The Short Epic

...Much worthy of blogging. Why does this stuff always sound like the title of an Enid Blyton book? ("Three have an Excellent Weekend")

Friday evening drive to Maidstone was it's usual irritating and slow self, but I find myself quite liking the drive because, a bit like working through a maze to the site of a ritual in the centre, I find it relaxes and focuses my mind. I work through stuff from the day and my brain adjusts itself to the weekend ahead.

This was a quite important function this weekend, as there was a lot going on. Friday night there was Billy Connolly and Chinese takeaway (very yum and may have restored my faith in chinese takeaway) much laughter, a whole tasty brownie ;) and lots of touchy-feely, cuddly contact which is always fabulous. Sarah was still (and is still) lurgied, beset by the evil snot monster and his minions, but she tapped into the ambience of general nuttiness and was riding my back like a pony....that's another story though :)

Saturday was a bit domesticated, Sarah had to do her penultimate Saturday shift in hell, so Paul and I did washing up and washing, cleaned kitchen floor and cooker and generally had fun. I got to pick Sarah up from work for lunch and she didn't even comment on the absence of indication at roundabouts, which was very good of her I think. It meant that we got to have a nice lunch together, and a bit of respite from the madness of the Library for Sarah. I dropped her back off and then had a shower before I headed to Margate, to Margaret.

Odd things were happening, either I was distracted concentrating on the upcomming working, or I was being actively discouraged from getting there, whatever it was, I lost my brain a few times and ended up in Margate by way of Canterbury, which given my usual innate ability to chaos-navigate my way around with no trouble was quite disturbing, especially given the fact that I was following the signs!!

I did finally arrive an hour late, after Brian over-heated at the side of the road while we were sitting in traffic, a restorative cup of tea and gingerbread man later, Margaret and I went out to the bay. The raw power of the place can't be described, we wandered down the steps in the dark and made our way over to the low tide. The wind was just storming across the beach and the waves were crashing, it was spitting spray and made me feel very in tune with my surroundings.

Margarets words were whipped out onto the waves as she made the seperation request, I could feel the energy and added mine to it, really willing the outcome, there was no discomfort, just a general feeling of emptiness which followed me for a while. I was quite tired by the time we finished, but it was pleasant-tired, I was starving however and stayed to share a bite with Margaret and the lovely Pat. Meeting Pat was fab, she is quiet and she has a great sense of humour, I was made to feel at home by both of them and I am completely in love with their house.

By the time I got going back to Maidstone I was quite refreshed, in awe of the sheer volume of books contained in their house and hungry again. I got home and actually didn't share too much of what had gone on (I just realised), not for any particular reason, I was just processing.

I had a lot of food for thought during the trip home, mostly about the things that we had talked about around wards and shielding, but shortly before I hit civilisation again I put my stereo on, cranked it up and sang at the top of my lungs for the first 6 songs of the album.

Saturday evening/night was a lot of fun, we were watching Kylies "Showgirl" tour on tv and singing, drinking things out of little dark chocolate cups and Sarah licked the centres out of chocolates in a totally filthy and vixen-like manner then rode me like a pony until we collapsed in a giggling heap.....I loved it!! We slept until late Sunday morning. Sunday was ace, very chilled out and relaxed, Paul made pancakes for brekkie, I drowned mine in Maple Syrup and got very sticky, then we got dressed and headed out for some shopping.

Tesco shopping was fun, there was the usual grown-up behaviour, we discussed the place semen has in the '5 a day' theory and we got hardly any funny looks!! got home and Paul got the shopping unpacked while Sarah made drinks and I sidled round the washing up, trying to look as though I wasn't doing any of it. I got sprung before I'd even finished rinsing though so I sat and had tea and very tasty plum cake (can't remember the brand) which was great.

Paul excelled in the kitchen (by letting me do the washing up :)) and then cooked a mouth-watering pork roast with accompanying accompaniments, most of which were demolished. I washed all the pans and rinsed everything else and stacked it semi-neatly, I always feel like I'm wasting the time I have left if I wash up during the evening on Sundays, but that struggles against the desire to leave a clean kitchen behind me. This week, the battle went in favour of not doing the extra washing up. A hard fought victory.

Sarah is currently very carefully knitting holes together with dental floss, which I found quite a captivating spectator sport for a lot of Sunday evening, Sarah got her piping bag out and filled some brandy snaps with cream, I had ice cream with Baileys poured over it and little choccie-toffee-fudge pieces on top, verrry nice!!

I got a stern talking-to by two people who love me about my eating habits, much chagrined, :), I left at midnight with more to think about and a new resolution to try and do the food thing a bit better. I was wide awake all the way back, didn't get stopped by the cops (even for my singing) didn't have any problems with Brian and got to my bed a little after 2am.

This morning I got up and in the shower at 6am, had a piece of marmite toast at 7:30am and left for work at 8am. I had cheese and christmas chutney sandwiches, a pear, a plum and a handful of grapes for lunch and tonight have eaten Sussex soj with peas and baked beans all of which has left me feeling the size of a small barrage balloon :( However, I shall persevere and up-the-ante on the exercise and see what happens.

All in all a very warm, cozy weekend, now I am figuring out storage in a hurry, a van for this weekend for another trip East, this time (hopefully) bringing back a sofa, 2 armchairs and a pouf (but without a hard pink stiffy poking in my back) Today I maintained my 100% level of testing by ace-ing my Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance, and Home Insurance testing. I also organised my job interview and appointment with the NW Branch Manager for Feb, and am now sorting out a deep meaningful mortgage conversation with my Brother.

Tonight I have worked out how my parents can halve the mortgage payments on the place in Spain and how they can save almost £40 on their phone/cable/internet combo, and set-up a spreadsheet for them to keep track of what they are paying on what each month.

I do need my bed though. *hugs