Dinner, Malfunction and a Brain –wave.

We chose the Quay pub near the harbour – it used to be The Red Lion when we first came and has had quite a few changes since but Joy and the cancer care workers had their Christmas Party there and enjoyed it. When we booked they said all the food had 50% off which seemed a friendly omen. It’s a good location – right by the sea and we managed to park round the corner. I was sure we could have parked right outside but MTL was being cautious and I was happy he felt up to the exercise.

The decorations were mainly gold and pretty, and it was very much the quiet after the storm so we were the only guests in our part of the dining area. It was pleasant to sit having a drink, deciding what to eat and be waited on by a pretty young girl. MTL chose broccoli soup, chicken and pigeon pie (not a local one I hoped) with the usual accoutrements and raspberry jam pudding with custard

. I decided to have two starters instead of a main and had a meaty pate with Melba toast – a treat I don’t often have - and in spite of the toast being slightly over done I relished it. Then red mullet with noodles in a sauce which would have been improved being less liquidy. No complaints about the lemon meringue pie with vanilla ice-cream. As we are nearing the end of a self- indulgent period I decided to finish it off with an Irish coffee which made me think of Mapstew - see side bar, and wish he was there with his music. As always on this special evening we remembered back over the years and particularly the last six months.

When we eventually stepped outside and looked out towards the sea I was struck by the stillness - no traffic, no people - there was a hush which made me feel at peace. Years ago when we had our cottage in Yorkshire we came out of the pub on the hill that drops down into Burnsall and whilst we had dined it had snowed and moonlight was shining on the river. One of the loveliest sights and sounds - we crunched back to the car- I've experienced. Such a lot of turmoil we had to endure from then. How lucky we are to be still standing – together.

The next day I was greeted by a blank page on my In-box. Frustrating because I could hear the ping of a message arriving and couldn’t read it unless it was a comment and went straight to my blog. Eventually I had to give in and called Tim the fixer. He picked up the mouse and immediately the picture was restored. I think I may have used an expletive. For some reason the picture had ridden up and was brought back by a quick click and drag. Something similar happened before and Kim told me what to do about it.

I wasn’t about to waste my call out fee so Tim did some tidying up and set defragmenting the? drive in motion, which went on long after he had gone. I feel sorry for him when he attempts to explain technical matters to me and often giggle but the gist is the computer uses files and then flings them all over the place – rather like teen-agers undressing - and the defragmenting tidies them all up and places then neatly side by side. Sort of. My first experience of the new VAT!

Yesterday the 4th chemo was started and I asked MTL what was the worst part. He said sitting for two hours with the drip. As the nurse is there for the whole time politeness made me switch off radios TVs etc, but I remembered our French son had sent a boxed set of ‘Yes Minister’ so got that in motion and both patient and nurse appreciated it. Wish I’d thought of it earlier.