Sunday 30 May 2010

An evening at the beach

It was unseasonably hot on Monday - 24th May, for the record. I was sitting in the garden, marking exam papers, when the phone rang. Would we like to meet at the beach?

Would we?  That was a no-brainer.  We jumped on the bikes with a bottle of wine and some crisps, and headed off to meet friends.

It stayed warm - bare arm warm - until well after 9pm.  Bliss.
Richard's birthday a few weeks ago, on the second day of the New Wine Guernsey weekend. We celebrated with a few friends and a good sing song in a local school - over 700 people.

And afternoon tea with a dozen or more of us - scones and lashings of birthday cake.

A few days later Cat and Jonny's present arrived.
Marzipan. Perfect.

Death of a mouse

After the shenanigans of a few weeks' ago, when I finally discovered that there had been a mouse UNDER MY BED, chewing at my door, I decided I needed to put poison down.  I'd tried a trap for weeks and weeks, baited with peanut butter or chocolate, but it was obviously an abnormal mouse as it didn't go for either.  (Friends have been catching a mouse a day for the last three weeks using Cadbury's chocolate fingers.  I feel there should be an advertising link in here, though I'm not sure it would be a useful one for Cadbury's.) And I stepped on it one morning, too - luckily it was facing the other way so my toes escaped harm.

So there's poison under the bed - where the mouse no longer goes, judging by the absence of droppings - and poison near the back door, under the bird seed.  We suspect the bird seed is the major attraction.

I walked in the back door last Saturday to see this:
One very poorly mouse.

I did feel bad. He is really sweet. (It must be a he or we would have been overrun by now.) Then I reminded myself about the sleepless nights and the mouse droppings in the cupboards.

So I covered him - after adjuring him to stand still so I could take a photo - with an empty ice cream container. And left him for Richard to find.

When Richard arrived home, the mouse looked at him hopefully for a second, twitching its whiskers, before relapsing into the doldrums.



I will gloss over what happened next, save only to say that the mouse is now in Mouse Heaven.  I hope. Because he was, really, quite sweet.

Wednesday 26 May 2010

Keeping romance alive in unobtrusive ways.

I read, occasionally, a blog called The Generous Wife.  Sometimes there are just a few little reminders of how not to take my husband for granted

Life offers those reminders too.  Conversations in the staff room when people complain about having to do a 'blue' job.  ('Blue' means jobs that the man is supposed to do: like cleaning out gutters.  'Pink' is for ladies' jobs - like cooking. Self-explanatory once you know. I think.)

We share our jobs out pretty much. I don't like it if Richard has emptied the dishwasher more times than I have, or has hung washing out twice in a row.  It doesn't seem fair, even though he tends to have more 'at home' time than I do.  He still does an awful lot for our marriage which I don't touch - accounts, car maintenance, gardening...Occasionally I forget myself and start complaining...ungrateful.

But Richard often does little things which pass me by - I take them for granted. The cup of coffee he brings me every morning (I was so tired today I slept through it - cold by the time I woke, but I was warmed by the thought). Getting my bike out of the garage for me so it is ready just to hop on to when I am running late. Meeting up at lunchtime on his day off.

Last week was just the best, though. I was on a school trip and had mentioned we might be stopping at a particular cafe/public toilets for the children. In the end, we didn't have to, but he cycled up there for a solitary cup of coffee, sitting outside in the sun in the hope he might see me.

That is just so romantic, it just melts me. I'm still smiling at the thought.

And, although his trip was in vain, at least he had a lovely half hour at a beach cafe. Some compensation.

(Updating this to link in with The Time-Warp Wife)

Saturday 15 May 2010

facebook

Much has been written about internet networking: facebook, twitter and the like.  I'm just going to add my bit.

Facebook is like one big gossipfest. Useful, but also designed to make those not 'in' feel 'out'.  It's particularly bad for teenagers - facebook promotes the one-upmanship and putdowns which so many suffer from.

That makes me angry. Life is difficult enough in adolescence. Why can't people just be NICE, REAL and HONEST?

There we are. I've said my bit.

Sunday 9 May 2010

Of sorrow, grief and loss...

I haven't had the energy to write for a few weeks now. Missing Mpira too much.  And there have been other sudden deaths and disasters of people in my life. Not as close, but Mpira was, after all, 'just a dog', although to us he was much more than that and has left a huge gap.

My sorrow this time has been less for myself but more for the families of a dear friend who has disappeared, a child who is terminally ill... what tragedies these are for those closest.  Touching me.

Such loss seems harder to cope with as I grow older. ?  Surely it should be easier to cope with life experiences like these?  Surely?