Good Evening (Bill, Darsha, Tanners), Good Morning (everyone else),
So much for my really hard job and long hours.
When Eric, Michelle (Hudson, not Tanner) & Elice, turned up at the stud to drop off the truck at 1.15pm
yesterday, there I was still in my jarmies & Xmas neddy slippers.
I feel obliged to point out that I had got up at 0930, just hadn't seen the need to actually get dressed.
The Tanners will for ever feel I was having them on about my stupid hours.
I took them on a 2 hour tour of the farm, Elice & Michelle seemed really interested, Eric was very polite.
It was hideously wet & the farm looked very dishevelled, so did the neddies come to think of it.
Thank goodness it was dry in the weanling barn.
I wish they could have seen it in the sun. Oh well.
I have had a lovely, relaxed couple of days, caught up on lots of corres, organised my room & have done
lots of reading & writing. Claire is organising a 5 hour horse-trek next weekend. Welcome sweet arnica.
I am reading a very gripping book at the moment, 'The Shipping News' by Annie Proulx, it's been a movie,
I don't know if you have seen it ? She has a very economical, pared-down style of writing that has made
me look very critically at my own, overly-verbose style. I wasn't sure if I liked the book at the beginning,
it's very melancholy, but I'm glad I stuck with it.
Her descriptions can be breath-taking. Occasionally, I write one sentence which I am very happy with.
Hers just tumble out one after another, as if she has no shortage of talent or imagination.
One in particular, really grabbed me today, so much so, that I texted it to a friend to see if it
had the same impact upon them.
I know we take more notice of things which are pertinent to the way we feel, but even so, this really touched me.
The man in the book, Quoyle, is trying to get over the death of a lover, as he has
met someone new. He is having problems moving on & asks himself of his old lover ...
'...and what of her essence riding under his skin like an injected vaccine against the plague of love?'
It's stark, original imagery like this, the whole way through.
This book won a Pullitzer Prize & it doesn't suprise me. It's set in Newfoundland & I have found that like
all the good books I've read, it transports me. I have read it with my duvet huddled around me
against the Newfoundland fogs, despite the warm, (but wet) weather here at the moment.
Bill Bryson has the same capability & reading his book, The Lost Continent about travelling across the States
had me stripping layers off, despite beng in the middle of a South Island winter as I read it.
Good news
I saw all 3 kikkens today, which means Hadleigh didn't dead the one he had a chew on.
They are 2 tabbies & 1 tortie, but don't hang around for foties.
Maybe I could sketch them for you ? Perhaps not, those of you who have seen my drawing capabilities,
are thinking.
'Have you heard about the Macedonian Prime Minister' ?
Not the opening to a joke, as you might think, but Bill's 1st sentence to me, as I took the phone
from Claire. He knows how to talk that one. When he & his work buddies were talking about the fact,
that as cops, they had the necessary experience to plan a bank heist, Bill suggested they could do the
re-make of Ocean's 11.
One of his colleagues remarked it would be Ocean's 12 & there would be an extra character who
spent the whole film talking to his mates on the phone.
Bill seems to really understand the concept of talking on the telephone. Unlike most blokes he
doesn't just ring when he has something to tell you
ie. 'Please set the video for the cricket' or 'I'm going to be late. Bye'
He actually converses. About feelings & everything. Admittedly, sometimes it's a little hard to get the
conversational ball from him but by & large, he gets it. Today, he had to show people around the
house he has just moved into, with a view to selling it, to return to the UK. They liked it despite the
fact that he told them there was soon to be a bail hostel built next door. And was built on a swamp.
On a Maori graveyard. And has Legionnaire's disease.
On this occasion, Kirsty was waiting to start the video of 'Phar Lap' (vvv famous NZ racehorse for the
non-neddy types) and I had to say the following to Bill before he finally let me put the phone down.
'I have to go now as 1) my arm holding the phone is numb 2) I have to pee & 3) Kirsty is waiting to start
the video, the 2th Century Fox symbol is showing & the drums are rolling'
'Ok' he says, 'but I must just tell you about ...'
Congratulations
To the lovely Hadleigh (human, not canine) who has recently become engaged to the even more lovely
Frances. Well done Hadders, just like a growed-up & everything. Can I be a bridesmaid, can I can I ?
I promise not to vomit through drink, if you promise not to dress me in bottle green with puff-sleeves
(family joke).
Q, Are you able to insert the pic of H & F here, with Hadders permission, of course ?
That's it for tonight, the worms are starting to get a bit blurry now,
Night all, take care, give whoever is next to you in bed this evening a big hug, be they
human, canine, feline, Humpine or even a jerk. (the last one's for you NM)
Cx
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