Sunday 3rd November - And that was Half Term

That was the week that was - it arrived after a

week of chaos, and was spent in chaos.

 

I got through 29 of the 32 items on the to-to list, not counting the half-dozen or more items that got done but never made it onto the list.

Number One Son came to stay for a few days.





We went out to Arundel for a day as a whole family - and I was much better walking up and down the hills than I had been walking around on the flat the previous weekend. We bought Roly's fudge - EXCELLENT. Unfortunately I have now finished all my fudge.

I went for a lovely day out at Pulborough Brooks with Number One Son - that was a really good day out.

I cleaned, hovered, sorted, tidied. (Number One Son helped - bless you)

I went to London twice for hospital appointments. (Lung Function tests showed that the cyclophosphamide has been effective, and my lung function has improved. So I shall hopefully be able to continue with a similar immune suppressant medication - that's a "hooray"!)

While I was there I visited the Saatchi Gallery twice, the huge Peter Jones in Sloane Square to gawp at rare and expensive knitting yarns, and lighting displays (we plan to replace our sitting room light sometime), and Harrods gawp like a tourist at the décor, and Patisserie Valerie indulge myself with Nata tarts and mignon pastries. (I've just finished re-reading "Moon over Soho" and the jazz-vampire was always eating cream cakes in Patisserie Valerie, which was what made me want to go there again)

My piano teacher, who I "re-discovered" on the internet a few years ago having not been in contact since about 1974, has come to stay for a week (hence the housework!). I've had a couple of piano lessons, and in return she has been having lessons on how to operate her new tablet.




Today My Best Husband and I went for a stroll around some little fishing lakes and woodlands nearby at Sumners Lakes. I noticed that I had noticeably more stamina, at one point managing to get up a steep and slippery slope in one go without having to pause and catch my breath.





It has been a hard-working half-term "holiday", and there is a significant amount of work to do before I will be ready for the rest of term, but, even so, I reckon I am embarking upon the next seven weeks in better shape than when I started at the beginning of this term! 

Sunday 15th September - Arundel - A Perfect Day 1

What made the day so good, yesterday?

It was a family day out together (reset your mental image; the "children" are now properly grown up) celebrating a brthday which happened earlier in the week.

We went to Arundel, and carefully avoided any connection with any of the "Attractions". We've been round the castle a number of times already. The Wildfowl place was a regular place of pilgrimage when the children were small. I would load them into the car, along with suitable supplies for myself (book, flask of coffee) and spend the day there at half terms. They put on a really, really good day of activities in the Visitor centre, and I would find a comfortable place, with a good view of the lake, and settle down to watch the water birds, drink my coffee and read my book, while the children did their own thing, doing brass rubbings, model making, watching the vinegar-food-colouring-bicarbonate-of-soda volcano explode ...... lunch, walk round the reserve, job done. Day filled. Everyone happy.

Yesterday we followed a different agenda; mooch round the town in the morning, find lunch, and walk in the afternoon. The weather, the time and the place turned ut to be perfect.


We ambled round the town, looking at the farmer's market; hang on a minute, what were they selling there?






Oh, very funny. Irresistible to teachers.

I didn't take many photographs around the town, although this fountain caught my eye:


It appears to have been put together from an eclectic mixture of vases and bowls, topped off by the golden crown from the frog prince. I would love to have seen it working.


One thing that made the town so interesting was that there were none of the standard national chain stores in evidence. We didn't go far; up the High Street, turned left and followed our noses into an arcade which I think is the Old Printing Works and where you can find Real Crumbly Fudge, made in front of your eyes on the premises (https://rolysfudge.co.uk/

picture from the website

 They let us try all the varieties before we bought 4 decent chunks each of strawberries and cream, Baileys, coffee, chocolate and vanilla.  Leaving the arcade we passes a shop which sells miniature Steiff teddy bears (hint hint)  (ah, I've just seen the price tag, so don't pay any attention to the hint. Very, very, VERY cute and desirable though!)

I did ALL my Christmas bits and pieces present shopping at Sparks Yard -  a mecca for stationery obsessives. I've bought the Most Beautiful hank of yarn to knit a fine, lacey scarf, as delicate as a cobweb, but a pattern so simple that I reckon I can manage it without tears.

The town was full enough to be lively and buzzing, but not heaving. The shops were interesting, the little mazey backstreets fascinating, the houses and buildings most attractive, the traffic resigned and patient with everyone pretending that the streets were pedestrianised and people meandering at will from one side of the road to the other. I found myself checking out the estate agent windows in passing....

We did have lunch in a chain - Pizza Express - where I came across fascinating collages (another post), and finished off the day with a round walk along the river and back through the woods at the edge of the wildfowl reserve. More on this to follow.