I opened the curtains and it was raining. Worse than that it was cold. I switched on the telly and got back underneath the duvet and there she was – the morning weather girl telling everybody that the weather in the UK was going to be ‘stupendous’ – 18 degrees celsius she chirped. It was not what I wanted to hear. I’m selfish enough that if it’s cold and wet here I don’t want my ‘old country’ to be basking in sunshine.
Wandering through the lounge it was cold enough for me to have to light the fire and only last week I thought I’d finished for the season. Luckily I hadn’t even thought of doing the final (and big) fireplace clean of the year, so that was, at least, some consolation.
There was nothing else for it - It was a day for house chores (thankfully only 4 more to go) but as I’ll have to have the place spick and span for ‘the African Queen’ when she returns, I did the absolute minimum.
After an hour or so of ironing (yes – more), sweeping and hoovering (or is it vacuuming now – why don’t we say Dysoning following the demise of Hoover, that once great institution?), I was just returning to some semblance of normality (for me) when I opened the papers on the internet to find that New York was ‘sweltering’ in 92 degrees (32 celsius I think). People were lying on the grass underneath Brooklyn Bridge soaking up the sun. This was going to be my blog photo but looking at it would have just depressed me even more!
Lunch – that was it. When you’re depressed – eat. Everybody does it and I’m no exception. Got a couple of strange looking things out of the freezer and threw them in a pan (well two pans actually) and let them bubble away to see what they were. Some sort of pasta with ham and cheese and an old chile. The chile tasted a bit iffy but ‘sandwiched’ in some pitta bread I was sure the kids would be happy with it.
‘OK kids – chile for lunch.’ ‘What else is there?’ ‘Well there’s pasta but you won’t want that will you?’ ‘Ooooh yes Thomas – we’ll have the pasta’. And so I was left with the iffy tasting chile and pitta bread which wasn’t too bad after all until I spotted the ‘sell-by date’ on the pitta bread. February 2010 !
Then a bit of lunchtime TV – Doctors – my one and only soap. And what was the storyline? A guy going mental and cleaning his flat convinced that there were bacteria everywhere. It was a bit too close for comfort – especially today.
I looked at the stock market. It was down for the 2nd day in a row. Time to be a raging capitalist again so I jumped in with both feet and then the US market opened lower and my shares went down ever further!
Then a blazing row with Kitty who was hogging the internet connection thinking that incessantly watching YouTube, whilst listening to web-based music meant she wasn’t ‘downloading’ data. Guy and I put her right. (OK – I know technically it isn’t downloading but it screws the line for the rest of us). It didn’t help that I’d eaten the last bit of her Easter egg!
Then a moment of weakness – I’ll brave the wintery conditions and have a cigarette and a glass of wine on the terrace. What greeted me was a thick coating of yellow dust - everywhere. It comes from the pine trees and covers absolutely everything; tables, chairs, pool and even Shadow if he’s in one of his sleepy moods. And of course, with my allergy it goes right up my nose and I can’t stop sneezing.
PS - that's the outside table on the terrace in the picture and one day's dust!
What a day!
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