Challenge 42 - VOW OF SILENCE FOR 24 HRS (FAILED!)

6.30 am and I am already struggling - and noone else is up.  Didn't realise that I talked so much to inanimate objects.  Perhaps choosing the day with the extra hour in it was an error of judgement.

8.30 am Family not supportive and are taking advantage of my vow of silence to be extra naughty!  Didn't realise that I spend so much time re-educating my family in what is right and what is wrong.  No - not nagging - that is what horrible mums do!

11.00 am Home alone.  Cats are wondering why I'm not conversing with them.  Didn't realise how interesting cat conversation actually is - I miss it hugely.

1.00 pm Decked myself out in signs and note-paper, ready for return of family

3.00 pm Decided to drink some cider - to ease the pain of silence.  Might jeopardise the challenge.

4.30 pm Challenge was well and truly jeopardised.  Walked into living room and said 'Computer's free, Pidge'.  Tried to bribe him, but he was having none of it.

CHALLENGE FAILED - WILL REVISIT AND TRY AGAIN.

Challenge 40 - TEA AT THE RITZ

 
Think fine bone china; solid silver cutlery; linen napkins; lace doilies; tea strainers; waiters dressed up as penguins; elegant attire (including 2 slightly embarrassed ladies in full length evening wear); Ritz royal loose leaf tea; lots of little pinkies sticking out at right angles; the tinkle of ivories; smoked salmon sandwiches; warm scones with clotted cream and jam; melt-in-the-mouth macaroons; crumbly meringues; lemon posset (which I thought was another word for baby sick, but never mind); gold, glass, glitz and glamour; impeccable manners; the whiff of over-indulgence; a sprinkling of English pomposity; a side order of nostalgia for times gone by; and of course a generous dollop of yumminess......

...and you have Tea at the Ritz.  And as much of it as you can consume without feeling sick or embarrassed - which, in our case, was quite a lot.  My lovely friend, Sally, and I rose to the challenge and to the occasion splendidly, convincing ourselves that after many years of searching we had in fact found our natural habitat.  Feed us regularly with delicious canopes and pastries, water us with champagne and surround us with luxury, and we will thrive and blossom!!!  (Iain and John, take note!)

Thankfully, our self-delusion evaporated just in time to prevent us from buying a little Dachshund puppy from Harrods at £1900!!!!  Back down to earth ladies!

Challenge 39 - SCATTER MUM AND DAD'S ASHES

An odd challenge - I accept.  But it certainly qualifies for my list on the following grounds:

- I certainly haven't done it before,
- it brought a smile to a lot of faces,
- it allowed Mum and Dad and the rest of my crazy family to be part of my year-long adventure - the journey would have felt incomplete without them.



Two years ago, my wonderful life-embracing family was left reeling by the deaths of my lovely mum, my dear brother John, and my beautiful nephew John, all within 3 weeks.  I am so very proud of how they have all dealt with the pain and sadness with inner strength and without self pity, to walk the difficult path to the place where they can once again embrace life and smell the roses.  Sadly Dad, challenged further by old age and infirmity, could not regain the huge zest for life he once had, and he died a year later.


The emotional exhaustion we all felt at the time prevented us from truly celebrating the long lives of our parents in the way we, and they, would have wanted, ie with a glass in our hands and a smile on our faces.  True to their wishes, their ashes were scattered together between 3 oak trees on a little island in the middle of my brother's lake.  The sun shone, the champagne flowed and laughter replaced the tears of the last 2 years.  After nightfall, fireworks lit up the sky and paper boats containing candles, messages and a little of their ashes sailed across the lake.

Mum and Dad, and the love they shared for over 65 years, lives on in all of us.  What a legacy!

Challenge 38 - TO PARIS FOR LUNCH AND BACK (OVERLAND) IN A DAY

04.50  Alarm goes off.  Paris vs bed?
06.45  Fall asleep on train. Mouth gaping, emitting drool.
07.47  Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to.
08.15  Waiting for Helen at St Pancras, initiating conversations with strangers so that I can tell them I'm going to Paris for lunch!  Helen arrives and stops this childish practice.
08.55  Board a slightly grubby Eurostar.
09.45  Tunnel.  Time travel forward 1 hour.
12.15  Gare du Nord.  Bonjour Paris!
13.00  Arrive at Restaurant Dumonet, in St Germain, after white knuckle taxi ride.  Hungry.
13.15  Complimentary glass of white wine and cauliflower veloute amuse-bouche.  My bouche is amused.
13.30  Waiter takes order and laughs at our over-ambition.  Recommends we share a dessert - too scared to argue but question his judgement.
13.45  First course - stuffed morels, and endive and roquefort salad.  Enormous and enormously good.
14.15  Second course - confit de canard, and chateaubriand with bearnaise sauce.  Huge and hugely good.
15.00  Third course - hoping for a 'wafer-thin mint' but presented with an apple pie the size of a dinner plate.  The waiter was right (of course - he's French).  Despite feeling sick, scoff the lot.
16.00  Over coffee and chocolates, try to convince English bankers on next table to put our lunch on their expenses.  Think I've pulled - they leave us a heart shaped crouton.....and an unpaid bill!
16.30  Leave restaurant and our new chum Thierry, vowing never to eat again.
17.00  Attempt to walk off lunch via Seine, Notre Dame, L'Hotel de Ville and our Parisien highlight - a button shop.  Failed.
18.15  Taxi back to station.  Bus hits taxi.  Parisien road rage.  Horns tooting,  Swearing in French.
19.13  Back on Eurostar.
19.30  Passenger behind us takes out egg sandwich. Look for sick bag but have to make do with wafting perfume-soaked tissue.
20.40  Tunnel.  Time travel back 1 hour.
20.45  Arrive St Pancras.
21.35  Train to Brock
23.30  Home!

Challenge completed - feeling wonderfully decadent, gloriously self-indulgent and gastronomically satisfied. And a little sick.  Thank you Helen for suggesting it and sharing it!