I recorded the Talking Newspaper today with Nina. And I have to say, it felt superb. The best yet. Even Tim, the engineer said that it was excellent. In fact, in an email sent around to the other engineer later (to check the upload) he said “A particularly enjoyable session today, with a natural and relaxed dynamic between Gary and Nina!” (His exclamation mark.)
We listened to a bit during dinner and it sounded as good as it felt. Not for the first time, I really hoped that our listeners are actually listening to our recordings. This is probably how aspiring writers hope people read their books or singers their songs.
Before the recording I went shopping, as usual.
On the way home I saw the Woman from St Mawes. I was very pleased. It’s been so long since I saw her that I figured she’d returned to St Mawes with the intention of never coming back. Or worse.
As it turned out, she never went to St Mawes for the family holiday she was going on. As I wrote a goodly while ago, she was debating whether to take a property that was on a busy road. As it turned out, the decision was taken out of her hands when the owners of the house found a buyer for the property and cancelled all bookings for it.
The reason I hadn’t seen her, she said, is because she had been going for her walks at random and staggered times. Mind you, it could have been to avoid running into me, I guess.
I also saw the Woman Who’s had Everything and we walked back together.
She is so scared. The plague-fear has gripped her completely. I felt powerless to assuage her fears with anything other than vague ascertains that I wasn’t worried at all.
She told me a story about going to a friend’s birthday party where there was hand sanitiser on the table and bowls of snacks. The idea was you could use the sanitiser then eat except not everyone was bothering, she said in horror. The horror for me was the fact that anyone who did ‘obey’ would be destroying bacteria both outside and inside their bodies. It made me shiver at the thought. Why on earth are people destroying their own natural defences?
As we left the park at our street, she spotted the Homebase shopping trolley that’s been left there by some inconsiderate arse. She was very distressed about it. I said I’d report it. That made her happy.
I sent @Homebase_uk a DM on Twitter and someone replied, saying they’d let the relevant store know. While the response was excellent, the trolley was still there at 4:30pm when I went to the vets to pick up the girls’ passports.
