Out with Henry

Thanks to your comments I've removed references to Kissinger in my study and replaced him with Mo Mowlam. Much more inspiring.

I used my new knife today for the first time - my birthday really is over - and it's sharp! I must have got too used to my old knives as I cut myself twice in five minutes this afternoon! Fortunately my nail not my flesh.

And these words are music to my ears: "Sorry, there won't be an exercise class next week."

I don't really hate it - I wouldn't go if I did - but it's nice to have a good excuse.

Life continues to be quite busy but I think, after this week, maybe, it'll ease off. (Who am I fooling? There may just be a brief respite, we'll see.)

Pizza for dinner tonight and here's the tomato sauce bubbling away nicely.

Made with tomatoes from the garden. Still!

Pants, pants, pants

Into Zac's this morning for a little more sorting before we officially re-open after refurbishment - and fully open the first time since lockdown.

Then home and out for a walk with Elder Son and Theo. Cue cute puppy photos.

Now preparing bible study for tomorrow evening on "Blessed are the peacemakers." Been doing some research on the Vietnam war just so I can mention Kissinger, as he's about the only peacemaker I can think of offhand.

A discussion - in writing group of all places - about the relative merits or otherwise of Israel and Palestine brought to the fore the huge gap between me (Palestine) and another writer (Israel). We changed the subject before it got too heated because we were never going to agree. How much worse must it be for those actually living there to consider any sort of compromise or settlement?

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How lovely. I've just received an email from someone from a group asking what's on Zac's Christmas wish list. I said pants, pants, pants! So helpful when people ask what we want before donating.

Busy, busy

So my birthday week has finally ended! Having begun a week ago yesterday with a family tea party it ended in Slice on Friday night. Well, sort of ended. Husband cooked last night and there's enough for today too, so I'm counting this as still my birthday.

On my birthday, Wednesday, Husband cooked dinner for me. We had a 'posh' egg sandwich for starters. He said, "I tried to think what you liked but didn't get very often." And very yummy it was. Eggy on - not focaccia - the other one.

Then we had pie and chips! Again, posh pie, crab and prawn.

All very delicious.

Oh, I haven't shown you what Husband got me for my birthday. He presented it with the words, "Remember you didn't give me any clue as to what you might want!"

Two knives, a knife sharpener, a bottle of rose pesticide, and Maltesers. Romantic or what?

I did need a new knife as my favourite one was falling apart.

Thursday I was up at Rough Edges, our charity shop, again, trying to sort out what's worth keeping and what's not. We've barely made a dent in the shop while the back room is the sort of place you would run out of screaming if you were of lesser mettle. This shelf gives you a good idea.

Friday, what did I do? The morning is a blank but I had my hair done in the afternoon. Is there any place better than a hairdresser's mirror to bring you down to earth? While you're having your hair coloured or cut I mean, not at the end. There should be some damage limitation at the end.

Then it was off to Slice in the evening. Here's the taster menu we had:

I won't bore you/make you jealous with photos of all the food.

Saturday, a sort of frustrating day. One of the regular volunteers at RE is always going on about how much things are worth on ebay, so I messaged him and asked him if he'd like to come along and take some things and sell them for us. It transpired that a) we'd have to find a laptop for him to do that, and b) we'd have to show him how.

I was very restrained and didn't say what I felt like saying at that point so the conversation dragged on through the day.

And then it was the rugby. England beat the All Blacks so Husband was very happy. Wales beat Japan by one point in the last minute. On one hand, it wasn't an encouraging or inspiring game. On the other hand, it was a win, the first at home for many of the current team. Next week Wales play the All Blacks, the week after it's the world champions, South Africa. I'm anticipating three figure scores against us. Might just bury my head in the sand for a bit.

A wet Wednesday in November

. . . is not a good day for a birthday.

The weather forecast was grim so we'd planned to visit a 'stately' home - we don't really have stately homes in Wales, just big fancy houses - but discovered it only opens at weekends in winter. Every other option involved being outdoors so we dithered and dithered until time was passing and Husband suggested a walk around the cliffs in our wet-weather gear. 

It wasn't that wet as it turned out.

The cliff walk we did begins and ends at Fortes Ice Cream Parlour and I had my heart set on a North pole there at the end of the walk. But, of course, we discovered that Fortes closes on Wednesdays in winter.

So I had to make do with a salted caramel and shortbread sundae in Verdi's.

Now Husband is starting preparing our meal for this evening. He tells me it's something he's not made before and that requires some cooking and then cooling before more cooking. I'll report back later. But now I think I'll go and start on my birthday jigsaw while singing, "73 today, 73 today, I've got the key of the door . . ."

Where is Spid?

Husband always said that if I didn't have something to worry about I would invent something. I'm currently worried about Spid, who lives behind our bedroom mirror. I haven't seen him for a few days and up till now he's been very regular.

* * * * *

Babysitting for Daughter and Son-in-law tonight when they go to see Bob Dylan. I babysat last night too but when they got to the Arena and their tickets didn't work they realised they were for tonight. Hey ho.

* * * * *

It's National Origami Day today. On a wellbeing post were instructions for making an origami heart. I suggest, if you decide to have a go, to use your imagination rather than trying to stick to the instructions exactly. Or perhaps I'm just rubbish at following origami instructions.

As with all my artwork it looks better from a distance!

The one on the piano

We came out of the concert and Husband, who's waiting for his cataract operation, said, "My eyes are so bad. I couldn't tell which of the guitarists was Bob Dylan."
"He was the one playing the piano," I said.
"He was? I didn't see him."

And that was the problem. Dylan sat behind the piano so only his hair was visible and that was mostly hidden by the lights and mics. And we were in prime position with uninterrupted view.

But his voice was amazing. Just as strong and ragged as ever. I didn't know any of the songs he sang but as I couldn't see him I spent most of the concert with my eyes closed listening to his voice and imagining him as a young man.

* * * * *

Wales lost 28-52 to Argentina. But at least it wasn't 0-52. I thought they showed promise and also that the score was a bit kind to Argentina, who admittedly had some very fast wings.

Everyone on Twitter, however, is saying how bad Wales was, and that it was a record score by the Pumas against us. I guess when you think a loss of 28-52 isn't that bad it demonstrates how battered your hopes have become.

Bob's the word

A lovely walk with Louie, Theo, and their families yesterday afternoon, followed by my early birthday tea. Husband did the shopping and, as a result, we have leftovers for lunch and dinner today, and quite possibly tomorrow too!

Although I might need something to nibble on when watching Wales play Argentina this afternoon.

And then we're off to see Bob Dylan this evening!

I surprised myself by being quite chatty with people after church today. I say after church but it's really just church continuing in a different setting when we go into the hall for tea and coffee. And our writing group continues to grow.

Also I found a ball on the floor of the hall so I took it into the little back store room where I noticed a pile of books. Nobody seems to know where they come from so I asked if I could take one. I watched The Magpie Murders on television. It was a bit confusing, sort of time shifting but I enjoyed it. The author, Anthony Horowitz also wrote Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue, which we've just started watching but it's a bit slow and we might not bother with the rest.

(Ingenious, suspenseful, sleek, character-driven - just some of the words used to describe the series in reviews so maybe we're in the minority. The best bit so far is seeing Sister Michael as an American redneck wife.)