Monday July 7th
We told Sarah, at the pool this morning, about the boob
flashing and she thought it was hilarious. She asked what we’d have done if the
car had turned round and come back. I said that we’d have climbed over the wall
and run!
She had been in Coronation Park for quite a lot of the
Sunday and was pretty surprised by the number of people who had turned up to
see the race. She thought there would be good coverage on Look North tonight
and we said we’d try and watch it – we forgot. I don’t watch much TV at all to
be honest and it seems as if Laura is the same as she never seems to hanker for
it too. Anyway, it was “I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue!” on Radio 4 which always
takes precedence over anything on TV.
Today is the halfway point through our month of working
together. So far it has been fine. We hardly see each other in the building;
Reprographics and Archives are floors apart and at opposite sides of the place
too. Laura’s task today was binding up copies of notes to go into court. She
has to put these plastic ring clip things on them (a bit like a long thin
sprung hair clip but without the spring) which keeps all the notes together and
in order.
I have seen them after they have been used in court as we end
up getting them to file away in the Archive. Often they are scribbled with
notes and questions which pass between the barrister and solicitor in the court
room. Occasionally there are doodles. One I had, a few years ago, had a brilliant sketch of the
bench of magistrates – the barrister that day must have been very bored!
I have just worked out this is my anniversary entry into
this blog. Phewee Musky, I have kept it going for a whole year. Initially I was
only keeping it as a means of remembering my holiday in Western Australia but
decided to keep going. I have re-read some entries and they do bring back good
memories they also seem to be peppered with mistakes – typos, wrong words etc.
My editing is obviously appalling; so my new batch resolution is to make the
editing much better. What’s the betting in a year’s time I will be saying the
very same thing?
Home pronto after work and then after our meal I whipped
Laura down to the restaurant and I went over to Wyming Brook, for a woodland
walk with a tinkling stream alongside me. I know I could have walked up Coumes
Brook but usually it is such a muddy trudge I don’t find it enjoyable. Wyming
Brook was Idyllic. There were quite a few people around and several dog
walkers, so Callie ‘meeted and greeted’ several other hounds on our sojourn. I
rolled back into the little house at just before 10pm!
I drove down to Dom’s to pick Laura up and she was
complaining, now, that the place had been dead all night! Last week she’d been
rushed off her feet and now she was fretting about a lack of customers. It will
pick up during the week though, they have three Hen Parties booked in on
Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. She finds those amusing even if the hens are
usually lousy tippers.
Tuesday July 8th.
Dog walked. Swam. Showered. Breakfasted. Work.
Just one of those days. I did go climbing with Angie and
Mike this evening while Laura was at the restaurant and we ended up at the Fox
House Inn again for a swift libation as it started to rain. Wet rock is no fun
to climb on. Their Undergrad Climbing group didn’t last all that long so next
year they are planning a fresh approach. I have asked to be counted in and they
are pleased to have me on board. I also signed Laura up in her absence.
When I told Laura this, as I picked her up, she was
surprised. She had forgotten all about the little group. I suppose the low
numbers taking it up should have been a warning. Still maybe they will attract
more people next year.
This was definitely a Radio Stars Song Day.
Wednesday July 9th.
Mum called me before we left for walk and asked if we wanted
tea at hers, so I agreed but told her we had to zoom Laura to Dominic’s by
seven, she said she’d come over to mine, cook tea here and then we could sit
and gossip while Laura went down the road. She does this fairly often, as I have
encouraged it. My only rule is the kitchen has to be left how it was found.
At work we tried to guess what she wanted to tell us. She
normally saves bombshells for face to face rather than over the phone. I said
she was probably re-marrying – Laura thought that would be lovely. She was of
the opinion she was going to move up to Hawick or somewhere near her Mum (my
Gran) as Gran is long in the tooth. Tough as old boots but heading for her
mid-eighties. I had to hope that wasn’t the case. I love having Mum sort of
round the corner. If she moved to the Borders that would be as far away as my Dad.
I’ll have been abandoned! I don’t think I am ready for that to happen just yet.
Of course, as Mrs Briggs quite rightly said, “We may be just
borrowing trouble!” It is amusing to hear your own words coming back at you
from someone who is your (sort of) boss. She is right though. There may be
nothing at all in our worrying.
At home Mum had prepared a meal of pork medallions with
cider, they were delicious. In fact there probably weren’t enough of them as we
cleared absolutely everything. The dessert was a key lime pie, which she had
made at home and brought with her. That was even more delicious than the pork,
if that is possible.
Mum sat and gossiped for ages. She mockingly chided me for
inviting Dad to come and watch the tour de France but not her. I asked if she
would have come to see it if I had and she said, “No!” I did explain how he and
Louisa were only here to see Dream Theater at the City Hall and she went into a
long reminiscence about how she and Dad had seen them in Newcastle in 1994 when
nobody had really heard of them. They played a small club near the Tyne which
probably doesn’t exist anymore. I had been left with my siblings in the trusty
care of Gran in Hawick. I was just 7 at the time.
