A very good day

It’s January in the northern hemisphere. Even happy people have bad days and sometimes sad people have good days. It was a good ’un yesterday.

The day started with a dental appointment. Ordinarily I wouldn’t qualify this as a good thing, but yesterday it was great. Not only did I not have to go off island for the follow up appointment to have the sutures removed, but (a) said removal didn’t hurt at all, (b) despite me ignoring one of the after surgery care instructions (“do not smoke” – like that was ever going to happen), as a result of my strict adherence to all the other instructions, I’m healing very well, (c) turns out I am not going to have to three-times-a-day-remove-tooth-to-soak-for-half-an-hour-after-rinsing-mouth routine for the next six to nine months (after the mouth wash and antibiotics are gone, I can keep the retainer in all day!) and (d) I didn’t actually have to pay anything for the appointment.

Came home that sunny morning in a good mood to settle down to a bit of comms work for the local theatre group. (“Do you have a short play you’d like us to consider for an online One Act Play Festival in the spring?” Well, do you? You don’t have to be a local author to submit.)

Then some lunch. And then, oh, yes, then it was time to set off for the highlight of my week: A walk in the woods with Georgie. Oh, and Joe.

When Joe opened the back door of his car to let her out, Georgie went mental. She was so excited to see me. She didn’t bark. She didn’t yap. She just ran around me in circles positively squealing with joy. As I’ve mentioned before, as he gets to do it six days a week, on the day I join them for a walk I’m the one who gets to hurl the ball for Georgie – and clearly she knows it. Given how madly in love I am with this dog, it was unbelievably heart warming for her to be even more thrilled to see me than I was to see her.

For the past three weeks we’ve gone for walks in the same area – a trail system fairly new to Joe and completely new to me. It’s a very pretty walk.

It’s also good for ball throwing (which, let’s face it, is the main point of walks these days), as the paths are fairly wide and the undergrowth is fairly short, making it easier to find badly thrown balls which Georgie has somehow failed to follow.

One part of the woods has a particularly sweet feature.

Someone at some point painted a rock to look like a toadstool and surrounded it with a maze of smaller rocks. The moss has taken over quite a bit, so it isn’t easy to see quite how delightfully whimsical this is. (Georgie, who it’s difficult to get to sit still for more than a couple of seconds, couldn’t care less about the fairy ring. She’s only interested in the ball and when someone is going to throw it for her.)

After a bit of a steep climb, I decide to take a minute’s rest on a convenient boulder. (I am, after all, a smoker, remember?) Georgie immediately comes to sit between my legs and then, after some ear tickles, rolls over onto her back for a tummy rub. Oh, my god, I’ve just fallen even more in love with this dog.

On the way home I stop at the post boxes and discover that the DVD of Doctor Who series 12, which I’d forgotten ordering, has arrived. (I had my doubts about Jodie Whittaker, I confess, but I have very much warmed to her Doctor.)

Back home there is a message on the machine from a friend wondering if my new false tooth can tackle a burger and, if so, whether I fancied burger and beer night at the pub. Indeed I did.

An excellent opportunity to clink glasses with someone over the Wankmaggot’s second impeachment and to spend an hour wondering out loud how so many Yanks can truly believe that the hated “deep state” is actually a cabal of baby-eating, Satan-worshipping paedophile Democrats operating out of the basement of a pizzeria in Washington. (Or is it New York?)

Home again to a glass of wine and Doctor Who. Ordinarily I would be somewhat wary of opening what used to be (and perhaps still is) called a box set. If past experience with this (and Netflix) has taught me nothing else it is that I am prone to bingeing. (After Joe brought Bridgerton to my attention a couple of weeks ago, I started watching it at 8pm and didn’t get off the sofa – other than wine refills and pee breaks – until four in the morning when I finished it.) No such trepidation yesterday.

Two episodes of Doctor Who. Oh, look, there’s a new Master. You really can’t kill the bugger off, can you? Guest stars (Stephen Fry and Lenny Henry) to flag the fact (as Derek Jacobi’s appearance a few years ago did) that the relaunch of the series is a completely different kettle of fish. Difficult to imagine Alan Bates or Richard Harris turning up in an episode of the original version.

All very satisfying and usually it probably would have been quite moreish, but I had a walk I needed to finish.

Some weeks ago my friend Jane, in our little Facebook book group, waxed lyrical about a novel she’d just finished: “Lilian Boxfish Takes a Walk” by Kathleen Rooney which I immediately ordered from the library. I’m going to be cheeky here and, without seeking her permission, reproduce her recommendation to save writing one myself which wouldn’t be as good:

“New Year’s Eve 1984, Lillian Boxfish, as old as the century if she takes a year off her age (as she has always done), once the highest paid woman in advertising and best-selling writer of humorous poetry that no one reads anymore, takes a 10 mile walk around Manhattan. It’s a walk through her life, and the life of the city, and she’s a great guide, interested in everything and everyone she meets. The character is based on the real-life once-highest-paid-woman-in-advertising, Margaret Fishback, and all the witty little poems and ads in the book are hers. Highly recommended!”

Sometimes ordering a book from the library is a mistake. Sometimes you know within a page or two that you should have just bought the book online (in the absence of an actual bookstore on the island) because you’re not going to want to give it back. And, having finished it last night, no, I do not want to give it back, but sadly I will have to do so.

Taking that walk with Lilian Boxfish was an absolute delight.

And finishing that book in bed last night was a pretty perfect finish to a very good day.