Saturday, 25th
February.
A steady day – a day of intermediate preparations and great celebration. Bryony’s 40th birthday barn
dance. Such a good fun evening; Pippa
and Peter came down from York; it was a bit difficult to hear them in the
echoing hall with the band playing but it was so good to see them!
And Bryony (and Mark, and Iain, and Ginny) had done such a good job decorating
and theming the place. And it was good
to be dancing again after so long. A jolly
chat with Jill the band leader / caller who is recently retired and doesn’t
necessarily seem to be finding that easy.
Which of us did or does?
Sunday, 26th February.
James and Co had done a great job preparing the Café Church – thank you. A celebration of Racial Justice Sunday. A lot to unpack there. I still struggle with “stuff” – mostly my
ignorance and unconscious bias I think.
Anyway, “Least said and all that”.
A gentle drift to fairly chaotic packing; things not in the best suitcases
mostly. But we’ll get there. Alarm for 07.30 tomorrow.
Monday, 27th February.
A fairly easy up and away; Fare-thee-wells to Adam and Olena who will be house sitting for us. David Luff wonderfully collected us and drove us to the bus station. And a somnolent run to Heathrow; easy check-in, simple security (first time I’ve ever had my prescription checked against my Passport!) then to Fortnum’s for late lunch. A nice little tradition.
Easy boarding, spacious seats, attentive service; I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (good, silly fun) which I’ve seen before and then just stretched out and dozed to Mozart all the way.
We were so early that we parked off stand and were bussed to
the terminal before a short queue to passport control, a relatively short queue
for luggage and an efficient – if rather cold – wait for Wanda to pick us up!
Back to Westmount for supper and bed. I was
unconscious as soon as my head hit the pillow; Ali soon afterwards I believe. It was a cool night with one blanket and little
heating in the room. We woke to cuddle each
other warm at about 06.00 Canadian and finally woke at about 08.30 with the chill
and the urge for coffee no longer resistible!
Tuesday 28th February
Woke to greetings from Bry and others – thank you!
It's snowing and has
done nearly all day.
I went out – booted, quilted, jacketed and gloved – to SAQ to buy wines for this evening – not the ones I’d hoped for but they’ll do. We are due to have supper with Rod and Wanda and Josee and Pierre later.
Meanwhile, little ripples of tiredness sweep over us and the eyes droop. Ah me.
