Tuesday 23 December 2014

An unexpected invitation

Monday 15th December.

Well, nobody asked at the faculty meeting about Felice, so it looks like she has managed her hyper-skive really well. I bet if I tried it I would get caught and thrown off my PhD work or something.

I skyped Suze this morning and she was full of how nice Louisa is. Well, I know! She was gobsmacked at how young she was too. I know that too! The kids seem to like her, which is always the litmus test in my opinion. Apparently they have been telling tales of their mad Aunt Vic. That will do my ego a power of good! Rah, rah, rah!

Only Jill really remembers Dad very well, Annabelle has vague recollections and Jeff can’t recall him at all. That will be a blow to his attempts to be the cool gramps. Ha ha ha. They have been spending their time since they landed in the pool! You have to in the summer, it can be scorchio!

Last night for Trevor tonight and he bought Loll a pressie. That is an unexpected bonus.

Tuesday Dec 16th

Full Uni day, and without Felice I seemed to just drift about formlessly and without focus. I am loath to do anything new without her but it is boring as hell. However, I now have the cleanest and tidiest office on campus. Perhaps in the whole history of campuses?

Oh, the girl tutee who gave me the invite to Friday’s party came to apologise for the guy being a pillock with Laura. She found out from some of her friends and they were a bit scared because apparently it looked like I was getting ready to deck him. How observant her friends were. I was getting ready to do him serious personal injury. We had a really long chat about her life and how much she has enjoyed her first term. She really loves Sheffield and would love to stay after her degree. She was also very complimentary about me as a personal tutor. It seems her friends at other Unis have a similar system but their PT’s don’t do anything like I do. (Maybe I am doing it wrong?)

We lunched at Lokanta for the last time this year, although it was much busier than usual. We have been such regulars this semester the waiter found us a table almost at once. We had the lunch special (as usual) and afterwards had a steady wander back through the shops on Broomhill, then back down to Uni. Loll has a couple of lectures, still, but I just messed about really.

Olivia had her final lesson tonight and still can’t get head round how long our holidays are compared to school ones! I gave her a past exam paper to attempt over Christmas, which was not a good idea, you could tell. Still, I explained she could do it on the nights we were still in Cumbria when she would have her lesson. Sadly her Mum thought that was good idea. Oh dear. How to make friends and influence people, or what?

Wednesday 17th December.

Secret Santa Day at XXX & Y. My miniature whisky and pair of engraved glasses went down a treat. I was given a personal teapot, with stand and built in infuser with two large cups. This means I will be able to have leaf tea at work instead of bags. They really must have asked about me before shopping. It is a brilliant pressie. Sadly I hadn’t got any leaf tea with me to try it out, so I will have to wait until we get back in January.

Christopher came down with a top-up of his Mum’s Mince pies, which was unexpected but very sweet. My favourite barrister threw a spanner in our end of season works by inviting me and Laura to a soiree at hers tomorrow night. We had to do some frantic calling to try and swap Sally and Jenny-Leigh to this evening. Luckily we were able to do so. Bobbi has doubled up with Sally so many times this year they must be used to it by now.

The evening went pretty well and all three pupils were given past papers to tide them over the gap between their start of the new term and our return. It seems that in future the lesson will coincide with University semesters anyway so that the student doesn’t have to stay on beyond the end of their session. It is only because we started later that the lessons, owing to the police checks, haven’t quite matched up.

Thursday 18th December.

The soiree was quite select and with only Laura and me from our chambers. The rest were people of MFB’s acquaintance, from all works of life. (OK, there were no dockers.) We had a great evening once I realised that dress casually means something different to people whose salary is four or five times that of mine. Laura went for her red tulip dress. She looks like sex on legs in it and I had to eat her a little before we left, as it makes me want her so much when she’s in it. I think she sort of knew as when I raised the hem I discovered she had no underwear on. “Do you know, you have done this the last five times I have worn this dress?” was her comment before my tongue brought forth a different sort of expression from her.

We agreed that she wouldn’t reciprocate yet, but if an opportunity arose at MFB’s we’d take it! I love it when she enters the spirit of sexual anarchy with me. [Who would have thought that less than two years ago she was a virgin? Technically, I suppose she still is!]

I went in my Mondrian leggings and a crop top under Dad’s leather biker jacket but when we arrived I saw this would be far too casual so I made a swift exit to the little girls’ room and changed into my multi-purpose black dress. It is a ruched fabric and so doesn’t show any creases. My FB said, “Weren’t you in leggings a moment ago?” I had to agree, but explained about my emergency standby outfit. She thought it was a hoot. We had a closer look at the fabric and she asked where it came from. That is the damning thing about this dress, I haven’t a clue where I got it. I know it was somewhere in London when Rick and I went shopping once but I couldn’t tell you which shop under pain of death. It is fairly loose fitting with an elasticated waist and round neckline. There are vague, flower shaped splodges on it, in purple, pink and silver.

There were eleven of us assembled and we had a sort of hot buffet followed by a selection of desserts. There would have been enough for double the number. It was hard to tell what everyone did for a living as all MFB did was introduce each other by name and that was all. No explanation of their profession or how she knew them.

I did recognise Adriana after we were introduced but as she had dyed and restyle her hair I was surprised as she looked so different (she is one of MFB’s clients). There was also a person who claimed to be an agent for a local MP who looked like a stuffed shirt but was amusing about life around Westminster.

We gossiped and joked and chattered and all we all got on like a house on fire. It was a really pleasant way to round off our week at work. One thing we did discover was that none of the assemble throng were spending Christmas at home. That must be unusual in itself. The destinations were many and varied. Three were ski-ing somewhere, a handful were catching some winter sun near to or actually in the tropics and the other three were staying in the UK – in the Lake District; me & Laura and a guy who sounded as though he was a doctor, or involved in medicine in some way. It turned out he is a dentist and was staying at the George Hotel in Keswick.

It was quite a surprise to discover it was midnight. We left just before we all turned back into mice or pumpkins. I think the best part about the evening was the unexpected nature of it all, the invitation came out of the blue and we met some very interesting people whom we probably would never have encountered at all in our lives.


One small aside, Adriana asked me if I had done anything about the ‘business’. I told her I just couldn’t, even though I had rationalised it in my head, it still felt as though I’d be cheating. She asked if ever her clients wanted a three way with her, would I like to be the second woman. I told her I would give it serious thought. I think the answer is going to be thanks, but no thanks.

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