Saturday 2 January 2016

"QUACK QUACK".. GAGGLES OF THEM WADDLING ALONG..

Nothing to do with me.. she hijacks my blog sometimes and that title is certainly one of hers! We went back to sleep, it was very cosy sleeping on her right shoulder with the sheet plus two lightweight but snug blankets and it was still dark outside with the curtains closed and the blind down.. we slept very deeply.

She woke up first and peered at her watch in the semi-light, luckily she wears this on her left wrist so I didn't have to move, and she was quite shocked to see that it was past mid-day.. 12.05 to be precise.

"Pssst GeeGee, do you know what time it is?", I wiggled old Beaky who was placed between my shoulder blades, opened one eye and closed it again, she said "it's past twelve of the morning clock, we should get up".. huh, I thought, why? As we've missed breaking our night's fast and we don't very often eat lunch, I see absolutely NO point in getting up until it's time to eat.

But I didn't say it.. after all, it is a new year and her eating habits might have changed, for you never know with parents, they can be tricky sometimes.

"Come along BumBum, get up, I want coffee and eggs with ham and I bet that bald stomach of yours would like to have rye bread, hummus and an egg".. wow.. fast breaking food! I leapt onto her head and we went to the bathroom.

And so, sure enough, we had fast breaking yumyum at midday! Who said you cannot eat ham and eggs later in the day? Not us, that's for sure!

She opened the front door and looked at the 'weather', it was doing its' damnest to be depressing, it was grey and raining, well, not really raining but the drizzle stuff that, actually, is just as bad as you get just as wet but not quite so fast.

She checked her emails and found an email from Granny-Jo, it had been sent just after 09.00,and it said that it wasn't good weather conditions for working at the allotments and suggested that we stayed in bed! We both snorted with laughter, so it was Granny-Jo's fault we slept in, was it?

But with her weigh-in at 13.00 on Monday looming fast, she thought, I'm going for a long, very fast walk. Having washed, she dressed in weather-proof clothing, stuck Beanie on her head, checked my food and water dish and left the house at 15.25, with the intention of walking the perimeter fence of Hyde Park.

Having crossed Sloane Street at the top by Harvey Nichols, she crossed over Knightsbridge by the French Embassy and into the park. No chance of walking the outer fence in daylight, it'll be dark in 45 minutes, she thought and rethought her route. From home to here, around the Serpentine, back here to this entrance point and home will take about an hour, she reckoned and set off at a fast pace.

With no bag on her shoulder nor WW rolling along behind, my mama's fast pace is fast! I don't know how many paces she walks to the minute but it's quite a speed, you don't go for a walk with her unless you're 'up for it'. She'll occasionally 'stroll' with people but doesn't enjoy it and she's never been one to 'lick windows'.. aka window shop!

This brings me to the title of this post.. have you got it yet? For the word Serpentine was the clue.

There were hundreds of poor wet tourists walking slowly around the edge of the Serpentine being followed by gaggles of Geese who were waddling along saying "quack quack, gobble gobble, why are you here unless it's to give us something".

The water's edge was crowded with Coots, Moorhens, Swans, Canada Geese and Ducks, they too were making 'feed us' noises. She hadn't taken anything as she doesn't think stale bread and crusts off sandwiches very good things for wildfowl to eat. And got a very hard 'stare' from a big swan who came up to her when she was standing by one of the boathouses.. "I haven't got anything for you" she said.. he turned away, have you ever been 'dismissed' by a swan?

So she walked on and up over the bridge and down to the waters edge in front of the Lido.. yumyum.. the smell of pizza was tempting, I'm out for a walk, not a late lunch, she thought and walked on.

Returning home via William Street which leads into Lowndes Square, she discovered that Micheline Arcier's beautiful shop and clinic is no longer there. Sigh. What is there now, are a row of Middle Eastern restaurants.. ah well, times change. She walked into the square and past the block of flats where Telly and Julie Savalas used to stay when they were in London.

And remembered being with them in Cape Town in 1981, 35 years ago, almost to the day. Telly had admired a Tiger's Eye bead necklace she was wearing and wanted to buy Julie, whom he married in 1984, a similar one, she went with him to a jewellers in the Clifton district and experienced first hand how awful it must be to be that famous!

For a couple of people recognised him and before they knew it, there were an extremely noisy, roudy bunch of fans outside the shop, making a big fuss and calling out his name and his peaceful shopping expedition had to come to an abrupt end. The jeweller let them out of his back door and they slipped away up a small street behind the shops and rejoined the others at the restaurant.

Home at 16.30, having walked for just over the hour and with the knowledge that The Lido now does pizza! She has an interesting book by Terence Dooley about the social and political change in Ireland to read and Jamon de Serrano for supper with skinny beans and celeriac for which she'll make a light mustard sauce.

Our life is quiet but pleasant, we hope that you're able to say the same?

GeeGee Parrot.
January 2nd, 2016.

No comments:

Post a Comment