I am very pleased to announce to the world that once again I am wafting the scent of Chanel no. 5 soap around me wherever I go.
I opened it in the shower after I had been for my swim, and it was absolutely heavenly. It is a very pleasing egg-shape and sits heavily and satisfyingly in my hand, and makes a soft, gloriously scented lather: and I could have stayed in the shower all evening, blissfully soothing the world’s grit away. I sat in the taxi for ages afterwards sniffing exposed bits of myself and feeling happy.
We worked late and slept late and then went shopping. This is much easier to do without the children and much more expensive with Mark.
It is ages and ages since we have been shopping, and all the cupboards were empty again, and it was really lovely to come home and fill them all up.
We have been working for so many hours that mostly what we eat are variations on the theme of sandwiches, olive rolls and cheese rolls and wraps with a variety of fillings that I try hard to make interesting and which are successfully nice sometimes and rubbish occasionally. Cooked meats and cheeses and Something Green like spinach, and olives or tomatoes or both, for example chicken goes well with Wensleydale and dried tomatoes, and beef does not go well with pineapple cheese and olives.
Anyway, we had run out of all of it and had emptied everything out of the freezer and had even begun looking speculatively at the doubtful tub of runny St Agur which has squatted at the back of the fridge for ages and which I didn’t like as much as the normal non-runny stuff even before it went off, which is of course why it is still there. It is really horrible with chicken, just so you know.
Anyway, off we went to Asda to restock everything, which was a joy, particularly because when the May Bank Holiday comes round we start laying in extra stores of things for the winter, like squirrels.
The reason for this is that in the winter I don’t earn very much in the taxi at all, actually nothing at all some days: because nobody comes to Windermere for their holidays. Whatever Mark makes at his real job has got to be used to pay the school fees and the mortgage, so winters can be desolate scary times, especially because of the colossal spending spree of Christmas in the middle, which I like very much and don’t want to miss out on any of its joyous extravagance because it is all so thrilling and lovely.
So we try and help ourselves along a bit by putting some secret money away and paying in advance for our Christmas adventures during the rest of the year; and also by storing lots and lots of everything that we are going to need for the winter underneath our wardrobe and also in a big Winter Stores trunk.
This is really nice when you get to December. We keep soapy things in the trunk, fabric conditioner and washing up liquid and moisturiser and similar things: and it smells splendid when you open it, clean and scented and reassuring. Coffee and wine go underneath the wardrobe in a guilty stash, and everything else useful like toothpaste and biscuits and blackcurrant juice goes underneath the chest of drawers.
It is a lovely safe feeling to go into the winter with full stores that I know will last right through until March: and we usually start refilling them around about Maytime, which is when there is enough money coming in to have a bit left over, and that was what we did today.
We bought two of lots of things, and three of some things, and coffee was on offer so we bought lots of it, and we filled the boot of the car, and when we got back Mark went off to work and I unpacked it all and hid it in all our little winter storage places, which of course had been all completely emptied.
It was ace to put the first things in there, satisfying and encouraging and reassuring all at once. There is an awfully long way to go yet, we are at the very beginning: but it is such a nice thing to be doing, and makes me feel very happy.
I felt very pleased with us indeed. When the winter comes we will be all right. Hurrah.
And I smell nice as well.
