WELCOME TO MY DAY..

IT IS NICE TO HAVE YOU SHARE IT WITH ME...

Well, all those jokes you've heard about the English summer? You'd better believe 'em, folks! It has rained every day that I have been here, and I have taken to wearing a jacket over a tracksuit over a TShirt!
We have a heater, though, and have learned to light it, and the griller, without burning our hair now..the gas sort of whooshes out at you and you have to stand away and to one side to be safe. I worked very hard at buying long handled matches at a self-defence aid, and the son finally tracked some down but was quite disgusted when he got them back to the flat, to find they were really double rows of ordinary lengtrh matches set in a LONG tin!
Was going to be been kind of nice, though..having son and daughter staying here with me,just like in the old teenage days,the son just for two nights to observe some pre-wedding protocol..course, we didn't expect the daughter to hightail it back to London...seems to be some kind of attraction there, and I don't think it is the Queen!! I'm still not feeling fully recovered form the flushot reaction/cold/virus/infection,and son and daughter NOT thanking me for giving it to each of them in turn
Though how the daughter can catch any germ over here I can't imagine...the amount of alcohol she has consumed should, I would have thought, have kept her system quite thoroughly antiseptic. I mean, who loads herself up with dutyfree alcohol at Singapore in order to visit a Muslim family?
And who has now hooned back off to London leaving me with a cupboard full of Vodkha and Chivas Regal and London Gin and red wine and bacon....in a Muslim lady's flat??
I mean, I can leave any excess FOOD here..and I have purchased small things for the flat which I will also leave..but bacon and alcohol, I am told...NO WAY!!

But I've had my first taste of English beer..!
After we'd hit the shops yesterday, daughter and I stopped off at a new Leeds pub, since she had been moaning about missing her pint and never going anywhere, and howe GREAT English pubs are.. (etc).
Then she wouldn't leave after one drink, even though we had the son arriving for tea, and the bride's sister dropping things in (it's HER empty flat we're using).
But I should have insisted because after we'd cabbed it home, I found that two bags of shopping had been left somewhere... in the pub..we think!
Ever tried to find a pub phone number in a strange city with a foreign accent and no phone book??
And, of course apart from the teatowels and reading lamp, the missing bags contained a taming hairbrush for me... so I'm still wearing the wild Afro look and will be quite unrecognizable at any airport!
The rather snooty hairdresser who just happens to be the closest to here, and the first I found, stepped back a pace or two when I asked for a wedding blowdry and style for Saturday morning and suggested that Madame will need all her ends cut off first !!
Well, Thomas Hardy of Headrow, I'm going to be a bit pressed for time that morning..I have a 35 minute drive to undertake and it will take me at least four hours on past record!!

Anyway, I seriously doubt if I will be able to FIND you again!
And the bag of hair treatment goodies DID make it home, so today it is a SOFT Afro....
we'll just take this one step at a time!!

I was given a preview of all the wedding finery two nights ago when the bride's parents entertained daughter and me to dinner.
There is a long cream brocade gown, goldtrimmed, and embroidered slippers and an elaborate cloth crown..... and that's what the GROOM is wearing!!
I had seen the crown, of course...had to help protect it all the way from Singapore since son had it made in Pakistan just before he left.
The bride?
Well, of course, my lips are sealed,but I think the weight of her DRESS and NECKLACE will render her shorter, whereas the weight of the EARRINGS will leave her lobes longer!!
And rumour has it that three Pakistani seamstresses went blind doing the beadwork!!

Son and Bride-To-Be were pretty much on edge before the dinner, but he realises now that he underestimated the ability of his mother and sister to find common ground anywhere!.
I am handling the appearance of my son in Muslim clothes better than my daughter is, but she is managing to call him Yahya or Daud which I just can't do!!
He will always be DAVID TO ME!!

And the other son, the newlywed, is leaving for Europe the week AFTER the wedding, and would like me still to be there since he plans 3 weeks away and would like to `meet up' with me!
Now, his trip involves touring about listening to and hiring D.Js..a VERY good way to see the countryside!
But, there just aren't enough weeks left in the year,or dollars in my piggybank to stay for more than a few days with him, (Aagh! Have you SEEN the exchange rates for the Australian dollar?????).....seriously funny that we four have to travel so far to get to almost do something together, but after a couple of days flatting with my daughter, I can see why we don't!
So, after a week in London, and the weekend with HIM,(and I hope he takes me out to dinner, because that will be the only after-breakfast meal I'll be able to afford to eat in London,) I'm heading off to Belgium , where Chemgineer, old friend from Wellesley Women's Centre Chatroom days, is going to show me round and smile indulgently at my French, and there is a chance the new baby might be born while I am there!!
And my son has offererd to bring my COAT over for me!!
Now, if we can just organize to collect that DRESSING-GOWN!!

Love to everyone over 50,and everyone on our side! -from ..Robink

SEE YOU IN LEEDS!!

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