Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

A sleepy day after a very late night. The alarm system we inherited with the house, and have never used, has suddenly started randomly going off at all hours of the day and night and, unfortunately, went off while we were at the theatre – much to the consternation of the babysitter. It was nearly 2am by the time Nick felt reasonably confident that it wouldn’t start up again the moment we went to bed. This morning I tracked down the company that installed it to ask if they have a de-installation service. They do but they warned me that it is very expensive (£150 call out fee plus £80 per hour) and suggested that we would be better just ripping it out ourselves – though this is likely to be a noisy process, as the alarm has a tamper protection system which will cause it to go off as we try to dismantle it. Oh joy. Removal appears to be the only option however as it is so old that they won’t service or upgrade it.

Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

We are having very Christchurch-type weather at the moment: cold in the morning but sunny and warm by about 10am. Knowing that it would soon warm up I was happy for Katie to wear a dress without tights or leggings – winter is long enough without leaping into winter clothes in the first few weeks of autumn. Katie however didn’t quite see it that way and, about five minutes into the walk to school, she announced in very stern and rather pompous tones ‘I’ll have you know Mummy, that I really don’t appreciate having my skin turn to ice.’ Of course I laughed at her, which she took exception to, so I then had to explain that I wasn’t laughing at her being cold, but because she was sounding uncannily like the (recently deceased) Dowager Duchess of Devonshire!

We found Katie’s iPhone this morning, after only a fairly minor search operation and in time to charge it before we had to leave for school. As instructed, I labelled it with Katie’s name and class and dropped it off at the school office to be kept securely ready for film-making club in the afternoon. Unfortunately it turns out that children, like husbands, will happily abandon carefully made plans at the turn of a passing whim or the word of a complete stranger. Thus while Clara and Ned and Arena and various others in Katie’s class trotted off to reception to collect their phones/cameras etc, Katie listened to some boy she’d never seen before who said she didn’t need to, and pitched up at film-making club without it. Hey-ho. She was then devastated when I collected her from film club, to find out that reception was closed and she couldn’t get her phone back. It’s tough being 7.

Later in the afternoon, Katie came in from the garden and proudly announced that she had taught Sherlock that broken glass is dangerous. After the clementine incident, I was a little nervous about her methods.

J: Wow, really? How did you do that?
K: Well, I held up a piece of broken glass so that he could see it, then I pointed to this cut on my finger, so that he could see that broken glass cuts you.
J: And how did you know that he understood you?
K: Easy – when I threw a piece of broken glass for him, he didn’t chase after it.

So, to focus on the positive, I love that she tests the results of her work!

Dinner at Baltic. I wasn’t very hungry and wanted to be sure of getting to dessert, so I just had a starter of blini with smoked salmon, salmon roe, and roasted aubergine with a side of tomato and onion salad, followed by their sublime apple fritters with cinnamon ice cream and a small glass of Tokaji. Yum, yum. After dinner we saw Kristen Scott Thomas in Electra, at the Old Vic. Sitting in the second row of the stalls when the theatre is configured in the round makes for an intimate theatre experience. Thomas was convincingly half-mad with grief and desperation, which was all the more compelling because we were pretty much sitting on the set. At one point she was slumped disconsolately about 6 feet away from me and I could see that her nose was running. I watched in horrified fascination – there was no way that her character could pull out a handkerchief! – until, when the tension was almost unbearable, she casually wiped her nose on her bare forearm and then smeared the results over her grubby dress. Perfect! Diana Quick was convincingly obnoxious as Clytemnestra, Electra’s murderous mother.

When we got home, I could hear Sherlock racing around in the kitchen, playing with something that sounded like a set of keys or something metallic. I went in to check what mischief he was up to and discovered him playing with a piece of … yes, you guessed it, broken glass. I tried to pick it up but he responded defensively by getting it in his mouth and running off. Nick and I had to team up to distract him away from it so that we could get it without him hurting himself. Once we had managed that, we started to check around for what he might have broken but there appeared to be only the one piece, so I assume that he did, eventually, chase after the piece Katie threw for him and duly brought his prize indoors. Nick, who was wandering around in socks, did eventually find a second, very small piece, that must have broken off while Sherlock was playing…

Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

Raining this morning so we didn’t take Sherlock on the school run. In the past he has been reluctant to go out in the rain but today he whined piteously and threw his wee furry body against the gate, most aggrieved.  🙁

Brought Katie’s little Finnish friend Elias home from school for a play date. Katie has been desperate to have him over but it didn’t go quite as planned as Elias was terrified of poor Sherlock. And Sherlock of course was desperate to play with the new child.

Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

Spent over three hours walking today (take Katie to school, walk Sherlock on the Heath, collect Katie from school, go home, take Katie to cello, return home to wait for Jack, return to school for ‘meet the teacher’…) which (unsurprisingly) was a bit much for my still-recovering knee.

Made Yotam Ottolenghi’s cauliflower cake for dinner – incredibly yummy. Recipe below – I only used 15ml of olive oil instead of 75ml. I also added 5ml of basil oil as I didn’t have any fresh basil and used black onion seeds instead of sesame and nigella seeds.

Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit

Katie and I spent the day wrapping presents and preparing for Nick’s birthday dinner in the evening. I made roast chicken with roast potatoes and parsnips, steamed broccoli and carrots and sweetcorn, followed by elderflower birthday cake. My aim is to serve the same dinner in two years time and for everything on the plate (other than the chicken) to have been raised on the property. There was meant to be a first course of figs and parma ham but, as sometimes happens when I am taking multitasking a bit too far, I forgot to serve it!

Top ten plays: number 5 – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Having devoured the book, I couldn’t understand how it could be made into a play, but they did and it was magic. Heartrending magic, but magic nonetheless.

For those in NZ, catch the NT Live version when you can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O704ld5WQnk&feature=youtu.be

 

Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

A quiet day. Did various bits and pieces in the garden, dead-headed the roses and cut back the cursed ivy which is invading from next door. Got the kowhai and kakabeaks planted – can only hope that they will survive the snails better now that they are in the ground.

Top ten plays: number 4 is Equus, starring a young Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths (again), seen on the 21st of March 2007 with Barbara Edmonds. I liked Richard Griffiths (in this, and in general) and felt rather disloyal laughing when one of the Radio 4 comedians, in the course of riffing on the subject of how football style chants could potentially enhance so many aspects of English life, suggested that many a National Theatre production might be improved if the audience pitched in with something like: ‘He’s big. He’s round. He bounces on the ground. Richard Griffiths, Richard Griffiths.’

Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

Now fully back into term time, with the start of Saturday Stagecoach and guitar lessons. Everything went smoothly and, when I returned with Kate and Dash about 1330 in the afternoon, it was to discover Nick vigorously attacking the scrubby mess under the trees on the righthand side of the front garden. There is an old, and picturesquely tortured-looking, prunus at one end. We will keep the prunus of course, but the rest of the bed is a mess of self-seeded holly, ivy creeping over from next door and generally uninspiring dross. There is a rowan, which will stay, but I might grow a clematis or something up it’s trunk. Six months ago I ordered a kowhai and two kakabeaks (one white and one red) to go in this bed, thinking that I would give them an easy start by planting them in spring. But because they were part of the same order as the feijoa trees, they didn’t finally arrive until shortly before we went to Italy. We managed to get the feijoas in the ground but the rest had to stay in pots while we were away. Unfortunately it seems the snails have had a good go at the poor kakabeaks and they are looking very sad. I will have to take up my old passtime of going out snail-hunting in the evening, equipped with a torch and a half-brick.

I didn’t want Scotland to leave the union, but I nevertheless feel obscurely sad at the result. The 45% who so passionately wanted independence must be devastated.

In the wake of the referendum result, listening to inevitable carping comments about London, I am reminded of an old bumper sticker ‘Don’t complain about farmers with your mouth full’. I wish someone clever would come up with something equally pithy about slagging off London while accepting the tax haul it brings in.

All this talk of constitutional change allows fascinating thought experiments. If London and the south were given the opportunity to vote for independence from the rest of the UK, there wouldn’t be any dithering about with 45%. We might shed a wistful tear over York, Harrogate and Durham but, let’s face it, no one is going to lose any sleep over Oldham, Worksop or Hull. We would vote one day and be out building the wall the next. Or, as Nick pointed out, we would more likely be paying some Polish guys to build the wall for us… And the next time someone started yantering on about the north/south divide we could just point out the window and say ‘There it is. Visible from space apparently.’.

Level 2 Chi Kung.

Calais. Did Chi Kung while Nick went for a walk then met him downstairs for a nice hotel breakfast. Checked out, went for a bit of a walk, then drove to the enormous Carrefour. Sadly, the ‘shop is so large that the staff get around on roller skates’ turned out to be an urban myth, but we had a look around, failed to find any kirsh but picked up some cheeses, macarons, treats for the children and some more pudding wine. While Nick was buying water, I spotted a shop with the iPhone 6 Plus on display and had a bit of a play – it’s too big for a phone really but I still want one – I hardly ever use my phone as a phone anyway :-). 

Day 98: Level 2 Chi Kung Body and Mind Process.

Calais! Totally impressed with the shuttle. So easy and quick – so much less stressful than flying. Will definitely consider rental car/shuttle for our next family holiday. Left home about 10am and, even losing an hour on account of the time difference, arrived in Calais in time for (a sadly mediocre) lunch at a little bistro opposite our hotel. After lunch we found a nice park and tried to walk off the frites, then headed to the wine shop to collect the wine I had pre-ordered. The wine shop paid our shuttle fares and the £4.50 per bottle we saved on the 6 cases of wine should more than cover all the other expenses of the trip. Wandered around and added a couple more cases, including some inoffensive Shiraz (Rosemount) to mull for the bonfire night party and a few bottles of pudding wine and other little treats. All well below UK prices. Back to the hotel for a nap (naps being one of the great treats of travelling without the children. For dinner we decided not to take any chances and went for a Michelin-recommended restaurant with very high ratings on trip advisor. Nick loved his food – I thought mine was shite. I sometimes wonder if I am becoming too fussy. While waiting for the tarte tatin to arrive (BTW who the hell makes tarte tatin with bloody shortcrust – made me think of Pam Ayres: ‘and if your teeth had got a bit too long like, well that’d be the stuff to grind them back’) we were talking about various plays we’ve seen and I started on my top ten list.