“Haven’t seen you in ages”

It was the WI AGM in Cardiff yesterday and a packed agenda meant that it was going to be quite a long day, even for those of us who didn’t have that far to travel.

I was lucky to have a seat with a great view.  First thing was to try to spot the Gloucestershire delegates…

Oh my goodness, they were right there, centre front and Gwyneth, my WI’s delegate had a terrific seat on the second row.

It’s always a well organised event and the items on the agenda are swiftly dealt with.  On this occasion, however, there were a few “business” items and amendments to the constitution which involved a great deal of legal terminology and not everyone had done their homework…  Nevertheless, our Chairman Ruth made sure that things were resolved quickly.  Chairman of the Charity commission, William Shawcross’s presentation was well prepared (by his daughter, he claimed) but surprisingly, it was read rather than spoken – so lost much of its impact, I felt.

An extended lunchtime brought a boost to Cardiff city centre shops!

Afternoon speakers included Griff Rhys-Jones, returning, he said to “The Land of my Aunties” and speaking as Chairman of Civic Voice.   His presentation took us nicely into our resolution debate about the need to support our High Streets.  Following discussion, the resolution was passed, though not without clarification about what we might do about small towns where local businesses are no longer there to support and what might constitute a “High Street” anyway?

The second afternoon speaker was John Humphrys.  At the end of the morning session, Ruth relayed a message from the man himself, inviting questions from the audience which he would answer during his presentation.

“Hmmm…” said the ladies to my left, “saves him preparing a talk, then”.

My thoughts exactly!

Choosing to speak from the centre stage then, he went on to answer these questions, mostly with anecdotes from his career as a journalist.  He quickly sized up his audience, tested the water with a slight anti-Blair comment before launching into a pretty full-on (and rather risqué) tale about the former Prime Minister and his wife, the like of which is probably more the norm for some after-dinner business speech than the WI AGM. 

The afternoon ended with some audience participation led by Jonathan Willcocks who has been commissioned to compose a choral work to celebrate the centenary of the WI in 2015.  On this occasion, he invited the audience to join in an action song (composed, I imagine, for children, with rather higher voices than me or the ladies sitting nearby!)   The “real” singing which followed was far more impressive – Jerusalem again, followed by the Welsh national anthem and finally, God Save the Queen.

Definitely one of those “you have to be there” moments!

The meeting finished around 5.15pm.  Of course, emptying an arena of that size takes time and there’s still a bit of further catching up to do.  But worst of all were the transport arrangements, which had the Gloucestershire coaches a long way down the order to leave.

Though we’d been given a time of 7.15pm (yes!  really!)  we hoped that it wouldn’t actually take that long and that someone, somewhere was being pessimistic when they drew up that schedule.  But as the time went by, it was clear, it was indeed going to be 7.15pm.

Leaving only the cleaners behind, we eventually made our way home!

Mapping out my morning

I often think that we have few secrets these days.  That we’d have to try quite hard to cover our tracks and do anything without someone else noticing.  These days, when I go to take a look at the Pinterest pages I’m following, I frequently note that one of my friends is working on a specific theme – Nita researching birds or insects, Helen is being inspired by costume of a particular period, perhaps.  (Jordi is always inspired by food and drink, I know ;-)

If my friends are making similar observations then, they won’t be surprised to discover that I’m working on a map project, working through an online class with the author of one of my favourite blogs, Pret a Voyager.  We are a bit of a mappish family here and it was funny to find many of the books on the resource list already on our shelves.  I also did what I advise my students never to do – to come to class with a clear idea of their finished project in mind…

Anyway, today’s task was to draw a hand-drawn map of something – anything – and not think too much about it, not care too much about neatness, perfection or anything I’d usually be bugging myself about.  The end result was this

I went to Cirencester, to the hairdressers, but sadly my stylist had just had one of those phone calls which leave you chilled…a family member had been taken ill.  So, a hastily rearranged date left me in town with a few errands to run and an extra hour to do them in.

