Malawi & More

 Our full day in Paris was really lovely, the sun was doing it's best to shine, it was a bit cold at times but at least no rain. We got a hop on hop off bus ticket which had a really informative and not too irritating audio track for the sites. We'd agreed to a few of the stops and started by getting off at the recently reconstructed Notre Dame. There was a queue to get in and we saw off a small group of young men who tried to push in in front of us, which led to a short and funny chat with fellow Brits in front of us who agreed that it just wasn't cricket. Inside it was quite noisy, despite the shhhhhh over the loudspeaker and pleas for silence. The building was very interesting, I preferred the other churches we saw, they seemed to have more character and this one was quite dusty which surprised me. Then we went for a beer and had a proper laugh out loud time with a very friendly waiter who found my attempt at ordering in French beer tres amusant. He also did mum a mass...

    bravely did a cautious prune of my apple tree and then did a random range of things in the garden, a gentle start to the weekend. We then played host to one of BigA's friends Au pair - perfectly lovely, young and enthusiastic about being in London which was nice.  Sunday was the first of the new intake Rookie taster sessions, I can only make about half of them as helper. I am being quite cautious because I really didn't want to break anything. It was good to be useful, I stayed to be an NSO (non skating official) in what we call mega scrim and learnt more about some rules etc. Home to a restless nights sleep, which is common before term starts.  Back at work and it was exam week for yr 13. They did alright, suddenly adding things they never did before and two of them dropped lines which will impact their grade because it was obvious. Otherwise a fair enough week of work. I know I keep saying it but I really will miss 4 day weeks...

  BigA got me an appt and funny card along with gifts I really wanted. Actual soup spoons and socks. Might not sound terribly romantic but I really wanted both. He wondered if we should spend the whole day together but I sent him off to his frisbee, he is often happier after some sport. As the sun was shining for what felt like the first time in months I got out in the garden for some weeding and muck spreading. The primroses are coming through and there was one happy daffodil, I sat with the sun on my face for a bit and breathed in the (kinda) fresh air. I made soup. I enjoyed the satisfaction of chores done and then got ready for our valentine night out. We went for a lovely meal at an Italian place neither of us had been to before. We suspect the waitress had been recently employed as she really didn't have a clue about the menu and got several things wrong, but we were too in love, just enjoying our 25th year of dating so it didn't matter and she was very sweet and apolog...

 My weekend started with prep for my evening of uni mates. There were 6 of us in the flat above the frame shop that we lived in in Norwich all those years ago and 5 of us who are still properly in touch. Laughing together was really lovely and we bemoaned the state of the world today and shared our various woes and rejoiced in the pride we have in our children (mine's the best one of course). There was a short stand with Steve and his missing glasses the next morning but all was well in the end!   We had a flying visit from Ma, and BigAwhipped up a lovely lunch and she did a bit of apple tree maintenance, my garden really wouldn't flourish quite so wonderfully without her help and guidance. I sang again on Sunday at the folk event and, as often happens, Edgar came to listen to it all and support and to my surprise and delight so did my husband. It's the first time he's heard me sing a solo in quite some time. I just did one song and still can't quite bring myself to...

BigA arranged for a little dinner party on Saturday, really lovely and a full range of chats. He made some very delicious food too. That was the most exciting part of my weekend and I mostly lost myself in rewatching Bridgeton. I did pop to see E to go over a song for the Folk singing this Sunday. That was nice.  A very good pal of mine tells me she's having a frugal year because, in no small part because she took so many wonderful holidays the year before. I'm not quite going to hit her 64 but it isn't long until my first weekend away with my mum and sister. Certainly the not drinking for a month has helped us be a little more frugal. I've even been trying to refresh my terrible GCSE french knowledge.  School was fine, a couple of year 7s thinking they could talk their way out of being caught truanting my lesson and calling year 9 students parents because their sons had got into a stage box in the lesson. They are not allowed to do that! Overall broadly fine.  I had a ...

  My pal and I had a delightful morning, the sun shone as we walked to the duck pond through the local cemetery and fed the geese and ducks the right stuff (not bread). We nattered away as we wandered around and then had a very enjoyable lunch at Fieldseat, then more walking and we found all the blooms blooming in the park. Slightly strange that those spring flowers are just 500 meters away from my garden but not in my garden. Anyway, after that pleasant surprise we saw Bruce Castle museum was open so we popped in. It's free. We were so impressed with the newly curated exhibitions. Well worth a visit, I didn't take much in but loved it and would happily go again. They've obviously put time into linking the history to the local area.  We had a pal over for dinner and enjoyed chatting away. I made one of my favourite meals, various Mexican inspired stuff and tried a new version of a recipe for a yoghurt based drizzle thing. BigA was sadly coming down with a cold so he wasn...