Unpicking Friday.

I forgot to set the alarm last night and unusually both Norman and Teddy sleep in, so it is ten past seven when I eventually get up. The dogs are let out to a grey, drizzly morning, while I make breakfast, using the last of the smoked salmon, with some cream cheese and rye toast. Clement and I are walking Louis to school with the dogs this morning and then taking them on the Westwood afterwards, so I need to leave the house by ten past eight. This means that my usual leisurely perusal of the newspaper over coffee, has to go by the board this morning, but consequently, I arrive at Sarah's house on time. Louis only wants to talk about football and is delighted to have his big brother home. Nothing has been heard from the hospital, so it seems that Huby Nana is still hanging in there. After dropping Louis at Saint Mary's Primary School, we make our way back up Bleach Yard, past the stables, and then cross New Walk and make our way to The Hurn, via Norfolk Street. It has rained overnight and the air is moist and cool, with more rain a constant threat, so we walk on the Racecourse, (The Hurn), making our way uphill past the grandstand and the finishing post. The grass is still wet and Clement is wearing suede shoes, so his feet are soon wet, and we turn round at the top of the course and return down the pasture, that the race track encircles, and then along York Road back to the house. I drive back to Tickton to drop the dogs off and then return Pip's Micra to Cherry Burton and pick up my Chrysler. Pip and Andrew are just getting ready to visit her mother again in hospital, so I pass on my condolences and then drive back to Beverley to collect Clement for coffee in Rolando's. He is expecting to hear from a friend at UCL that their coming year, at University in Munich, has been approved, but the friend texts to say he slept in and missed the tutor. Students! Clement goes home around half past eleven to revise for exams and I collect the bedroom curtains I reserved on Wednesday at the Cancer Research Charity Shop, down Toll Gavel, before returning to the car. The curtains are really heavy, which is why I bought them, they are intended to black out the bedroom, so that Norman isn't waking with the larks and getting me up at four AM in June. After loading them in the boot, I drive to the leisure centre for a swim, on Fridays there is no aqua aerobics, so there is another "Golden hour", between 12:30 and 1:30PM, when the school swimming classes recommence. The pool is quiet and, once again, I have the luxury of a free lane and repeat the 1600m program of Monday and Wednesday, but then add a further 400m metre easy warm down, on freestyle and backstroke. I feel OK afterwards, so next week I shall start medley training again. Today is a fast day, so I limit myself to a pot of tea in the cafe afterwards, before driving home for three o'clock. After giving the dogs some biscuits, I hang up my new curtains, but find that they are not wide enough. The reason is that there is too much gather in them, so I have to undo the three draw strings, in order to loosen them out. Unfortunately these are tightly knotted and I spend an absorbing amount of time picking the knots apart. It is strangely satisfying, almost like tackling a textile version of a tough sudoku puzzle and I am amazed when I find that over three hours have elapsed by the time they are undone. The Alexandrian solution would have taken ten minutes! After hanging my curtains, which now fit, and feeding the dogs, I steam some brown rice and make a Thai style, rice salad, with tomato, cucumber, spring onion, lettuce, celery, seeds, banana, apricot and figs, with a lemon dressing. It is more a summer dish, but it is appetising and fills me up. Outside, the rain that had been falling, has stopped, so the dogs and I take our last walk round the village and then, after drying the dogs, we go to bed around a quarter past ten.