Thank you everyone who sent birthday wishes. I’m sorry I didn’t do individual replies, but I notice the trend these days is to put up a social media post the day after and collectively thank everyone, so that’s what I shall do. I had an idea to take you through my yesterday, which began at 05.20, as it often does, and ended at around 23.00, as it often doesn’t.
I’m up long enough to make a cup of tea and sidle straight into the office to deal with emails (for emails read spam), and am in the throes of that when husband awakes, checks on the tea situation, and changes the ritual morning dialogue by beginning with birthday wishes. These are then followed by the more traditional: Sleep well? Yes, you? Yes. (Few minutes off to let tea/coffee do its thing.) Any plans for the day? (Plans explained.) You? (Me.) Not a lot… And so the day begins.
Neil has much to do in the kitchen, and I leave him to it, and try to sell books for an hour. Then, a morning pottering around the house, trying to look useful while hoping not to be asked to help. There had been a concern that we’d have no water, Wednesday being both intake day and a bank holiday, so I go and check the tank only to find it full. The water elves have been at work when we were not looking, and we are very grateful. The main reason for joy is the fact we can have showers, and don’t have to wait until Friday to be clean. Some washing can also be done, and I can do that odd job I’ve been thinking of doing since Monday, scrubbing the bathroom floor. Meanwhile, Neil has drawn up a shopping list, and we head off to Sotiris for supplies. This is the usual case of searching around for what’s fresh and/or on the shelves, plus a few of those things you only buy now and then, but when you do… Shopping bill rages and knocks out most of the remaining spending money for the month, and there’s nothing untoward in the basket; no costly bottles of booze or anything, though I did buy a bag of frankincense for €7.00, which was an extravagance, and the price of butter these days…. OMG. I’ve moved onto Vitam or Bitam, or Βιτάμ, to be accurate. Cheaper and less cholesterol.
On which note, at some point during the morning, while also starting on the plotting for my series finale, I receive an email from the pulmonologist Neil saw in Rhodes last week, who also kindly said he would check my annual X-ray. Both good on all counts, which is good to know, and no need for me to go and see him. Later in the day, I get a phone call from our health insurance lady, who has set up the cardio checkups for Monday, so we’ll be on the 05.00 boat on Monday morning. Eek. Meanwhile, there’s much activity in the kitchen, and in the planning room where a timetable is drawn up, and supplies are checked. That done, I stay on the sofa with a puzzle or two while Neil clatters and creates.
Later, in the afternoon, Jenine arrives and joins the kitchen madness with gusto and much laughter. Something to do with egg wash and breadcrumbs being applied to chicken Kiev without having taken the clingfilm off them first. I don’t know, but I was called in to catch the laugher after the punchline, and witness the carnage. Only Neil could use every bowl and implement in the house to produce a red pepper soup, chicken, potatoes and veg. As it happened, the air frier chose yesterday to stop working, so the roasted carrots didn’t roast, and he forgot to boil the potatoes until we’d sat down, but the bread was fab, and so was everything else when it came, and that included Sam, currently hovering between winter and summer jobs. The house suddenly feels smaller with a six-foot-four godson in it.
The other one joins us by video from Rhodes where he has exams next week. He starts his summer work soon after at a massive gulag down the coast in Rhodes, where we think he’s to be a head waiter, but no-one seems sure yet. There’s much hilarity when the older brother decides to put the younger one in the fridge, from where he continues to chat away from his console in Rhodes, while we head into the sitting room to watch a film. In this case, it’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ from the National Theatre, and although I’m not a great Wilde fan, I enjoy the production, and chocolate cake, some ice cream, a Nexium antiacid tablet, some Maalox and water before bed, because I don’t want to have a reflux night. Surprisingly, I don’t, and here I am, rambling away, and happy to be here and getting on with another day. Again, I probably shan’t be here on Monday, so I’ll be back, all being well, on Tuesday.
Thank you again for messages, posts, cards, emails and the birthday wishes. Later today, once I have scrubbed the kitchen floor, I shall start reading my new biography of John Steinbeck.
