Malawi & More

 A delightfully slow start to the weekend - tea brought to me by my wonderful husband and then he made a cooked breakfast. M headed off to work and he got on with his DIY projects and I lost myself in my book after a cleaning blitz.  A mate came over for dinner and we had a much needed catch up. She has overcome so much, not least a terrible work situation and so I was reminded of the fact that it can all turn out for the best. We did lots of laughing out loud and giggled over memories and her current, rather busy and crazy sounding love life.  Sunday was the first folk open mic event. Oh it was beautiful and so many performances moved me. I fought the tears but one song really hit me. So much of it made me think of D and my dad. The joy of hearing such talent. Our little band of two middle aged folks and a bunch of teenagers were ok. I wasn't great but not too bad given my lack of practice and subsequent confidence.  That evening an exhausted A arrived home. Too tri...

 Good morning  My mate picked me up and drove us to Bournemouth to see another mate's new gaff. All of us Park View survivors. We did a little pub crawl and really nice Chinese followed by an hour in a karaoke booth and then off to a casino. I didn't place any bets... and I think annoyed the croupier, because I was asking about the display thing and then exclaiming that it was all chance though, wasn't it. An extremely late night for me and a terrible night's sleep, booze does not help with that. But lots of fun. The next day we took a beautiful stroll through Bournemouth, along the beach and to a cafe called Flirt where D treated us both to a well needed breakfast. It was a glorious morning with the sun shining, we still needed our coats but it was great to have the sun on our faces. And then D drove us back to London. He has a LEXUS and it is very fancy indeed. He feels rather sad that he feels he should sell it because of Elon. I suggested that instead, he gets some ...

A week I was dreading started with the warmth of home, the completion of a jigsaw and an afternoon out with BigA, D and D to watch the England v Ireland rugby- in a pub not live. I had a beautiful bouquet of flowers with the message 'you got this' delivered and I was once again reminded of the love I have around me.  On our way home we decided to try out the new (refurbished) kebab place that's less than 5 mins from ours. Tiny to be a restaurant really but as A met us we had a lovely meal.  The sun was in full glory on Sunday morning and it must be my middle age, but I was excited to be able to hang the washing out on the line.  A off to work, BigA to frisbee and M still with her dad and me - off for a singing session, getting ready for the folk open mic thing E has arranged. All good distractions. It was good to sing aloud and forget my troubles.  Monday was the hearing, unpleasant, hard and now at least over. The oddity of British politeness is clear to me, all of ...