SUMMERTIME!

I finished my book on Sunday afternoon.  I didn't have to change my chair, nor did I have to sit in the middle of the path.  It was so lovely and warm.  

As is tradition, birthdays are celebrated with dinner at a preferred restaurant, and Grant, being somewhat of a surrogate family member, was owed a meal!  He was exhausted on his birthday, having had a very busy weekend, and was more in favour of an early night than a feast, and so it had been put off for a week.  We met after work at the Brazilian restaurant, and enjoyed the company.  The service left somewhat to be desired, but thankfully we were able to laugh at that too!  Normally, a manager makes the rounds and asks if everything is okay.  However, tonight, they did not.  Normally, if we feel there are less skewers being offered, it is corrected immediately.  However, tonight it was not!  Admittedly, we all had enough to eat, probably more than enough, but the choice was quite sparse.  When it came to dessert, we found that the usual 'everyone gets dessert on Monday' offer does not apply in the month of December!  The birthday boy, of course, was entitled to a complimentary dessert, but he had eaten his fair share and asked if he could take it home. The waiter was slightly agitated. "But we have to bring it here with the candles, and everyone has to sing", he insisted.  "Then I put it in a box, yes?"  Of course, he agreed.  I found it interesting that it was really the most attention we had received all night!  The dessert arrived, and we sang.  Grant blew out the candle, and it relit. Again, he blew out the candle and again, it relit.  I took some pictures. The laughter that was coming from our table did not go unnoticed.  Some thought we were inebriated, but the most exotic drink had was a glass of iced tea!  We sang happy birthday in 'rounds', and obviously, each time the candle relit.  My pictures were, by design, awful, and I captured everything but the birthday boy and the cake.  In fact the last one was merely the red syrup used for decoration, which looked like a crime scene!  Our laughter continued as we left.  Despite the dreadful service, and rather disappointing offerings, (other tables appeared to get a larger variety,) we had a good time!  

It was much cooler on Tuesday, with a smattering of rain.  I made some pastry first thing in the morning, and took some dinner out of the freezer.  It was mystery dinner again.  Despite having written something on a post it, which had been put inside the bag in which the dinner was wrapped, I could not read it.  Thankfully, of all my left overs, there is nothing my husband does not enjoy!  

Tis the season for mince pies, and I decided that as well as making lemon tarts for Wednesday's dessert, I would get a batch of Christmas specials made.  The recipe was needed to find the cooking times and temperatures.  I set the oven, and put the first batch in.  However, after the required time, I opened the door, and found the tarts were raw!  My first thought was that something was amiss with my oven. However, when checking the temperature, I realised I had set it to the recommended heat, in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius!  I usually go into auto pilot when using an English recipe, and translate without a thought, but this time I did not.  Turning up the oven, I left them in for another fifteen minutes and went with the now famous saying, "No one knows what they should taste like", although in this case, I have offered them for the past seventeen years, so everyone knows what they should taste like!  

I marched around the complex on Wednesday, and returned to mash some potatoes.  I had decided to go somewhat exotic with dinner, (no, not iced tea,) and made my own teriyaki sauce for my fish, and left it to marinade.  The fat went in the pan to melt, and I listened for the sizzling to stop before taking it off the heat and adding the cooked potatoes to the brown butter.  I did not notice the pain at first, but saw the splash outside the pan.  It took a few seconds for the burning to register, and I dabbed my collar bone area with a damp cloth. Upon inspection, I had, as they say in the depths of my native London, "Done myself up like a kipper".  Of course, I had not literally conned myself, but I did feel cheated.  Cheated of some common sense!  The four rather large blisters did not look particularly attractive, but I applied some ointment and hoped for the best.

"What have you done?" my daughter asked, as I walked through the door.  Thankfully, Dana was at the dentist, but I knew I would get another barrage of questions when he returned.  I explained what I had done, and that there was nothing I could do now but make sure they were kept clean and dry! 

