Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and
have some amazing insights – I always feel impelled to write them down. On
occasion, when I’ve read them in the morning, I have NO idea what I was EVEN
thinking – seemed absolutely pivotal at the time. (I’ve taken to writing ‘pipe
dream’ next to these entries. Pretty funny. Maybe one of these first times, it’ll
be a revelation – who knows?!)
The weatherman is saying that for the UK, winter
has finally arrived – going to be in the upper 30s here along the coast. As for
me, I’m going out to have a little look around. Finally have an occasion to
drag out the ol’ winter coat, scarf and gloves – haven’t needed them up to this
point. (In fact, I had this paragraph all prepared {just waiting for the right
moment for it to fit in – guess this is it, only in an opposite kind of way} to
make fun of myself – admitting, with chagrin, that many of the things I felt I
HAD to have in Birmingham I have found I have no need of here. Kind of ironic –
that I went out of my way {pocketbook} to purchase them, plus that I lugged
them all the way down here, as well. The joke’s on me – haha!) Anyway, in the
end. now I’ve proved myself wrong, I am SO glad that I have warm stuff already to
go when I need them!)
Sat with The fam while Chloe blew out the candles
on her birthday cake and opened her presents. Of course, she received WAY too
many gifts – but then a little kid doesn’t know that. And to everybody’s credit
– not any ONE person overindulged. After all, lucky girl, she does have a grandma,
a mom, a bunch of aunts and uncles, on one side; a grandpa and his wife on
another; then there are her dad and his parents and family on a completely
different on the other side of the triangle. And as if that weren’t enough, SOON
there will be the family that Loraine is marrying into. Good thing Chloe is a
bright wee girl – she seems to have no problem keeping straight who’s who in
her little mind.
For her birthday I gave Chloe an animal book with
large colorful photos. This soon ended up being paired with a different animal
book from grandma, Loraine, who asided, ‘how come you’re getting so many animal
things this year, Chloe.’ To which her mom, comfortable on the couch over on
the sidelines, wittily piped in – ‘yeah, cause she lives with a bunch of
animals, that’s why . . . .’ (Touché, Charlotte – really made me laugh!)
Have to add in here a really cute thing that Chloe
has been doing recently. Somewhere along the line (I’m thinking we first began
to notice it soon after she returned to Weymouth following New Year’s, when she
and Charlotte had gone to live with her grandpa for a while) she picked up
saying ‘actually,’ with emphasis, all the time. You’ll say something about
something, and she’ll say, ‘well . . . ACTUALLY, blah blah blah.’ You probably
have to be there, but it is SO cute, and especially comical because, in order to
qualify her little opinion, she says it about every few sentences.
Today I was actually, amazingly, fantastically
able to catch up to myself, in real time – on my blog spot – hurray!! (Now I
just have ‘The Lost 36 days’ to go – the point where I left Grimsby and had the
joy and privilege of moving in with Leah and Martin and their three babes for a
couple weeks, before I got my own place, at which time everything (meaning posting
my adventures daily) came to a screeching halt, because . . . EVERYbody was
home, EVERY day – on account of they were on summer holiday! There I was,
living in the routine of the usual throes of family life – having the time of
my little ‘Auntie Honey Bee’ life – and I got further and further behind. At
one point, I honestly felt so discouraged I considered giving up my goal, but
it was Leah’s wisdom that suggested ‘why don’t you just start where you are now
and go from there. And as you can see, that’s exactly what I did! Now the ‘rest
of the story’ is waiting patiently for me to catch up. It IS a big mountain to
climb, but . . . I am COMMITTED to meeting my original goal of writing about my
adventures in England for one solid year!!
To celebrate today’s milestone, I am treating myself
to several of my favorite things – the carrot I have been dangling in front of
myself for several weeks now. The list of rewards includes 1) getting out of
the ‘house’ for unencumbered shopping/people-gazing, with absolutely no agenda
and no timeframe (practically the only time that has happened in the whole month
I’ve been here!) That it was still light as I stepped out the door may be the
most amazing part of it. (What is the world coming to? I think I could get
hooked on this!) 2) a scrumptious tea (dinner) made up mainly of M & S
‘bargain basement’ foods, plus a few other ‘delicacies’ I could scavenger up, (Loraine
had invited me to join the family caravan to McDees, but I kindly declined {fat
content, you know}, said I’d catch up with them later – which I did!), composed
of some spicy skewered Moroccan kebabs (50p), with grilled tomatoes and
mushrooms left over from this morning’s breakfast, plus some cabbage wedges
(with fake butter and rice vinegar) that I had gotten from Aldi and steamed up
myself, then several slices of thinly-sliced wholemeal (that’s how they say
whole wheat) bread (50p), topped off with a lovely, large spring greens, Piccolini
tomatoes and sliced peppers salad with its own aged balsamic vinaigrette (£1.20).
(The adjectives I have used were the ones that actually were written on the
packaging.) Tonight was my best forage to date – and I didn’t even go out
expecting to stop there, necessarily. Yes! 3) several hours of mind-numbing telly
– British, of course – on BBC1. (Actually, the truth is it sounded really good
in the advert I saw this morning, but wasn’t really worth my time in person. Low
brow – not high brown, ended up turning it off. No problem - another day,
another program. And last, but NEVER least, 4) the luxury of a hot, steaming guilt-free
bath.
Photos_
1- 2 happy birthday babe (with grandma in the
background)
3- teens visiting the beach from neighboring town –
all smoking (about Josiah’s age - sad)
4- random sign
5- harlequin legs
6- at first glance thought I had happened upon a
Latin hotel
7- senior shoppers oblivious to menacing manikins
8- says it all
