The House Husband

Woke up bright and early this morning then waited for Nicktor to rise from the dead. It’s half term over here so he’s taken the week off to spend with his family. Yesterday he watched his boys play 20-20 cricket (they won one game and lost the other) and had a great day. Anyway, it means he’s not at work so he didn’t have to leave at his usual early hour. I had the Talking Newspaper this morning so he dropped me off on his way through.

Today I was back to reading the Farnham Herald and it all went pretty smoothly except for poor Charlotte who lost her voice near the end. It was very odd because it just vanished. But we managed to get around it and just left her out the reading circle for the last few items.

I had a few funny stories today as well as a big reference to the pig racing at the Surrey Show. My favourite was the 80 year old Farnham woman whose grandson emailed her entry off to appear in The Times fashion supplement last Wednesday. She had quite a shock when they said yes and whisked her off to Kensington for a photo shoot. She shops at Elphicks and made sure she mentioned how we have so many wonderful independent shops in Farnham. Oh, I just love this place.

The weather has been fantastic the last few days and the park has been very busy as a consequence. It’s also because of half term. Lots of men without t-shirts and women in barely anything, lying down on the grass giving Day-z something to sniff and lick.

I’m forever on my guard anyway but today, especially as she had an FSI. I could just see it. Someone says “Ooo, what a cute poodle,” and gives her a big hug, pulls a face and jumps up splattering when they realise they’re now covered in fox poo! But we managed to get through the park without any incidents other than the FSI.

I had a pretty busy day today. And a long one due to Carmen deciding I needed to wake up at 5:45! Rotten dog. And then, to douse insult over injury, she had an FSI during our walk in the park. I never plan a bath buffer into my days so I end up rushing her through the shampooing and rinsing and towelling off. Still, it’s her own fault. Actually I think she prefers it when it doesn’t last too long. Anyway, she then was all fresh and fluffy.

I put some time into my fourth and final essay, downloading lots of lovely articles about eReaders and eBooks. Annoyingly, when searching for them, I had to run three separate searches because they are called, variously, eBooks, e-books and e books! Oddly, this formed part of a point I made in the conclusion I drew for my previous essay with regard to automatic indexing. So, quite handy, really.

After a few loads of washing between study, I was off to record the Talking Newspaper for the month. Our presenter today was Prudence. She straightaway told us we had to be nice to her because it was her saint’s feast day. When I asked what she was known for, Prudence shrugged then said

“There’s something about wind.” Which made everyone look up, “If it’s windy, the sheets will dance.”

Quite surreal. Anyway, having consulted my Oxford Dictionary of Saints, there doesn’t appear to BE a Saint Prudence! I decided to spread my search a little further. I asked the Catholic Online website, which purports to have the largest list of saints EVER. The closest thing to a St Prudence is two saints called Prudentius, both of whom were bishops and, clearly, men. One has no feast day and the other is on April 6. I think someone has sold Prudence a turnip painted as a carrot. Still, we were nice to her anyway so it doesn’t really matter.

We were also regaled with stories from Ann, who was one of my fellow readers. She was having a moan about the Scots and, by way of illustration, told the story of her trip up the east coast of Australia. They’d travelled from Sydney to Cairns and started having a chat with an old Queenslander. When they said how far they’d travelled he was amazed. He’d not been any further than Brisbane his whole life and here they were travelling all that way. Ann’s husband said he had lived in England all his life and never travelled to Scotland. The old bloke then said:

“Why the bloody hell would you go to Scotland?”

We all laughed and then I said, in my broadest Australian accent:

“Why the bloody hell would you go to Cairns?”

They then set about laughing at my new hat, declaring it should have corks around the brim. They also asked if I was trying to bring on the summer weather – it was quite overcast all morning. I laughed and smiled politely.

After recording this weeks issue of the Haslemere Herald, Liphook Herald and the Messenger, I was off to the shops to buy my dinner and then to the TA Queen’s Barracks where my polling station is. For today was election day. I did my bit for democracy by placing a cross in the appropriate box. Actually I only really made up my mind this morning. I’m one of those horrid swing voters the parties hate so much. I glory in being so choosy.

