My sister has come to stay for a few days to keep me company over the anniversary of Christopher’s death. Rather than simply sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves, or vegetating in front of the Olympics on the TV, I thought we actually ought to do something positive. So I booked us an early dinner […]
It seems to have been an ongoing theme all year that I’ve been unable to last more than about ten days between tradesmen visiting to fix something on or in the house. I thought I’d maybe broken that trend, as I’ve not had a single tradesman here since the visit from Tim the pest controller […]
When Chris was alive, he made a big thing of cooking pancakes and maple syrup for our breakfast every Sunday morning. I think it harked back to when we got married in Upstate New York, where pancakes & maple syrup (and/or waffles and maple syrup) loomed large at every breakfast, and our whole wedding party […]
When my sister and her boyfriend were here last weekend, and despite the burst water main making life very difficult, I made a big effort for Saturday night dinner, which is traditionally the best meal of the week in my family. It seemed to go down well – we all had thirds, and J went […]
Back in March, Malvern Theatres had showing for one week only The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Celia Imrie, Bill Nighy (who I think is gorgeous), Tom Wilkinson, and Ronald Pickup. Clearly it was an all-star cast, and it was the first film for ages that I’ve actually wanted to go […]
It was particularly annoying that the water main burst on Saturday, because I had my sister and her boyfriend visiting for the weekend. They had been to Stratford to see a play for P’s birthday, and were going home via an overnight stop with me. It was my birthday towards the end of May, so […]
The problem with using mouse poison is that the noise from the creatures gets louder for several days before it all goes quiet. I believe that the poison dehydrates the rodents, which makes them clumsy and hence noisier. So I was pleased that I was away on business immediately after Tim had been here to […]
I’ve spent the last week supporting an equipment trial at our Hampshire offices, so I’ve been living out of a suitcase at the same hotel I stayed at last week. The receptionist remembered me, and the fuss I’d made about the Sausage Incident, so I managed to negotiate for a colleague and me to get […]
No, I haven’t been sent home from work in disgrace. I have quite literally been on gardening leave today – I put in an annual-leave request to my boss with the express intent of spending it gardening. Christopher’s college friend Carol and her partner Mark came here yesterday with a car full of garden implements, […]
Malvern has been making a big fuss about the Diamond Jubilee holiday, with street parties and “fun for all the family”. But I really wasn’t feeling in the mood for a party, so I just hunkered down at home and ignored as much of it as I could. On Monday night the celebrations culminated with […]
