First of our five day celebration, which has always made Lent so difficult to be abstemious in when it starts in Feb! Our G is 32 today and tomorrow brother P is 23 and then our wedding anniversary is 28th Feb. So in years gone by its always been a week to look forward to as special family time. It feels rather disjointed this year due to enforced separation but its the same story across the country so c’est la vie. At least if we have mobile signal we can video call.
The day started clear and crisp but it was a little blowy. I joined the Zoom Breathe meeting, which was really quite jolly and then, as a result of a comment from a friend on this blog, listened to an episode of ‘John Fennimore’s Souvenirs’ on Radio Sounds whilst doing my exercise routine. Certainly made a change to doing it to music! I don’t often find things I listen to funny, but this had me laughing out loud. It was so good for the soul. He started off talking about a homemade lasagne that actually turned out to be a cake but J called it lasagne because he’d given up cake for a year! Very pertinent as I’ve given up cake and biscuits for lent which in usual circumstances wouldn’t be much of a hardship. However since this trip one of our highlights has been what type of biscuit shall we have with the morning coffee and indulging in slabs of cake in the afternoon! R as slim as a pin needs the calories. I do not! Reminds me of the months after his bike accident, where he had lost 3 to 4 stone. I through anxiety, also slimmed down but obviously not nearly so dramatically and was quite happy with my new weight. Then I had to start feeding R up to put on the weight he’d lost. The problem was I also ate the double cream, the extra sugar and whatever other goodies that became our diet whilst he regained his figure. I certainly regained more than7 mine! In danger of repeating the experience whilst on the boat, although if we were sitting at home in lockdown it would probably be the same story. Comfort eating I think it’s called and who can blame those of us who do it? Food is one of life’s pleasures. I feel sure though that sugar is as addictive a substance as any, especially when combined with fat. There was a study done on rats a few years ago. They were fed fat alone, then sugar alone and then fat and sugar combined. Eating the fat and sugar separately, they consumed what they needed and then stopped eating. However once combined they just ate and ate with no cutoff point until eventually they became obese.
Just as we were setting out for our walk G rang and we embarrassed him, as we do all our children, by singing ‘happy birthday’ loudly on the phone. This year I think we were the more embarrassed being in such a public place standing on the boat’s stern singing! Our version is a ‘Jesus’ one (A happy birthday to you, a happy birthday to you, every day of the year may you feel Jesus near. A happy birthday to you, a happy birthday to you and the best one you’ve ever had!). We sang it every time a child at Sunday school had a birthday, so they know it well! It was only a few years ago G let on he had never forgotten it so now that’s the go-to version! Our signal was pretty poor, even after considerable trial and error walking around the lake, so it was pretty difficult deciphering what G was saying. Eventually we switched to an old fashioned ‘phone call’!
Willen Lakes in usual times would been bustling with activity. It seems to have been purpose built with water sports in mind. Subsequently it somehow looks more functional than the previous lakes we enjoyed walking around and not so beautifully landscaped. It’s an amazing facility though, including the adventure park, for MK and conveniently close to where so many people live. I would love to see it all in action and not the ghost fairground `a la ScoobyDo cartoon it appeared today. Hopefully a few months more and the community will be enjoying their outdoor pursuits once again.
My evening tipple meant I finished off a bottle of my favourite artisan gin called ‘Blue Slate’ from the Welsh Hills, purchased in Bala. One of the nicest gins I have tasted – only having ice with the gin means I can really appreciate the flavours and as its strong, I sip rather than glug – I have always found a G&T an ‘x’ rated lemonade and drink it as such!
Series 3 of Unforgotten saw us through the remainder of the evening, after attending a Lent group to discuss a book recommended by the Archbishop of Canterbury on evangelism which R and I have downloaded on my Kindle. It’s a bit tricky reading the same book at different times on a Kindle because I have to remember where I left off and try and find the page whilst remembering where R was when I picked the Kindle up, so that I can get it back to his page, or just hope he remembers where he was!
As a finale before bed and to get murder out of our heads, we watched the first ever episode of ‘Keeping up Appearances’ which gave us a few chuckles. R had never seen it – simple humour but some great lines! R told me its written along the lines of the Miss Mapp Stories by E F Benson, which he coincidentally is reading right now!
NarrowboatTLC 