08:00 Eight o'clock in the morning, and Lois and I are still in bed, looking deceptively calm. But we can't deny it - today is going to be different from the usual, there's electricity in the air, as well as more than a little nervousness - and the reason for all this tension is that Lois is going out tonight, yes imagine that, actually going out !!!!!
Usually Lois and I just spend the evening together on the couch, as you know.
And in general, day to day, we do what people call "living in each other's pockets 24/7", just 2 old codgers in a smallish new-build home in Malvern, only ever inches away from each other, whether it's on the couch, at the dinner-table, in bed, or in the car. And although I always say I get a lot of pleasure from being in Lois's pockets, the question remains: would she say the same thing about me?
I don't think it's quite the same for Lois, do you? Unlike me, she has this inner need to "get out more" and to "see life". So fair enough!!!!!
being "in each other's pockets" 24/7 - a lot of fun for me,
but is it quite the same thing for Lois? I think not!!!!
Well, today's going to be different for her, and "in spades" - she's going to be "getting out more", and "seeing life" for a change, which is nice!
We have our usual weekly shower in the morning. And Lois is having her hair done at midday by her stylist Rachel of the "Divine" hair salon at Barnard's Green, and later in the afternoon she'll be putting her glad rags on. She's going to be picked up by car at 5 pm and whisked off to a party, and she doesn't know when she'll be back - she tells me not to wait up!!!!
Lois and I don't normally "do" parties, unless it's just between ourselves - you know - an introverts' kind of a party, like this early one, from 1970, after we'd just become an item, and two years before we got married.
flashback to 1970 - one of our early so-called "quiet parties",
a couple of years before we got married
Tonight, however, it's a real party that Lois will be going to. That is, a party with more than one other person. Plus there'll be exotic food and exotic dancing and a thunderous cacophony of chat in two languages. It's being organised by her church, and there'll be lots of Iranians there. And Iranian food and dancing are on the programme too.
Hot stuff !!!!
some of the people Lois will be partying with tonight
Exciting or what !!!!
17:30 A car stops outside. Esther has arrived to pick Lois up and whisk off to Pershore for the party. It's weird seeing Esther again, because we used to know her quite well a long time ago, back in the 1980's, when she and our daughter Alison were in their early teens, and they used to go to summer camp in Anglesey together. Now of course, Esther is almost within sight of "the big Five-O" (i.e. the grand old age of 50) , just like Ali is, and they've both got children who are in their teens. Isn't life weird like that?
18:00 And talking of weird, I've now got a few hours of "me time". What to do?
I settle on the obvious - to get my Christmas presents to Lois together and wrap them up, and finally to design, and print out, my Christmas card to her.
For my card I decide to base the theme on pointy hats, partly as kind of a congratulatory card to Lois for at last, with my help, getting past the stage of what Freud called a woman's "pointiness envy". Remember?
And I decide to include, on my card, flashback pictures of some of the "stand-out" moments of our 2023 "hat year". Remember these "doozies"???
Happy times!!!
20:00 Eight o'clock, and Lois still isn't back yet - she must really be living it up tonight. I hope she doesn't have too much to drink - Earl Grey tea, I'm talking here, obviously!
I decide to calm my nerves by watching a bit of "telly". I don't want to watch anything that Lois will want to watch later, and the problem is that over the years we've managed to synchronise and merge our taste in TV programmes, just as we've at last synchronised our schedule for getting new packs of anti-cholesterol statins from our pharmacy.
Earlier this month we were stung into taking action on our statins usage, after all that publicity given last spring to those 4 young flatmates who'd synchronised their periods. Remember?
flashback to earlier this month: Lois and I celebrate, having at last managed to
synchronise our schedule for picking up new "8-week" boxes of statins
So what to watch on the telly tonight?
I decide to "road-test", on Lois's behalf, a recent TV romcom series, to make sure it's not too explicitly sexy and doesn't have too much in the way of "strong language". You can't be too careful if you're an old codger these days, can you.
Be honest!
The blurb in the Radio Times (above) talks about "an enjoyable cameo from Jay Rayner". But who's Jay Rayner - is he somebody famous? Is he somebody I'm supposed to have heard of?
To be booked to be a cameo appearance, you've got to be famous, really, haven't you. A TV programme with an enjoyable cameo from Lois and Colin, or from our neighbours Matt and Tamera, or from our neighbour on the other side, Laurence - those don't really work, do they, when it comes to upping the ratings, let's face facts!
tonight's episodes include 'a cameo by Jay Rayner'.
Who he? [I think everybody's heard of Jay Rayner,
apart from noggins like you! - Ed]
There's quite a lot of sex and a lot of the f-word in the first two episodes that I watch tonight, but overall it turns out to be quite a sweet series, with likeable characters, so I think Lois might go for it: it's all about a blossoming relationship between a single woman Sammy, and Tom, a single dad with a 6-year-old daughter that he looks after for part of every week.
Before Tom really gets it together with Sammy, we see him in Episode 2 trying to find a single-mum on a single-parent-dating site, and he gets a date with some woman who's got twins.
There's an awkward conversation at the restaurant, as the two try to get to know each other and also order their meals.
But the real awkwardness starts when Tom thinks it's about time to order their food, and he picks up the menu expectantly.
He asks Single-mum what she wants, and but he doesn't get the answer he's expecting.
Awkward! At this point, Tom is forced to bring Single-mum's attention back to the menu.
Oh dear - awkward or what haha !!!!
After the meal, they decide that they're probably neither of them quite ready to go out on dates yet, but there's a nice ending later, back at Tom's flat, when Single-mum finally gets one of her wishes, although it may not necessarily be what Tom had in mind.
Awwwww !!!! Heart-warming stuff !!!!
21:00 Lois arrives back from her party, and I resist the temptation to ask "What sort of time do you call this?" haha!
Despite her pre-party nerves of this afternoon it turns out that she had a great time there, chatted to lots of people, and ate some nice Iranian food. It turned out to be a lamb dish. We should have predicted that, perhaps, but Lois and I stupidly had lamb for lunch earlier today. Still, we're going to let that one slide because that lunch was just an "ordinary" British lamb recipe, so not really the same, is it!
some Iranian lamb-dish or other: Lois says it was a tasty
lamb stew with rice, shredded/diced veg, and something
unknown with pomegranate seeds in - possibly a pomegranate
And a nice surprise - Lois has also brought us back from a party a nice bottle of Cockburn's Port, a present from our friend Marie-Ann. It was supposed to be a house-warming present for last November when Lois and I downsized to this new-build in Malvern, but for 13 months Mari-Ann kept forgetting to give it to us.
Again, we're going to let that one slide, because the port is bound to be extra-matured after its 13 months in Marie-Ann's "wine cellar", so it's going to be extra nice, that's for sure!
And Lois and I are 13 months more mature too - I've got used to squeezing myself into lots of downsized spaces, as they call it nowadays, and Lois has got over her pointiness envy, so that's all good haha!
nice surprise - a belated house-warming gift of
Cockburn's Port, 13 months late or 13 months "more mature",
to put a more positive "spin" on it, from our friend Mari-Ann: hurrah!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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