It’s been three years since we lost Carmen. It’s hard to believe that so much time has gone by and so much has changed. I think of her every time I move the table on the terrace because it was such a favourite place for her to lie and survey her kingdom…albeit without the benefit of the extra height the terrace affords. She would have loved the terrace.
Not that she’d have stayed on the table this morning. I moved all the terrace furniture onto the path and hit it with the high pressure spray to clean off the gunk and funk of the winter, preparing it for the end of hygge. We’ll soon be eating outside.
Eventually I left for town.
The other thing that’s been three years is how long ago Chelsey left Starbucks. This might not seem like much, and I wouldn’t have remembered it only I saw her in Starbucks today. I’d forgotten what a bright, bubbly, smiley girl she is. She’d popped in to have lunch with Sue. I said it was a shame I couldn’t stay today because I could have sat and annoyed them.
I wasn’t staying because I had a Talking Newspaper (the first since my double shift back in February).
On my team I had the always funny Chris, the drily humorous Heather and the incredibly slow Richard. Whenever I see his name on the roster I groan. We’re told to keep our voices at a good moderate pace and not rush but he’s so slow that you can’t help but speed up. I’m surprised we all stayed awake.
But we did stay awake and the Haslemere edition went off with very little fuss or fuddle. I was away from the studio in very good time, leaving behind a very happy and cheerful team of readers. Di was in the next group and she said it sounded a bit raucous so she assumed it was me. Their group looked a bit serious.
It was while I was walking back to Farnham that I realised I hadn’t eaten. Normally when I have a Talking Newspaper I grab a salad from Starbucks but I’d been so distracted by the pleasant Chelsey I’d forgotten. Not that I was particularly hungry. I’ve managed a few 24 hour fasts before but they’d been planned. This was the first accidental one. Dinner felt very well earned when I sat down in front of it.
When I reached home the girls went mad (it is a long day without me) so, after giving them lunch and having a cup of coffee I changed into shorts and we went to the park.
Yes, that’s correct, I changed into shorts. I’d like to say that I wore shorts in order to show off my gym-tastically redefined legs or as most people would say, normal legs, but, actually, it was just very, very mild and jeans were just too much. I also just had a t-shirt on while everyone else we saw – and we saw many people and their dogs – were still in fur-lined coats and Arctic trousers.
In fact, today was glorious. Full on sun, blue sky and the temperature reached the dizzying heights of 16°! I clearly picked the right week to clean off the terrace and the furniture. Spring is very, very close.
