under another sun

A day of rest, thank goodness. I slept for an hour this afternoon, having felt a bit under the weather the last few days. Lorraine completed her crossword puzzle. I spoke to Mum and Mas about Facebook. Lorraine chatted to Pat and Maureen. Peace reigned. I got a 'Happy step-ladder's day' message from Beth, which made me smile. Referring to it being father's day, and This is not my real ladder, it's my step ladder,  japes on emerging from the dungeon at home. Below Lorraine completes the puzzle. What happens now? It gets broken up and put away. Felt I had to capture the moment for posterity. Pat is busy doing puzzles again now. Beth does them too.

A bit sluggish and not able to concentrate this morning.  Iron discipline made me give myself a sharp pep talk, and made a list and ticked off all the things on it and felt a good deal better afterwards. Planning to meet up with Keith next week. Saw on facebook that the French Bloke was in hospital for an op, but seems to be in good spirits. I also went to the gym again, and while trundling and walking there and back finished The Unsettled Dust , the third collection of stories by Robert Aickman I've read. The last story was called The Stains and was brilliantly unpleasant. Mackerel and corn on the cob tonight. Got sent a smidge more work to do tomorrow morning for my pals in Chiswick. Lorraine doing a crossword tonight, to stop herself staring at screens. We listened to some music and I joined in, actually piecing things together is quite therapeutic. I feel I am being drawn into Lorraine and Beth's jigsaw cult. Calliope got involved as usual.

Up and awake early, and one of those rare days when I simply get out of bed the wrong side, and felt distinctly grumpy. A long and very deep chat with Lorraine helped though. She is a treasure. Later, after Lorraine returned from a haircut, I fell under the spell into the 1000 piece jigsaw that Lorraine is doing, with what must be a hundred different species of beetles on it. Became slightly obsessive about this. Beth returning with Laura, who made ah sweet noises as she entered seeing us both frowning over a large jigsaw. Lorraine quite a jigsaw fan, and even allowed me to slot in one or two.  A chilled night piecing things together and chatting with L and the girls, who spend half the time in each-other's company laughing.

L and I surged off into town to do some chores, and gasp down some sea air. The presence of the sun makes you think that Spring and good weather might one day be possible. We stopped off for a pot of tea in a cafe and saw Anton, Anna and Oskar through the window who then came in to join us. Oskar spent some time clambering on me and expertly deploying gingerbread man crumbs. But we had an enjoyable discussion about whether I could actually bite his arm off and how long this might take, and how many seagulls on strings would a person need to lift you into the air, and if the third iced button on the gingerbread man was actually his willy. He also has a crush on a girl called Summer. Then, farewells said, surging off into a few shops but found nothing I wanted and Lorraine started looking bleak and hungry, so we went home for restorative leek and chicken soup. A TV-off evening, with  Betty, who arrived this afternoon, and Lorraine working on a large jigsaw with hundreds of beetles ...