D Day + 50: Friday 1 October 2010 - Rain Stopped Play

Oh the weather!!! I woke up this morning wondering where I was - the bedroom blind was still down, there was no sign of C, and I could hear Romilly up and about.  That is NOT what I normally wake up to...no wonder it threw me.
C was up early as The Ryder Cup started this morning - and as I've mentioned before how absolutely rubbish I am at getting up without a lot of 'encouragement' he'd left me there!  The Romilly thing was soon explained - she is going to drive down to Bournemouth to visit a friend whose birthday is today and who has just moved down to Uni.  She was so excited at this prospect that she was up early to pack the car and have a talk from Pa about driving, using TomTom and general 'be careful' stuff like that.  I was not a happy bunny.  I really struggle to come to terms with how independent and confident our daughter is - she is nothing like I was when I was her age (which is a good thing) and makes these random arrangements without worry or concern (which is also a good thing - for her anyway).  This might all seem clearer when I explain what an absolute and complete woos I am about driving on the mainland - I hate it, it scares me, and I avoid it whenever possible!  I have managed to drive to a cottage in Dorset (following C on his motorbike) and Ikea in Southampton twice (both times with Rom in the car watching for signs).  Anything further afield frankly fills me alarm - imagine how I felt when we picked Bruce (Rom's car) up from Birmingham and I had to drive back to the Island on my own (although following C, it was very easy to lose him in the motorway traffic).  Now that Rom has successfully driven on the mainland, at the ripe old age of 18, I have no valid reason for refusing to do it without looking a poor wimp compared to my daughter!!!
The weather has been absolutely awful today - right from the word go.  The Ryder Cup was rained off after a short time, and looking out the window it wasn't much better here.  We lit the log fire to cheer us up - it's always nice and cosy - and watched stuff on the Sky planner.  Even Fleur turned her nose up at the weather and stayed indoors...

 I decided, in a fit of madness, that I ought to take the dogs out as they hadn't been out for a couple of days and it would do me good not to sit around all day.  So out came the wellies, waterproof trousers, long waterproof coat with hood, and new hat.  Off I went, loaded up the Land Rover, and drove up to Culver Down to my usual parking spot - the wind was lashing in horizontally straight at the windscreen when I stopped and it was a struggle to hold the door open to get out!! Let the dogs out of the back, and off they went - both very keen for the first quarter of an hour, but by the time we got halfway round they were soaked through, wind blown and not really enjoying it; ditto moi.  Back over the top to the LR and it was a struggle to stay upright!! Sidney spotted the LR and shot off like a rocket (I think he thought C was in there and would let him in).  I struggled out of the wet wet-weather gear in the front seat and found, to my absolute horror, that my iphone wasn't working; the rain had managed to leach through the wet weather gear and made the pockets damp - I didn't know that iphones hate water!!!!!  Panic ensued and I tried to dry it off and kept trying to switch it on; nothing.  Oh dear...Got home to break the news to C, who then did some investigating on the internet to see what we should do - the result of which is that my lovely iphone, which has become my constant companion and around which my day to day existence has come to revolve, is now reposing sedately on top of dried rice in a plastic container in the kitchen.  It's almost like it's lying in state!!! I just hope that it comes back to life before long...I'm lost without it!!!

Lu came up to do my hair tonight - she's my friend Deb's daughter, and is a hairdressing student (nearly qualified).  It's nice that she comes to my house to do my hair - saves me having to go out, find somewhere to park, and spend two or three hours making desultory and inane conversation about whether I'm going on holiday and how awful the weather is!  Lu gets on with it, no messing, and there's usually a glass of wine around too; much nicer!  Deb came up too; she'd arranged with C yesterday to order in a curry, something she has apparently never done since moving to the Island a few years ago!!  They are like an old married couple those two...
We always get our curries from Monsoon in Ryde (formerly the Curry Garden) and have done for about 20 years.  They are always amazing; we've never had a bad one yet.  What's lovely these days is that they also deliver, so we can order one up and just sit back and wait for it to arrive - which it did in about an hour.  Delicious...vegetable biryani, chapati and onion bhajee for me and Deb (there is easily enough for two with a biryani) and chicken vindaloo with pilau rice for C.  It's making me hungry again just typing this....
We spent a very pleasant few hours sat in the lounge in front of the log fire, drinking wine and talking.  No need for the TV, especially when I decided it was time to launch the CCl (chimney cleaning log) as I've mentioned in previous postings.  It didn't behave as I expected - it was very bright and flamey (is that a word?) with not much smoke, and put out a phenomenal amount of heat!!!  Seems odd that we had the fire lit and all the doors open; even had to open the window a little at first!!  I didn't like to leave it unattended, and it needed an hour and a half, so once Deb had left and C had gone to bed I turned on the TV and waited up for the log to burn down.  Just after midnight and it is finally safe to leave....