Tuesday

"Do you know what day it is?" asked S as I gave her a quick farewell peck on the cheek as I was setting off for work.  Not wanting to wake her too much, I guided her hand to the chocolates I had already placed on her pillow - to surprise her when she did wake up!  She would have to wait until later for the card ... especially as I was breaking from tradition and going electronic!  I missed standing in the newsagents and going through all the cards - the funny, the corny, the schmaltzy ... there is no shortage of them but no, I was making my own this year, electronically, so she could take it with her wherever she went.  I don't think it was a bad effort - S liked it, Mouse liked it - and I'm not sure how many times S had played it since it arrived in her mailbox. I wonder if children still make Valentine's cards for distributing within their class/school.  I can't remember if we used to when I was at school - it's a good couple of years since then.  Maybe we didn't because it was Queensland and American television hadn't yet pervaded the local culture - but perhaps the American service folk, out here during World War II, had.  

When I called home at lunchtime, I discovered that S had decided to make dinner for us rather than us  going out to our regular Tuesday evening out. That sounded good - and we were able to resist when M was in touch later in the day to say there was a Valentine's Special in at The Big House - $80 per couple including seafood entree, steak and seafood mains, and them a dessert to share - topped off with a couple of glasses of champagne!  No, S wanted to cook a special dinner and I wanted to share it with her - so "no" Big House special for us.  And, as it turned out, it was probably just as well because as we were sitting at home this afternoon, the phone rang and it was The Great K who had decided to go home (he had literally just made the decision) and he was after a lift to the airport.  He had called M but missed her, so we told him to come on over and we'd drive him down ... or rather, I would while S made our dinner.  Because he was on an 8pm flight, that meant I could get him to the airport and be back by 8 - so dinner would just be half an hour later than planned -  and we'd have done a good deed as well. He was in the need of a good deed - he's been having a bad run with his back and, for the first time since I've known him, he was not "relaxed" - although he often seems anxious - but it was like he had his face "set" and was, as S observed, "holding himself together".  

Pearl loved her marrow bone!  At one point this evening she was sitting out with it - lest it try to run away - either by itself or alone - and even after M came home and took her into her room, Pearl had a restless night and needed to keep going out to check her bone was still where she had left it.