How does your garden grow?

Moving right along, the garden Asti planted for us is blooming like crazy. The herbs are already being used and the strawberries are almost ready to pick. 

Vacuum cleaner pt 2

So, I ordered a new vacuum cleaner and amazingly it arrived today - overnight delivery. Alan assembled it and it works ok so we’re back in business. It’s no Dyson tho and I feel the lack of quality fiercely. But it was a sensible, thrifty choice and will do the job. Alan agrees that when our finances are back in healthier shape we should replace this one with the Dyson I really want; so it works out in the end.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another

Halfway thru the weekly clean, Rosie our housekeeper announced that the vacuum cleaner had stopped working. No, not a fuse, didn’t blow a circuit, nothing we could reset to work again. It was just dead, Jim. Thoroughly and completely dead. So on top of my dead pc, I now have a dead vacuum cleaner. This one I had to replace immediately, no workarounds, no used handovers from family or friends. I picked out a cheap one that met our requirements, imposed hard discipline on myself - no Dyson! It arrives Monday; if the gods are kind and the benefit I applied for is approved and fast it will all be over painlessly. If not, I’ll just pay it out for a few months.

Meanwhile, the sun is shining and my garden is growing. Life ain’t so bad.

Three curses of increasing severity

May you live in interesting times
May you come to the attention of those in authority (May the government be aware of you).
May you find what you are looking for. (May your wishes be granted).

Diet update

So after almost 6 successful weeks on my diet, I fell off the rails today. But, it’s not all doom and gloom. I’ll be right back on it tomorrow, actually I’m back on it already. So not a disaster. And - I didn’t fall off by eating chocolate, or a rich heavy cream sauce, etc. It was like slicing a banana into my cereal and putting 3 weetabix in my bowl instead of 2. Then I was suddenly so hungry at lunch I had a huge kosher frank on a bagel. Real food, for the most part healthy food, and I was really really hungry.
Lesson learned.
Back on schedule
Oh yes, I’ve lost 14 kilos so far.
Marvellous

Hospital, diet, hospital, hospital

On Feb 19 I was taken to Charing Cross Hospital A&E by ambulance. I was admitted and stayed there 10 days. I’m told I had a massive kidney infection and a interesting list of various other problems. In the 2 weeks prior I had 2 serious falls, one in the bathroom, the other in the living room. I don’t recall ever having a major fall before, certainly never one I couldn’t get up from.

In any case, on the 19th I ended up propped against the edge of the guest sofa in Alan’s study, not able to get to my feet but not willing to slide onto the floor. The ambulance crew ended all questions by taking me to A&E.

At some point during my time in hospital, the food and drink on offer there being completely disgusting, and no diatrician or nutritionist available, I gave up and just drank cold water and orange juice until I was released. Great way to start a diet. I decided I would continue a sensible diet, with a goal of losing 2 lbs a week until I didn’t want to lose any more weight.

36 days later it’s still working, I’m getting stronger, and I’m down 17 kilos.

Merry Christmas 2018

A reasonably happy Christmas season this year. I'm wasting time writing this entry/taking a break from pre-party cleaning. At 6pm tonight our holiday season peaks with a Nibbles & Drinks party here for a few friends.

The year draws to a close with good news from all 3 of my children: Andrew & Joanna have bought their first house in Alexandria, VA and are well settled in. They are both working, Andrew for the EPA and Joanna is teaching. Adam and Geri bought their first house near Tampa, Florida. Adam is still working for the bank in NYC and commuting to Florida and Geri has her hands full with the 3 kids. Asti is working on a Munich, Germany based project and commuting periodically back to her home base in Basel, Switzerland. Her husband Jeurn's ship is stuck in Port Moresby at the moment for repairs. I'm incredibly happy things are looking up fr all of them.

Back in London, we had great eating this year with Wild Pheasant with Moroccan Spices for Christmas Eve dinner and our annual, highly anticipated chateaubriand roast dinner on Christmas day. See photo below:

Tonight at 6pm the party madness starts here. I'm off to get things ready now.

Wishing peace and joy and the blessings of the season to you all.

Some things Never Change

Clipped from Private Eye magazine.

Alan Lenton Stops UK Record Breaking Heatwave

Today, in defiance of UK Weather Service warnings and advice, Alan went for a walk at 17:00 in the 30+C heat. He wore a light short sleeved shirt, cut off jean shorts and sandals and took no protection like an umbrella. Within 5 minutes of his leaving the house, the skies darkened and shortly thereafter a low rumbling preceded a sudden massive downpour.

Long Overdue New Denomination Euro Note

Bob Whalen (to the tune of The Boxer)

(Cue up The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkle in the background)

At one time, just before he left for Tehran, The Boxer was Bob's favorite song and he seemed to play it constantly. I suspect it remained the theme for his life ever after.

Bob - Robert - Whalen was my late ex-husband Tom Byro's best friend. They lived nearby in Cupsaw Lake, NJ and were in Lakeland HS together. They remained best friends until Bob's untimely early death.

