Tuesday, August 11, 2020

 

Not too bad a day. I devoted the morning to having a bath and hairwash while Daniela was here cleaning – I’m nervous of falls. Then got quite a bit of knitting done while I sat about steaming myself dry. I’m well advanced with a right-side row, and after that there are four more to go. Endless.

 

Arrangements are well-advanced for Kirkmichael tomorrow. Both C. and I – and the burden falls more heavily on her – are a bit anxious. Fortunately the cats aren’t worried yet. Helen is just back from there – I saw her this morning – and says that the driveway is slippy, after last night’s torrential rain. C. thinks she will leave her car at the road and carry cats and food and overnight bags down. I won’t be much use.

 

I’ve finished Barbara Pym’s “Excellent Women”. It really is first-rate, despite being female and restrained. I need a new big project. Face up to Hilary Mantel? Or what about “Jewel in the Crown”? I loved the television series, all those years ago.

 

Andrew Davies, who adapted “Suitable Boy” for television, is the man who did the first-rate BBC “Pride and Prejudice”. Several times, during my first viewing of that series, I thought, “No – that can’t be in the text” and looked it up, and there it was. This week there was such a moment in Suitable Boy. I haven’t looked it up, but I’m sure it’s not there.

 

Maan Kapoor has been sent away into the country, with his Urdu teacher Rasheed, to get him away from Saeeda Bai for a while. There is a brief scene while they are bumping along in a local train in the middle of the night. Maan, waking from a fitful doze, finds Rasheed reading, and asks what the book is.

 

Rasheed: The Koran

 

Maan: Any good?

 

It’s a good line, and that’s very much Maan’s attitude to life and to religion, but he would never have been so bad-mannered.

 

See you Sunday.

 

(Mary Lou, I think it was you who wished me a happy birthday recently, for which I haven’t thanked you. In fact, it hasn’t happened yet. I am 86 until Thursday. How did I get to be so old? Everybody who dies, nowadays, is younger than I am.)

24 comments:

  1. Happy birthday, Jean! Age creeps up on one. Now when I read the obits, they are of people I remember in their heyday. My favorite line about age is by my MIL. She asked my mother how old she was. At the time, my mother was 70, and my MIL said, "Oh to be 70 again."

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  2. Oh, dear Jean, a very happy birthday to you, and many more. May this year bring you health, prosperity, and happiness. Thank you so much for sharing your life on the blog. You are an amazing woman.

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  3. Happy Birthday for Thursday, and safe and enjoyable travel to and from The Centre of the Universe. The Jewel in the Crown would continue your current India theme, and Hilary Mantel could still await you. Excellent choices, both.

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  4. Happy birthday, Jean! What a wonderful way to celebrate, in the Center of the Universe. I hope you have a lovely time, and will anticipate hearing about it next week!

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  5. Jean, have a lovely trip to Kirkmichael and a very happy birthday! My FIL has just turned 96, so he would consider you a wee slip of a girl.

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  6. Happy birthday for Thursday, Jean. Have a lovely time.

    Helen (anon)

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  7. Happy Birthday from Downunder for Thursday - may all the stitches behave themselves for the coming year.

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  8. Happiest of Birthdays!!!

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  9. Now wait a minute. Lots of life to be lived from 86 on.....
    My closest college friemds and I are turning from 83 to 84.
    My sisters made it to 93.

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  10. I had yours mixed up with another fellow August Birthday (my is the 2nd) now I have to send her a note! Safe and relaxing travels to Kirkmichael. I hope the driveway dries out! I am beginning to be overwhelmed by tomatoes. A very NJ thing, but is that even an issue in your neck of the woods
    ?

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  11. Anonymous12:53 AM

    Happy Birthday! I do think we get the present though, we enjoy your blog so much. Enjoy Kirkmichael. Loretta

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  12. Birthday trip to Kirkmichael, how lovely! Enjoy!

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  13. Anonymous11:48 AM

    People are living much longer these days, Jean! You're just running with the wrong crowd. Happy birthday! And many more! Both my husband and I have very fond memories of Jewel on the Crown and wish they were making more like it. Chloe

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  14. Anonymous11:50 AM

    Jewel IN the Crown. I know I wrote IN.

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  15. Anonymous1:13 PM

    Enjoy your birthday and the trip to the country. Should be very relaxing!
    Lisa RR in Toronto

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  16. Have a lovely birthday. Kirkmichael sounds like the perfect place to celebrate another year of life.
    Be careful of the slippery driveway. Are you still hoping for kittens?

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  17. Consider Her Majesty, still riding at 93 or 4.... Happy birthday, Jean. My vote would be for "Jewel in the Crown", although these things do date rather quickly and it may not be as one remembers it.

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  18. Not being able to comment on Blogger from Safari is inconvenient and a bit of a mystery but I've recently discovered that if I use Fire Fox I have no difficulty. I've been wanting to suggest Steinbeck's East of Eden to you as a lovely and long read that never fails to delight and/or horrify me. I'm not sure that it would be as meaningful to those who haven't experienced the vastness and geographical diversity of the US but to you, a former Yank, it might have appeal.

    Hoping that your Birthday was simply grand in a place that you love so well!

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  19. =Tamar7:04 PM

    Happy Birthday tomorrow! and happy knitting.

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  20. Happy birthday, whenever and wherever!

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  21. It's Thursday now, so Happy Birthday to you, Jean! Wishing you all that you would wish yourself :)

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  22. happy Birthday Jean!

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  23. Wishing you a happy birthday, as it's now passed. Reading your blog daily keeps me grounded, as an American knitter who's married a Scotsman now living in Dalkeith. I've just had my second child during lockdown and your blog helps me keep track of days and helps fulfill the itch to knit that my full hands can't find time for.

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  24. Happiest of birthdays to you, Jean:)!
    Much love,
    Joan, aka FSk:)

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