Dopey day

[Anne Brooke]

Lord, what a dopey day today. I seem to have had about a zillion hours sleep (which I suspect I needed) and only managed to drag myself out of bed this morning after 10am. Getting up is such an effort, you know ... But at least I managed to have a bath and get dressed by early afternoon, thus showing a great improvement on yesterday "getting dressed time" of gone 3pm. Somebody pass the smelling salts ...
Hey, and I managed to eat breakfast too - hurrah! A normal one. Though I suspect lunch will be a no-go area. Lord H has gone to the Cathedral today to stock up on more theology books, and then will be popping into Guildford & Godalming to stock up on essential girly items that I haven't managed to get this week. What a hero. I also really need to do something for my stepfather for Fathers' Day (next weekend, folks, if you've forgotten ...), so have added that to the Lord H list too. Poor chap.

While collapsed on my sofa (well, it's been a busy morning - all that getting up, you know), I've been flicking through the latest brochure for the Landmark Trust (http://www.landmarktrust.org.uk) - as Lord H is keen to take a few weekends away (with me, I hope, though he hasn't actually said that!!) over the summer. They have some absolutely glorious buildings, but no TVs - which, to a person of my pathetic attention span, is quite frightening. But I have to be careful to avoid buildings with beams and/or thatched roofs in order to clamp down on the possible spider content. Mind you, last time we stayed in a Landmark Trust property, it appeared to be home to a colony of moths the size of tigers, so I ended up getting Lord H to inspect each room before I went into it. I spent a large part of that holiday hiding under the bedsheets and screaming while Lord H ran around the room attempting to kill an insect almost the size of his own head. Needless to say, that wasn't a terribly relaxing week ...

... but not as terrifying as the other Landmark Trust property we stayed in, somewhere in Derbyshire, which I swear was haunted, and I kept getting up in the middle of the night rigid with fear and praying a great deal. Though I do accept Lord H's explanation that I did spend that week with a particularly virulent kidney infection (my, how the doctors loved me when I got back) and was therefore seeing all sorts of peculiar things in the woodwork. And visiting the bathrooms a great deal. My, what fun we have on our hols indeed.

And I've put "Springwatch" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch) on my favourites list, and keep dipping in to watch the latest excitements. My goodness, those baby swallows have enormously large yellow beaks. I swear that their heads make up 90% of their bodies when their mouths are open. Scary stuff.

I've also just finised Megan Taylor's marvellous and lyrical How We Were Lost. It's Flame Books' (http://www.flamebooks.com) latest offering (so, sadly, I am knocked off my "new" perch at last ...) and well worth a read. A poetic, gripping and ultimately terrifying view of childhood and the family. I particularly loved the constantly shifting family relationships, especially Janie and her sister, and Janie and her dad. Great stuff.

Ooh, and Lord H has just come back from the shops, loaded with goodies, and has even bought flowers for the invalid. My, his Husband Points are overflowing today. At least, I think the flowers are for me - unless of course he knows a barrel-load of other sick people!

Tonight, I'm doing some more serious slumping - I'm beginning to fear that I may have lost the ability to write at all, groan ... - and will be glued to (a) "Dr Who", (b) the sofa, and (c) my essential Lucozade bottle. Thank God for fizzy orange goo drinks when you're sick, eh?

Today's nice things:

1. Sleep
2. Megan Taylor's How We Were Lost
3. TV.

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com
http://www.pinkchampagneandapplejuice.com
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