Back in 1969 when we all shared a huge apartment in uptown Manhattan, Bob worked for Bell Telephone. He played The Boxer every day in his room. Id ask him why, why always this one song, and he'd only say it was his life. Ma Bell was about to be ripped apart by the regulators and Bob was trying to decide stay and see what he'd be offered or jump at the exotic offer to move to Tehran, Iran and work on the Shah's project to bring state of the art phone service to Iran. The Tehran project offered huge salaries, paid travel including visits home and holidays, and the chance to live in an exotic cultural part of the world wide flowering technical upsurge. He packed his bag for Tehran, asked us to keep an eye on his girlfriend Jeanne and help her if she needed anything, and off he went. Bob loved Tehran. He said it was like NYC's Greenwich Village but cleaner and cooler. The girls were prettier, the music hotter. It was a coffee house culture, a night culture, and he loved it. Not a hint then of what was to come and what would be lost.

I remember so much but there's so much more I've forgotten, esp small details and time lines. Bob was supposed to visit the Isle of Wight Festival for his first vacation from Tehran. He bought a VW camper van and set out to drive there. The expected mad adventures ensured ending with his missing the festival and being asked to leave the UK. He sold the VW and flew home to NJ.

Bob Whalen with his reed thin flower power body and bright red hair in a massive afro. He and Jacko came to our wedding. He declined to be best man since he didn't approve of marriage, or marriage to me, or god knows why so Jacko was best man. Ironically, Tom was best man for Bob's wedding many years later.

Thus ends the lesson. I happened to listen to The Boxer this morning and it made me think of Bob. Rest in Peace, old friend.

Can’t a Lady Have Some Privacy in Bed?

I’ll Hold This End Down For You

Sleeping the Sleep of the Just

In Her Fortress of Solitude

What IKEA bags are made for

Is It Spring Yet?

Nil Nisi Bonum

I was thinking of George Robinson yesterday. And then I thought, with Tom dead and Dea dead, who do I have left who also remembers George? Who is left who still remembers adventures with George, dining out with George, Traveling with George, and watching ice hockey on TV with George? Well, there is Fred who first introduced us to George back in 1969. But Fred? No, he's too wrapped up in exposing the injustices of life in excruciating detail. I can't endure his multi hour rants dissecting friends and foe. There might be Mimi. She may have known George or met him, or just heard the tales second hand. I like Mimi. She's sane, intelligent, has a sense of humor but I don't think we've been in touch for over 30 years. I have no idea if she wants to be in touch. She was Dea's friend originally and then we all drifted apart at one point. There was Ken Dupuy but he's been gone for many years now and his wife Kateri never approved of any of us. (And I wonder what happened with Ken as I remember us all celebrating his receiving his PhD from The New School but in the last listings I see of him at Fordham University, it lists him as just a MA. There's a story there.

But back to memories of George. There might be Ira Donewitz; Ira's been around since way back when but I don't recall him as one of George's little circle. Ira's too nice to have been one of George's friends. There's Mark Blackman but I absolutely know for sure that Mark and George didn't know each other. They may have met at one of Fred and Dea's parties but I can't imagine them even wanting to stand near the other. And you had to appreciate a certain warped sense of humor to appreciate George. George's old fellow travelers who attended Bronx Catholic schools with him are all long gone.

This is going to happen again with increasing  frequency as we all start to age out.

Nil Nisi Bonum

Film Review: A Wrinkle in Time

(Sotto voce in the voice of George Robinson)   The Horror! The Horror!

What have they done to that charming, award winning, childhood fantasy favorite by Madeleine L'Engle? I and my classmates in 1962 read this book, A Wrinkle in Time, at the urging of our math teacher. (This and a story titled, And He Built a Crooked House by Robert Heinlein launched us onto paths of maths and science fiction.)

When I heard Disney was bringing this favorite old children's book to the screen I was hopeful. Then details starting leaking out - they were rewriting the story to make it more relevant, Oprah Winfrey was sponsoring it and starring, they were changing it into a mixed race inspirational tale, they were cutting out complicated bits, they were deleting characters and scenes - critical ones, staging ones.

And so, too they have ruined A Wrinkle In Time.  OMG it's terrible, horrible. What did Madeleine L'Engle ever do to deserve this?

Ruined.
More than a waste, its a crime.

Day 3 - The Great 2018 London Snowpocalypse*

*With thanks to Astrid for supplying the perfect word to describe the situation.

The snow continued early this morning from about 3am to 7 am. Stopped by daylight so the good burghers of London could sit back and mightily whinge about the delicate layer of white covering the streets.
Warnings on the radio cautioned of 3 hours backups on motorways, train services cancelled, flights delayed, and ased people to be wary because this was officially, "danger to life" weather. Drivers were told to avoid roads (what alternatives they should use were not mentioned) but they were told that Snow Chaos Gripped the UK,  communities will get cut off by treacherous snow, and the worst is yet to come - oh, worse did you say? Like what? Dragons and ogres and trolls?

Such amazing hysteria over a little wisk of snow. It's long over now and nothing except a very minor earthquake out in the west country somewhere to wind people up about until the next dose of snow arrives sometime late tomorrow.

Enjoy the Snowpocalypse everyone.