Very happy weekend.  We visited Al and co on Saturday and the rest of the family came here on Sunday and all went well.  For the Sunday, we decided to make it easy.  Last time everyone came, we did roast beef etc and it all was fine, but a lot of work on the morning and I had to bring through the secondary cooker, to fit everything in.  So we decided on lasagne and I made the béchamel sauce and LT made the ragù while he was away and we assembled it on the morning and put it in the oven as the first of the family arrived.  And I bought desserts.

Wink left this morning and she’ll be off to India next week.  She’s very excited about it, of course.  She doesn’t quite know what to expect from an Indian Hindu Christmas,  but multiculturalism in action is going to be a lot of fun.  I spent the afternoon wrapping presents, rather slowly because it’s not the most enjoyable job, though it should be.  There are just so many of them, though and I evaluate them all for quality and quantity, which has been my habit since I had a second child.  In fact, I realised I have been solely responsible for buying all Christmas presents, and wrapping them, for 45 years.  I said to Weeza, a couple of years back, that I’d always counted all the presents for her and Al – and later, for Ro as well – and checked that they were all pretty well equivalent.  Someone might have a large thing that wasn’t very expensive and a small thing that was, or vice versa, but they all equalled out.  They’d never seemed aware of this, I mentioned.  Oh yes they were, she told me.  They checked afterwards.  Clearly, since I’d never got it wrong, they’d never said anything!

Ro and Phil got those heavy slabs out and they’ve been put on the pillars to protect them from rain and frost over the winter.  Though I had to clear snow off first.  We’ve been having the first really cold snap, though the snow didn’t lay for long.  Some parts of the country were much more affected.

Tomorrow, I’m off to pick up a whole lot of china.  You’re hearing it here first, though it’ll go up on my business facebook page soon and also on the website: I’m having an extra auction next year.  One person wants to sell a whole collection and I’ve had the first offer.  It’ll be 25th April.

The morning was a bit complicated, I must say.  Last night, upon realising I hadn’t got a single present for my youngest grandson, I checked the suggestions his mother had made and found that they were all special offers from Argos.  I don’t object to a special offer, especially when I’ve checked them against other shops and found they were genuine,, so bought them online – but (why?  I dunno) they were only obtainable in a shop deep in north Norfolk.  But it was only an hour or so away, so Wink and I decided to go for it.

The satnav took me all around the houses, literally.  Instead of straight into North Walsham and towards Sainsbury’s, I went through several residential roads before arriving there.  I’d paid online so just had to pick them up and I had a texted receipt.  It couldn’t have been more straightforward.  Though one of the gifts is surprisingly big and I’d assumed it would have been disassembled, not moulded in one piece … but we squeezed it onto the back seat of the car.

It had occurred to me that I could do a second job, while I was about it.  You’d remember, no doubt (heh) that our old friend (of long duration, that is, as he’s younger than I am and I’m only a little bit old) Dave had built me a couple of pillars a few weeks ago, back in October.  I’d ordered the capping stones too but they had, accidentally, not been ordered and it turned out to be quite a business to get hold of them.  But finally I’d paid over the phone and it was agreed that they’d be delivered to Wroxham, where I asked Weeza/Phil to pick them up on Saturday.

This is the short version of a long drawn out process, I promise.  But anyway, we were literally driving past the industrial estate, so I thought we might go in and fetch the stones.  It took a while to sort out but we had them loaded into the car.  When we got back, I stopped on the drive, thinking I might lift them out and leave them, ready to put on the pillars.  Hoho.  I couldn’t shift them.  They are on the back seat of the car, waiting for someone considerably stronger than I am.

But we bought stuff for lunch and ate Twiglets until LT arrived back, and the rest of the day has been jolly in a tranquil sort of way.  Cold, though.  Brass monkeys and all that.

Oh.  In other news, the fitting of the new carpet has been put back because either Axminster or the haulier, I’m not sure which, can’t deliver it in time.  But we’ve rebooked for the 22nd.  Yeah.  Cutting it fine, innit.  Though it doesn’t really matter, I’m quite relaxed about it and just heaving the odd sigh.

