set in the Scilly Isles showing the islanders going about their lives. While this sounds boring it is not in fact it is very interesting and endearingly funny sometimes too. It is so refreshing to watch something informative that is not as formulaic as most things have become.

A morning tea party

2010-01-28T19:39:00.001Z

While we were having a very late breakfast Maheena called in to ask us to come to her house at 11am for tea. I mentioned that I had a bad cold, but this was brushed aside in a Que Serra Serra manner. After rushing about briefly we went to her home and found that Margaret and John were there too. We chatted and ate interesting snacks that Maheena had produced, and drank Indian tea made with milk and spices which was really nice. After a few hours we left as Mas was expecting a phone call.

Going to our house we saw Ben and chatted for a moment, me keeping my distance as my virus was probably feeling friendly; I really hope I have not passed it onto any of my friends.

While washing up later I saw a new cat in our garden sharpening his claws on a tree. It was a smallish pretty tabby cat and I noticed he was wearing a magnet on his collar. It is good our cat door will now only let Salty in otherwise I could envisage a team of cats romping through the house at night.

We watched a Jackie Chan video called Tuxedo in the evening. We are looking at lots of videos as Barry has given them to us as he is trying to make space in his house. We will pass them on to Margaret and John later.

Zombified

2010-01-27T19:24:00.001Z

I felt ill all day, coughing and sneezing with a bad cold, it is a pig, but luckily not a swine. Monika phoned briefly to touch bases which was nice. I read most of the day, clutching a hot water bottle. We watched a Sherlock Holmes, with Jeremy Irons, which is always worth watching because of his characterisation. We started a dismal film called The Sin Eater with Heath Ledger, but I soon gave up on this and went off to read instead.

On Tuesday still feeling like a zombie I made myself go for a walk, and changed my library books. Walking back I came across an attractive long haired, thin faced dog who followed me for a while. I thought he might be lost and tried to read what was on his collar, but he would not let me touch him. Thinking he was probably not lost at this point I walked away from him, and he remained sitting on the pavement. A car sped past, and the driver waved at the dog (who took no notice), and I thought it was funny he should wave at an unknown dog and ignore a human, but on reflection though why not?

In the evening we watched another video called Hope Floats with Sandra Bullock in it, who did a robust job of acting, but I did not like this film either. I seem to be getting very hard to please.

The next day passed in a sniffling sneezing blur.

Walking and watching

2010-01-24T18:40:00.002Z

The weather is still grey and depressing, but I thought I would go for a walk to oxygenate my brain. I walked around on the Harrow side of Edgware looking at the different architectural styles of the houses, eventually I came out in Canons Drive by the small lake. There were ducks of various kinds swimming around and black coots, which I don't remember seeing before. The black coots were diving, submerging and popping out of the lake like champagne corks.

I also read, on the notice board, the history of the house at the end of the Drive. This house eventually became a school, but had originally belonged to the Duke of Chandos. I went to this school for a year, and that is where I met my friend Diane.

Once home again Ben telephoned Mas to say that our cat was meowing and wanted to get indoors. This made us laugh as he can do this independently, but when Mas called him he came in, but it probably was not him making such a ruckus outside.

Toby phoned, and Pete too as he will be off to Guernsey tomorrow, lucky thing!
In the evening we watched Slumdog Millionaire, which although a good film left me feeling depressed.

A few feasts

2010-01-23T19:10:00.000Z

Yesterday we went to Borehamwood for some shopping and then went to out usual fish and chips cafe. We had a tasty lunch there, and our friendly waitress told us that her pet white ferret had run away, and now she has a little big cat, looking a bit puzzled she explained that it was young and little, but would grow into a very large cat.
As we were leaving she bought us a huge cooked cold fish that she had carefully wrapped up for Salty. Salty feasted on this for two days, and sent prayers of thankfulness up to cat heaven at each meal.

Today we went up to St. Albans and met Robert in the Waterend Barn, which is another excellent J. D. Weatherspoon pub. Tania joined us before long, and we had a nice chatty lunch during which I had two glasses of red wine. Later Mas drove us home as I was feeling vertiginous despite taking the new medication for it, and had a bad sore throat too. Once home I felt rather peculiar so rested and read for a while. Later I found that I should not drink alcohol while taking the medication, so drank lots of water in the hope that I would soon feel better.

Dog's dinner and tunnel vision required

2010-01-20T18:09:00.002Z

Today I had arranged to meet Diane, after her appointment at The Royal Free Hospital. When I got to The George Pub she was already there waiting for me. We had a drink, then decided to have lunch at the pub. We ordered a platter of nachos, salsa, guacamole and melted cheese. We ate some of these rather tentatively as unusually the meal looked rather unappetising. The more of the limp nachos we ate the more the platter looked like a dogs dinner, or worse, so we abandoned it and went off to have a Costa coffee elsewhere and finish our catching up chat session.