"What have you done?" asked Dana, ignoring my question as to what happened at the dentist.  Feeling like a toddler who had just put her hand on the electric ring of the cooker, I listened to the rules and regulations of how not to hurt yourself when using hot liquids etc.  My pursed lips and apologetic smiles did nothing to fool my husband. Of course, I would try not to do it again!  I know I have said it before, and I know I said I would try not to do it again last time, although as to what and when I did anything like this last time, I recall not, but there was obviously a time when I did!  The dentist story would have to wait!

"What did you do?" asked Cyndi, Grant's mum when she came into the kitchen.  "Oh yeah.  It happens", she laughed.  At last, a comrade in arms! 

Dinner was delicious, even if I do say so myself, which I often do! The mince pies were a little chewy, but no one seemed to mind!  The lemon cups were all eaten quite quickly, as usual!  

"Are you on your way?" asked Michele, in a text at 9:40.  I looked at the time and sent her a message back.  "I thought it was 10:30?"  It appeared we had both got a little confused.  She had originally told me that I could come on Thursday at 10:30 but had entered the time in her programme at 9:30.  My reminder had said 9:30, but I had referred to the original text.  However, she ran an errand and arrived back at the salon at the same time as I pulled in.  All's well that ends well!

After having Christmas baubles painted on to my nails, I headed back to the office.  It was quite warm and it was going to get warmer! 

Summer dresses and boots are really rather chic, I think, and I arrived on Friday in just that outfit!  I felt as if I was dressed rather age inappropriately, but loved it!  Admittedly, I do not show a 'mid-drift' or wear anything too tight, or short, but some of the 'sixties' styles (minus the mini skirt) look better on younger people, rather than those who were actually around during the decade!  However, sometimes, I just feel like reminiscing in clothes!  The fact that I live in Austin, and anything goes, I can get away with a lot more!  I felt rather alive, despite looking like I had survived an argument with a small fire!  The temperature felt like there were small fires burning all over town as we hit, possibly, record breaking temperatures for this time of year!

Feeling rather carefree, I answered the phone, and was confronted with a rather aggressive telemarketer, who wanted to sell me funeral plan coverage.  Nothing quite like discussing your mortality to make you come down to earth with a bump.  After wishing me a good morning, telling me that at my age (how she knew my age was a question I did not ask) I really needed to look ahead and plan my own demise arrangements, she gruffly demanded, "How old are you?"  I responded, as I do to these questions, "You never ask a lady her age", and said goodbye!  I could imagine the retort on the end of the dead line.  "Dressed like that, you are no lady", but of course she could not see me!  

Saturday was tree decoration day!  We had waited all year to put up the rather expensive decorations we had rescued from the hands of the recyclers last year!  Grant and his son met us at my house on Saturday afternoon, after Samantha and I had done the shopping rounds. It was quite chilly!  It was rather nice to be decorating the Christmas trees when it was chilly!  I had taken the box out of storage, and wondered if I had some more decorations hidden, but it appeared I only had the one box.  However, upon opening it up, we saw that there was enough to decorate several trees, which we did!  Seven trees in all benefitted from our artistic attempts, and many motorists hooted and waved.  Fewer trees appeared to be decorated than last year, but then there were a lot of cars parked the other side of the Iron Bridge, where crowds appeared to be gathering, no doubt to adorn the cliffside foliage with sparkles and beads!  I had noticed some on Thursday, a little further down on the highway, that had already been adorned, and wondered if more people were along that stretch of the road. The original 'path' went for miles! Once satisfied that we had done our best, we left after taking pictures.  Another year and another tradition!

"What did you do?" asked Richard, when we connected on facetime on Sunday morning.  I had forgotten how bad the burns looked!  In fact, they did not look particularly bad at all, compared to how bad they had looked. I walked him through the process!  He was not impressed! However, I did not get the riot act read to me! Thankfully!

The temperatures are not conducive with sitting out and reading, today, and we did have a frost this morning.  However, the coming week promises nice, mild, even warm days.  Last week saw record breaking temperatures, apparently!  I plan to do very little this afternoon, as I have a big week ahead of me.  At least I hope it will be a big week.  All will be revealed, in ........... another story!