Reverie

It is Friday the 13th and I am sitting in the conservatory with a cup of tea, listening to soft rain from overhead mingled with a little Debussy and, after I finish this entry, I'll go back to what so far promises to be a good book. The perfect rainy afternoon. As always I have been busy, sometimes I don't realize how busy I even am until I go back and reflect on my week.

Last Friday, Luke and I went and spent the night with Neil and Nic. Nicola made us a gorgeous roast dinner and for dessert we had a rhubarb and apple crumble that I think I could have eaten the whole thing if given the chance. It was nice to see them again, especially on happier circumstances as Doogal is now back home and going excellent! Doogal has made such a remarkable recovery that he is actually now a case study at Cambridge University, I've told him he's famous to which his reply was just a big lick on my face.

We returned to Southam Saturday evening because Luke's Auntie Julie and his cousins Becki and Katie had come down for the weekend which meant a barbecue on Saturday night before Becki, Luke, and I wandered down to the cricket club for some drinks with the boys. Perhaps a few too many drinks with the boys, as Sunday meant the three of us all awoke nursing hangovers and to a house full of people, including Ian's two nephews Issac (3) and Sam (1). Issac wanted to have a water pistol fight with Bob, Luke's granddad. This turned into all the adults and Issac running around the garden behaving like children while Sam sat on his grandmother's knee eating blueberries with wide eyes that suggested he thought us all crazy. In the end Luke went and filled a bucket with ice water to soak his cousin Katie through to the bone as she shrieked and Issac just laughed. All of us pretended the water fight was only for Issac's benefit but being honest I think everyone enjoyed behaving like little children.

Tuesday night as ever is the pub quiz at the 45 White Lion, and for the second week in a row we received 1st place which this time meant we won £45. I think people are probably starting to get a bit annoyed that a bunch of young people continue to beat them at the pub quiz. We're probably the youngest regular group by twenty years. I attribute our continued success to the fact that we are all reasonably intelligent and each of us has our own little area of expertise.

On Wednesday night I made dinner for Luke, Lindsay, and Ian this time using a recipe I found in an Ideal Home magazine but had never tried before. It was Salmon Ceviche served on a salad comprising lamb's lettuce, sugar snap peas, and fennel. I really enjoyed it and it helped me pacify my sushi craving... just a bit. At the moment I would kill for some I Love Sushi (my favourite sushi place for those not from Vegas) especially some Unagi and a Screaming Orgasm, don't cringe at the name it's lightly seared ahi tuna with a spicy ponzu/yum yum sauce. For some of you I sure it sounds as if I'm speaking a different language and since all this sushi talk is torturing me I'll diverge back to my original topic. The Salmon Ceviche was very good, I'd make a few little changes to it I think next time but at the moment I'm not sure how, it needed some zip like perhaps a little garlic.

My favourite day of this week has by far been yesterday, Thursday, for two reasons. The first being I finished the book I borrowed from Nicola last Friday: Sepulchre by Kate Mosse. It has been a long time since I was sucked so deeply into book. Whenever I read it, I was completely engrossed in the world of Selpuchre, I could see, smell, taste everything she was describing. I suppose for me it was especially nice because the story of Selpuchre takes place near Carcassonne, a town in the Pyrenees not so far away from Pau that I happened to pass through. The story jumps back and forth between two time periods 1891 and 2007 but the stories are intertwined. It is funny, I would get engrossed in one time period for a couple of chapters and then it would jump to the other, I would get annoyed because I wanted to know what was happening in the previous time period and then once it switched the same thing would happen. Luke was reading Selpuchre's predecessor Labyrinth and was really enjoying it but now that I'm done with Selpuchre I have taken over reading it since he reads at what I consider to be a slow pace and I cannot wait another month to read it. While Selpuchre is not the sequel to Labyrinth apparently there are some minor characters in Selpuchre that had larger roles in Labyrinth, which partly takes place in 2005 and partly in 1209. I'm only a few chapters into Labyrinth, but so far I'm loving it!

The other thing that made Thursday so special was Luke and I went up to Burton Dassett to watch the Meteor Shower. Words cannot describe how amazing it was. Luke and I lay on a blanket wrapped up warmly against the tower to block us from the wind and a thermos full of hot tea. The meteor shower was absolutely breath taking. I was expecting just a few small shooting stars but no, these looked like large fireballs in varying colours of blue, green, and orange. There were so many people up there as well, and nicely enough a lot of them were around our age or a little bit younger. It was nice to see so many people out enjoying nature!

Well that's my week, tomorrow is Lindsay's birthday and the family is going to to Piccolino's Italian Restaurant in Warwick, I have not been before but I'm sure it's going to be a good night and I'm looking forward to it.

Erin

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