Saturday, October 20, 2007

Day at Mother's and men having sex in a field ...

Lord H and I motored (goodness, how 1920s that is!) down to Essex today to spend the day with Mother. Who, incidentally, is looking very perky now and getting out and about more, which is good news. We decided to take her and my stepfather out for an airing and lunch, but I must admit that the pub we chose wasn't really that good. Too slow service, okay-ish food, they appeared to have run out of the electricity needed to have lights in the dining room and the only radiators were in the loos. Weird. Apart from that, it was great! And Mother enjoyed her salmon in spite of Jim (stepfather) making a brave bid for the Mr Grumpy 2007 national title - phew!

Afterwards, we nipped into Manningtree (one of the great unsung towns of Essex, which has always, to my mind, had an NVQ Level 5 in Charm) and stared at the birdlife on the estuary. Thanks to the conveniently located RSPB telescope and on-hand help - as naturally we'd forgotten our own ... Exciting new birds spotted today: vast tribes of golden plover drifting across the pampas grass (I admit I may be overstating the case a little there), and six zillion avocet (ditto). My, what funny bills they have. And Jim made up for lunchtime grumpiness by buying us all an icecream - which we ate in the freezing winds from the estuary while walking along the front, so never say we Essex countryfolk don't know how to have fun.

This evening, we have been switching between my video of "Strictly Come Dancing" and some weird sport where lots of muscly-thighed men get together in a field and have sex. At least, I think that's what they're doing, but Lord H just harrumphs (again, how '20s!) when I suggest this and frowns at the TV screen. By the way, I've voted for Gabby in the dance competition - her dance was far and away the best, in the sense that she actually dances, rather than indulging in all that ridiculous posing performed by the Beautiful People. But we'll have to see what happens tomorrow ...

And I think I'm coming down with my monthly cold. Though I'm dowsing myself with the essential whisky and Lemsip mix (don't do this at home, children ...), so hope it won't be too bad this time. But hey at least it's familiar!

Today's nice things:

1. Mother appearing relatively back to normal (arrgghh!)
2. Birds
3. Strictly Come Dancing (can't mention the rugby - apparently it's too upsetting even though it hasn't finished yet ...)

Anne Brooke
Anne's website

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