Reacquainting ourselves

12th November 2024

The sky above Heathrow airport 8th Nov 07.35, the plane circled slowly descending, air traffic control had us in the air a tad longer due to something or another. Out of my window seat I watched the approaching cloud, pillows of it, at least it was white not grey, it felt like you could bounce out of the plane and trampoline your way effortlessly like Tigger. All very familiar how many times have we done this? There was a thud and the wheels came down and before long we were taxiing under the cloud. Thick grey cloud. 8 degrees …. Chilly but not freezing. We hit the M25 at 8.25 … inwardly groaning in expectation of heavy rush hour traffic but it surprised us we sailed though.

It was lovely to see my father things seemed to have ticked along nicely whilst we were away and we had a small family get together. I slipped in a meet up with old school friends reacquainted myself with some old London haunts before hitting the motorway again to head home. We made good progress until the question was put out there …. Do you know where the house keys are? You all know that awful sinking feeling when realisation hits … I know exactly where they are and that’s not in this car or even this country. I had swapped handbags and they were/are sitting all warm and comfy in the other bag safely locked up in Pollards Mill.

We both know the neighbours have a spare set, we both know they have been in the Maldives… are they back????? We both know there is a spare key hidden somewhere but it’s been a while since we have used it … hopefully it’s been returned to the original place.

2hrs later and a little sweaty ….. we reacquaint ourselves with the hiding place and find it. We are in. Phew.

The house is cold but ok. Nothing has fallen in, nothing has leaked except for the sourdough starter …. And is it alive? I had hedged my bets … I dried some, I froze some and left some in the fridge to look after itself. It has had 7 weeks without feeding. A 7+yr old white spelt Portuguese starter … mature enough to be self caring and hibernate for 7 weeks? Who knows. It has had a tantrum in the fridge and expressed disdain in the only way it knows how … dribbling down the sides of the Kilner jar.

Yesterday morning I opened her up ….

Smells ok. looks ok ….. I stir in the grey liquid and feed …. Fingers crossed.

WHOO HOO, hip hip hurray … she’s fine. Like nothing has happened. Today we have fresh sourdough. I’m betting she is going to love a little Caribbean holiday.

Meanwhile in the eaves Stuart Little has had a family and created havoc building his empire. We never used that back pack anyway…. War has been declared.

Work continues on the other side of the pond we will fill you in with progress anon. A pool refurb is on the cards.

In the meantime the internal desire to eat warm comfort food and to hibernate is challenging …. Come on I tell myself, woman up, light the fire and hit the yoga mat.