Owls and a jar of sunlight

Valentine's day was very nice. Got up early and bought some flowers and heart shaped pastries and chocolates for Lorraine, and then we had the same pastries and bacon sarnies in fresh bread for breakfast which was jolly fine. And I started the day feeling happy and content.

Imaginatively, Lorraine bought me a little black stone owl for Valentine's day. I love owls and already have a box of owls. Also later in the day when we were mooching around in Brighton we went into a charity store, where I seem always to find something, and Lorraine spied another owl carved out of some natural wood so that it looks like an owl in a tree trunk. I bought this and a sturdy blue pottery vase for about seven pounds. Bargain!

After a walk along the busy seafront we decided that the strategy of having a Valentine's meal in the afternoon rather than packing in cheek by jowl in the evening. Opted for Japanese and ate in the Oki-Nami restaurant which launched last year, and is owned by Brighton luminary Norman Cook, aka Fat Boy Slim. Lorraine and I had a glass of plum wine, which I don't remember tasting in Japan. It was sweet and rich and falling just short enough of wrong headed cherry bubblegum, marzipan flavours to be lovely. The chopstick wrappers also come with instructions on how to make origami animals, and Lorraine who is one for puzzles and sudoku-style brain teasers, got to work producing a nice bird and a sort of dinosaur from a rabbit blueprint. A nice restaurant, but the service is nowhere near Japanese standards.

Sloped home after this, and boofed onto my gold sofa where Lorraine, who is coming down with something, had a doze. and I happily watched rugby internationals on the TV. Beth and Mark popped around to pick up a bottle of wine Lorraine had bought for them and we had some discussion about Sweeney Todd. The production they were in had a professional set, and the star of it was the barber's chair from which, after Mark had slit his victim's throats, they slid down a chute ready to be made into pies. I did like this musical, particularly a song in praise of pies called God, That's Good!

Telling Lorraine tonight about a strange mental phenomenon. Was reading The Secret Scripture the other day and there was a description in it of how the colours of flowers bloom in sequence for the spring: white yellow and purple. It was rather throwaway piece really, but it opened a jar of sunlight in my head. And the same thing happened this evening looking at a stone wall on the TV. I don't know what it means, maybe it's a longing for Spring, but it is nice.

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