Monday 17th March.
58 birthday cards! 58! That is almost 30% more than last
year. What have I done to garner such popularity? Whatever it is I will have to
find out so I can keep doing it.
Dad’s surprise present is a book of six journeys for the
Arran Ferry in my name with my car as named vehicle. What a star. Laura bought
me the first of a series of six pewter goblets to drink my wine from and
pretend I am an aristocrat! She is planning on one per birthday and Christmas
until I have six. [I think that sentiment was what made me cry rather than the
goblet itself. She is definitely committed to us as a couple!]
Laura wasn’t at work tonight as she had booked us a table at
the restaurant so we could have a meal there together. This was a totally
unexpected treated, even more so as Mum and Gran had been invited too! Dominic
made a huge fuss of them both claiming he could see why I was so beautiful,
because I had such a gorgeous mother and grandmother. I am not sure they fell
for his flannel but they were both pleased with the compliments. I had a crab
and pasta concoction which was absolutely scrumptious; Laura had the scallop
dish she had made for me the other week; Mum had a chicken and pasta dish and
Gran had lasagne. She claimed it was the best lasagne she had ever eaten.
Perhaps she was returning the flannel, maybe she was genuine; it certain made
Dom preen.
Gran was just full of her new Great Grand Daughter, Sophie,
this is new to me (again) as I wasn’t around to witness her reaction to the
other ones being either at University, in School at Norwich or in Australia
when they came along. She now has six of them, which is a pretty fine number. I
sort of hinted that with six she didn’t really need any more, did she?
She was angry. I was surprised. She may be old but her
memory is intact, “What about the idea of you and Richard having two, then? It
would be a betrayal of his memory if you didn’t have any, don’t you think?”
Ouch Gran. That was definitely a low punch. An exocet
missile of a punch. I know my eyes brimmed with water but I was able not to
blub and luckily Mum changed the subject to a less contentious topic. [Quite
appropriate that an exocet should be dispatched my way in Sheffield.]
On the way back to Mum’s car she actually whispered to me, “I
am sorry if I upset you with my comments in there. You sort of brought it on
yourself and I only said what I was thinking. I know it’s your life and your
body and none of my business. So I am sorry, again, for being a silly old
woman.”
I muttered conciliatory remarks too and we parted best of
friends again. She has agreed to stay over on Saturday night into Sunday at
ours this coming weekend and is looking forward to a short stroll in the
countryside if the weather is clement.
Laura thought she was being and old fossil with the Richard
remark and she said she half expected her to round on our relationship next.
She had decided if that happened she would just get up and leave rather than
say or do anything else. Phew. World War Three averted in the most unusual
place.
Tuesday March 18th.
My two part day was pretty much as usual. I was given a
handful of late birthday cards at XXX & Y, which was very nice. Including
one from s certain accountant at the firm. Fortunately his message was pretty
plain and simple, not gushing or embarrassing or anything. When I got home from
work there were still more waiting there too, brought by the postie this
morning. How come people have trouble remembering my birthday is on St Patrick’s
Day? It shouldn’t be difficult you’d think.
Mum and Gran went shopping at Meadowhall today and Gran was
suitably impressed by the place. Mum said she absolutely hooted when she told
her about me and Kaybers being thrown out for roller blading in there. They had
caught the tram in from Herdings Park, the southern route terminus, and Gran
thought that was brilliant too. I sort of forget that she hasn’t been to
Sheffield all that much and is still discovering the delights of the city. I
promised to meet them for lunch on Friday and we’d go to the Turkish restaurant
on Broomhill for lunch. I said that I would bring Felice along, that should
liven up Gran’s day too!
Once again Laura was at the restaurant but tonight it was
for work not being a customer. She was really tired out when she got back in so
we had a relatively early sleep.
Definitely a Radio Stars day today.
Wednesday March 19th.
I hugged an actor tonight. I felt a bit silly afterwards and
a bit like a foolish schoolgirl but the trio of guys had entertained us so well
for almost two hours, so when we met them in the foyer afterwards where they
were doing a meet and greet session I just couldn’t help it.
We went to see The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s “The Bible,
the complete word of God (abridged)” at the Nottingham Playhouse. It is
somewhere I have never been before but we were given excellent directions from
Mrs Briggs and we drove almost straight to it. I parked in an Underground
multi-storey carpark, which was quite unusual, and the theatre itself was just
a couple of hundred yards away from there.
