The guests have arrived – a young relative and her boyfriend. She works for a well known international body and he is a journalist. They went out for brunch with friends today and returned late for dinner and rather wobblier than I like – I find it a bit undignified, but can never quite disentangle my childhood distrust of intoxicants so don’t trust my own views on this. Meanwhile the Gentleman Friend took his niece and nephew to see the Lion King in the West End. I had hastily declined, (a) having watched the musical about 20 years ago; (b) disliking musicals intensely; and (c) not having much interest in Disney cartoons and especially the Lion King. Instead I went into Covent Garden and Soho, where I had a shami anda paratha roll which was not the best shami kebab ever (Indians don’t know how to make them) or the best paratha, but was well spiced at least, and came with a very good cup of proper mixed tea. I then bought myself a bottle of squalane oil which used to comes from sharks but now comes from whales, and then a small handbag for travelling. It’s got pinkish Barbie-flesh coloured staps, which I think are rather ugly, but the main body is a nice maroon and it’s an excellent size, shape and capacity so I am pleased with it despite having chosen one that was not on sale.
Dinner was at the house, with a long conversation on the nature of grief. I made rhubarb crumble afterwards which satisfied no one as it was too sweet for some and too sour for others. Ah well. They will just have to have it again as there is still a huge amount of rhubarb from our trip to the farmer’s market on Saturday.
My eczema is feeling much better today. Hopefully it’ll be gone for good soon.