A trifling natter

I nabbed Dan for lunch on his return from paternity leave and we set out to buy crusty bread to eat in the sun. Elizabeth located us randomly in town as I was bellowing loudly about my latest indignation. Conversations with this wordy pair often skitter off into unparalleled puns where the breadth of the English language is on offer. Both have read this blog and I talked about how I've often sent links to entries after friends have asked for my news. I may need to ditch the impersonal approach as it's not always welcome if people prefer the human touch. I also relayed how our partner NGO in Mozambique is trying to coach me away from using 'cheers' as an email sign-off. 'Cordialmente' is apparently better, although I think it sounds overly cool in English. Never one to miss an opportunity for wordplay, Elizabeth wondered why all these terms relate to drinks. After all this drama we finally acquired crusty bread and sat on the Kings College wall. Robson Green and a crowd of extras filed past, during a shoot of Grantchester.

Dan saw me get, in his words, 'uppity' during a long (I'm talking 12 hour) flight delay at Heathrow last year during which the Malaysian Airlines counter staff weren't exactly helping us claim what is our statutory compensation. He didn't want to miss a similar exchange at Boots Opticians, which is always altering my account automatically and sending me letters through some goddamn annoying glitch in the system. Dan hovered behind like a henchman and probably kept me at 'uppity' rather than 'aggressive'. I cancelled my account as sometimes the only way to make a point successfully is by withholding business. And my free eye test was last week so it's a good way of socking it to the corporates.

I get confused about colleges and bridges, but this is out the back of, I think, Clare College, as Leigh and I strolled for a walk into Cambridge's leafy parts. I like the arrangement of the punts. Our walk was aborted when we realised we were a long way from any eateries, at which point we retreated to the city centre for milkshakes and fried snacks.

A trifle I was carrying and savouring for later spilt in my bag and infused the fabric with liqueur and custard. That was the main low point of the day.