Darker days

seasonal table decoration at a friend's house

Neither Mary nor I really like driving after dark.  Sometimes we have no choice - people prefer to meet in the evenings and so on.  So yesterday when choir finished at 6 I had to drive home with headlights in my eyes, and various evening meetings will oblige both of us to do this.  Apparently most people don't mind - but brighter headlights and faster speeds make the thing more worrisome - so we do our best.  Planning our Christmas visits to family though, we plan to drive.  We can take our time, visit nice places, stay in comfortable hotels and eat good meals.  Mary particularly likes the egg sandwiches on the Eurostar tunnel crossing in the priority lounge!

The last health update needs a coda, partly for things I forgot, partly for things that are cropping up for the first time.  My dentist has had holidays over this half-term period, but eventually he will measure me for a new denture and take out a troublesome tooth.  Meanwhile, apart from sicatica and various stiffness round the legs, I am beginning to have moments of  pain in the hips.  Since I have had arthritis elsewhere it would not be surprising if hips started to play up.  I do know that hop replacements are simpler than knees, and usually successful, but I think I'll avoid further surgery as long as I can!

After the thrills of the rugby we are back to watching videos in the late evening.  We have more Montalbano to come when the newest DVDs arrive, but since Juliet's visit in the summer we have been catching up on the Camilleri books too.  The stories, in English translation or subtitles Italian videos, really repay a second (or maybe third) viewing.  Several of the tv episodes are taken from short stories I'm now reading.  In the end we understand at least some of the complex plots!  Now we have also returned to lighter viewing with the American series Soap which is often a spoof of itself, but with moments of intense emotion mixed with increasingly improbable plots.

Virginia creeper on our garage door