Weekender

For the first time since my last visit to our old home in Cornwall, the best part of six months ago, I've spent more than one night away from my accommodation in 'domicile-ville' this weekend, staying with my brother and his family in Kent. The main object of the exercise was to take my brother and sister-in-law for their birthday meal, postponed from September, and that was achieved, albeit not quite in the way that was originally envisaged. It looked for most of yesterday morning as though the outing was going to have to be rearranged again, because my sister-in-law wasn't feeling too well, but after a little rest, she declared herself well enough to go out for lunch, rather than the evening meal we'd had in mind. This turned out to be the first of two pieces of serendipity, because, after some prevarication as to where to go, we found ourselves in a village pub ten or so minutes drive from their house, and which has recently reopened under new management and of whose food good reports had been starting to emerge. And they were right, for once - the food was excellent, and not by any means overly expensive. It turned out to be one of the best pub meals I've had in years, and, more importantly, given that it was my joint birthday present to them, my guests had much the same opinion.
The second piece of good fortune was linked to the first in more ways than one. My sister-in-law had wanted to eat at lunchtime because, given her indifferent health, she didn't think she'd be up to a late night, which left my brother and I free to go out yesterday evening, and arrangements were soon made for us to meet up with some old friends of ours who I hadn't seen for a couple of years, one of them being my closest (non-related) female friend. I was a bit nervous about how she might react to my divorce and the reasons behind it, but she was so lovely and supportive, as I should have expected, as was her husband, who's also one of my oldest and closest friends. The evening as a whole was thoroughly enjoyable, and something I very much hope to repeat, sooner rather than later. So as not to leave the connection to lunchtime hanging, the previous time I'd been in the village pub where we'd eaten, which was several years ago, was to play in a pub quiz which marked the final ever appearance of an almost perfect quiz team line-up, including myself and my female friend, perfect because as well as all being good 'quizzers' in our own right, we covered each others' weaknesses in the subjects we were individually strongest in. Not only did that team never lose, we never even came close to losing. Nevermore, though, as spake the raven, because one of our number emigrated to Australia shortly after that match, and it's a bit far to  commute to a quiz!
Today has been rather quieter, a family day whose centrepiece was a very, very good Sunday lunch cooked by my brother, all most enjoyable, especially in comparison to my now rather habitually solitary lifestyle. A good weekend, all in all.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B