I’ve been listening to Rogue Male on the radio – I download everything and catch up when I can’t sleep. which I couldn’t last night.  It’s a book I’ve read a few times and it finally occurred to me that it’s really quite dark.  Evidently, I am myself, because I’d not realised that before.  Anyhoo.  Now listening to Regeneration, which is also a bit dark.  Dear oh dear.  Clearly, it’s being so cheerful that keeps me going.

Oh, I’ve remembered to tell Weeza and Phil that they don’t need to pick up the capping stones.  I’ll have to ask him to remove them from the car on Sunday, though.  I truly cannot move them.

Sister Wink is here and Rose came in for dinner.  Eloise cat’s wound is healing nicely and all is well.  The weather was pretty rough this morning but, with a rare attack of good sense, I went shopping early, so missed the rain and was tucked up at home by the time it struck.

The remarkable thing was, when I went to feed the cats this morning, the only girl, Betty, was tucking in to her breakfast, brothers and father nowhere in sight, when Rummy came to join her and they fed amicably together.  This has never happened before.  I put food down for the boys elsewhere, because they certainly wouldn’t have been comfortable coming near Rummy, who is aggressive with the young boys and has an armed truce with RasPutin – though Rose said she saw them hanging out together earlier on today.  So maybe all will yet be tranquil in Cat World.  I haven’t seen Zain for a fortnight though and I miss him.  I hope he will return, but I think he has found another territory.  And feral cats owe us nothing, but that doesn’t mean we don’t care about them.

LT will be home tomorrow, in time for a late lunch DV.

Last night, I found a lump on Eloise cat’s side.  I was alarmed, of course, tried to look but she wriggled away.  This morning I was able to check and found that it had been an abscess and had already burst, leaving a sizeable hole.  I phoned the vet for an appointment and we’ve just got back, she having been given an antibiotic injection.  The vet cleaned it with a cotton bud, which Eloise bore patiently, though it clearly hurt, but she’ll keep it clean herself and it should heal up soon.  The swelling has already gone right down.  No idea how she got it, but Rose says that cats do get abscesses and the smaller ones need no treatment.   She came home and wanted to be fed, so I presume she’s feeling all right.

The next couple of weeks have become rather busy, and not in a pre-Christmas way, though there are some sociable things included.  One of them is to itemise, wrap up and pack about 150 pieces of china, which will take a bit of doing.  And we’re having the new carpet laid – LT will be in charge of overseeing that  sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee while the fitters are working, as I’ll be out much of the day.  The piano tuner is also coming that day – the pianola mechanism has been taking up several feet of the dining room floor for the last few months, it will be good to have that tidied up and I hope it will keep in tune from now on.  And I’ve got another visit booked from my accountant – I’m not sure why he wants to see me rather than just send the papers to be signed, but no doubt I’ll find out.

Eloise cat has gone to keep LT’s place on the sofa warm.  She probably hopes he’s coming back this evening.  She loves him very much.  And me.

There’s just Eloise cat and me here tonight and tomorrow, LT has gone back to his house for a few days.  My sister Wink is coming to stay on Thursday and LT will return home on Friday – he’s at home now, of course, too.

For any of you who are bloggers from long ago, one of our number has just had a baby – if you remember Katy Newton, of Everything is Electric?  Her mum also used to blog and still is one of my dear bloggy friends, though we haven’t met in person yet.  I say “our number,” but Katy was certainly one of the elite, far above me in the blogosphere, in those days.  Many congratulations to her and to Ros.  When my first grandbaby was born, I was a bit surprised to be congratulated, but I soon realised that this is absolutely appropriate and, ever since, I’ve totally owned (as the young people used to say) those congratulations.

