Second Helpings

As Predicted

My sis has gone home now after a three day visit of mixed activity and emotions. We have a list of things we'd like to do together before we pop our clogs or lose our marbles, but it's rare we manage to achieve anything on it.

This visit we finally managed to meet up with an old family friend from childhood. She suggested coffee at a large bookstore in Nottingham, which led to conversations about the latest book awards and best sellers, followed by film, theatre, art, foreign travel and health advice. We did share a few funny anecdotes from childhood, but both sis and I were slightly relieved when she declined our offer of lunch. She needed to rush off to secure tickets for a Shakespeare theatre production, which left sis and I free to head for the pub. We may not be cultured, but we appreciate a good bottle of wine and can at least now cross one thing off our list.

The rest of her visit has involved final arrangements as regards the sale of our Dad's house. An awful lot of paperwork and phone calls and a probable final visit to say our farewells to the home where we spent many happy times with our parents over the last twenty years. It's now completely cleared and ready for the new occupants to move in. We did find a little mouse pumice stone on the front lawn, obviously dropped by the clearance company, which we then decided to hide behind a shrub at the bottom of the back garden for posterity. We'd like to think one day a little one may come across it and make up its own version of how it arrived there. The end of an era and a heartbreaking day, but at least we know the young family moving in are lovely and hopefully will be very happy there.

Sis wasn't the only thing to arrive last week. As predicted I now have hubby's horrible cold and feel pretty rough. But of course it's nowhere near as bad as his severe bout of continuing manflu.