Wednesday arrives and at 7:30 I sneeze myself awake. So awake I stay and carry out my getting up rituals, including my vitals, which once again are all good. I lay around injecting fun into the morning by watching a compilation of Milton Jones on Mock the Week, where does this man get his wit and ideas from? Finally I get out of bed and get breakfast. I review the required ingredients for tonight’s beef crockpot one pot stew and to my chagrin I find that there is no red wine in the house. A load of other booze, left over from Christmases and birthdays much of it now vintage given that I’ve not drunk for over five years now lingers in the booze hide away, so faced with this lack of ingredient there is nothing for it but a walk down to the village shop. It is only about ten thirty as I present the check out guy with a paper, two bottles of cheap French red wine and a bag of jelly babies. I could almost hear him saying “poor old bastard” as he watched me load my haul into my BIGSPD (British and Irish Group for the Study of Personality Disorder) conference freebie bag. Seems like an age since I did anything so intellectual as attend a conference.
On arrival at home I find a parcel for me, It is, at last my 15 copies of the Cancer Years from the publishers. I eagerly look at them and note that these copies have my name, in full, printed down the thin spine of the cover. I am chuffed. I leaf through one and note that one poem in the book is not in the contents page. I also notice that two of the poems have the final digit of their number in superscript. How did I not notice that? I will tell you how, because I’m dyslexic, that’s how. I check the editions that came from Amazon , which do not have my name on the spine and sure enough the same omissions are there. so there are now two versions of my book. I’ve no idea if in years to come one will become valuable, probably not.
Book fun over I set about making the beef stew for tonight. I’m quite well kitchen trained so I soon have the meat in a bag with seasoned flour ready to seal and piles of chopped vegetables. I also hunt through the fridge for the dishes of spare stuff that seem to appear from time to time. It all goes into the crockpot followed by the sealed meat. Then comes my secret sauce most of which is red wine of course. By eleven thirty it is all nestled in the slow cooker set for six hours of slow coaxing of its flavours. The kitchen is cleared and I settle down to check I have the ticket for tonight’s trip to the Opera. I discover that I have printed out on A4 the tickets that clearly say ” Show this on your phone” , so that will be fun. I also find that I have failed to book parking. I get onto the website and book a space and down load onto my phone the ticket. Can I find the bloody thing in my phone, no I cannot. I hunt around for ages in all sorts of files and apps I did not know I had and get asked to chose options I do not understand. Eventually I manage to make them images that are in my galley app, that will have to do, but I have a sense that there are more “techno savvy” ways of doing this”. Exhausted by my efforts I have a sandwich and start to draft the blog for today with some opera playing in the background. I may not get a chance later as Carmen does not finish till gone 10 o’clock tonight. It is the Ukrainian Opera company and full orchestra that are performing tonight so I guess the place will be packed. I’m tempted to wear my “Puck Futin” ice hockey hoodie.
It is a wet and miserable day that my partner has gone out in to see her mother. I am working up the energy to shower and to decide what I am going to wear, when the carry cases I ordered for the banjo and guitar arrive, so after getting through the forest of packaging I slip them into their new protection and return them to their stands. It feels comfortable to have them snuggled safely in this inclement weather. Now I can get on with the day.
Showered and clean, my partner returned there is a brief wait for the beef stew to come to its best. I relatively rapid devouring of the food and we are off to the opera, me with my new Loops in my pocket in case the bar noise is too much.
A last entry for the day. The opera was brilliant and I feel uplifted. Night meds and bed with a warm glow for me tonight and I did not need to use my Loops. This has been a good day.
