Feeling Special ....

Very different day to yesterday . Maybe the sunshine and warmth . Late , N and me went to get her a school jacket and then to Borders for cards and a coffee upstairs ( in Starbucks ) . As we were leaving N asked if she could take her coffee away in a cardboard cup and the young man offered to top the coffee up and thus re heat it for her . His comment "it feels like the first day of summer and I want to do something to celebrate and hot coffee for you will be a good start . " N commented on how special a takeaway coffee can make you feel . People hate Starbucks with a passion and I understand the arguments but ... the staff in the two Starbucks I have frequented are amazing . A couple of years ago , I drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of skinny muffins , and there were days when it was just good to have somewhere in life where everything was always the same . One memorable day when I was carrying too many things , books , magazines , keys , bags , and then on top the tray and right on my back all the cares of the world and the Barista of the Day glanced at me , picked up the tray for me and steered me and half of my belongings to a table in the corner with a sofa attached and indicated I should sit down . Without a word he went back to his coffee making and milk frothing , and though I said Thank you so much , I have no idea if he knew how much that gesture meant .

In 2000 , I became seriously ill over the course of a couple of days and when I finally got through Accident and Emergency and onto a ward , all I knew was the pain in my chest and the difficulty of breathing and the doctor who held my hand when he told me that there was a big shadow on my lung x ray and they didn't know what it was and there were several possibilities some serious but easy to treat and some " more sinister " but he didn't plan on talking through those " yet" . He didn't need to , I had worked out from the line of questioning and overhearing the shorthand " PE" that they were thinking clot ( pulmonary embolism) . I didn't watch Casualty all those years for nothing .
Finally finally finally , a drip was set up and I was lying in a bed and a nurse was standing by me and she asked me if she could try to make me comfortable and she adjusted my pillows and sheets and smoothed my hair and in that moment she was an angel and my fear disintegrated and I felt so completely happy and out of pain and that there was a chance that everything would be ok . Again I thanked her , but her shift ended and I never saw her again and I have no idea whether she had any idea what she did for me .

Summer ?

N and I have one of our intermittent trips to Debenhams planned for eleven am or at least after Assessor Man has been . She emerges at ten thirty just as he leaves and the three of us debate who might have been in the attic rooms and have moved a heavy trunk and left the light on in the storage room .( All of which I discoverd on accompanying Assessor man on a voyage of discovery leading to him hanging out of the attic window and photographing the Flashing . But thats another story ) .
N and I conclude that it could not have been either of us as the trunk is too heavy and beyond our capacity . That leaves D who insists he would have remembered if he had moved it . He comes back into the room later to point out that his obsession with tidiness would have made it virtually an impossibility for him to have left the storage room door open , light on , and trunk in the middle of the room with duvets cascading onto the floor . I have to admit he has a point . None of us say anything much but our thoughts are all turning towards the Attic Ghost , who has featured from time to time .

N and I both feel under the weather . I have a migraine and have knocked myself into a jelly baby with an Immigran . N is tired . We agree to go back to bed and reconvene at twelve . By tacit agreement we end up resting in the same bed , and Jessie crawls in to join us , though I threaten to eject her if she persists in the claws into my arms routine . She gets the message and we all fall asleep for an hour .
In Debenhams , though my plan was window shopping ( reduced income and all that ) N comes up with eminently plausible reasons as to why we should buy the new school trousers this very day , in the Top Shop dept , rather than Wait . Usually we Wait and all the shops sell out . She tries on a suitable pair but I cannot resist the urge to say " pull them up properly " ( I hear the voice of countless mothers and grandmothers before me , though I manage to sit on my hands to avoid pulling them up myself ) . N gets the giggles and squeals loudly "Mu....um .... look if I pull them up I ll get a camel toe . " This is another of those phrases of hers which sets me off tittering myself . We buy a pair which would be the right length if she wore them properly but will need two inches hacked off ( how I hate sewing hems ) to enable them to hang nonchalantly at the hips . Which reminds me of Michaela and me and our last hairdressing trip , when we were both fascinated ( perhaps the wrong word but am in a hurry here ; fascinated and aghast all in the same moment , perhaps ) by the young hairdresser and his hipsters positioned below rather than above his buttocks . I digress here . And reflect that I sound about seventy .
And I remember on the way home that during my recent ebay spurt , I ordered and paid for a dress ( for the summer ) . Neither arrived . I must get onto it .

Priory

The Priory as the sun starts to go down , Wednesday eight pm .

Walking round the seafront a strong warm breeze reminiscent of hotter days . Summer ?