Monday November 11th.
Why is Monday so quiet a day?
I met all of my Tutees today. That was fun! The majority
seem to have settled in really well and are on target and up to date. One of
the guys asked me if I was at the Firth Hall on Sunday. I had gone to see the
Handel Vespers. He was there too with his girlfriend. [He must be a quick
worker!] I told him about the City Hall’s International Concert season but he
thought they were too expensive for his meagre resources. He does go to the
free Lunchtime Concerts at the Firth and he will be going to next week’s
evening concert with Ensemble 360. It was quite a surprise to find another fan
of Classical Music. He hadn’t approached
me and Laura at the Firth Hall because he felt embarrassed! I told him he must
do so next time. [He could buy his tutor a drink!]
One girl is still seriously homesick. She was quite
miserable and upset. In fact she came into the “broom cupboard” and just burst
into tears! I spent a long time with her, calmed her down and asked her to
explain exactly what the problem was. There were a few more tears but she
eventually became lucid and less emotionally stressed. After ages and ages I
sent her to clean up in the staff toilets and then took her to lunch with me
and Laura, to try and get her cheered up a bit. She hasn’t been home since the
start of term [home is Hull] so I told her she must go to Hull this weekend!
I’ll even buy her a train ticket if necessary! None of her friends have come to
Sheffield and although she says she has made some new ones here, she is still
missing her old school friends and her Mum! Ah, bless!
I don’t know if I have
made a difference but I have also given her my mobile number if she wants to
talk at any time.
Loll and I went to Mum’s before heading home and we had
dinner with her. She is keen to hear all about the Arran caravan. She has asked
if she can come with us when we go and stay. It was weird having Mum ask if she
could come to something I will own. Naturally I have said Yes. I have also told
her that because I have 50% ownership I can invite anyone I want, to go and use
it even when I am not there. The owner would like a list of possible users of
the van, as the vans aren’t to be sublet
to strangers or anything. I think having my Mum on the list of users is a great
idea. When I showed her the photo’s of the site she was stunned. She remembers
it from our trip to Brook Cottage last year, but the pitch has wonderful views
over Whiting Bay and the Clyde and has no obstacles in front of it at all!
Loll wasn’t at work tonight; this week seems to have very
few bookings compared to last. She will only be there on Tuesday, as on
Wednesday it’s the Girls’ Dining Club [at Lorraine’s] and on Thursday we are
driving up to Dad’s to be closer to the Arran Ferry. It would be a hell of a drive
from Sheffield straight to Ardrossan to get the 9.45 ferry! Breaking the
journey makes far more sense, plus we can all pile into Dad’s car, instead of
taking two!
All in all, this was a day that passed with only one little
incident and no unnecessary excitement.
Tuesday 12th November.
Dog walking and swimming again, as usual.
The newspaper van wasn’t outside Sylvia’s as I walked past
this morning. That must be the first time it’s been late for ages. Sylv herself
was standing on the step of the shop telling potential customers [there are
always one or two early birds] that the van hadn’t been yet. A puncture on the
Middlewood Road turns out to have been the reason! We found that out on our
return from the pool where the same old codger who had accosted me on
Remembrance Sunday, at Sylv’s, was there again. Luckily the old git didn’t
start on at me this time even though today I was poppy-less and sporting a CND
badge on my duffel coat. {You have to put a CND badge on duffel coats. It’s
de-rigeur. Some prat at work asked me, “What’s with the “peace” badge?” How
bloody ignorant! I put them right about it. Explaining how it was semaphore for
N and D inside a circle, hence CND. Some people know nothing!}
We went our separate ways at Uni and I found Feli with a
cardboard cabinet, just like the ones we’ve been looking at, waiting outside
our broom cupboard / sorry, Office. She had bought it on e-bay. It is part of a
kit, done by an American woman, which you buy in stages and make up your self.
This person on e-bay had bought the cabinet and then abandoned the idea. Feli
was wondering if we could make our own embroideries to cover the thing? I know
my embroidery would probably be up to the task but I also knew Feli was still
doing counted cross-stitch kits of kittens! I get the feeling if we agree it
will be YT who ends up making the embroideries to cover the box.
I had a serious think about it during the morning and have
decided that we could have a go at reproducing the scenes we have found on the
other caskets. We have hundreds of photographs of the panels and close ups of
the stitches. With a bit of ingenuity we should be able to work out what the
stitches are and make up our own designs. I also know Michelle from the Royal
School of Needlework who would help us if we get stuck. I use the word “us”
advisedly. I just know it will be me who does all the work.
The homesick student came to see me today and was a much
happier bunny now she’d spoken to her Mum and arranged to go to Hull for the
weekend. It was a no-brainer, to me. She is going to zoom off on Thursday,
missing only one lecture in the process. She is also going to have lunch with
Loll and me on the Monday after she comes back and let us know how she got on.