I had a business appointment a good hour away, at 1.30 today, which meant I didn’t have lunch before I went and, as I didn’t get home until around 4.30, it was too late to eat then.  By the time I’d fed animals and so on, I was suddenly tired.  So I brought forward the drink-time snacks and had carrot sticks, cheese and olives.  And, an hour later, I’m still hungry.  So the cold beef and pickles I’d been going to eat will be saved for lunch tomorrow and I’m going to cook pasta, because nothing but solid hot food will do.

I’ll bring a piece of beef for Eloise cat, though.  She won’t eat pasta and pesto, though she does like Parmesan.

The Oyster card was a fabulous innovation, in its day.  For anyone who might not be aware of it, it’s a pre-paid card for use on London tube trains or buses, you don’t need a ticket but just touch it on the screen and it opens the barrier and deducts the cost of the fare.  You are charged less than the standard ticket rate and, if you reach the cost of a daily pass, it stops charging you.  Splendid.  When introduced, you paid a deposit of £3, which I think is now £5.

I bought two of them years ago, when they were first introduced, registered them on the London transport website and registered a credit card for automatic top-ups – this was mainly for Russell’s benefit as he would have been puzzled to manage that at a station if he ran out of credit.  But I mislaid both those cards a few years ago, replaced them – but one can also use a contactless debit card, so it doesn’t much matter if you don’t have it with you.

Last week, I found an old wallet with various cards in and there were both my original Oyster cards, so I logged on to my account and found that one had about £25 on it and the other had about £17.  So I thought I’d cancel the automatic top-up and use up the money – to do so, you had to use it.  It said, touch onto a yellow reader by 1st December, three days hence and it would be cancelled.  So we did, LT with one card and me with the other, when we went to London the next day.  But they didn’t cancel, I had an email to say I owed £20 (that is there was £25.20 on my card but it hadn’t been able to take payment because my credit card was out of date) and if I didn’t pay it, the card would be cancelled.  Pay or phone.  So I phoned.

Helpful chap with a Scottish accent, said neither card details had gone through as having top-ups cancelled.  And he couldn’t prevent the card itself being cancelled if I didn’t pay.  I explained that, as the same fault had occurred on two cards being used at different stations by two people, it indicated a problem in the system and asked him to report it.  I also said I didn’t want that money outstanding any more.  Could I apply for a refund?  Yes I could.  So I have.

So, instead of them holding on to my £5.20 plus original £3 deposit, because they took another £20 that I instructed them to cancel, I’ve taken the whole lot back again – assuming the refund goes through.  Christmas is paid for, darlings, clearly.  I’m £8.20 in profit here – indeed, you can point out that it was my money all along and I would have to agree, but it was paid so long ago that it counts as new money, innit?  And, as LT points out, that £8.20 will buy his Christmas present, for sure.

I went to sleep after lunch. It wasn’t a heavy lunch, just the effect of my seasonal inclination to hibernate.  And I was cross when I was woken by the phone ringing and it was evidently a cold caller because they rang off when my answerphone kicked in.  I’d been dreaming, though I don’t know what about and, as I gathered my befuddled thoughts together, I remembered a dream I had several times in the year or so after Russell died.

I’d never lived alone before.  I lived with my mother until I married.  I coped quite well, though, managed to order refills of gas and coal before I ran out, fed the animals, looked after myself and the house and kept outside matters going and I was mostly busy.

I dreamed I was having a heart attack.  I was alone in the house but, not completely struck down, I phoned for an ambulance and then rang Weeza.  I told her what was happening, asked her to phone her brothers to tell them and then gave her a list of other people to contact to cancel a whole string of appointments.  The ambulance came and I was still cancelling things.  When I woke up, I reflected that I’d been somewhat optimistic in the assumption that I’d still be able to focus on all these matters and deal with them; but I was a bit shaken too, that – in my dreams – I first of all thought about efficiency, not letting people down, reorganising events so that I wouldn’t be missed.  I also remember my first words to Weeza: “Oh darling, sorry to bother you, but I’m not very well and I wonder if you could help me.”

Conclusion: I was an over-committed idiot who worried too much.  Can’t really cut down on the worrying, but I’ve stopped the rest of it.  And I like to break bad news gently.  Not that I have any, I’m glad to say.

