Speaking freely, if indistinctly

I’ve just got in from a meeting and I’m eating my dinner, so please excuse me typing with my mouth full. I fed the Sage and Ro before I left, but I didn’t have time to eat then, as it falls to me to get the room ready and that takes half an hour.

I treat the PCC (that’s the committee that runs the village church) very well. Tea and coffee freshly made, jugs of water on the tables and sufficient bowls of sweets to be within easy reach of each person, so that no one has to make a conspicuous lunge for the M1nstrel or the jelly teddy bear (tonight’s offerings). I go for quite childish sweets. If we were relaxed at home, it would be the sophisticated hand-made chocolate truffle or the petit four, but at a meeting which can, just once in a while, plummet to a nadir of dullness, then resorting to nursery sweeties cheers us up no end. Jelly babies are popular and so are Malte$ers. L1corice Allsorts, you either love or hate and I don’t serve toffees as they inhibit free speech.

Plenty of free speech tonight, as we were debating one specific item. All amicable, if sometimes quite heated.

I spent (ooh, back in time like Memento) the afternoon in the shop. I went in, just before lunch, clutching my lunch of ham and salad (particularly nice multi-grain) roll and danish pastry from the bakery. It’s an indulgence. Why do I not make my own lunch? can’t be arsed… do I hear quietly in the background? ‘Tis true.

Eileen was a little pink and panting. “It’s been hectic” she said. “I’ve been rushed off my feet, all morning. Sometimes, I had to use both tills at the same time.” I looked round at the empty shop. We agreed that, because it was such lovely weather (God bless British Summer Time), everyone had shopped in the morning so that they could garden or relax in the afternoon.

I’d taken Shaggy Blog Stories and Tough Puzzles to entertain me in quiet periods. Half way through the afternoon, the sun shone in the gap between the Gay Shopper and the pub and I eyed the warm sunlit patch at the front of the shop. I cleared some of the in-front-of-the-shop display, so that I could carry a chair out there. Of course, this was the signal for 20 minutes of keen shopping by the inhabitants of Yagnub. Eventually, I sank into my sun-warmed chair and read contentedly between customers for the rest of the afternoon.

In other news, Dilly’s little nephew Brock has chickenpox. He and his little brother Davison were over here last Tuesday for Squiffany’s birthday. I gather the incubation period is 10 days. We’ll know by the weekend. 6 months is, perhaps, a little young for Pugsley to be inflicted with an annoying illness, but he is robust and I’m sure he’ll be fine, even if he gets it. The son of a friend, the youngest of three, caught it early and had a post-viral infection that affected him for a long time.

I’ve finished eating and I’ve poured the last of the wine. I will not go to bed for an hour or two, lest I am inflicted with Digestive Disorders or the Cauchemar. Last night I did not sleep well. It was the inevitable result of a couple of nights of sound sleep. From long years of habit, if not totally knackered, I don’t really sleep at all.

9 comments on “Speaking freely, if indistinctly

  1. Wendz

    Minstrels and jelly bears are my all-time fave sweets – along with liqurice all-sorts. Give me a bag of any of those and I’ll polish them off very sharply.

    Actually it would be good to get chicken pox out the way and at 6 months I don’t think they feel the itch as bad – or if they do, they don’t really scratch. Fabien still has bad scars from his bout last year.

    Reply
  2. martin

    I am with Wendz about the sweets. aaaah Memento a great film, so you have lots of grainy polaroids all over your house…. another clue.

    Reply
  3. Z

    All my children were around 7-9 when they had chickenpox and they were lucky enough not to be very itchy. They were that little bit older than Fabien and understood the necessity of not scratching, too. I’ve got a horrible tale of Ro and his chickenpox though. Heh heh. I’ll write it down before long.

    Reply
  4. How do we know

    Tea and Coffee freshly made, jugs of water and sweets.. Z, you are a darling! Am going to get my coffee now, and strangely, i spelt soundly last night, after like.. ages!

    Reply
  5. Z

    We used to have biscuits, but the meetings start at 7.30 and either people have just eaten a meal or are going to later, so don’t really want to eat much. So I thought of sweets. Partly, it was the naughtiness of tempting good churchy people that appealed.

    Once, I served wine. It was a great success.

    I slept well too, last night, and for the right length of time, waking just before the alarm went off.

    Reply
  6. dharmabum

    u seem like a wonderful host, z. i’ve already been quite fascinated by norfolk and your way o life. now, i can also look forward to some coffee and biscuits maybe? šŸ™‚

    “because it was such lovely weather (God bless British Summer Time), “

    wish i could say that about madras too *sigh*

    Reply
  7. Z

    I’ll put the kettle on, Dharma!

    I’ve been in Madras between the end of December, and mid-February. Warm enough for me, by then.

    Reply

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