Happiness

Last weekend was one of the times that become embedded in family history and memory for all good reasons. Son, Daughter-in-law and grandchildren came to Pixie Towers for the weekend, Son was to attend an old boys dinner at his school on Saturday night, Sunday included me reading at church, grandchildren came too, Grandson went to junior church where the main activity was planting cherry tomato seeds, he proudly told all that he had been planting bulbs with Poppa (Ian) so he knew what to do!

Linked with last Sunday was another family tradition, we call it East of Brighton. Imagine, a boy, I think aged 10 and a girl aged 8 being told they were going on holiday but not where, just east of Brighton, imagine parents driving south on  M23 deciding they needed caffeine in the form of a coffee, parking up at Gatwick as cafes always open here,  parents suggested taking luggage as it would be risky to leave it in the car while elevenses are consumed, inside terminal instead of going to cafes our family join a queue. Suddenly a child’s voice pipes up:- Are we going on a plane? Great laughter from other travellers going to Almeria.  The tradition has continued, last Sunday was the latest, as Ian said I’ve been had! The one sacred rule is no lies, always honest and rely on normality, absentmindedness and unawareness, so we have been part way to North Wales, Brussels and just casually walked past the Adelphi theatre, popped in to look at the publicity photos as requested before producing tickets for the show.

This time Ian didn’t notice the chicken planned for Sunday was eaten on Saturday, no lunch preparations were made on Sunday morning before church, the norm is to chuck ingredients into the slow cooker and go. Even Son’s request to drive our big car, he’s on the insurance was met with

acceptance to go for a drive round, then a walk that just happened to be past an Italian child friendly restaurant we often frequent so when Ian mentioned this, Son said why don’t we go in.

Days later we our still smiling about it, his birthday celebrations continued on the Monday with an unexpected visit from Daughter bearing gifts, a two hour drive from Dorset arriving at 7.20 the time we’d scheduled a FaceTime call on the actual birthday. Not so much of a surprise, I took Ian out for lunch at Petersham hotel, after which we drove at 20mph around Richmond Park, have to accustom ourselves to this speed all over our Borough even though a small majority were against a blanket speed limit the council are implementing it anyway. What’s the point of asking residents’ views then ignoring them, a majority is a majority even if it is only one vote - was it Churchill that said this?

Sorry no pictures, too involved to take them last weekend, however this is the first time I have compiled a blog using iPad in the garden, our Utility Warehouse signal must be better than Virgin Media.