RECENT HAPPENINGS.

Although life is a bit difficult at the moment, there are some good moments.

Hubby took me for a little drive on Saturday afternoon and we stopped at a country pub in an isolated little village for a glass of wine. Very pleasant!

On the way out though, we stopped at a garden centre to buy some food for the birds, as commanded by our daughter! 🙂 It was an extremely hot day and there were not many people in the garden centre: I think they were all either on the beach (can you believe that this particular beach girl has not even been on the beach once this summer?) or serving afternoon tea to their friends/neighbours on their immaculately coiffured lawns!

These days, of course, garden centres do not sell only garden-related things. As soon as we had entered this one, hubby spotted some belts and spent some time trying to find one that would fit him. I was hot and am not good at standing still. Moreover, I have always had a tendency to feel faint. I warned my husband that if he did not hurry, I might faint – but he took no notice (he is not the world’s best listener!).

Eventually he decided on which belt to buy on the way out – and moved on to look at something else. As I followed him, I had this weird sensation that I was going to fall over. I am an old master at feeling faint and know all the signs. This time though, it felt strange:?just a sudden feeling of almost keeling over to the side, but then being able to right myself. Luckily I managed to get hubby’s attention this time and we went at once to the garden centre’s cafe where I had a coffee and half a rock cake and soon felt much better. It was 3 p.m.,  very hot and I had only eaten one little yogurt the entire day, so I suppose it was not really surprising that I nearly fainted! Strange though that it was actually starting to walk that triggered it: usually walking makes me feel better.

Sunday was quite a cheerful day. Our son and his wife came round for a barbecue in the evening and it was really good to see them. It was a good evening and even our daughter enjoyed their company. I do love my daughter-in-law, she is such a very sweet girl.

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There was an amusing incident after church on Sunday morning. We were in the hall talking to M, a guy of Italian origin who is a real joker and never fails to make me laugh. Then along came J, who is a not-so-young American who is quite an eccentric lady. She is an extremely orthodox Catholic (I always say she is more Catholic than the Pope!). She has a good heart but can be very, very judgemental. Conversely though, she can surprise you sometimes by unexpectedly showing quite a naughty, cheeky side. That side of her character manifested itself on Sunday!

J was talking to M and it emerged that they had been sitting next to each other near the back of the church and had both had a fit of the giggles during the sermon. The priest was talking about bread and how before they invented the modern name for it, there was another work hlaf (pronounced claf) which roughly meant ‘loaf’. Sitting at the back of the church, both J and N apparently misheard and thought there was a p at the end of the word, instead of an f. They then thought of the naughtier meaning of the word ‘clap’, as in a disease. And they both giggled…….

I must admit that I was surprised that J would would have thought of that meaning for the word. If I had misheard what the priest had said, I do not think that that meaning would have entered my head…. and it amused me that it had entered J’s. I looked at my husband and strongly suspected (later confirmed) that he did not even know what they were on about, although he did not let them know that!

The really funny (but quite embarrassing) thing though occurred later, after M had left. Our priest came over and was talking to J about an article he had read in a Catholic newspaper about animals (J is crazy about animals and quite fanatical about animal rights!). After this conversation was over, J really surprised me so much. I could not believe it, but she only went and told the priest what had happened during the sermon with her and M mishearing the word and laughing about the other meaning of ‘clap’!

I think all that was on J’s mind was her concern that the priest might have seen them laughing and so she wanted to explain their laughter. I really could not believe she was saying this to him anyway, but then it at once became clear that he had no idea what this other meaning for the word ‘clap’ was! So, he was asking her what she meant and she – poor thing – was too embarrassed to explain! I chimed in and tried to laugh it off, telling him ‘Oh, she is just being naughty’ and he said ‘Oh, okay’ and immediately scurried away! We left poor J walking home still shaking her head in disbelief at her own stupidity……

Not your average Sunday morning at church, that’s for shure! I was left laughing at the thought that the priest (who is really into words and their meanings/origins in a big way) was probably going to go back home and search for the other meaning of the word ‘clap’. He will probably see J – who he no doubt previously thought of as being very prim and proper and quite prudish – in a different light from now on! 🙂

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Today (Monday) was our wedding anniversary: 41 years. We had a quiet day at home with our daughter and had a game of Scrabble in the afternoon. Tonight though hubby took me out to a country pub for a meal, just the two of us.

This past year has been hard on all of this family, for many, many reasons. I wish that hubby and I could get away for at least a short break, just the two of us, but it just isn’t possible. We cannot leave our daughter. If she were to start going out again, we could take her away with us….. but just the two of us going away by ourselves is probably a thing of the past. It is just something we are going to have to accept.

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Btw, I know I am not posting here much at the moment, this being partly because there seems to be so much in my life that I cannot write about….. There seem to be more things I cannot discuss here than those that I can! There is quite a lot of stuff going on in the background, but I am sorry I have to be so vague about so much…….

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Finally, if you try to look at this blog during the next few days and cannot access it, this will probably be because I have deliberately taken it offline, just temporarily. Just doing a bit of maintenance, kind of thing!

Have a great week. 🙂