Well, Saturday was nice. I got up at a sensible way - found I had now lost over 3kg since Monday - and then cooked food for lunch: courgette and goat cheese quiche with flakey pastry, a greek salad, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, new potatoes, and a French chocolate cake. Anna came laden with gifts (she will never be rich, she is far too generous - I actually know what "generous to a fault" means). She brought me a beautiful rose bush - in flower, a Mary Rose - a David Austin rose, large fat pink flowers, only about 1 m high, good scent. She also brought a bottle of rose wine, some chocs and sweeties for the boys.
We had g&t in the garden, which was a delight, and then ate. Then we sat on the lawn in chairs and talked about lots of things. It is so nice to talk to her, because she likes to talk about proper subjects like Richard Dawkins and Marx and so on. We joked that I was giving her respite care - since she got the day off from looking after her dear old father and her rather tricky old mother. (To say nothing of anxiety about husband, younger son, and having just lost her job after a stress-induced nervous breakdown). We also discussed wood mice - which their house has too. She found one drowned in a bucket a few weeks ago - and it made her cry dreadfully (as she was in the middle of the worst part of the crisis). I recognised that sort of thing with grim pleasure...she said she couldn't stop thinking about it's struggles to escape from the bucket. Oh metaphor!
There was a delightful moment when Ned came down - he did a double take, because for some reason he thought it was the "other Anna" - and then he was so pleased and surprised to see her. She is a genius with boys having had two of her own, plus 18 years of teaching boys at Borden Grammar School. She is missing teaching the children already. One boy in Year 7 asked another teacher "What happened to that nice old lady who used to teach us?"
Then we had a walk down to the Harbour to see Suzy and show Anna "Nice Things" - this caused some confusion as she didn't realise it was a shop - and when I said "I can show you nice things" she assumed I was talking about the beauties of the town.
It was quiet in the aftermath of the FA cup final, but we had a good time chatting to Suzy - and, as I had hoped, Anna bought a couple of things, and I found some really nice cufflinks for Ned's dress shirt (!). Mark kindly went back for the car - as I was getting back pains. We washed up, then went up to bed with leftovers and white wine (latest discovery Trinacria Bianco from Waitrose 3.99) - and watched a sensational French thriller (based on an Elmore Leonard novel but rather pleasingly set around the Ile de France - the phrase "la police de Versailles" had a slightly anachronistic sound to it - but of course Versailles still exists; some of the action took place in the Foret de Rambouillet.... the film was Ne dis a Personne - v. good, all about corruption and powerful individuals doing wicked things. And this morning we woke up to the strange news story about Dominique Strauss-Kahn (spelling??)'s rape accusation.
Today I have ironed, tidied the kitchen, eaten lunch and then lapsed into a slightly neurotic weekend behaviour. It is grey and breezy and I am feeling a little bit - well at a loose end. But I will find other things to do on Sundays. The "other Anna" has suggested that I run a market stall in Margate on Sundays for the next 6 weeks. It costs £20 a week - it could be fun. They are keen to have food stalls apparently. I could do that very easily. I wonder how much money I would make? And do I have enough money to afford to buy the ingredients? Anyway, a few practical problems have distracted me from being drawn into fantasies.
We had g&t in the garden, which was a delight, and then ate. Then we sat on the lawn in chairs and talked about lots of things. It is so nice to talk to her, because she likes to talk about proper subjects like Richard Dawkins and Marx and so on. We joked that I was giving her respite care - since she got the day off from looking after her dear old father and her rather tricky old mother. (To say nothing of anxiety about husband, younger son, and having just lost her job after a stress-induced nervous breakdown). We also discussed wood mice - which their house has too. She found one drowned in a bucket a few weeks ago - and it made her cry dreadfully (as she was in the middle of the worst part of the crisis). I recognised that sort of thing with grim pleasure...she said she couldn't stop thinking about it's struggles to escape from the bucket. Oh metaphor!
There was a delightful moment when Ned came down - he did a double take, because for some reason he thought it was the "other Anna" - and then he was so pleased and surprised to see her. She is a genius with boys having had two of her own, plus 18 years of teaching boys at Borden Grammar School. She is missing teaching the children already. One boy in Year 7 asked another teacher "What happened to that nice old lady who used to teach us?"
Then we had a walk down to the Harbour to see Suzy and show Anna "Nice Things" - this caused some confusion as she didn't realise it was a shop - and when I said "I can show you nice things" she assumed I was talking about the beauties of the town.
It was quiet in the aftermath of the FA cup final, but we had a good time chatting to Suzy - and, as I had hoped, Anna bought a couple of things, and I found some really nice cufflinks for Ned's dress shirt (!). Mark kindly went back for the car - as I was getting back pains. We washed up, then went up to bed with leftovers and white wine (latest discovery Trinacria Bianco from Waitrose 3.99) - and watched a sensational French thriller (based on an Elmore Leonard novel but rather pleasingly set around the Ile de France - the phrase "la police de Versailles" had a slightly anachronistic sound to it - but of course Versailles still exists; some of the action took place in the Foret de Rambouillet.... the film was Ne dis a Personne - v. good, all about corruption and powerful individuals doing wicked things. And this morning we woke up to the strange news story about Dominique Strauss-Kahn (spelling??)'s rape accusation.
Today I have ironed, tidied the kitchen, eaten lunch and then lapsed into a slightly neurotic weekend behaviour. It is grey and breezy and I am feeling a little bit - well at a loose end. But I will find other things to do on Sundays. The "other Anna" has suggested that I run a market stall in Margate on Sundays for the next 6 weeks. It costs £20 a week - it could be fun. They are keen to have food stalls apparently. I could do that very easily. I wonder how much money I would make? And do I have enough money to afford to buy the ingredients? Anyway, a few practical problems have distracted me from being drawn into fantasies.
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