Well Hello There

 

Hello everyone. I hope that you are ok. Please meet the newest member of our family, who decided that he would come for tea. He will be living with us forever because HOH gave him a sausage, and now he won't leave. 

I'm writing this in the bedroom because HOH is watching Bergerac. I'm finding this second season a bit annoying. As I think I said before, in the olden days, it took John Nettles 45 minutes tops to solve the whole thing, and he managed to do it without upsetting his daughter (again), lapsing back into alcoholism (again) and getting the rest of his team shot. For what it's worth, by the way - my theory is that Ade Edmondson is a bad 'un. no evidence. I just think he is up to something.

We are at the end of a low-key week - all things taken into consideration. For those of you on the edge of your seats vis-à-vis the collapsing building saga, our residents' association met with the building people this week, and they are adamant that everything can be repaired, and we will be back in the building, and everything is running according to plan. So, watch this space if you are interested. I completely understand if you are not  - I'd rather not myself, if I'm honest.

To return to real life, we had a nice meal out to celebrate FOW 2's birthday. I'm not sure I was aware that bowls of pasta could ever be that large, but well done, The Pasta Bar, for overfacing me so that I left a goodly portion of it. Trust me, that kind of thing VERY rarely happens. The evening was only slightly marred by getting our first-ever parking ticket. It was annoying...

a) because we had paid, and we thought that because it was paid by card on the app, we didn't need to show a ticket, but we did

b) We discovered this because on the Plymouth City Council page, you can see a photo of a traffic warden's hand holding up our valid ticket, which I assume he had plucked from the machine or found on the floor after we had left.

c) Working out the time of the ticket and the time on the photo, he must have literally watched us walk away, knowing that we hadn't displayed even though we had paid.

I mean, law of the land and everything, but what a rat bag.

In an attempt to bring some equilibrium back, I finished a couple of books this week. One was more successful than the other. 

I was attracted to The Crime of Living Cautiously because I think that I do, and I wondered if this would help me not to. There are quite a few poems in it. I can't say that they helped. Not really. Then she tells some stories about how she didn't live cautiously, which is good. But she did say that she was like that anyway, so that didn't help much either. Er...I'm not sure what else to say. She seemed very nice. As you know, I am not particularly poetic, so that might have been my problem - not hers.

However, I LOVED Andrew Miller's "Pure". Set just before the French Revolution, it's about a young engineer who is tasked with clearing out a huge graveyard, which is affecting people's health  - it is so full. The centre of Paris is written about really well, and the characters are full and believable. If you liked Wolf Hall, you might well like this. It reminds me of Hilary Mantel's writing, and she does recommend the book. There's a bit of cheeky scattered about, but not enough to make Susannah Wesley put her apron over her head. I loved it. 

Anyway, I can hear Bergerac reaching an unpleasant crescendo in the next room, sounding a bit like that seagull did when it was trying to get our attention, so I will wrap this up and consider getting some sleep. Have a good week.