Everything...

Yesterday had everything …

An elephant dressed in Kevlar and lace, a quickstep with a terrier, a lead, his owner and her rollator ( it became rather macrame-like till we could all realign ourselves ), coffee with Shakespeare's Wife on the train, the chance to play with a four year-old and a silver foot ball and to top it all, a magic cookery book…

Or maybe, had the sun not been shining, I would just have written that the Groninger Museum had decided to stage an exhibition of everything animal-related hidden in their vaults, including the life-size elephant, a dragon and a conveyor belt. That the terrier had wound himself so successfully round the rollator's wheels that his owner was stranded between me and the bus and it seemed rude to shove her aside rather than help. That Germaine Greer's book, grabbed from the pile by my bed, was entertaining with breakfast on the train. Or that waiting in a draughty bus station, the little boy was having a wonderful time shooting penalties with a tiny football made by his big brother out of rolled-up silver paper from a few chocolate bars.

And the cookbook? My favourite secondhand bookshop had it in their 50 cent box, obviously unaware of the magic recipe inside … Above a yellowing early '60s illustration of something orange-ish, it promised everyone's warming favourite, Tomato Soup.  The list of ingredients is economical in the extreme: 1 litre of cold water, 5 tomatoes, 2 cloves. And the method? Boil for 35 minutes. Season if necessary.  Yum!

Plumper

When you're asked what you did at the weekend and you have to admit to going to a lecture on how to wean your pet onto a vegetarian diet, you'll get funny looks.When you do, just smile in return and change the subject. Don't tell them that you'd only been siezing the chance to sit down for a few minutes.

 In fact the whole thing was rather accidental. I had a free train ticket to use up … it hasn't been the weather to go anywhere recently … and somehow Veggie World, a vegan and vegetarian festival seemed to offer an interesting afternoon out and the chance of endless, interesting nibbles.

 I tried everything from non-dairy grated "Parmesan" non-cheese ( really non-nice!) to nuggets made from beans, quinoa and an alarming amount of chili ( not for children, then ), lactose free yoghurt, a gluten-free vegan lasagne (disappointing) and mountains of hummus and vegan mayonnaise, even an everything-but-sugar-free Caesar salad dressing which rather oddly seemed to glow in the dark.

 All the cakes, biscuits and pies were very nice as were all the juices and soups. All the teeshirts, posters and cookery books were beautifully designed and everyone was cheerful and obviously well fed.

I'm slightly reassured that Small Grandson who, at seven, seems to have already decided not to eat meat won't expire but, though I've cut down on the amount of meat I eat, I'm not ready to join him. When someone makes some really convincing bacon, I might think again. But I can certainly recommend it as an afternoon out.

Thought For Today:

      "Life is a near-death experience. Stumble around in giddy gratitude while you still can''  

This quote from Jen Sincero popped up in a book by Lisa Genova today and I thought I'd share it with you. I usually avoid all these homilies like the plague and don't have embroidered cushions exhorting my guests to count their blessings dotted about but this appealed because it describes this week perfectly.

 The sun shone, the birds sang and all the early bulbs are flowering. Sitting outside Starbuck's in the sun, hearing about Friend's homework and her teaching practice with young teens, I gave thanks for being old enough to retire.

There are things about retirement I don't much like. It can be very quiet at times and you miss the mid-morning gossip, but I don't miss the endless meetings about whether we should insist on every child only bringing fruit for snacks or allowing bread and butter as well or just  not having any rules at all and running the risk of biscuits or croissants. The political correctness got a bit wearing and, in fact, the one boy who I saw helping his mother last Christmas in the supermarket had invariably had an iced bun in his snack box when he was three. Rules per se  don't bring out the best in people and the average pre-schooler's morning doesn't normally revolve round having a banana or carrot sticks. I expect this lad was carrying four shopping bags and herding his mum to the bus stop out of affection.

But retirement does have its advantages … I find I quite like life on the wild side. I like being free to do what I please a lot of the time. I might well go in for some giddy gratitude tomorrow ...