Liberty for Dogs

Further to the Churchill Square Incident, I went to London on Tuesday with B.Wiggins and took him to Liberty where he was positively welcomed. I wandered all round that beautiful shop with its memories of buying Tana lawn for dressmaking years ago, and even had lunch in the restaurant with grandson M and his partner.  . There were other dogs there too. Amazing.

This afternoon, my Monday music group gave a recital for the local  U3A  Music Appreciation Society.  .We were asked to do it months ago and foolishly agreed  and then we all got into a terrible tizzy.. There were endless worries about the lighting, the choice of programme,, and how to get the cello and other instruments to the remote house which was down a long lane in a village a few miles from Ditchling.     I worried about the dog as I don`t like leaving him at home for more than a couple of hours.     Also with the deafness, I sometimes lose my place in the music.   It did not bode well.    But in the end it all went off smoothly.      .There were several ninety year olds in the audience, who may have quietly nodded off,  but on the whole they were a sprightly bunch and we had a splendid tea with delicious cakes made by our hostess who is also a nonagenarian. B.Wiggins spent the afternoon in the studio next to the music room and was perfectly happy, so I need not have worried. 

I have retired from the Infants.   I was sad to leave as I have been so happy with the Year 2`s on Wednesday afternoons for nearly five years now but I could not  always hear what the children were saying and it was increasingly difficult to remember all the names. I had a lovely send off. What will you do now on Wednesdays? they said. All I could think of was making marmalade, but I will have to think of a replacement activity. 

love me, love my dog

I left my phone behind up north and grand daughter  F kindly sent it back to me but when the package arrived, it was empty! The jiffy bag had come unstuck, so I have lost all my phone numbers but I have been able to keep my own number in my new phone, which I went to buy in Brighton the other day in the horrible shopping mall, Churchill Square. I went on the bus in the pouring rain with Bradley Wiggins but as I walked towards the Virgin shop, a security guard roared out NO DOGS ALLOWED IN HERE.  In spite of all my pleadings he would not let me carry the dog the fifty yards to the shop. So I wrapped him up in my scarf  (the dog not the security guard) and scuttled in with him under my coat though well aware that his tail was hanging out.   I managed to pass by unseen and got the phone but it was a near thing.   It is interesting how it varies with dogs in different places. There is not a pub in Hertfordshire which allows them as brother P and I discovered when we just wanted a bite to eat recently.But all the pubs in Sussex welcome BW with open arms and the chemist and paper shop locally keep  special tins of treats for him  I am thinking of getting one of those baby slings and pretending he is a toddler with a hairy face.
I am still deaf as a post in spite of copious ear syringing, but I am getting some improved hearing aids next week so have great hopes.   I am a sort of moving disaster zone with various parts of my body playing up in turn: knees, hips, feet, ears, but I have been reading Alive Alive Oh (one of my Christmas books) by Diana Athill who is ninety seven and simply loves living in a Care Home and has taken up writing rather than her previous work as a publisher in her nineties and she does not complain about her health at all 
I am so thankful that it is getting colder and the ground is frosty and hard instead of muddy, but it is distressing to see the daffodils and primroses out everywhere and the birds singing fit to bust, thinking that it is Spring..  
I am just about to start making marmalade with grand daughter Tiger. I am always so pleased to see the Seville oranges in the shops at this time of the year. I love the smell in the house while it is bubbling away and then the row of golden jars on the kitchen table.


 

Home Again

Back from Up North after a long drive with many slow downs, hold ups, and speed restrictions, it took nearly nine hours. Tiger and I whiled away the time with quizzes word games and listening to Beatles CDs,  joining in with the well known bits. Luckily we did not encounter any floods. There was some snow on Christmas day in Allendale, but otherwise it was wet, wet, wet.
Most of us stayed in the Bunkhouse and sister J and I slept in bottom bunks, but fortunately there was no one on top.   Twenty of us sat down to Christmas lunch which was delicious, all wonderfully cooked by granddaughter F and husband R. The baby does not like being put down, so his parents stirred and chopped whilst holding him under one arm (he did not like being held by willing aunts and uncles and grannies to take over baby pacifying).   The other three little Darlings aged nearly six, four and three behaved beautifully.   So we had a good range of ages from nine months to eighty five (me) and also Bradley Wiggins and grand daughter M`s cat.    It was a really good get together and I enjoyed it all.
I have become suddenly totally deaf in my left ear and not too good in the right either, so I have been hard put to it with lip reading and guessing what was said, often getting it completely wrong much to everyone`s hilarity.  I have made appointments at Drs and hearing aid place. Now I am home I can have the telly and radio on full blast which helps, but perhaps I am going to be like Beethoven and just have to get on with it. My cello playing has been dodgy for some time so maybe I will have to hang up my bow for good. 
Bradley Wiggins had a nice time being taken for rigorous walks over the moors with daughter J and others but he was glad to be home to his familiar walks and his cosy basket.   His namesake was on the radio being the guest editor on the Today programme and he pricked up his ears every time his name was mentioned..
I have been given a good pile of new reading matter and also a supply of bubble bath stuff to keep me going in the New Year. That is all I need really.