Even in the middle of crapness, people keep insisting on having parties and celebrations of significant life events. It’s almost as if the universe doesn’t give two figs and insists on proceeding on its way. How depressing must that be for people trying to ruin things for everyone else…
So, two nice things in my microcosm today: Lady M and I were able to go out to the local Harris+Hoole so that she could have her old favourite breakfast: eggs benedict. Her diet while healing her ulcer has prevented her from having most of the ingredients of the dish, so the look of joy at the prospect lit the room.
Secondly, it was a friend’s 40th birthday today, so I went to fly the flag and we had a lovely barbecue under bright cloudless skies. I met some great new people, and reconnected with old friends, and basically had an afternoon of chatter and nonsense. Great fun.
Just thought, after an extended period of grimness, that celebrating fun was a good thing.
Oh, we had so many plans for this weekend just gone, but reality continued throw spanners into the works with gleeful abandon. We’ve changed the weekends that we’ll have Charleesi in visitation so we were all hyped to hit the rollercoasters again. Sadly ill health changed those plans, but not before we’d at least had a great evening in Isleworth with the Wessex Pistols. We’re known enough now for band members to say hi as they finish their sound check. It’s always a good night, even when some of the locals get a bit, um, odd…
Our other original plans for the weekend had been to attend the Artyfakes weekend barbecue, but we were so exhausted and wrung out from the travel and emotional fallout of the last month that we reluctantly gave our apologies and stayed home instead. A decidedly quiet Saturday night was had in front of the television instead.
A chance conversation with W and B led to our going to visit them on Sunday after we’d dropped the unwell Charleesi home. They’ve just moved to a lovely new home about five minutes’ drive away from their old place. One impromptu barbecue and a late night game of Cards Against Humanity later and we ended up sleeping in their spare room. Thank heavens for Bank Holiday Mondays.
And so, back to work. After being on the road for the best part of three weeks it’s all feeling a bit odd. Thankfully the Great British Public have remained as fiercely odd as ever – so it’s been a great distraction from everything. I’ve also confirmed my phone interview for the new job for next week, so I’ll be focusing on preparation for that soon. The Monday D&D games will resume soon too, so I need to do some work on that, and to make sure I’ve actually written up everything here too.
Not a bad weekend, all told, even with another of the mood dips threatening to derail me since Thursday morning. The mini barbecue experiment on Friday proved I could still cook without either incinerating the food, or risking food poisoning, which largely set the tone for what followed.
The weather here at Maidment Towers on Saturday was gloomy, to say the least, so Lady M studied most of the day while I started the download of the Gears of War Beta and all the Witcher DLC and spent a good couple of hours reimmersing myself in the Witcher’s gothic fantasy world. Then we headed out to see Lady G and her partner for an evening of food, wine, and chatter. Lady M got delightfully tipsy, while I stayed sober as designated driver, and a great evening was had by all – especially by those who enjoyed linguistic and grammatical banter in several languages simultaneously.
Keep Calm and Use the Konami Code
As I speak no German and limited French, I remained a bit of a lemon on the sidelines for portions of those, so threw hand grenades and skewering comments to bring people back into the room without being overly rude or obnoxious. We eventually crashed home in the early hours and decided to cancel the Sunday game so as not to clash with Father’s Day.
Now, we rarely if ever celebrated this growing up in the vicarage. The important day was Mothering Sunday, while Father’s Day seemed a card company confection. As a result I’m always taken by surprise by it and by how many people do observe it. I got wished a happy father’s day in the coffee shop, and was given a mixture of joke and nice presents by the Charleesi and was hardly tongue-tied at all.
Another quiet afternoon, more Witcher and study, and another play with the barbecue later (minted lamb kebabs, corn on the cob, baked potato, coleslaw, and a salad with honey and mustard dressing for those keeping score), and we’ve settled to rest for the new week. Between that and renewed communications with Lady P, (who is having a horrendous time, and we’re feeling a bit on the sidelines, a bit helpless) its ended the week on quite a higher note than it started.
One of the downsides of living in a flat is the lack of a garden, and by extension an inability to barbecue things when the weather is hot. We decided enough was enough today, and picked up a small barbecue at the supermarket. How small? About mid-shin height.
It worked though, so this evening after a long and hectic day, Lady M and I ate barbecued steak in a teriyaki, onion chutney and tomato ketchup marinade, with salad, in a bun, with coleslaw and a baked potato each. A couple of bottles of wine helped wash it all down very nicely. We may have to treat the Sunday gamers this weekend, and I didn’t even set anyone on fire…
Short update today, just home from seeing friends on the South Coast where we had a barbecue. Being a Bank Holiday Saturday, this of course meant that the heavens opened, and I ended up standing with an umbrella, sheltering the cook.
It was a small gathering: our friends and their young daughter, one of my brothers and his daughter, and of course Lady M and my daughter were there too. All very gentle, and not at all a disappointment as the conversations and company were good.
An early start in the morning, so going to wrap it up here for the night…
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