I have had a very happy day.
The first, and probably most important thing that happened, was that I didn’t have a hangover.
I can’t tell you how lovely it is not to have a hangover, especially when you have gone to sleep in some trepidation.
Of course we had an ace night, the sort where you all talk over one another in your eagerness to be heard and to make each other laugh. We did laugh, a lot, and it seemed like no time at all before the grandfather clock was dinging so much that it seemed to go on for ages, and like Cinderella, we had to say regretful goodbyes. We have been friends for twenty years now, almost nobody else has been taxi drivers for as long as we have.
Mark and I cleared up and talked about the evening, which is one of the lovely things about being married. There had been a great deal of gossip.
We had both been utterly shocked to hear that one of our neighbours, a gentle sort of chap who lives in one of the flats at the end of our garden, has just been sent to prison. He will be there for four years. Apparently he sexually assaulted somebody when he was sixteen, and the chap has just found the courage to report him to the police.
We didn’t know what to think about this. It sounds as though he has done an unkind and upsetting thing. Even so, it is difficult to feel that he was a public danger. He is fifty one now and has not been in any kind of trouble since, at least not that we have heard of, and Windermere is the sort of place where we would most certainly have heard.
We felt very sad. It is still not easy to be a homosexual here, this is not the most broadminded of communities. I don’t suppose he will find it easy to come back, even when he is released. Sometimes the world can be a tragic sort of place.
We are very fortunate not to be living out a dreadful tragedy in our own lives. The worst that happened to us was that we both woke up in the night with indigestion, brought on, we thought, by rich spicy food, and whipped cream and chocolate, and the wine that tasted of the tar.
That last is a quote. Our wine didn’t really taste of tar.
Today Mark laid the carpets in the camper van and I wrote things.
We have had a Discussion about this.
It is very important to have shelves which are not dusty, but it is also important to keep trying to do the things that you like doing.
Since I am not going to be a prison officer I am going to practice writing until I am really good at it.
Today I entered three literary writing competitions.
Obviously I did not just write three stories just like that. I did not just dash off three superb pieces of enlightening prose. in an afternoon. In fact I trawled through the pages and pages of stuff that I have written, in quiet moments on the taxi rank, and during dull afternoons here at home. I picked out three of my favourites and spent the day polishing them and editing them until I thought that they were quite presentable.
Then I pressed Send.
I am not in the least expecting that I will get anywhere with any of them, but several of them promise a constructive refusal, and that would be handy to have. At least, I think it will be handy to have, although more likely it will just make me disappointed and cross.
I felt very satisfied with the world when I had finished. Mark was still tootling about in the camper van, and I went to try out my friend’s gym.
I don’t think I will be joining it, even though I like him very much and he has very generously promised all sorts of membership discounts. The gym is brilliant, with lots of interesting looking machines. I found one that had a notice on it, promising to crunch your abs.
I was not entirely sure what this meant, and it sounded a bit uncomfortable, but obviously I tried it anyway. It turned out to be quite splendid. Abs are really your stomach muscles. I did not know this. Mine jolly well needed some crunching, because I have never really exercised them since I had my fourth child, which was thirteen years ago.
They are hurting now. Crunching is very uncomfortable.
I had a glass of wine when I got home, to help them relax.
I am sorry to say that I do not think I will be going to this gym. The gym is splendid, and full of exercise opportunities. I cycled for a mile and rowed for a mile, and wagged about on something called a Cross Trainer, but the showers are tepid and the changing room was cold. I do not do cold very well. I got very chilled when I showered afterwards, and it took ages to warm up when I got home.
I will have to have a rethink. Maybe I could afford the BeautifulMe WellPerson Loveliness Health Spa after all.
We will consider.
The picture is the clearing up after the lovely party.
