So developments continue apace at the birthday party to which I have been invited in Oxfordshire which covers both the anniversary of Meg’s passing and also my birthday the following day. My friend gave me the details of where her birthday bash is to be held and indicated that they had a few rooms left should I wish to stay on in the evening. So I acted quickly and secured a booking in their last remaining room at which I am delighted. The room is very reasonably priced but without breakfast but it looks as though another friend who is staying at the pub can be joined by a few people who live locally and we can all then have a ‘birthday breakfast bash’ for several of us the day after the main celebrations (which is actually the date of my birthday) I know there is a German tradition to drink champagne at breakfast but I will have to have a think about that! To return to more mundane matters, the other night I was pursuing YouTube on my TV when I came across a wonderful offering by a young UK practitioner of emergency medicine who presents some very informative videos on medical matters. The one that caught my attention was ‘Fifteen foods to stave off diabetes and other related ailments of old age’ so stayed up late and made notes on the video as a whole. I am probably eating half of these foodstuffs anyway but will now take pains to shop for the other half. Incidentally, I also saw another video on how rubbishy are tinned tomatoes on the basis of which I raided my food store and threw away the two cans of tinned tomato I had in stock) As I has slept in, everything was running late yesterday but I am cooking a meal for my son and daughter-in-law whose birthday it is and then we have some birthday cake with which to celebrate. The next week is going to quite a full one for me as my son and daughter-in-law, who now live 4-5 miles away, are having a new kitchen fitted and as they will have no utilities they are going to camp out in my house until the work is completed Later on there is the final rugby match n the Six Nations series and together with the rest of the country, I am wondering how England are going to perform against France who ought to beat them easily but who knows?
In the morning, I exchanged several texts with my Oxfordshire friend fine tuning some of the arrangements for the birthday party to be held in about two months time. There are going to be a lot of mutual friends there and I am also very keen to make the acquaintance of even more of her friends some of whom worked at the University of Winchester but after I had left. Later, I went down by car to collect my newspaper but also had a cup of coffee in Waitrose. Whilst there, I bumped into one of my acquaintances with whom I was familiar from the days in which I pushed Meg up and down the hill in her wheelchair and we exchanged pleasantries about how we were both coping with life after the death of our respective partners. After I returned home, I knew that I was to cook lunch for my family so I parboiled some sweet potatoes which I then finished of with a roast in the microwave oven, and this was used to complement a ham joint cooked onion gravy and served with some broccoli. After lunch, we all settled down to watch the Scotland vs. Italy Six nations rugby match which Scotland won fairly convincingly. No sooner was this over when we watched the Ireland vs. Wales match which the Irish won but the Welsh put in a sterling performance which rather belied their position at the bottom of the Six Nations league table. Now we come to the final match in the series that would decide the total as a whole – England vs. France in Paris. After two defeats, England fought the French every inch of the way and when the time was up after 80 minutes were actually in the led by one point. But play continues until the ball goes dead and the French won a penalty n front of the English posts. Once they converted this (in the rugby equivalent of extra time) they score three points and thus won the match by two points. It also meant that Ireland were denied becoming overall champions by the goal scored by the French in the 83rd minute of the game. After recent performances, the England team could feel very proud of themselves and they certainly won in the ‘clearout’ phases of the game but the goal-kicking by England could not match that of Ramos, one of the best kickers at goal in the world.
The next week or ten days is going to be very interesting for me. My son and daughter-in-law will be with me for most of the time whilst their flat is having a new fitted kitchen installed. My son will go over to the house regularly throughout the week to let the workmen into the house and to pack up after they have left but the next few days is going to be like camping out for them. Naturally, I shall enjoy some company and I will share meals with my family for the immediate future. Yesterday, for example, we had a Chinese meal delivered with some duck and spare ribs, the duck being used to provide the filling for some wraps. Also, my family had ordered a meal which was sufficiently large to last for two days so we shall more of the same tomorrow. We were having some interesting family discussions during the day, including some reminiscences of Meg and I was reminded by my daughter-in-law how agitated Meg became when I had to leave the house, for example to go shopping. Of course, this I did not witness (not being in the house) and did not fully appreciate at the time but of course its makes her memory even more precious to me. Meanwhile, the country has the spectre of rising petrol prices with which to contend. It is probably recognised that oil (and therefore petrol) prices will have to rise eventually but this does not explain why the oil which was extracted perhaps months ago and refined weeks ago and then put into garage storage tanks should suddenly attract an increased price, much to the annoyance of much of the general public.