But really, I don’t understand party loyalty and always voting for the same group of politicians. I reckon if you’re going to do that you should just have a permanent vote which gets counted and you don’t bother going up there on the day. Voting should be for people who want representation for the community not for the ones who only adhere to the tenets of a club.

Anyway, I did that then wandered up to the hospital to pick up some drugs for Mirinda, finally arriving home at about 4:30pm.

And, of course, due to my hat wearing, the weather has turned lovely. I spent a good half an hour burning rubbish with Carmen for company. When it’s warm, she likes lying flat with her belly on the grass. She looks so comfy, I took her photo.

Carmen chills

I have to admit that on the way home I didn’t see any dancing sheets.

I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning and accompany Mirinda up to the station and then it was basically a day of study.

I had a couple of breaks. One to walk the poodles who both managed to have an FSI. The upside of this is that they are both now very soft and smell nice.

That’s it for now, though. I have been staring at this screen for far too long! To bed!

Is this the pillow I see before me? Oh, I sincerely hope so.

But just before I go…here’s todays flowers. Part of my fairy circle around the tree.

Frescias in the garden looking like fried eggs.

Another glorious day! What the hell is this? Is 2010 destined to be called ‘the year of glorious days’? It appears never ending. Not to say it’s not cold. Oh dear me, not at all. Today it was supposed to reach 3 degrees. I don’t think it did. The wind certainly cut the temperature down to size.

You’ll be glad to hear that I am over my long convalescence. I am almost healed of the dreaded lurgy. Ok, I have no voice and the occasional awful cough but everything else is fine. So I finally left the house today. It’s the first time this year. And it was lovely.

The plan was to buy a new suitcase at Elphick’s to replace the one I unceremoniously butchered after our Edinburgh holiday following the Incident of the Melting Wheel, which I described at great length here. After a long discussion regarding the schedule of shopping and whether Mirinda was actually up to another trip into town, we set off.

Duly warned by the older lady with the rheumatic rescue dog as to the degree of slippery-ness, we trod carefully the park path into Farnham. A lot of people were wandering about, giving the park an air of Edwardian holiday, like most of this Christmas break. It was all very jolly, even given the fact that people were wrapped up like lots of Michelin men against the sub-zero temperature.

Farnham was nicely deserted. Not totally, of course, but enough to be pleasant and not pushed about, which I hate. I mean if I wanted to be pushed about, I’d shop in Guildford. We had decided to visit Waitrose first. And Mirinda had said she was happy to follow me around Waitrose as I purchased food for dinner. That lasted up until the automatic doors slid aside and she said she’d be in Laura Ashley waiting for me. So I did the food shopping and she did the window shopping. To be totally honest, I prefer it this way. I can shop a lot quicker on my own. And I know where everything is. AND I don’t find odd things in my shopping basket.

The plan was to then pop over to Elphick’s for the suitcase. Well we popped but, unfortunately, no-one had told Elphick’s. Which was closed. Sadly we moped over to Argos. They had lots of suitcases in their catalogue but none in their store. It was decided that I’d go to Elphick’s tomorrow and buy one when they’re open.

We then trotted up to Starbuck’s. But it was ram packed, as was Costa’s. We were in a quandary. I figure this was why Farnham was so empty, everyone was in the coffee shops. We figured we’d go to Chez Gerard’s and make it lunch. Which we did. Mirinda had a Breton pancake (to remind her of St Malo) and I had the haddock fish cakes (to remind me of nothing…I just like haddock fish cakes) and we both finished with coffee.

It was about halfway through the meal that we realised we always call the restaurant Chez Gerard when, in fact, it’s actually Brasserie Gerard. The clue was on the menu…and the sign outside. It’s because there is a chain called Chez Gerard, I suppose. I wonder if it’s the same Gerard? The food is lovely in both so it could be. Whatever…Brasserie Gerard is very Parisian and was an excellent warm up before Paris next weekend. Here’s a photo of it.

Brasserie Gerard restaurant

After a long, slippery walk home, we took the poodles for a brief run up to the castle and back. Apart from Carmen having an FSI, it was very enjoyable. It was also MUCH better than being confined to the bedroom!