Later I went back to Edgware, and had to call in at the doctors to see if they can give me anything to control the vertigo. Luckily he gave me some antihistamine based pills which will hopefully help. The vertigo is not too bad, and is bought about mostly by eye movements, so I will have to try not to roll my eyes too much otherwise I feel floaty and tend to lurch around. I am painting a mental picture of myself, and it is not pretty.

Cat conumdrums and virus mysteries

2010-01-19T17:48:00.004Z

On Monday after breakfast, Poppy called, and we walked with Lilu in the park, then down to Edgware as I had to buy something from Rymans. Mas spent a lot of time fitting the cat door today. Poppy also gave us an unusual dessert she had made from rice, cinnamon and lots of saffron; it had an subtle and rather perfumed taste, and it is fun to try different things.

Today the cat would not come through the cat door, and we found it had somehow got jammed open with the tunnel partially blocked. Salty refused to go near it, so we had to remove the whole contraption and just leave him a clear tunnel to run through, and gradually he began to use it again. I think somehow the door had snapped onto him as he was going through before.

Joan sent this picture of a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, as he arrived in their tree so all the small birds wisely left; they must have known he thought they were breakfast.

I watched a Horizon programme about viruses on iplayer which I found fascinating. If they can be said to be both dead, and alive, when the conditions are right it sounds very much as if they have resurrections, and is it possible that they set up the life and death pattern that humans follow? Later Mas and I watched a Taggart together.

The London Art Fair

2010-01-17T20:21:00.014Z

This morning I called in to see Barry to keep him company for a while, but Wynford was home too. We chatted for some time, and then I went home for a hasty lunch with Mas as we had decided to take the day off, and go to see the London Art Fair, which is held at the Business Design Centre.

We took the train to Angel, and having collected our complimentary tickets went in to see the exhibition. There was a lot of familiar work there, but these two pictures were my favourite ones. Sadly I cannot remember who painted the yellow one.

This picture was by Rebecca Hossack, the sale price was £13,000.

This picture was made with slices of burnt toast set in a resinous material to protect it.

The Sesame Gallery did a solo show for Henrijs Preiss in an installation called The Black Lodge, inspired by Twin Peaks. His work is full of symbolism of variuos kinds.

This large blue picture was priced at £75,000, but of course who paints the picture makes all the difference.

After a while I began to feel the vertigo that I have, quite badly, and to get a bad headache. Sadly if I move my eyes too much it brings on the vertigo, and I had probably had my eyes on stalks for several hours.

We got a train easily, and when we arrived in Edgware it was dark and cold, so we thought to save time we would have something to eat at Nando's.

This restaurant is always busy, so we thought the food would be good. Admittedly I was already feeling quite nauseous, but when I looked around at the meals all I could see was piles of burned chicken carcasses hacked up. At this point I almost became a veggietotaler.

Toby called in the evening, and explained to me how to watch TV on iplayer which will be very useful as we are unable to programme our video recorder.

Family gathering followed by a thaw

2010-01-15T19:49:00.001Z

I wrote a few letters, and as I walked to post them, passed Barry and Wynford's house and saw that the family were home. I called in to see them briefly on the way back, and we talked for a while, and I had a chance to talk to Lynda who had travelled from Monaco for the funeral, and to Darran and Anita and see their lovely children. After a very large sherry I went home; it had been nice to see everyone, but sad it was in such circumstances.

Mas feeling somewhat better had been trying to sort out the new cat door which had arrived as a kit with two booklets of instructions that made my heart sink. Mas had been trying to assemble it and get it wired up. This took a lot of doing, and needed more patience than I possess.

Pete called briefly to talk of colours.

Today I woke up to the sound of rain, and gradually all the snow melted away. Mas continued with the cat door business, and he also had to enlarge the original cat door tunnel in the conservatory which meant that the place was soon covered in grey dust, and my mind seemed to be filled with it as well.

Glen' s funeral

2010-01-14T19:21:00.001Z

As Mas was still unwell, and his cough rather exhausting I planned to go with Poppy to Glen's funeral at Hendon Crematorium. Ben hope he would be free of his commitments to go with us too.

I went across to Poppy's house at 3 pm, and we drove carefully off to the crematorium on the icy roads. We arrived rather early, but sat in the chapel as it was getting dark and very cold outside. We talked quietly as the organist practised. We talked of various religions, and Poppy explained some of the beliefs held by Zoroastrians, which I found that I also shared. The family and friends soon arrived. The touching short service was given by the Reverend Michael Clark and it bought some comfort to the sad and grieving family.

