29December1995

London: 29.12.1995
My dear folks,

How goes things? I’m not sure how I’d answer the same question. I guess they’re going okay. But it hasn’t been a great day! I got back from my overnight shift around 8.30 & unwound a bit for settling down for a couple of hours. Old Mave wanted to go out but he also wanted to stay warm. So each time he got the front door he’d change his mind, do a u-turn & head back upstairs. I explained to him that I couldn’t spend the whole day letting him in & out. I needed some kip. When I awoke at lunchtime, there were clear blue skies & it was a mite warmer. Jones had a hankering to go to Waterperry so we set out. It’s almost exactly an hour’s run, up through the hills of Oxfordshire. Most of the fields were deep green after the rain & snow, but the occasional one was still white. There were some puzzled looking sheep around.

We got to Waterperry to find the place closed! Horrors! Waterperry is famous for almost never closing. But there was no arguing with the sign saying it was shut until 2nd January. Jones was very disappointed. Waterperry is a centre of earth nourishment for her & she sets great store by her visits. So we did some shopping at a local supermarket instead. I got another two wodges of smoked salmon to take to Germany next Thursday, Mum, with the balance of your Deutschmarks. The last lot went down like a house on fire & this helping is assured of the same rapturous reception. Thank you from us all.

Jones mis-dialled a telephone number this morning & put the phone down when she heard the answerphone message of some stranger. A bit later there was a call on our answer phone from a guy wanting to know who’d called his number. He obviously had the phone facility for obtaining the number of his last caller. Jones declined to ring back. A bit later he rang again, demanding an explanation for the call. Sounded like a proper screwball. I’m afraid he’s going to wait a long time. I begin to realise the drawbacks of the latest technology. Hope that doesn’t sound like blasphemy.

We went for a late afternoon walk around Maida Vale. Jones has to have her constitutional or she seizes up. I needed the exercise myself. We tried the local park but that was closed. So we visited the bank, decided against coffee at the coffee shop, raided the bargain basket at the greengrocer (3 avos, 3 mangos & a cauliflower for a pound) & came home. I settled down to a large rum & coke before Willie the plumber rang the doorbell. The heating system of the flat below mine has been throwing temperamental fits. Willie had a fiddle & it seemed to be working okay. But the girls rang after he’d left to say it was still problematic. I confess I ran short of sympathy.

So you’ll understand why it doesn’t feel like a great day. Too many niggles. But being cursed with Libran equilibrium, the grateful half of me is glad they’re just niggles. Reminds me. We had an astrologer in this morning to make her predictions for 1996. I went down to reception to fetch her, a sophisticated lady. Did she get asked about lottery numbers I wondered? No, she told me, she read the stars & they didn’t contain lottery numbers. A pity! I didn’t hear her predictions, which were being recorded for New Year’s Day transmission. I’d have been more interested in hearing the forecasts she made a year ago. I confess I don’t put much store in astrologers. But judging by the way this lady was dressed there’s still a good living to be made there.

blessings,
T