I described the tour passing by to her and she was
interested but I think glad she hadn’t bothered to make the effort to come and
see it happen. She was surprised that Dad
had wanted to stay and see it though, so was I to be honest.
She asked about how Louisa was and was there any more news
about the baby. I passed on what we had discussed with Louisa and Dad over the
weekend. Which was simply that things were progressing normally and as far as
we knew everything was fine.
This lead her on to what was probably the real reason for
her wanting to talk. (Yes, it was about babies and, no, it wasn’t about me and
motherhood – don’t jump the gun!) She had a call from Jane in the week who
sounded a little worried as she thought that Philip was having less and less to
do with baby Sophie. It seems he is leaving almost everything to Jane and
hardly doing a thing to help her. Jane thinks he is avoiding the reality of
having a new baby in the house and is trying to continue as though she isn’t
there and in need of attention and love and affection from both parents.
Mum tried to make conciliatory noises to Jane but I could
see from her demeanour and expression that she is concerned for them all. I
know Phil can be a bit of a pillock at times but I have to hope Jane is
mistaken about this. Having said that it wouldn’t surprise me in the least as a
new baby is bound to impinge on his “I am a flash git” life-style somewhat. Mum
advised Jane that they need to sit down together and talk about it. There is an
equally likely possibility that Phil is such an insensitive bugger (he is a
typical male in that respect) that he may not even be aware of what he is
doing.
Jane had the cheek to ask about how Dad was with me when I
appeared ten years after Phil and twelve after Susannah. Mum thought she might
be trying to seek some correlation between Dad’s attitude to his new bundle of
fun (yours truly) and Phil’s attitude to Sophie. I was keen to know too so I
repeated Jane’s question to her.
Dad, it seems, was absolutely overjoyed at the news of my
impending arrival and even more so when I finally appeared. He did his fair
share of help with my early care and once he could see I was a smart cookie he
was even more hooked. Apparently when I uttered my first sentence he was
delirious with my budding genius. I had said, “Victoria in Difficulties!” He
took this as a sign that I was going to be the child genius his family was
lacking so far. Suze wasn’t all that bothered about school but she knew from an
early age she wanted to be a nurse; Phil (apparently) was a major
disappointment as he wasn’t a chip of the old block at all. It took him ages to
learn to read (by Dad’s standards) and he liked doing little boy things.
The fact that I could read at such a young age and seemed to
love literature and books and learning about everything must have been what
made me the apple of his eye all those years ago, a situation that still exists
today. I know he feels Suze let him down by not following where her talent
would have led her (to become a doctor) but settled for what Dad considers
second best (a nurse). Phil’s relentless pursuit of mammon he, frank, abhors.
That a child of his could be so fixated on money and its acquisition at the
expense of the arts and literature is something which has blotted Philip’s copy
book forever and indelibly. It is just sweet little old me; former nymphomaniac
in the making and arrogant, stuck-up, superior little cow, who on the death of
her fiancé had a nervous breakdown and when she recovered turned into a feminist
lesbian; little flawed Vic is still his favourite.
Mum is going to use their visit next weekend to drop hints
about stuff he should be doing when Jane steps up to do anything Baby related.
I think whacking him with a 16lb hammer would be a better method of getting a
response. It is worth a try though, not only for Jane’s sake but for little
Sophie and Peter and Angela. They are bound to notice that their Dad is
becoming an absent parent, surely?
Mum’s wine intake meant that she was in no fit state to drive
so as I went down to the restaurant with Callie to escort Laura back home, Mum
went through her ablutions and was ready to hit the charp when we got back in.
We weren’t all that long in copying her actions, although we did delay in the
shower again – but quieter than usual. (My second bedroom is right next to the
bathroom!)
Thursday July 10th.
Mum slept through us getting up and dog walking; going
swimming; coming back and making breakfast. I went up to the second bedroom and
knocked on her door in case she had died in the night. She hadn’t. She
staggered down for a late breakfast just as we were leaving for work.
Work was as usual really. I didn’t see my beloved after we
parted company in the lobby until our hasty lunch time. Then we were joined by
Mrs Briggs who was keen to know when Mum was going to Scotland. I explained
what had transpired and she said that she wasn’t surprised; men really weren’t
very good at being parents, on the whole. I started to defend Dad but after
consideration of how he has been with Suze and Phil decided to keep schtum
instead.
Home as usual and an early meal and then walked Laura down
to Dominic’s. Apparently Dad had phoned Reinhardt and Reinhardt had been in
touch with Dominic and they are going to arrange that Dom becomes a customer
and will be able to order wine at trade prices and get shipping at discount for
bulk too. I am a star and have been invited for a meal (with Laura) whenever we
want. We asked if it could be after we have been to Australia as we fly out in
just under two weeks’ time. Dominic was happy with that. We said we could use
it as our “Commencement Dinner”.
I have now finished the seventh in the Sara Paretsky series
of novels and am getting more and more attuned to her writing style. I
completed number 7 this evening while Laura was working. I walked down with
Callie to collect after 11pm and we strolled back through Coumes Wood – no teenagers
again tonight. Maybe they were just there as a one off?
Less than a fortnight to go to Australia! Yaay!
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