Except that shops don’t open until what I consider to be mid-morning!

I had a coffee, mooched about a bit, bought bread and lingered rather longer in the tiny department store before heading towards the art shop for some paint.  I stopped to take a photograph on the way:

Please, don’t get me wrong.  I am as appalled by the murder of the young soldier in Woolwich as anyone.  But I wondered about the motivation of people in Cirencester to buy flowers to place on the war memorial.  Not that I thought it wrong…it’s just one of those things which seems to becoming the thing to do in some circles.  Which, in the words of one of our friends, I find “curious”.

Anyway, I continued to run errands and had to retrace steps here and there because I’d either forgotten something or had to wait for somewhere to open.  I stopped to chat to a WI friend and then, just as I got back to my car, remembered I was supposed to pick up some fabric for another.  And then I needed to go to the bank!   I just remembered, too, that I filled the car with petrol on the way home,  and experienced difficulty with the filler cap.  That meant I had to make a quick stop at the garage, as well.

One morning, gone!

When prompted to draw a quick map of something then, I chose to record my route in the town, noting the stopping places and the shops I visited. Strange how, if you’d asked me beforehand how I’d spent three hours this morning, I’d have forgotten much of the detail, but the process of drawing it out brought all the information to the surface again. My hero surely wondered how I could possibly spend a morning doing nothing very much. Well, here is my evidence! The map was a great way to prompt the details which made the journey.  It’s not a work of art – and was never meant to be – but as an explanation of where the time went, I think it serves its purpose.

As for the final project, well, it’s going to be difficult to share.  Visitors always have difficulty finding us and so I plan to create a map to have on hand, hopefully, one they will want to keep!  However, since I don’t really want the whole of the internet beating a path to my door, it won’t be showing up anywhere around here!  But there will be other projects to share, for sure. I am  incubating travel journal ideas based on maps, which seems rather logical, doesn’t it?

I wonder how long before the Turkish Map Fold shows up?  ;-)

Need new shoes

Going up to London last week, to go to the theatre, I had a very important decision to make.

What shoes to wear?

I settled upon these comfortable, favourite navy blue sandals to wear with my blue linen trousers and red/blue top.

Not too open and strappy – I haven’t quite got to that stage yet, with the cold weather we’ve been having around here.

But they were open enough to be fine without tights and sufficiently flat to be able to keep up as we ran round trying to take in as much as possible.

A good choice.

Until disaster struck!

Fortunately, the side didn’t come away in one piece immediately, but gradually came undone in the course of the evening.  I don’t think anyone would have noticed the flapping shoe so much as my peculiar way of walking as I struggled to keep the thing on my foot and not trip over.

Poor old shoes.

(My hero was going to consign them immediately to the bin, but then realised that yes, they needed to be photographed and blogged about ;-) 

Lunch for two

…though we were expecting more.

We aren’t too sure what’s happened, but expecting friends for lunch, I was up early to get the pavlova base in the oven.  My hero laid the table with the best cutlery and glasses and the white wine was chilling in the fridge.  I’d decided to make one of our favourite lunch recipes – Gordon Ramsay’s Chicken Biryani – perfectly simple but tasty one pot wonder which is a reliable dish for this kind of occasion.  So, from time to time during the morning, I stopped what I was doing and fiddled about in the kitchen.

The Biryani was looking and tasting good.  We were getting hungry!  But no sign of our friends.

At two o’clock, my hero made the decision.  He couldn’t wait any longer and quickly swapped the best cutlery and china for our ordinary, everyday family things.  After all, no point in using the handwash-only stuff when we can use the dishwasher!  Yes, welcome to everyday life!

The same went for the wine!  The “good stuff” went back into the fridge and we finished off a couple of almost empty bottles which were left over from the last couple of days.  We feel a little bereft and of course, are wondering what’s happened.  Did they forget?  Have the wrong date?  Get lost?  Stupidly I’ve deleted the email I had with her phone number…so I have no immediate way to make contact.  I guess – hope – all will be revealed in the next couple of days.

