Sometimes, you just get one of those days. I think there's a name for them. Blue Ribband (oh, Blue Ribband - you can only dream of being Tunnock's...)? Red Ribbon? Red Letter? A great day. And I've just had one. It's swept away (a bit of) the misery of knowing that two of my very nearest and dearest aren't well at all and that Life can be (a bit of) a fucker.
So, I hear you ask (voices in my head) - what was so special about today?
Nothing, really.
I pottered about with friends.
We looked at vintage bits and second hand tat.
We ate cake.
We sat in the sunshine.
Dried my bedding at the launderette.
Had a teatime pint of shandy on my own, ate crisps, read The Guardian Guide (still marvelling at how Specs work).
The usual stuff.
But, as ever, those not-much-happened-but-how-perfect days serve to make you realise that Life, fucker though it can often be, can also be sweet.
(Postscript: I have favour Tourette's. Often, I'm out with friends, and they'll be in a pickle over how to sort this/that, and before I even know I've done it, the words are out there - "I can help/drive you there/fetch this/sew that/alter those jeans/collect the kid from nursery". (That last one's a massive lie and you know it - I've never uttered those words in my life). Yeah, I'm just a giver, me. A few weeks ago, I was Saturday pottering in Muswell Hill with Lady Doc. We popped in some fancy interior design shop and she saw the fabric of her dreams. She wanted drapes for her boudoir. "I can make them!" I blurted, not really thinking. Now, I love Lady Doc and Mister Doc dearly - he's my oldest male friend and she's a top bird. But this fabric was bloody expensive and a bit on the heavy side. Frankly, I've been shitting myself that I might make a right cock-up and our valued friendship would be in tatters over a pair of curtains (it would be curtains over the curtains - brilliant). I needn't have worried. They were a nightmare in the making, but even if I blow my own seamstress trumpet, they turned out very well indeed. I delivered them over a nice glass of wine this week, and the pressure was over. Today's loveliness began with an envelope on my doorstep from the Southbank Centre. On her 40th, I bought Lady Doc membership. When we were there together a while back, I mentioned that, although I've often given Southbank membership as a gift to friends, I've never treated myself to it. And so, clever girl, she's treated me instead. It's one of the sweetest gifts I've had for a long time, and has obliterated the pain of making those bloody curtains.)