As we left the chapel everyone greeted each other and talked for a while. It looked rather sad and depressing as it was dark, there was still snow on the ground and there were plenty of fresh flowers around denoting lots of recent deaths. Eventually people started to leave, and Poppy and I drove home in stages.

Coffee and crumpets

2010-01-13T18:51:00.003Z

We ventured off to Stanmore before the predicted snowfall, to get some shopping, and had a coffee while we were there to break the monotony, and this was the highlight of the day. I am beginning to feel stir crazy.

Today we awoke to the predicted fresh snow fall

We invited Poppy and Ben to come over for coffee and crumpets, and they did come over. We all chatted for a long time. We tried a different home made damson jam, and I suggested it should be called Park Jam as I had gathered the plums from the park. This was not considered a good idea generally. The jam itself was quite difficult to prise out of the jar as it had set rather too well. It was nice to have the cheerful company though.

In the evening we watched an episode of George Gently with Martin Shaw. We had seen this before, but it was a good story.

It's snow fun

2010-01-10T20:22:00.002Z

Today was our day to go to St.Albans, but Robert phoned and said they would drive down to us, and we arranged to have a pub lunch together. Tania has somehow managed to keep working during this snowy and icy weather, visiting her clients during the evenings, and in one case she had to borrow a shovel from one of them to dig herself free of snow so that she could get home.

It was really nice to get out of the house for a while, and we had a really chatty fun meal together.

Joan sent this lovely picture from her Canadian forests.

Later in the day I got a really bad headache, but nevertheless watched an NCIS in the evening.

Today with the snow and ice still around I took the bus to Edgware and got some fruit and lots of cough sweets for Mas as his cough has got much worse. We watched 'Ello 'Ello, and Murder she Wrote and generally got rather bored, but kept warm indoors.

The sadness of the birds

2010-01-08T13:06:00.001Z

Today was another day when we stayed indoors, and I spent some time half heartedly clearing up, but mostly filled with lassitude as the skies seem permanently grey.

Looking out of the window at Glen and Barry's bird table next door, and thinking how the birds used to come down daily for bread that had been put on it for them, and watching them hanging round the garden where there was not the usual food, it made me think how when someone dies there are all kinds of ripples that spread from the event, not only the effect that it has to the bereaved family and friends. In this case the birds were not being fed which on the scale of importance is rather low, but was important to them, and no one would even know.

It is still very cold, -18 in some places, but luckily not here. We spent the day indoors, and caught up with some correspondence. Manu phoned, joking about the weather and chatting for a while. Mas worked out what has been going wrong with our TV setup; the scart cables at the back had worked loose! Once they had been plugged back securely we were able to watch Ghost Whisperer and Silent Witness, and Mas felt more cheerful!

Salty has had his chips

2010-01-05T18:24:00.000Z

We have ordered a new microchip cat door from this company in Guernsey. http://www.petport.com/about3.htm It is expensive, but if only our cat is eating the cat food it will probably pay for itself eventually, and we will all have more peaceful nights as the only animal that can come in is the one whose chip number has been programmed in.

We went to Stanmore, and paid bills and got more provisions as the snow is coming! We had lunch at the Man in the Moon. Mason managed to get an appointment at the vets, so now Salty has a readable microchip.

I saw Wynford and chatted a while, and when walking down to the library met Poppy and Ben with Lilu, and we chatted before going off in different directions.

In the library somehow I lost my glasses, but just as I was going to panic the librarian luckily found them on the floor. I got several books out, including an Alexander McCall Smith book called The World According to Bertie, which I am looking forward to reading.

It began snowing in the evening, and snowed all night.

2010-01-04T18:08:00.000Z

Sunday, the weather still cold. Pete phoned, and I spoke to Lorraine too who liked the picture. Margaret phoned and chatted for a while, and both she and John are also feeling under the weather. I walked down to Edgware and got more medications for Mas, and marvelled at the shoppers out for a bargain still.

Monday, with frost thick like snow. Made a warming soup for lunch followed by a vitamin laden salad. I spoke to Diane for a while, and she was waiting at home for her radiator to be fixed. In the evening we watched a Poirot, but not a very good one as it did not have Captain Hastings or Miss Lemon in it, and it went on for too long. Mason also watched Michael Portillo talking about Guantanamo. The TV was being temperamental, losing sound, or not showing anything half way through a programme.

Salty has been going up the chimney again, and once more we have an attractive paw print pattern decorating the neutral carpets. Later noticed the paw print motif on the white dining room walls, no doubt Salty had been trying to catch the small rainbows thrown by the crystal hanging in the window.