Blast from the past

Back blip

Really chilly day, which became dull and wet later on. This was the first day of the latest restrictions of non-essential shops being closed at weekends.

We managed a good walk despite the miserable weather, 14,500 steps for me.

Dinner had a French flavour with steak tartare and pomme frites. We saw a new-for-us butcher in Sants who did steak tartare on order yesterday and so boldly ordered some. Great intentions to make our own chips in the oven, but record keeping (our xmas cards recording of those sent by post and email) took longer than I thought and so they were bought from our local Turkish place.

A rather lovely but unexpected phone conversation in the afternoon for me when I decided to call the mother of an ex-boyfriend (of 35+ years ago). We have always sent each other a Christmas card and hand-written catch up letter and I noticed this year we hadn't received anything. A quick google of her husband's name and hometown showed me that he’d passed away in September. I keep her letters and found a phone number on one and so decided to call her, rather than write. How to introduce myself after not talking for 35 years?? My married name? My maiden name? 'I'm G's ex-girlfriend of a long time ago? Without thinking too much about it, I called her landline and used a combination of all of those! She was delighted to hear from me and sounded just the same, and we chatted for an hour. They'd been married for 64 years and of course she's terribly lonely now in those lockdown days. She clearly enjoys our Christmas letter and commented on a few things in them over the years, like the photo of me and Omar Sharif! I’m very glad I called her.