A cheeky lunch with Romy

An unusual morning. Lorraine and I travelled up to Blackfriars this morning to meet Romy. She was staying at Seacontainers, now a hotel and block full of agencies, some of whom I'd had dealings with over the years, and also it was just along the river from the IBM building I worked at in the nineties. It still feels very familiar there. 

Lovely to be able to see Romy albeit briefly. We met in the lobby of the hotel, and sauntered along the river, and stopped for a coffee in the NFT then a small pizza in Gabriel's wharf. For the last few days she's been working between London and Frankfurt. Lots to discuss and catching up on family things, hearing about Dick's baseball oriented trip to the US, Joan, Raine, Toby and the house being gradually reassembled. She'd enjoyed seeing Mum the other day in the White Bear, and was looking forward to collecting the venerable Meatball, now a US resident, on her return. Nice to sit with Romy by the dreary grandeur of the Thames. Sadly, before long the Romster had to zoom off to the airport and we made our way back to the hotel.  I luckily realised that I'd left my bag in the restaurant, and had to nip back. Fond farewells and felt sad watching Romy ubering away. She texted from her plane at Heathrow, and the journey was all fine. 

Mum had been to the doctor's today where a nurse checked her ears. No blockages, and her hearing seems to be back to normal now. All rather mysterious, but I'm very pleased.

In the evening Lorraine and I repaired to the boot. Andy and Delores said they were applying to be in Race Across the World. The idea is you have to travel from one place to another on the globe with not much money, while being followed by camera crews who lovingly record your every meltdown. They were arranging to shoot a showreel of themselves on Sunday. Andy said they ticked all the boxes, she was a lesbian, mad about sports, Delores a black straight woman and they were comparatively new friends. What could possibly go wrong? Debbie joined us too, and I'd enjoyed getting to know her more this week sitting next to her in life drawing. She's a good egg. Lorraine and I home earlyish to rewatch more episodes of Shitt's Creek.

Below a family snap by the river.