We found an eaterie to have a swift bite to eat as Laura had
picked me up straight from work and we had driven down to Nottingham without
eating. The theatre is compact and bijou and reminded me of a smaller Crucible
being quite stark and modern looking, not at all what I was expecting.
The play is the one which was banned in Ireland (and then
unbanned) by a selection of narrow minded bigots who hadn’t even seen or read
the damn thing. It just gives further evidence of how religion makes people
stupid, in my humble opinion! I have seen their Complete Works of Shakespeare,
which is hilarious, so I was expecting great things of this one too.
We were not disappointed. The bigoted Northern Irish would
have found nothing to twist their knickers either, for while it was extremely
funny, it was not in any way irreverent, profane or blasphemous. OK, the Prime
Bigot of Ireland – The Reverend Ian Paisley – would have found something to
hate about it but then he is the most reactionary bastard on the planet so it
would have been no surprise!
They didn’t actually do the ‘Complete’ word of God, just the
edited highlights, with the first half being devoted to the Old Testament and the second half (loosely) to the New. I
said loosely because they introduced an audience participation section about
Noah’s Ark in the second half which made me glad we were in the middle of a row
not at the end. It was funny though seeing people pretending to be animals from
the Ark.
If you haven’t seen the show, or any of their shows, go and
see one. See them all. Give your chuckle muscles a thorough workout. You’ll be
so pleased you did.
Like I mentioned at the start, after the show they announced
they’d be doing a signing of programmes and a chat in the foyer so we duly
lined up with the other grockles to have our proggies signed and that was when
I threw decorum out of the window and gave the hunkiest looking of the guys a
hug. I think he was quite surprised (I know I was) and he just muttered
something about they were staying at the local Travel Inn, which got a laugh
from those around who heard.
Not to be outdone, Laura gave the same guy a hug too. She
told me afterwards that she felt she had to so that she wouldn’t feel left out.
Way to go Laura.
Driving into Nottingham, in daylight was quite
straightforward, driving out was a nightmare. I was sure we must have got lost
as I couldn’t see the M1 sign for quite a while and then all of a sudden we
found ourselves at the M1 roundabout. Places do look so different in the dark,
especially if you don’t know the route and you don’t trust sat nav. We were
able to drive right up to Chapeltown on the M1 so a swift ride over Jaw Bone
Hill and we were home in under an hour!
Thursday 20th March.
Swim and walk and the normal routine kicked in again today.
Felice couldn’t quite get her head round the fact we had been to see three
people tell the Bible story in two hours at the theatre last night. I had to
explain it several times before she understood, I think.
Then a few hours later she came and told me she’d surfed to
their website and now fully understood what I had been talking about and if
they were playing nearby again I had to invite her to go too. The woman is as
ditzy as me sometimes!
I asked her if she wanted to join us at Lokanta tomorrow and
she jumped at the chance. She has met Mum before but not my Gran. They could
either hit it off famously or it could be a disaster. My Gran used to be quite
a fluent French speaker when she was young so that may be a surprise for Feli.
Laura came bursting into the broom cupboard at lunchtime to
ask if I wanted to go a student party on Friday night? One of the crew with
whom we went out for a meal not so long ago has invited her and me to a do at
their house tomorrow night. It is pretty short notice but Laura seemed really
keen to go so I said it would be a good idea.
When she had gone back to her studies in the afternoon I
reflected on another student party I had been to in Cambridge where I had met
Richard. Who would have thought my life would have been so turned around by
attending that one particular event? Until Laura came along I would have said
Richard was the best thing that happened to me. Laura is joint first with him
now. Would I be tempting fate going to another student party? I know I am just
over thinking things, again. I am guilty as charged on all counts when it comes
to that.
Once again Laura was working at the restaurant tonight and
it seems she had an almost identical conversation with Dominic about last night’s
show as I had with Felice. He didn’t get the idea either. Maybe that shows just
how radical an idea their work actually is. I don’t think it can be down to the
fact that Feli and Dom are foreigners, I think it is just the unique nature of
what The RSC are about.
Laura wasn’t so tired after work tonight, so we made
ourselves tired by some other kind of work instead.
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