Good friends of ours, Chris and Carole, were
celebrating 20 years of wedded bliss and we were very proud to be a part of
their party at a local restaurant. For us all who were there at the wedding the
years seemed to have passed by quickly and we did not feel greatly different to
when the happy couple were married, but it was our children, now all grown up
and venturing off on their own new adventures, some married and with children
of their own, that made us feel old.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Neighbourly generosity…
Sue and Pete, a couple from down the road held a small
soirée for a select few of the neighbours to celebrate the festive season. They
have a small flat but they were very welcoming and generous with their good
humour tasty nibbles and limitless wine. We had a joyful evening and enjoyed
good company with lively chat, jokes and spirited debate until we all felt
quite replete and sated whereupon we only needed to stagger a few steps back to
our own homes.
Raise your voices…
A regular seasonal outing is to visit my Uncle for
Christmas carols with his neighbours and friends. For many years this was held
in his house, but since my Aunt passed away it has been transferred over the
lane to Alistair and Bruni’s place where we gather for songs, liquid courage
and good food brought by the guests.
It is a jolly affair supported by the ample skills of
the musical members of the Aldbury Morris and the virtuoso talents of other neighbours
and professional classical musicians Jo and Paul. All of the guests were in
good voice with a mix of young and old singers providing a heavenly sound.
I went on my own this time as Sue felt obliged to go
to her company’s party and I think from what she said she would have preferred
to come to the choral evening (something about nightclubs, no shoes and tears
before bedtime).
OH, OH, OH…
The festive season is upon us once again, the tree is
up and decorated, lights are strung up and twinkling, presents are wrapped and
pilled high ready for the big day. Greeting cards are covering the mantelpiece,
the wine racks are filled in readiness and Christmas music is on the radio.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
International Rescue…
A couple of friends of ours who live out in Corfu are
back in the UK for the Christmas and New Year break and we imposed on the good
nature and handy man skills of Terry to help change out our faulty shower unit
while his wife Alexis kept Sue and Debbie company and decorated the Christmas
tree.
We had a slap-up meal in the evening provided by Sue
and eat and drank copiously into the wee small hours reminiscing and telling
tale tales. The next morning when we tried to give Terry some money for his
help he refused saying that considering the amount of food and drink we
consumed it might have been cheaper to employ an actual plumber.
More of wot I have read…
This is an interesting book of unusual twists and
turns and a mystical quality to it. Not everything is explained thoroughly in
complete detail and it is left up to the reader to bring something to the story
and to fill in the unwritten gaps with their own interpretation (I think this
would bring an unique experience to each reader). In what was a deliberate move
I am sure some parts of the story are disturbing, some moving and others just
plain bonkers, but in all it is quite a satisfying and rewarding read.
‘Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his
father's dark prophesy.
The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a
bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly
turned upside down.
As their parallel odysseys unravel, cats converse with people; fish
tumble from the sky; a ghost-like pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the
night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since World War II. There
is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle.’
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