Hotpot heaven

I made a Persian hotpot on Monday to eat on Tuesday night. I didn’t know what Mirinda and Bob wanted to do so thought it was a good option. As it turned out, Bob took us to Bel and the Dragon so the hotpot sat in the fridge. Waiting.

Tonight we had the Persian hotpot. It was delicious. Mirinda will finish it tomorrow for lunch. Lucky thing.

She wasn’t so lucky this morning though, having to get up at 6am. The plan was to drive to the Bush for a final coffee with Bob before Carol picked him up. She was then going to the station to go to work for the first time in yonks.

I had a Talking Newspaper so I had a little longer on the lounge than I normally get.

Today I was presenting the Farnham edition and had three lovely readers: Lindsay, Heather and Christine. Actually, Christine didn’t turn up. We were a bit worried so I rang her. The conversation went a little something like this:

CHRIS: Hello?
ME: Hi, is that Christine?
CHRIS: Yes.
ME: Hi Chris. It’s Gary –
CHRIS: Oh, hi Gary! How are you?
ME: I’m good thanks, Chris. I was just wondering what kind of morning you’re having. It’s such a lovely day today.
CHRIS: Yes, it’s beautiful. Mine is good except for a dentist appointment I’ll have to leave for soon. What about you?
ME: Not bad. I’m sitting here in the studio editing the Farnham edition with Lindsay and Heather and we were wondering where you were.
CHRIS: Oh?
ME: The thing is, you’re rostered on to read today.

There was a sudden shriek followed by copious, heartfelt apologies. She seemed particularly distressed because, she admitted, I’m her favourite presenter. She then explained that she’d just returned from holiday and hadn’t entered all of her days into her new diary and was now off to the dentist instead. I told her not to worry and that going to the dentist was possibly punishment enough.

The funny thing is that the last time I was at the studio was when poor Janice only had one reader turn up. That reader was Heather. I told her she must be the jinx of 2018.

The recording went fine and almost the only thing Roy the engineer had to cut out was me saying a letter writer was ‘clearly insane.’ Though I maintain that he was.

Actually we all had great fun and made the next group a bit jealous with all our jollity.

Then, finally, we ate the hotpot, thinking about Bob jetting towards Tokyo. It’s quite nice having the house to ourselves again but I reckon we might miss all the company. It’s been a memorable and populous couple of months.