El (los) senor(es) pulga(s) is (are) still among those present. No Granny is not the lone unclean...evidently, place is colonised. Today will be CLEANSED. Sprayed, hoovered etc etc. Tomorrow, Tiresome Terrier, Beautiful Wimp, Feline Houdini will be shampooed mercilessly (today and Wednesday are yet more FIESTAS. Today the Spanish Constitution is ?celebrated : on Wednesday the Immaculate Conception. All shops and the vet are shut.) Granny will continue to apply tea-tree oil. Fastidious insects may like oestrogen but don't like strong flavours. Why is Beloved totally unscathed??
(Granny is becoming aware that there are too many insects in this blog.)
Yesterday one triumph over technology; new modem at last installed. Granny and Beloved can dial up on the instant. Downside - no faster than old modem, page-overs all blocked (no more bankstatements, crosswords, BBC radio 3, etc) and if disconnected causes whole machine to crash: followed by nasty notice. 'This computer has recovered from serious ailment' (or something like that. ) Now what?
Granny is also wrestling in vain with inserting links on this thing.
More good/bad news. Good; eldest granddaughter is to be Mary in her school Nativity Play - with a lot of lines about woman's difficult lot (pc teacher) her unworthiness etc (same, but also religious teacher.) Bad: Granny of course can't get there; the price of sun and exile - and Beloved really, since that's what exile is about. He has to be worth it; is mostly.
In the Guardian yesterday they discovered the original Mr Rochester's attic! (Article pointed out to Granny by her very own Mr Rochester, otherwise known as Beloved.) Seems the attic woman was real and lived in a house near Haworth. Charlotte Bronte knew the house and story - this was known - but it was thought she'd made up the attic. A sad sad story - turned mythic, epic, universal by a piece of fiction -is that what novelists are all (vainly) hoping for? Dream on Granny. But I guess the real story is sadder. It always is. Reader, I didn't marry him.
As for NHS psychiatric wards. Oh God.
Granny yesterday also did what Grannies are supposed to do. Delectable smells and flavours - cardomum, lemon, walnuts - maybe when feeling kind she will copy out the recipe and blog it. No time now. Lame (and aged) cousin with new girlfriend - both Spanish and a travel agent - turning up on Wednesday. House has to be purged of grot - not just insects. Agent could, might, send Granny and Beloved punters.... They cannot afford to send her home fleabitten.
Hello, it's me again, the overgrown Australian puppy who bounds in going, "Oh! Oh! Yakitty-yakkity!" while all around your sensible, refined readers think, "Oh dear..." (Laughing)
ReplyDeleteIt was a lovely rainy day here today, so I've finally read your archives. Unfortunately, it's now obvious I've missed more than half of everything you've written since I started commenting... (hence the puppy portrait). Sorry. I'm a dill. I should have caught up a bit sooner. I'll probably go on missing half of everything you write, but now it'll be due to stupidity, rather than ignorance.
Anyway, the important thing is: how's your book coming along? And the other important thing is: "Granny yesterday also did what Grannies are supposed to do"? Grannies are supposed to do whatever the hell they want. Grannies, in short, rule.
You are lovely, Deirdre, as usual...Sometimes I'll read your archive too. Book is coming along just fine - but has been waking me up in middle of night. Exhausting..And I haven't enough time!!
ReplyDeleteYeah - further - we can do what we like (mostly) that's what's nice about it. Something has to make up for the ever-deteriorating flesh. Grannies today are supposed to do things like bungee-jumping. Making cakes is the old cliche - but who cares. (better than bungee-jumping for sure.)
ReplyDeleteHurray for over-grown Aussie puppies.
ReplyDeleteLovely, yourself!
ReplyDeleteAnd if that book is waking you up in the night, sounds like things are moving & shaking. Excellent. Hope the ageing cousin won't take all your energy... seeing how you're so old & everything (laughing; my 92yr-old grandmother puts "age" into perspective for me - she's so rudely healthy she'll surely outlive us all).