At XXX & Y solicitors’ Mrs Briggs was all ears about
Ensemble 360 and next Tuesday’s concert. I gave her the web address of the
Firth Hall and she called it up while I was in her office. She booked two
tickets for the performance there and then. She then said, “I’ll not tell
Christopher about this.” She was also surprised to find out about the lunchtime
free concerts, performed by undergrads and post grads as part of their
coursework. She is thinking of attending a few of those too.
I spent most of the Christopher-free afternoon doing more
digitising of files. This is getting more and more interesting as I go on. I
have found a couple more crimes that would make brilliant novel plots. I’ve
taken a few notes on my tablet about the interesting ones.
Back home Laura had cooked dumplings for the stew we’d put
in before we left for work. They were really tasty, she’d added rosemary to the
suet mix, which was unexpected but worked a treat. She then zoomed off to the
restaurant, driving herself down in quokka, leaving me to continue my
embroidery. [I have started a tree of life panel for Feli’s Casket.] She rolled
back in at about 11.20 to find me fast asleep on the sofa with Callie pushing
the zeds on the rug in front of the stove. I had put Tubular Bells on repeat
and it was playing softly to itself as she came in. I guess that must have been
what sent me off to sleep.
Just a swift stroll for the useless guard dog tonight [she
hadn’t moved a muscle when Laura came in!] and then the sleep of an innocent
soul took me through the night.
Wednesday 13th November.
I woke up from a strange dream about having a baby to find I
was actually suckling! It was Laura, gently licking my left nipple while her
fingers were playing with my labia. What a wonderful way to be woken up! I
guess this is how Richard must have felt when he woke up to find he was already
inside my vagina as I’d eased myself on to his morning glory.
It was only about 5am but I instantly found the energy to
respond in kind. Callie was confused when she padded up the stairs at 6am to
find her mistress already up and about and Laura raring to take her for a walk
too.
We had the usual swim and after breakfast made our way into
the city. Ms Geary had left a note in my in-tray so I went to her office to see
what she wanted. It was to pick my brains about the Lake District. She was
thinking of spending the Christmas and New Year period up there and wondered if
I could recommend somewhere. I was really disappointed. I thought she might have
been wanting me to get involved in some research for her again. I seriously toyed with the idea of offering
her a place at Dad’s as I am going to be house and dog sitting there over the
holidays [with the Lollster] but I chickened out. I promised I would put
together a list for the end of the day.
By 5pm she actually came down to ARR and asked if I had
anything for her. I gave her a printout of the notepad document I’d compiled
and then went, “Actually… If you want to stay with a local who could guide you
on walks, and the like, and take you to stuff that the Cumbrians do over
Christmas, I am house sitting Dad’s place. He’ll be in Australia and I was
conned in to doing it. It has five bedrooms so there’s plenty of room. You’d be
welcome to stay there if you want?”
I was expecting her to dismiss the idea out of hand; to my
surprise she asked me where Dad’s was and how far from the National Park. She
seemed really keen on the idea. She said she’d have to ask her partner and then
get back to me. Either this will be a major feather in my cap or a total
“Whoops!” Still, I would enjoy having someone to guide up the fells over winter.
I did at one point investigate becoming a volunteer ranger but the time
commitment was too great.
Laura was amazed that she had even taken the time to
consider it. She has made a bet that she will accept the offer. If she wins I
have to be her slave for a week. [She’ll be mine if I win.]
Lorraine’s meal for the night was a version of Duck a la
Orange. It was really tasty and cooked just how I like it, that is, still pink
in the middle. A couple of the girls were unsure about that but they ate it
anyway.
Laura and I had gone in extreme dress tonight. Well, sort of
extreme. She had on a tight mini dress that just covered her bum and was so
tight you could almost see her heart beat through it. She borrowed my porn star
stilettos, with the Perspex sole and four inch heel [Richard bought them for me
along with some saucily sexy underwear once.] I had tight leather hipster jeans
on and a sports bra top, it doesn’t look like a bra which is why I wear it as
an ordinary top, plus a short denim jacket. I had the ubiquitous heeled ankle
boots on, they are so comfy. We had done identical make up and matching nails.
I thought we were stunning.
There were 10 of us tonight which is quite a high number; we
usually average 8. Lorraine’s home is in a 1980s private flat development at
Crosspool. The flat was very tastefully decorated and extremely tidy. It has
great views to the south looking over towards where my Mum lives. It was on the
third floor and had a hall way and stairs that could have actually been inside
someone’s home. I have never seen a set of stairs in a block of flats that was
so well cared for. The rooms were also so well insulated you couldn’t hear
anything from the neighbouring flats.
One bit of scandal, she did tell us she thought a high class
prostitute was working from a ground floor flat as the number of men visitors
she seemed to have was huge! Obviously this was only conjecture on her part,
but interesting all the same. We asked what the neighbours would make of a
group of women all turning up at her place. She said she’d told them she was
having an Ann Summers party!
