Holding down the fort...

It's not much trouble holding down the fort if you share it only with a dog and a cat. The cat barfs and you grumble and clean it up with a paper towel. The dog sneaks in a stick and chews it up all over the place and you grumble a lot and get on your hands and knees and clean all that up. But most of the time, it's not that much work. They are fairly civilized as animals go. So, holding down the fort is not too bad a job. 

That's why I could be lazy today and spend a large portion of it on the sofa, some of it asleep. I slept through the first part of the televised celebration of Queen's Day. I woke up because the phone was ringing, but I was too incoherent to answer it. I first had to eat something and have a cup of coffee and I still sat there bleary eyed after that.

Luckily, the whole royal family was at that point traveling on the royal bus from one town to the other, so I could take my time waking up and I was coherent by the time they arrived and were welcomed by the mayor and the crowd dressed in orange. The festivities commenced and once again it was shown how much they are adored by the public and how informal the royal family is. People addressed the queen without the least bit of hesitation and the rest of the royals as if they were favorite family members.

I'm in need of a cup of coffee now and I just started a new pot. It will be done shortly. I was starting to yawn. No doubt that is because I've been so lazy. All I've done is walk the dog twice. I'm in need of caffeine. 

I've got a cup now and very good it tastes too. That should perk me up a bit. I don't know how quickly the caffeine will work, but I'm typing this slowly so it will catch up with me. I do have to think about what I want to write. I can't write about royalty every day, much as I'd like to. It would be such an easy subject. Instead of writing about myself, I could just tell you what the various members of the royal family had been up to.

I've taken my medicines and should think about taking the dog for another walk. He's lying by my feet pretending to sleep, but in the meantime he's alert to my every move. 

The weather has been beautiful today. There was sunshine all day. We really need rain because of the fire danger, but there's none in the forecast. Whoever said this was a rainy country? 

Have a great evening.

Ciao,

Nora

The royal wedding...

My domestic help and I watched Kate and William's wedding together. I came home from an aborted attempt to meet my psychiatrist (he had gotten the time wrong and was trying to meet three patients all at once) and was just on time to see William and Harry arrive at Westminster Abbey in full regalia. My domestic help came in just when Kate and William were about to exchange vows. She cleaned the apartment when there were boring parts and we watched all the exciting bits together.

It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of commenting to do. Of course, we compared this royal wedding to our own royal wedding and concluded that the British version was done with much more pomp and circumstance which was better for the overall impression it made. We don't do that well enough. We just don't stage an affair like that well enough, although we do well on the emotional bit of it. We show less stiff upper lip and more touchy feely and tears. We put a bit more emotion into it for the special effects.

We don't have as big a palace or as many guards in uniform or as many nice horse drawn coaches like that beautiful Landau Kate and William rode to Buckingham Palace in for the balcony scene. We do have 'The Golden Coach', but it pales in comparison. It's just a little thing. We just don't have the largess and the volume. We're smaller and more understated in everything. I wish we could do something about that. I want pomp and circumstance too.

I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I had watched it on my own. It was definitely better watching it with a like minded woman of roughly my age. We did see eye to eye on most everything, including the fact that we liked the simplicity of the wedding dress and the bouquet. We thought they were very chique, especially in comparison to the richness of William's uniform. Let the man be the peacock, is my thought.

It wasn't my intention to write a whole post about the royal wedding, even though the title implies it. I've had to change the title. I had something else there altogether. Now the deed is done. I'm too lazy to change the post.

Have a good day.

Ciao,
Nora

Space cadets...

Even though it is cool in the apartment, I'm not experiencing it as such, which goes to show you that it's all a question of imagination when you think you are cold. I've thought I was cold when it was much warmer in here and turned on the heater. It's true that I am sitting here in my bathrobe and my very warm slippers, but I was then also, so that's no excuse. 

I guess my own internal heater is working better this morning, although my hands are cold and I just stood by the back door where I was exposed to the cold wind that was blowing from the east. Even Tyke didn't stay out there long. It's starting to feel like winter, even though it's officially still a month away. 

It's a good thing that I got my very thick winter coat out and started wearing it. I would be freezing in my short leather jacket now. It isn't thick or long enough to keep me warm in this kind of weather. When the wind comes from the east. it's always cold in the wintertime. We say that it comes from Russia, and all things that come from Russia in the wintertime are cold. Even the vodka. 

I'm sitting here postponing doing some chores. It isn't even light outside yet, so I thought I could wait a while. I don't have to punch into a time clock. I know that I can do what I have to do in the shortest amount of time, it just depends on how organized I want to be and how quick I want to get done. I'm expecting my personal helper at 10:45 am and I have to be ready by that time. That gives me a little  bit of leeway. 

I was also expecting the Exfactor, but I got an email from him saying that his motorcycle was parked somewhere in Belgium with a flat tire and that he's going to fix it today. I don't know how he's getting over there. He didn't tell me the details of that. I do know that riding a motorcycle is a highly unpredictable thing to do, because things are always going wrong with it and it always needs to be fussed over. If it isn't a flat tire, it's something else. I don't know where the attraction lies, because a motorcycle seems very unreliable. I would definitely prefer to have a car. 

My domestic help is also going to be here today and that is a good reason to get some of my chores done, so that the apartment will be ready for a good cleaning. As you can see, I've got my day cut out for me. It will go by quickly anyway. Mondays are like that, although I prefer it if the Exfactor comes on Tuesdays when there is nobody else here. I think he has to work tomorrow, though. He does have to put his hours in, even though it is a part time job. Or especially because of that. 

Rainy days and Mondays don't get me down, as the song doesn't quite go. Those kind of days don't bother me. It would be worse if today were an empty day with nothing to do and no people to see. I do so long for the interaction on a regular basis. The times that people are here are the highlights of my day, even if they are only the domestic helpers. Company is company, and I'm like an old and lonely woman who craves it. 

We are going to have rain showers today. At least, they are predicted. We'll see if they really come about, because much is predicted and not everything happens. Many times we don't get any rain at all or just a few spatters. We really don't need the rain now, a little bit of sunshine would do very nicely. 

Tyke and Gandhi are both asleep. Thank goodness for small favors, because they have been active already this morning and Tyke pestered Gandhi and me until he drove us batty. He wanted to play and neither one of us was ready for it. It was too early in the morning. He does pick his moments, the darn dog. 

It's light now and I suppose I better get the show on the road. It is a good idea to get started while I still have the get up and go to do so. I may otherwise lose my momentum and sit down in the armchair and start watching the reruns of the news. I am so not impressed by the fact that Wills and Kate are engaged. We have our own royalty to watch and even they are only mildly interesting. 

Have a wonderful day!

Ciao,

Nora