Friday 29 July 2011

I

I went to London with my bike and to my enormous relief all the platforms at horrendous Clapham Junction now have lifts, so I did not have to do my helpless Old Person act to get a strapping chap to carry my bike up and down steps. Son C and family and I had a lovely ride along the Thames.  The evening ended with yet another birthday party in Hove where we had a raffle to raise money for the African famine, What a good idea, though Quakers are not supposed to condone raffles as they are classed as Gambling. Then the next day I went to a Silver Wedding party. I tell you, life is just one long party these days.
I have seven year old grand daughter Tiger staying, and while she is waiting for me to finish this and take her swimming she is going round my house with the Flash and a damp cloth cleaning all surfaces very happily. We went to a violin recital last night at the Unitarians and she sat remarkably quietly, though I kept thinking how utterly alien it must be to a a child her age to listen to classical music.
Next week there is the family exodus to the Isle of Wight. Will Istill be able to clamber down the cliffs for a swim at Compton bay I wonder?

Monday 18 July 2011

`My feet are the stuff of nightmares` was a headline in Saturday`s Guardian. How I wish I had thought that one up.  I am going to pinch it. The writer also said that her worst habit was tweezering her facial hairs in public. Well I have done that too and often long to do it to other people. Otherwise compared to the frightful transgressions of the Great and the Good, I lead a blameless life. Where is it all going to end I wonder as one by one they topple by the wayside.
I am just off up various motorways to Cirencester then Limpley Stoke near Bath till the end of the week, vitising old, old friends.

Thursday 14 July 2011

I could have danced all night.....

Nowadays, my social life consists mainly of eightieth, and ninetieth birthday parties, golden weddings and funerals, so it has been a nice change recently to have had a wedding and last Saturday, a retirement party, in Winchester which started off with a Mozart concert, followed by a delicious supper, and then dancing till nearly midnight to a very spirited ceilidh band. I was not intending to dance but couldn`t resist it.

The next day, son T and I went to a garden he found online called Houghton Lodge, just outside Stockbridge. It was simply beautiful and we were almost the only ones there. There was an honesty box on the gate and another one in the tea room which had an array of home made cakes! The river Test ran through the garden and there were three alpacas with surprised friendly faces.

I have been riveted by the news all week, how sarisfying to see the Murdoch empire crumbling. and that crew get their come uppance.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

How to Live..

`How to Live` is the title of a book I have been reading based on the Life and Essays of Montaigne. I know that sounds posh and pretentious, but this book is neither.  . The chapter headings are things like: `Do a good job but not too good`, and `Keep a private room behind the shop`, and `Be ordinary and Imperfect`and `Philosophise only by accident` He wrote one hundred and seven of these essays, and they are pure gold,. I recommend it. Also I have been gripped by a novel by Lionel Shriver So Much for That, which makes me so thankful for our NHS however imperfect it is, as this is about being ill in USA.   One of the really good things about retirement is that you can read in the mornings. Or afternoons.
Otherwise I have been cycliing round the country lanes trying to get a bit of exercise, which I get plenty of with all the fiendish hills. How I wish that everyone would take more to bikes. It is not nice when cars hurtle past with dirty looks at me wobbling along.