brief transmission

I've reached that point where I am more than ready to go home and sleep in my own bed. I want to eat more vegetables and not have discussions about going to the pub or whether it is appropriate for my son to be read Roald Dahl. (Mr. Jenner's Father was horrified that Senor Onion was being read "Boy" and the whole scene talking about the thrashings that the younger boys got and said it was evil and wrong for our kid to be read this)

I want to wear nothing but yoga pants and watch Glee and not huddle by a fire for warmth. Blergh. January. Meh.

notes from the fireside

Life is more calm.
Children were fed and put to bed and then the grown-ups sat down to sausages & mash with onion gravy. There were some vegetables but again they weren't the point of the meal. Mr. Jenner's parents were bickering about some minute matter as long married couples are apt to do. It all came down to the fate of a sealed envelope and I am not talking about who will win the best Oscar for uglying it up. It all had to do with something not being put in an enevelope and whether one could even OPEN an envelope and place the missing item and then seal it shut again. There was a discussion between them whether one could steam it open but that was rejected because the heat/steam might cause some damage. This went on for some time. There was a slight detour with some mention of a person in the village trying this and it didn't work and well you know that was useless when one could have just cut it open and sealed it shut up with tape. Mr. Jenner and I sat there very quietly eating our pate and occasionally we would glance at each other and try and not giggle. Mr. Jenner's Mother then said, "well then... everyone is rather quiet tonight. Except for the bickering parents." We stared very hard at our food and began to giggle.
It was truly dinner theater.

After dinner a game of scrabble was suggested as the English must do something to avoid any genuine confrontation or weird silence. We played scrabble. I haven't played in awhile and Mr. Jenner's Father decided to play -which is rare as his favorite after dinner pursuit is to fall asleep in a chair and snore and then deny snoring when people call him on it. He will also make various pronouncements on a variety of subjects. I like him very much in many ways but he is definitely a Grandad. He really needs a cardigan to go with the lifestyle. Mr. Jenner decided to ruin the game by having a couple of Bingos with a triple word score. He just had to take a perfectly nice evening and be all... Mr. Jennery about it. Mr. Jenner's Father would take years (I think we may have experienced an ice age) to put down a couple of words. It was really a game between my Mother inlaw and I -which was nice.

There were noises made about "what should we do tomorrow" and I had to step in and be American and say, "Why don't we see what the weather is actually doing tomorrow and then decide from there. And really I will just say, "we are doing this. Get your fucking coats on." Only I won't say fuck as one has to appear somewhat civilized in front of the inlaws.

Today we went to the pub for lunch. There are new owners and they have kept much of the same feel about the place only they have added some seventies decor and some pop-art prints. Some of the prints are interesting but much of the decor/knick-knacks make the place look mildly cluttered like someone's Grandma's place. Someone should tell them about the whole idea within interior decorating of "editing". Less is more and whatever. The burger wasn't too bad -though not as good as when my brother inlaw cooked there. As I told Mr. Jenner, "Ciabatta buns are about ten years out of date. Yeah it was very chic then but come on... one doesn't want to aggravate their TMJ when eating a burger." The service was a wee bit slow BUT the choice of beers was good and they had orangina. As always the chips were delightful.

Much of the afternoon was spent taking down Christmas decorations and wrangling the kids. I need to think about packing a bit tomorrow. Argh.