annanotbob2's Diaryland Diary

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Ten days later

I was too pissed off yesterday to write. I got up early and called the surgery for a call back. Got some chirpy locum, bloke, from down under, who laughed off my concerns re the warnings on the statins leaflet about taking them with the blood pressure pills I'm on. "Oh, don't worry about that, it's just legal." He was so blase about it all, and said that tens of thousands of people take this combination of drugs as it's the classic stroke prevention combo, so I'm taking them, but I got very pissed off that the system is so cavalier about creating anxiety in patients who read the leaflets in good faith. He also said yoga would be absolutely beneficial so I did the hatha and I am pleased to have a regular schedule of three classes a week.

Today the weather turned - grey and wet, howling wind - likely to be even worse tomorrow, gusts up to 55 mph they say. So I only walked round the block and didn't even attempt to take the dog who has demonstrated her reluctance to go out in the rain quite clearly enough. She has a big garden to chase the cats in if she gets bored.

In writing group we've been talking about our characters. I've worked with Bella a lot these last few months so for this I've been looking at Paul, her sidekick, and seeing where he is now. We were asked to write a short scene that had a big impact on forming their beliefs about what they want and don't want, so here's mine for Paul, then aged about 8.

Paul came downstairs to find his mother snatching items from shelves, from the sofa, the floor and shoving them in a black bin bag. A patchwork throw, a buddha, some old blue bottles.
"What are you doing?" he asked. "Is there any milk for breakfast?"
"Shhh! Don't wake the others. Never mind breakfast, we're getting out of here. Brian will be here soon so we need to be ready--"
"But I'm in sports day tomorrow, I might win the high jump!"
"Sorry, we're going, take this and pack what you want to bring." She passed him a single black bag.
"What about the rest of our things - will we come back for it?"
"No, it's just stuff, there's always more stuff. Get a move on or it'll all be left behind."
Paul knew an argument would get him nowhere, so turned away, and saw the pile of bin bags by the front door. He went to his room and started stuffing things in the bag - all the clothes from his corner, his CD player and discs, his few books, his box of treasure that he kept under the bed. Putting his duvet over his shoulder he dragged it all downstairs, where he heard his mother having a whispered conversation with, presumably, Brian.
"You never said anything about a kid!"
"Well I'm not leaving him, he's my son, he's packing his stuff right now. Here take this."
"Why didn't you mention him? You - you weren't going to bring him, were you? You were going to sneak off while he was asleep! Fucking hell, Storm, that's a bit shit."
"Well he woke up, didn't he, so he's coming now, there he is - come on, darling, this is Brian, sling your stuff in the boot and let's get the hell out of Dodge!"

Three Good Things today:
1. I remembered it was my niece's birthday in time to get a card in the post to her. I hate forgetting their birthdays, which I've done too often recently.
2. Me and Grandson made a date to have lunch together tomorrow on Facetime - yay!
3. I made dinner - chicken and peppers, my version of a meal I had in a restaurant in Spain, about thirty years ago, pollo en salsa. We like roast chicken but don't like reheating the leftovers so I finally had the brainwave of hacking the legs off, roasting the carcass with the breast and wings, then using the remains of that to make stock to assist in the cooking of the legs in some way. I mean, there's enough for two meals so it will be reheated tomorrow anyway, but not in the way of putting cooked chicken into a sauce. We like meat but don't eat big quantities.

11:38 p.m. - 10.03.21

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