Wednesday, June 20, 2018


I hope you all realised last night that I wasn’t here because family was. Alistair himself – by now, presumably, a graduate of Glasgow University, as I am – came over, and Helen came down with her two resident sons (Archie and Fergus), and we all had a rather good takeaway around the dining room table.

After a week or two to catch his breath, Alistair (whose first class degree is in computer science) will start a rather good job with somebody I’ve never heard of, doing something incomprehensible. He said he was thinking of saving up the deposit to buy a flat (in Glasgow) so that he could have a cat. A grandson after my own heart.

Meanwhile I still haven’t got my Resident’s Parking Permit, and life is entirely centred around keeping the metre fed and moving the car occasionally. Surely tomorrow. A day’s metre-feeding costs almost as much as a day’s parking ticket, but feels more virtuous.

I’m excited to hear, Shandy, that you’re coming up in August for a mosaic class with Helen. Surely we can meet? I am getting confused about months and dates – she was here a moment ago, in a state of some agitation about the mislaying of a load of supplies (tesserae?) on their way from Athens to Pelion via Volos for a class she will be teaching very soon. She’ll get her tesserae, and I’ll get my Resident’s Parking Permit, and we’ll think about August.

Knitting: I’ve finished the peerie and embarked on the next Fair Isle band of Alexander’s Calcutta Cup sweater. This is the one that will be interrupted in the middle by the start of the armhole holes.

Sex: Like you, Kay, I hugely admire Mrs Roosevelt. I firmly believe – laugh if you will, remembering that I am 84 – that profound and loving and long-lasting friendship is possible between same-sex couples without necessarily involving  rumpty-tumpty. If the author of White Houses wants to persuade me that it was otherwise, between Mrs Roosevelt and what’s-her-name, she’ll have to persuade me, not just dump the “fact” on the first few pages.

Today is, or near enough, Muriel Spark’s 100th birthday. A commemorative programme on BBC Four tonight will include a rare interview with Penelope Jardine, with whom MS lived in Italy for many years. I don’t suppose the interviewer will ask about rumpty-tumpty. I’ll take my knitting and go off and watch that now; perhaps tell you about it tomorrow.

9 comments:

  1. Dear Jean,
    Somehow you often make me laugh outloud! Rumpty-tumpty indeed! And I do agree that really who cares what intimacies were shared if there was a long loving friendship. Best left as private information.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed! I'm all in favor of everyone doing whatever (rumpty-tumpty included) as long as they keep it to themselves and as long as the nosy parkers keep noses out!

      Delete
  2. It would be wonderful to see you again, but I doubt that it will be possible. I am coming up for the day, by train, and returning the same day. There's an hour for me to get from Waverley Station to George Street each side of the class - through the Festival crowds. So, not this time, I fear.

    Robin - the details of the class are on the Helen Miles Mosaics site. I'm hoping to learn a new craft.

    ReplyDelete
  3. =Tamar9:59 AM

    Sad that people seem to have forgotten the concept of friendship.
    Best wishes for the speedy arrival of the Resident Parking Permit!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I sympathise with Helen over the mislaid supplies. I am not sure which is worse trying to get things from Greece to Scotland or China to Downunder.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous11:48 AM

    Rumpty-Tumpty made me think of All the King's Horses and all the King's Men. Do wish they'd leave all that rumpty-tumpty and hanky-panky alone. But as we all know sex sells - whether true or false - and there is nothing the dead can do about it. Hope you get your permit soon, Jean! What a bother. Chloe

    ReplyDelete
  6. Boston marriage? Of a sort. I am inspired daily , by the photo of Mrs. Roosevelt knitting at a UN conference that hangs over my desk at work, whatever her friendships were or were not.

    ReplyDelete
  7. hmm. not sure if my comments are posting... i wrote a couple of times re your permit - can you call the police and ask them if you bring your receipt if they have a temp permit you can put in the dashboard of the car? to avoid having to schlepp to the car... especially since its been over a week now?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. also, doesnt the agency that sends the permits have something like that? it would seem if they take so long to send the blasted thing but they took your money that you should be allowed to post a paper with your code or something they could email you to print out.

      Delete