Amazing what nice things you can stuff into your diary in the otherwise doom, gloom, grey and drizzle of Feb/March…
The whirl started off with niece 3 – Abbie – coming over for dinner. Without her hubby Nick sadly, as he'd caught the plague, but a v good opportunity for a niecely catch up over a steaming biriani..
Keeping up the curry theme, but switching from India to Thailand, we then had Mikey & Margo and Janine & Roses over for the 'supposed to be in December but I was ill' dinner chez 22. One large vat of massamun later and H and I are STILL eating it – one more tub awaits us for dinner tonight, so it's a good job it was yum, even if I say so myself…
Having not seen M&M for aaaages, we then managed to double up on viewings with a trip the week after to watch Wimbledon AFC with them and the kids at Plough Lane. One pretty terrible game for Wimbers but a nice chance to chat in the sun and enjoy the sterling bin-bashing, crowd-rallying efforts of Hayden, the Womble mascot.
Straight from the footy it was back to Dora to find Soph, Nicky & Jules already in the house, plus Soph's latest blonde girlfriend and now 3 year old Martha. The perfect opportunity to defrost and devour the chestnut mince (swiftly reinvented as a bolognaise) that H & I made to take to Rick & Heather's for the family Xmas – and which we very cleverly left in the freezer…
Then it was out onto the Common for a really nice walk with the little gang we call the 'Womblers' as we all met at Wimbledon HC decades ago now, and tend to go litter picking on the common as we amble, chat, walk dogs and then have a cuppa. Great way to catch up – and to help ease Jo & Georgie into their 60s as their big birthdays are in the offing too. Clarkie is a regular and our occasional special guest Mary Greenham came along this time – always a bonus!
Had a really good evening out this Tues for Clare G's birthday – starting off at a wine/cocktail bar just off Borough Market, called Quill. Which has a 'thing' whereby each table is offered a long pen quill and little notes to write something on and send it secretly to another table. Our first note arrived, asking 'what is the secret to an enduring friendship among women?' – nice to know that we look like very good friends to people, as we are just that! The second note was hilarious – 'how many husbands have you racked up between you?'!!!!! Surprisingly it is only the 6 between the five of us, and when we sent the note back asking them who they thought the two-husband person was, they guessed 'the beauty in the glasses'. Could have been Clare or Jane, but nope, wrong one! We were then on to Akara (I think) – an African based restaurant, which did arouse some trepidation in me. Not least when the waitress said one of the countries was 'Guyania', alongside Brazil, that well known not quite African nation.. Anyway – great grub and a top night out all round.
And yesterday it was back to Maureen's care home for my weekly meet with wonderful Ginny & Muriel, over a cup of tea, ginger cake slices, Kit Kats and Ginny's defrosted chocolate brownies. Maureen was partly on good form, drank 2 cups of coffee that I held up to her mouth and had some cake, then tried to twist my arms and hit me as I offered her a protein shake once too often. A good job I am much stronger than her. Just a shame that it means she isn't allowed to mix in the social room as she's been known to go at the other residents and the staff with any cutlery knocking around… So out of character for a formerly very prim, tidy, sweet and generous person, but that's dementia for you.
Just don't look too closely at the terrible haircut I did for her – thank god you can't see round the bacon this shot, eeeeeek.
And today is VERY exciting as Janine & I are off to Los Angeles tomorrow as the first stop on our annual girls' trip – this year to California. Mostly built around watching the tennis at Indian Wells on Sun & Mon, as part of J's 60th birthday bucket list. Hoping the temperature picks up, we get some sun and if not, that the shopping malls relinquish some of their goodies our way… Just a good job that it's not Trump turf…. x