Suffice to say, there’s a whole Pavlova and a sizeable portion of the biryani left!

Whilst out in the garden this morning, I noticed the wide gap which has opened up in the border on the valley side of the lawn.  It leads neatly to the path which someone/thing is treading regularly right now.

Though actually, I was out in the garden to take a photograph of the cornflowers.  Perhaps you didn’t read Maggie’s comment about them the other day?  She’s raising the profile of Parkinsons UK by giving cornflower seeds to her neighbours and friends to grow.

They really are a magnificent colour, aren’t they?  Go Maggie!

And then we were two…again

Four busy days filled with activity.  Going here and there, enjoying live performances, good food, interesting conversation and, occasionally, finding a little time to sleep.  Then, all goes quiet again.  Our friends have begun Phase Two of their holiday and life here returns to normal, quiet days at home.  We love it all.  We like nothing better than having a house full of laughter, chatter and goings on but of course, the quiet sunny Sunday morning at home spent pottering about with Radio 4 in the background and the washing machine humming can be enjoyable too.  Thankfully, Ellis and Mary are beginning their week of walking in the Cotswolds with a dry and relatively warm day, because their first few days here have been anything but.

Our day in London on Wednesday was a fun start and Liberty’s knitting yarns a fine place to begin.  Our heroes found a place to sit and chat whilst Mary and I enjoyed a quick look around en route to the theatre.

 

We had tickets!   Excellent seats to see a great performance, too.  Afterwards, we strolled around Trafalgar Square and the Mall, taking in the sights around Jermyn Street and fortifying ourselves with a little glass of something along the way.  Unfortunately, we witnessed an accident outside Fortnums en route to meeting Edward and Tra for supper at our favourite Sartoria, but thankfully, the woman who had run out in front of a vehicle turning right was not seriously hurt and we were able to leave the scene in the capable hands of others.  It was a late night for us all though and well past midnight when we arrived home.

We had tickets for a performance on Thursday too.  We knew we weren’t going to be able to make the show in our local Minchinhampton location this summer, so were delighted to find them in Cheltenham whilst Ellis and Mary were with us.  We had a late lunch at Jamies first and were intending to spend the afternoon strolling around the town before meeting friends later.  But shivering as we were, and slightly damp around the edges from the intermittent showers, we took refuge in the car and drove up to Sudeley Castle instead.

Far too cold for an outdoor picnic, we appreciated the elegant nibbles provided by Arthur and Barbara, who joined in the circus fun and shivered alongside us as we watched Lucky 13, the story of a group of travelling gypsies who invade the circus.

It’s the usual riotous affair and completely engrossing.  We’d organised supper in the Circus Sauce tent as always but on this, possibly the coldest May evening any of us could remember, we found it hard to relax because we were too busy trying to stay warm.  How cruel that our Californian friends are faced with such dreadful English weather.

On Friday, we braved the rain showers again in Bath, but well wrapped up this time, so thankfully, not shivering!

Close friends and family will understand why we paid homage to Minerva and whilst my hero was delivering heroism of a slightly different kind on his mobile phone, we went inside the Abbey to admire the fan vaulting.

We left before we had completely cricked our necks and headed home.  We had a little time to relax before our next scheduled activity, which might not have happened at all, but for heroism of a slightly different variety.

We had supper booked at Hobbs Bistro.  Good food in comfortable and unstuffy surroundings as usual, I’m glad to say.

And that was almost that – except that there was time for a proper, full English breakfast at Bobs and a quick shufty around the Corinium Museum in Cirencester and marvel at some of the fine carvings and mosaics in there.   We were also very impressed by the embroideries and textile art on show there right now, done by the very talented EAST group of artists.  Something for everybody!

I hope our sweet friend Ellis won’t mind my posting his photograph of Bourton on the Water, where he and Mary began Phase Two of their English holiday yesterday afternoon at Harrington House, their base for the next few days as they enjoy some guided walks in this lovely part of the world.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the sun continues to shine!