Cheerful evening and a cat on a hot person (not a hot tin roof)

I happened to see Wynford so invited him to come over for a glass of wine and snack this evening. Mas and I got a little shopping, and I saw Poppy come home so I invited her to come over as well with Ben.

They all came over about 7.30, and we spent the evening in the conservatory, and as we chatted a large apple and blackberry crumble disappeared. Poppy and Ben had bought Lila with them, so our cat would not come indoors, but at times he was looking timidly through his cat door at us.

We had a really nice evening, and as Poppy and Ben were leaving they invited us all to come to a BBQ with them tomorrow afternoon.
Our cat was miaowing piteously through the cat door as it had now begun to rain. We took some time with him reassuring him that the dog had left and things were back to normal. Unusually, he spent all night sleeping on the bed, pressed like a snake alongside my leg making me feel very hot indeed.

Lunch at Burgh House and National Gallery exhibition

Today, after a leisurely breakfast, Toby and I went to Hampstead to meet up with Diane. She called us, and we met walking towards each other. We decided to go to Burgh House for a light lunch before going on to The National Gallery.

Burgh House has a museum and a gallery, and hosts various interesting events and has a nice cafe. We ate in the garden, and had some white wine too, but it began to rain so we were sitting under table umbrellas.

After lunch we took the tube down to Leicester Square, and walked to Trafalgar Square. There was a crowd on one corner because a plinth had been erected, (Anthony Gormley's idea) so that different people could perform for an hour each.

We went in to look at the exhibition 'Corot to Monet', it was very crowded. I really liked one small landscape of a late afternoon sky, with a dark foreground. I am convinced that if this painting was put into a dim room the glowing sky would provide as much light as a 60 watt bulb. Sadly I can't remember the artist's name.

Diane began to feel very tired, so left us to it. We looked for a while longer, then thought we would walk around Soho and Covent Garden for a while. Once outside it began to rain again, so we looked in some of the bookshops in Charring Cross Road before going home. Luckily the train beat the rain, and we made it home before the rains came.

After a nice dinner Toby and Mas fed their addiction again.

Stubborn car and cuddly cat

We did our usual chores, and I did some gardening and filing which I hate to do. Later Mas had to go to the post office and suggested we go out for a coffee as a change of scene. After trying to start the car unsuccessfully a few times Ben appeared and looked at the car as well. He dropped us off at the post office and we did have a coffee out.

In the evening Mas made some nice vegetable soup, which we had with a glass of wine. Salty decided to honour us with his presence and for a change wanted to sit on my lap, so Mas took these photos to mark this unusual event.

Birthday with Mas, Pete and Salty

Pete came up to see us yesterday, and we sat about chatting and catching up, and generally relaxing as Pete was feeling under the weather with a cold. Mas made a nice meal, and for the rest of the day we lurked about cheerfully, Pete playing with Salty from time to time too.

Today is my birthday and Pete gave me Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. Maheena called round with a present, and I gave her one for Varun as it is his birthday too.
Mas, Pete and I went to The Man in the Moon for lunch. It was so nice to have a glass of red wine that tasted of red wine, and things seeming normal again. After this we got a little shopping which included a cat collar.

When we were home Pete and I listened to my new CD, and when he and Mas went off to watch something on the TV, I made some banana bread. Later Mas made a nice meal, and we watched a Battlestar Gallactica, and put in some more earnest relaxing.

Chatty lunch at Sazios and exotic lizard face.

We drove up to St. Albans as usual to visit the market, and to have lunch with our friends. Robert, having recently been discharged from hospital has been invited to attend hospital for tests similar to mine. Despite these hideous medical thingys we had some red wine and a nice lunch and a good time, exchanging opinions and bringing each other up to date with what has been going on since we last met.










The weather was not good, and we watched TV for a while before going to bed.

Mas has recently bought some special blue mouth rinse which he has been using, so I thought I would use it too, as it smells very nice. Having rinsed my mouth, swishing it about for 30 seconds I discovered that my mouth and tongue had been stained bright blue, and if I stuck my tongue out I looked like an exotic lizard. This cannot be right! I still had a blue mouth the following morning! The odd thing is that it does not do it to Mas.

Visit to the Affordable Art Fair

Toby phoned briefly to say he had arrived home safely. After doing a few chores Mas and I went off to the Affordable Art Fair as usual, and as usual we called into the Oriel and had a white wine in the downstairs bar before taking the courtesy bus from Sloane Square.


















The Oriel

We thought that the displayed art was better this year, and it was being well attended despite it being the last day of the exhibition.

Wellington boot dogs!

A bark jewel

We returned home exhausted after this outing!

Last day in Madeira.

We had an exotic breakfast of unfamiliar fruit, in the apartment; the fruit I enjoyed most was custard apple, and I was pleased to try it as my father had told me about this fruit which was a favourite of his from his childhood in India. I packed, and we did separate things until we had lunch together beside the swimming pool.

Robert and Tania drove us to the airport. On the way we saw a double rainbow, that dipped down into the sea, and when I tried to get a photo of this from the airport the battery in my camera failed. We sadly said goodbye to our friends as they were staying in Madeira for Christmas. Madeira is mentioned in the Guinness book of Records for the New Year firework display, but none of us stay long enough to see it.

Madeira is a beautiful and interesting place, although we only saw a small part of it. Funchal is said to be named after the Fennel plant (Funcho) which covered the area, and while we were in Madeira we saw lots of Poinsettia, Camellia, Bougainvillea, Hibiscus, Hydrangea and Agapanthus flowers. The air where we were staying was filled with the scent of Pine and Eucalyptus, and for the first time I saw banana trees bearing fruit.

Madeira is famous for embroidery, cane work and for wine; there are at least six varieties that are drunk world wide. Shakespeare's plays mention the wine of Madeira; it was also drunk at the inauguration of George Washington and to toast the American Declaration of Independence.

Christoper Columbus is said to have come to Madeira as a sugar trader, then returned a few years later and married the Governor of Porto Santo's daughter by whom he had a son. This was all before he set off for the New World.

The flight home went as planned, except for a period of turbulence when the air filled with unspoken prayers, and I could mentally hear Robert saying "Richard Dawkins wouldn't like it! "
(Robert had been reading his book while we were on holiday.)

Our plane arrived at Stanstead 40 minutes early, but our Minni cab driver was already waiting for us and we were gratefully home in short order, around midnight. It seemed terribly cold, and the house was like an ice box, and took 24 hours to get back to the right temperature. Madeira already seemed like a dream.