Card Shark

Dear O'H dear and Lovely Tea Jenny,

The Normals headed up to Banchory to visit The Prince’s parents. Annoyingly the lurgy came back to bite me today. I do rather resent feeling rubbish on my days off. It feels unfair*

The Prince’s parents live between a river and a forest. It is stunningly beautiful up here. Especially in winter. The forest is covered with spongy moss which makes you feel like a carpet had been rolled out for you to walk on. I fully expect to see wood elves in there. Thankfully, I already have my wood elf name just in case!

We went for a forest walk before dinner but to my horror (and that of my in-laws), I couldn’t drink or eat dessert. This behaviour is so atypical that I’m surprised they didn’t phone me an ambulance. I did manage to stay up for the obligatory game of cards (a variation of whist) which is made all the more entertaining by my MIL having had a few glasses of wine**…

Round 1

Dealer ‘Diamonds are trump’

MIL ‘Ok. What was that again?

Everyone ‘Diamonds’

MIL (Singing): ‘Diamonds are a girls best friend’

First hand is played

MIL ‘What’s trump?’

Everyone ‘Diamonds ’

MIL (Singing): ‘Diamonds are a girls best friend’

Second hand is played

MIL ‘What’s trump again?’

Everyone ‘DIAMONDS. Concentrate’

MIL: I’ve had too much wine to even care. I don’t want to concentrate.

Repeat above until end of game (15 rounds later). At this point, everyone was openly crying with laughter.

C

*Stamps feet. Throws toys out of pram.

**My absolutely brilliant MIL is not a complete lush. She gets squiffy after about 3 glasses of wine (possibly due to cooking and running about after 7 people) and stays like this for the rest if the night.