Twiggy

Well, that was unexpected...I went out after dark last night! Laura and I were busy with various decorating tasks later than expected and she had to hurry off to get changed and have some tea before going to a talk on Fair Trade fruit and nuts. Then just at the last minute when she was about to leave she asked if I would like to come along to it. I've been feeling rather rough the last few days but it's so rare I have the chance to do anything remotely sociable in the evenings so we arranged that I'd walk down and meet her there and she'd give me a lift back. As putting my bedroom back together and getting changed and walking down actually took all the time I had before it started I missed my own tea so we got some fish and chips afterwards to eat in the big carpark where the river meets the sea.

Once in a while, maybe three or four times a year, I'll go out somewhere with friends and just after Christmas I walked down to the station with Bob in the evening to see him off on the train but I think the last time I left the house on my own after nightfall was to meet Laura to see some fireworks in November 2010! I worked that out as I plodded down the road marvelling at moonlight shining on my skin. But what I couldn't get my head round at first was what the situation reminded me of...and then I twigged...it reminded me of having a life, ha ha! I'm grateful for the memory of getting out and about more often. Even though I didn't have the most splendid of social lives I used to work evening shifts often so the night wasn't always separated from me by bricks and glass. I give thanks for a great big map of Pakistan and surrounding countries to pore over (with symbols that seemed to represent routes of camel trails!) and some tasty free samples to tempt us to buy. And for the delicious Fair Trade chocolate caramels I came home with... nothing to do with this particular talk but so yummy I would like to get in the bag and eat my way out!

I give thanks for a few more chores done in the bedroom. I wasn't up to doing a lot myself so my job was making the textured border narrower as we hadn't been able to get a piece of wood the right size to stick it on. For the bizarre sight of a pheasant in tnhe communal gardens. I know they're overgrown and shrubby at the edges but I don't think we are breeding pheasants there...yet can't think where it could have come from - it's not as if they fly very far! And for the equally bizarre dream I had in which a tests revealed my body wasn't absorbing enough ginger and I had to go to a special unit in Yeovil to find out more!

Here is the view from my bedroom window yesterday...isn't it beautiful? Sometimes people say 'Oh what a shame there are so many trees!' but if there weren't I'd see far more buildings and roads. Whatever the pheasants might think I don't really live in unspoilt countryside...

This post is dedicated to Carole...in the hospice now, to Juanita...off to hospital tomorrow for surgery to hopefully keep her well, to Tony...already in hospital and hopefully getting better and to Kostas... waiting on Death Row to see if his is the next number to come up in the political lottery of capital punishment.