Lorraine and Sue were full of the climbing they’d done on
Sunday and I had to explain why I enjoyed it and how I had started. They
assumed that Laura had been climbing since she was little, coming as she did
from the Lake District. She had to confess that it was me who had dragged her
into Borrowdale when she was a young teenager so I could have a climbing
companion nearer my own age and of the same gender. She also told them that it
was my confidence [bossiness] and taking charge of things [also bossiness!] that
were some of the factors that had made her fall in love with me when she was a
youngster. I just sat there and got redder and redder. They asked her what the
others were, as you can imagine. So I was party to Laura’s confession about the
way I had captured her heart and how she felt it would be a completely lost
cause, especially when I became engaged to Richard. [I sort of knew all this,
but it is weird hearing it being told to a whole group of other people.]
They thought she was a very determined and single minded
young lady to have kept a candle burning even though she thought the whole
affair was futile. I just kept cringing more and more into my seat with
embarrassment [and yet a part of me felt incredibly proud that she could open
up like this to a group of relative strangers – to her that is].
This lead on to a series of anecdotes about how each of them
had met their partners / husbands. I was asked about the “famous” Richard. So I
went through the whole ‘argument at my tutor’s party story’ for what must be
the umpteenth time. A couple were surprised that I had actually fallen in love
with Laura after being so staunchly heterosexual [I didn’t know whether to be
insulted or flattered] and they all thought that what we had together was very
special. It is. I think that every time I wake up next to her.
One of my e-mail contacts remarked to me on Tuesday I had better
be careful because of all the women I knew who were falling pregnant, he hoped
I wouldn’t catch the same thing, well Rachel Harrison turns out to be the third
woman [I can breathe a sigh of relief. LOL] She told us all this evening and as
you can imagine everyone was really pleased for her. We were all bursting with
questions and she was delighted with our reactions. I think it was Claire who
asked “Was it planned or an accident?” That was the only slightly sour note,
and the intake of breath was almost audible. Rachel was honest and said it was
sort of planned, but all she had done was stop taking the pill and sure enough,
four months afterwards she was with child. It’ll be a June baby. We all got a
bit broody after this revelation, as you can imagine. I was hoping nobody would
ask me or Laura whether we wanted to be Mums. They did. Laura came out with an
emphatic, “No Way”, which sort of stifled further questions, I was honest and
told them I sort of did and sort of didn’t.
We had an enjoyable time together, as we always do. Very
silly, very giggly, quite raucous. We zoomed off home at about 11.30 leaving
four of the girls still there.
Thursday 14th November.
Usual walk and swim and then we both went to Uni an hour
early. As we were skiving off later we thought putting an extra hour in during
the morning would be useful. I was doing very nicely through one of the [many]
inventory lists when Feli arrived. She was a bit out of breath and had to
confess that her BF had stayed the night again and they had shagged until the
early hours – and then some.
She thought the design I had chosen for the tree of life for
the cabinet was really good. She was surprised at how far I had got with it
already. To be honest, this is only an outline of the whole design and part of
the tree trunk and branches.
We kept on with our translation until 1pm when I left to
pick up Laura and go home. Feli is on the official list of people to take with
us to Arran next year. She’s going to cover for me tomorrow.
We left home at about 2pm and were pulling into Dad’s drive
at just before 5. I was really impressed that the traffic had been so light.
Louisa had dinner almost ready when we arrived and we sat down to a hearty beef
stew [and suet dumplings] at about quarter to six. That’s the same meal twice
in one week!
Dad had a pub quiz match at 8pm, so I accompanied him while
Laura went round to her folks’ house. Dad’s team won by about 14 points and as
before the Dad / Daughter combination proved a wow. I have no idea where his
team are in the league but as the league only started in October it’s early
doors yet.
Back at Dad’s Laura had retired so Dad joined me walking
Callie and his pack up the hill to the wind turbines. He was quite chatty and
obviously excited about Arran. It turns out he even was more excited about the
trip to Australia. He hasn’t been there for ages. He was back home the year
after I had my Gap Year before University, so that makes it 2006 or 2007!
Surprisingly he is also very excited about a new grandchild. I shouldn’t be
surprised I suppose.
Half way up the hill he asked me, “What do you think about
Louisa and me trying for a baby?” Thanks Dad. I really needed that sort of
question.
I told him I thought it was a bit of a shock but if they
were both OK with it, what I thought didn’t matter at all. I jokingly said, if
it would help I’d have one and let them have it! Stupid bloody mouth of mine.
We walked back in a bit of an uneasy silence. Why the hell do I do it?
At the bottom of the stairs I gave him a hug and told him,
“Look, Dad. If it happens I will be really pleased. You have to accept that it
might not, though. Be happy with Louisa and take things as they happen.”
He kissed me, gently, on my forehead, ruffled my hair and
said, “God, you are so like your mother.” I climbed the stairs wondering what
the hell that meant.
Laura was lying on top of the bed waving the strappy at me
as I came out of my en-suite. I didn’t need a second invitation. It is a good
job I won’t be driving on Friday!
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