Wake at seven to a cold, damp morning, Norman is reluctant to venture outside, but eventually toddles down the path and then promptly jumps back into his bed. The smell of frying bacon soon has him scratching at the kitchen door for his breakfast. After washing and dressing I reply to an email from Jackie, before driving to Cherry for ten. It is still raining as the dogs and I make our way into Newbegin Pits woods, but the rain isn't heavy and there isn't much wind. When we get to Black Mill, I ring Clement, to see if he wants to go to the Thai restaurant for lunch, he's back to university in London on Saturday and I have hardly seen him. He does, and I arrange to collect him at one, Grandparents are fairly well down the pecking order with teenagers. It is too wet to garden when we get back to Cherry, so after dropping Dolly and Teddy off, Normy and I head back to Tickton. Once indoors I give him some fresh water and biscuits, pick up my swimming gear and drive to the leisure centre. I am in the water for five to twelve and the far, right hand lane, is empty. I still feel tired, but that's no indication, tiredness can be mental or physical, so warm up on 400m backstroke to see how I feel in the water. I feel OK, no shortage of breath, but each length is taking me two extra strokes. My technique is pretty well imprinted by now, so the only conclusion can be that I have lost muscular strength. Breaststroke confirms the analysis nine strokes instead of eight per length and it can't be the holiday layoff, because I was fine on Monday. Nothing for it but to accept reality and enjoy my swim anyway, so follow the breaststroke with 400m freestyle. The "wave machine", aka ladies aerobics, arrive at twelve thirty and so the rest of us are forced into the remaining four lanes. There are eight people sharing my double lane, so warm down on 100m IM and get changed to meet Clement. I pick him up shortly after one and we walk through town to the restaurant down Lairgate. Once inside, Clement orders chicken satay and Pad Kra Pau, it's a spicy chicken with Thai basil and egg fried rice, I order tempura vegetables and Pad Kra Pau with pork instead of chicken and plain boiled rice. As ever, the food is excellent and the presentation beautiful, we talk about his degree course in electronic engineering with nanotechnology and it is obvious that he is really absorbed in his subject and can't wait to get back to college. I remind him of my conviction about nuclear power and electric cars being the future, but we have differing perspectives, he follows the French approach of large scale fusion technology, whilst I feel that small distributed nuclear power is the way to go. We may both be wrong! The great intellectual and political challenge for me is how to achieve economies of scale without succumbing to the deadening hand of centralised bureaucracy. I am a committed believer in a federal, united states of Europe, a Europe of the regions. I would love to follow the American model and have a Governor for Yorkshire, a Senator and several congressmen. The London centric polity has done nothing but harm to the rest of the UK. My acid test is, anything that winds The Sun and the Daily Mail up, has to be good for ordinary people. After lunch we walk back to Sarah's and Clement gives me a pile of old economist and new scientist magazines, which I stow away in the boot of my car. My library books are overdue, so I park at Tesco and walk through Beverley and return them. I don't take out anymore books, as I have three to read from Hull within the next week. On my way back to the car, I call at Boyes and buy a plastic funnel for 69p, to replace my improvised pop bottle top, that has been serving as a coffee filter since returning from holiday. It takes an A4 filter paper exactly. Norman is ready for his tea when I get back in and I have just time to do a puzzle, before walking him down the lane to the bridge. His fan club of little girls run over to pat him, as we make our way down Green Lane, he takes all this adulation in his stride and doesn't let it go to his head. As we get to the farm, a family is walking the other way, with a lovely tan and white bulldog, she is very friendly, but scares the bejabbers out of Normy. It is the way she breathes, through her squashed up nose, it makes her sound like a pig. I might be losing strength, but Norman is certainly gaining fitness, and runs ahead of me, as we make our way back to the bungalow. Once indoors, I slice and salt the aubergines and then layer them in a colander, before pressing them under a plate, weighed down by a large bottle of conditioner. This process is absolutely essential to remove the bitter taste and excess fluid before shallow frying them a lovely golden brown for the Parmiagiana. I made the meat sauce this morning, and it has been simmering in the slow cooker ever since. I serve ante pasta for tea, Parma ham, pepper Salami and Brie accompanied by olives, sun dried tomatoes and marinated peppers. Outside it is raining heavily, but the forecast for the weekend is fine. To bed early around nine.
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