The traps weren’t set the night I was away, nor the following night but, all the same, I’ve caught ten rats so far. Or rather, I’ve killed ten rats.  The morning I went to London, I went down to feed the chickens and found four in traps, but one was just caught by a foot.  I let it go.  It squealed in terror and I would have had to deal with it more brutally than I was prepared to.  But there, ten rats fewer to breed in the spring.  I have to blank out a bit of my mind that doesn’t want to cope with it.  I’ve got a number of little oubliettes in my brain, where the trapdoor is kept firmly shut, it’s safer that way.

When we arrived at the station on Wednesday, we huddled into the (warm and reasonably comfortable) waiting room until the train was about to come, because it was cold and clammy.  And our good friends Bobbie and Simon came in, a few minutes later.  It was her birthday – which means she’d caught up with me and Simon will match us in a few more months – and she’s had a rough time this year, so they’d chosen a jolly day out.  We said we were going to the theatre too and Bobbie supposed our choice was more highbrow than theirs – Labour of Love/Kinky Boots – I s’pose.  I am solemn, I can’t deny it, though the play was my sister’s choice this time.

Today – let’s see, what has happened?  The usual, feeding of animals and disposing of rat, feeding of ourselves.  I made French (style) onion soup yesterday, so we had half of it for lunch with some toasted cheese.  The proper thing of floating the slices on top doesn’t greatly appeal to either of us, so I served it on separate plates.  I made yoghurt, LT split logs and barrowed them up, I changed the bedlinen and finished turning out the larder.  I’d found several bottles of home-made liqueur and rebottled them, and today it was the turn of the sloe gin.  Three lots, so I conscientiously tasted them all. The best was already in a suitable bottle, the other two could go in smaller, but more attractive ones.  I was a bit giggly for a while.

I’ve got things I should get on with, but working in the evenings is for absolute necessity only, nowadays.  Just a couple of emails I must write.  I still let the answerphone pick up calls and the last cold call was at 8.15, just as we were eating dinner.  It’s so damn rude, as well as intrusive.  Just as well I didn’t pick up the phone, I might have indicated a touch of frost in my demeanour.

Plans for the rest of the evening, after these two necessary emails – absolutely nothing.  I’ve read the newspaper, apart from half the colour supplement, so I’ll just drink another glass of wine and hug a husband.  Probably my own.

I’ve been away for a couple of days.  My sister Wink and I have been exchanging birthday presents – I took her and LT out to the theatre and, before that, she took me and LT out to lunch.

Plans changed, at the start of the week, in fact.  For some time we had been shelving the question of whether to drive down to LT’s place in Reading and travel to London from there, or else to go by train from here.  And then I discovered the need for a business appointment in Notting Hill this week, so it seemed straightforward and sensible to travel from Reading each day, and so that was decided.  Until last Friday, when Lawrence, Rose’s boyf, had to spend a few days local to the hospital where he’s being treated, and it was uncertain when he could come home, and Rose obviously needed to be there too.

In the end, we decided to go by train on Thursday, Tim would travel back in the evening, I’d book into a hotel and go to my morning meeting and then come back at 1.30 on Friday.  And it was fine, it worked perfectly well.  As my mother used to say, we finished the game of bowls and beat the … actually, I’m not sure I want to use war metaphors nowadays, even if it refers to something that happened in the 16th century.  But you get my drift.

Wink will be coming here next week – which reminds me, I must get her present sorted out, because she’s going off on her travels for Christmas.  She’s going to visit our friend in Chennai first, then going to Kerala, then to see other friends in Singapore and home again, taking a month in all and being away for an Indian Christmas, which is a jolly good idea.  She has retired again – can’t ever be sure with her that it’s for the last time – and so is looking for adventures.  I do have something for her and will probably give her a voucher for when she gets back, for some treat or other, because she doesn’t want more Stuff any more.  So if she can’t eat or drink or wear it, then she’d rather do it.