Of family, friends and food

Piskies as we are, we tend to celebrate the octave of a birthday, and today continued in a largely celebratory mode only marginally affected by what felt like another season altogether of chill winds and battering showers.

After an extremely leisurely start (excuse: letting the family get out to school/work and not getting in the way) we headed down to Newhaven, there to shout to the princess in the tower - our granddaughter Anna, shut up with Covid- and be showered with more birthday presents by her parents. There we were joined by good friends whom we haven’t seen since they stayed with us in the summer of 2019. Over lunch in Loch Fyne restaurant we caught up on each other’s news and views, shared our despair at the Westminster government and enjoyed the easy familiarity of a 20 year four-way friendship. We sat for ages, looking out at the harbour as the rain came and went, then headed back across the road to have another carefully distant get-together with our daughter in law and #2 son.

Dinner back with the other family was a great spread of Spanish food and increasingly unbridled chat. It may be chilly now that autumn seems actually to have arrived, but I’m warm inside - and very lucky.