Really nice weekend in Brighton. Carried new container of white paint up the hill and employed it with abandon in bathroom and in alcovey bit of living room. Seem to have vast amount of other stuff to sort out suddenly. Chased sofa delivery. Did lots of houseworky stuff, laundry, in between talking to MJ.

Still fondly remembering being mentioned by MJ as "her boyfriend" on the radio. Quite surreal to be listening to a local Long Island station and hearing people discuss me.

Jubilantly phoned by Paul on Friday who has a job at last. Delighted for him. Now have to write artful reference by Tuesday. Also jubilantly phoned by Sarah on Friday, she was made redundant despite being pregnant. She is going to make them pay and was relishing the fight ahead. She really is a warrior woman.

Most jubilantly of all, phoned by French Bloke on Saturday on a private matter which hasn't reached press release date yet.

Janet, when walking to the station along the twitten had been disapproving of my roses. She appeared in the afternoon brandishing pruning implements and soon my three rosebushes were neat stumpy things which she assures me will burgeon later. Plus she gave me clear instructions about other flora in my microscopic garden.

There's something about pruning that Janet loves.

Had cups of tea and a lovely long chat with Janet that ran into a couple of hours. She is such a good friend to me. Then a quick shower, and up the road to eat a meal with her and Ken. Good to see Ken too, always good value, and he and Janet warmly invited me to Aix later in the year.

Met their new cat called Rossini, which being compliant and willing to be held like a baby, is utterly the opposite of Oscar who I always thought should have been called Lucifer. Remember the time I was catsitting Oscar and woke up in the morning to find a dead woodpigeon with its guts eaten out and the berries it had been eating scattered all over the carpet, merely because I'd opened the wrong tin the night before.

MJ in my thoughts or on my phone or computer screen all weekend. Thanks to her pal Johanna, who has been sending me very funny emails about our schedule and "Merry Jane", I now discover that the Siren of East Northport is actually arriving on Friday morning, and not Thursday as previously thought. I am really liking Johanna, despite her slippery grasp of history and idiom. She seems to have cheekiness in common with the nicely bodiced one.

Beautiful day today. Felt a bit spaced out this morning, and after replying to Johanna went out to the market and bumped into Anton and Anna and Baby Klauds.

Bought vegetables and wild boar sausage from French traders in the market. Then I went shopping for a bit, bumped into Charlotte in the mall, bought food, lightbulbs, shoes. Defeated by bathroom cabinets. Seem unable to buy them for some reason.

Home and a procession of talking to MJ, painting, cups of tea with Anton and Anna listening to soul music, phonecall with Mum discussing diverse matters such as relatives who smell, love, and the employment of dogs as throwing weapons against vertically challenged former colleagues. Then making good after decorating and then long message conversation with MJ before slumping to bed.

Felt like there weren't enough hours in the day.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Okay, nicely bodiced one is getting a LITTLE touchy about being referred to almost exclusively by the size of her chest! A) The bodice is not remarkably large, and b) I actually do have some other redeeming qualities c)Peter Kenny is going to get a talking to