The Birthday Girl

The Big Birthday celebrations for Daughter #3 are in full swing, although the big day is tomorrow. With just a week in town before she flies back to Oman every day is precious.

I went down to the seaside this morning to meet her at her flat, to find she had already been out for a bike ride, twice round Arthur’s Seat. We had a leisurely coffee and then a walk along the Porty Prom before coming back to Quartermile and a lunch in Veeno’s. Seldom do I drink, far less at lunch time, but this was a special occasion.

When she left to visit her sister, I felt energised enough to tackle one of the baskets in the cupboard filled to overflowing with extremely old shoe cleaning kit. Out most of it went-I’m getting ruthless at chucking out ‘stuff’. There are still two shelves of assorted containers to be taken down and examined. Do we really need to keep old BT Hubs and an assortment of feather dusters that have hardly ever been used?

When there are two people living together in a house, there never seems to be any urgency to sort out ‘stuff’ because there is always the chance that the other person will do it first, but when you are the only person........... it is your responsibility and yours alone.

So I am feeling quite virtuous. Besides, I’ve polished my shoes and also polished the dining room table with the special oil I found in the shoe cleaning box. Maybe it was the wine that gave me the tidying impetus.