Tooting - Part III

 Hello there!

We have pretty much established a routine now!  My day starts at between 5:30am and 6am!  As soon as I stir, Cornelius wakes and comes over for me to give him a morning scratch and pet!  He usually sleeps in our bedroom either on his own bed or on the floor beside me or beside Munchie ( and occasionally he will hop up on the bed!)  That is my signal to get up and head out for CBT (Cornelius’ Ball Time)!  He sticks to me like glue as I get geared up for our trek, water bottle, collapsible water dish, ball, ball launcher and small towel.  I have commandeered a sack of Gabe’s to transport the gear!  Once packed, Cornie and I head off to the Commons.  Once there it's ball time!  Cornie gets his workout and we head home.  Back home he gets breakfast and I head back out for my own bit of exercise back at the Commons.  

Upon my return, Munchie is up, has the coffee ready to go and has usually attended to the domestic duties she has chosen to take on, sweeping, washing, laundry, dishes, tidying up etc!  (Please note, I am able to use pink for these tasks only because my darling bride has told me they are her pink jobs!)  

One other extremely important pink job in our relationship - cooking!  And I am so very fortunate and appreciative of this, because as you must have gathered from my previous posts, or you know my Munchkin, Brenda is a fantastic cook!  She is always looking to expand her art and will try new dishes often, or will change up an old recipe/meal that makes it take on a whole new culinary experience, much to my absolute pleasure!  When our son, Nolan, calls his Mom, which is pretty much every day, the conversation almost always includes them describing different meals they have prepared (Nolan has his mother’s flair for cooking). 

Fried rice al-a Munchie

One of Munchie’s “things” about a meal is; not only must it have the palatable qualities to excite the senses of smell and taste, it must also appeal to the eye!  Very early in our marriage, my mother, who was an awesome cook as well, had told my darling bride about the importance of the appearance of a plate!  My Munchie definitely agrees with and applies this aspect!

So here are some of the things we did since my last posting;

I took the 219 down to Wimbledon and took in the new movie, “the Odyssey” in the Odean IMAX theatre.  I liked the movie and director Christopher Nolan’s telling of the Greek myth.  Seeing it in IMAX was quite impressive!  It was definitely a lonnnnng movie, clocking in at 2hrs52mins + 25 minutes of ads and trailers!  Munchie was not interested in seeing this movie, Greek mythology is not an area of interest for her and sitting in a movie theatre for 3 + hours doesn’t track well with her either!  All in all, seeing this movie ate up about over 5 hours of my day.  As I had no other “commitments” for the day, I was okay with it! 

While I was at the movie, Munchie opted to engage in her favorite sport….shopping!  She hit the Primark and spent some serious time plying her sport!  She was quite happy with her “score” and added a win to the stats board!

I also donned an minor arborist’s hat and took a shot at the laurel cherry hedge out front. I had discovered the hedge clippers in the shed when I was getting out the patio chairs. As I am always looking for things to keep me busy and the hedge was in need of a trim, I sent a message to our hosts (Lionel and Tullika) to see if they would trust me to do this.  They said if I wanted to take it on they had no problems with it and trusted I would do a good job!  I found the ladder and got set up to test my skills and abilities as an amateur arborist.  I, of course, would not be doing the task without the careful scrutiny of the job site foreman, Munchie!  She does have a good eye for things like this and was able to stand back and provide valuable input on where to trim!  Although, her eye is sometimes a way to “precise” and the desire for perceived perfection, may not be required for the completion of the task to achieve a more than satisfactory result!  

We took a road trip (thanks to Yasmin!) out to Stonehenge!  Yasmin and Brenda opted to sit with Cornelius while I took in the historic site!  The stones themselves are about 2km from the visitor center.  The place was very busy and it was a good thing I had pre-purchased the entrance fee online as the pre-paid queue was about a tenth of the wait time as the purchase today line!  I thought the interpretive centre was well done and there was an abundance of information about the site.  I also found the volunteers to be friendly and knowledgeable.  I passed on the 2km bus ride out to the stones and walked it, along with a large number of others.  The stones themselves are impressive and when you think about how and when, it is really mind boggling!

After Stonehenge, Yasmin wanted to show us (especially Brenda) the village of Stockton.  Stockton is a drive through living architectural history!  Many of the houses and cottages, some dating back hundreds of years, had thatched roofs! 

We happened to see one being re-thatched!  Check out: Tom Chalk, master thatcher.  Tom was just about finished with this one.  I asked him if he had many competitors in his profession, and he said there were!  He said there was enough work in the local area to keep him and his competitors working steady!  He said for him it was a learned skill from his father who was a thatcher as well.  Thanks Tom for taking the time to speak with me about your trade!

We zipped over to Wylye, about a 5 minute drive from Stockton, to the Bell Inn for a lunch break.  What a great spot!  Pet friendly!  A great atmosphere!  We really enjoyed the historic ambiance of the place.  Thanks to Darcy for her bright and sunny personality and the superb service she provided! 

Lunch was great and we all enjoyed our choices for lunch!  Cornelius was again the perfect gentleman content to relax at my feet!  Another couple came in with their pup and we ended up having a marvelous conversation.  Ken and Lisa were visiting from Devon.  Ken and I ended up having a bit in common including both being born in the same month (he is 7 days my senior!) and same year!  

We did another excursion into London.  We went to see the Wallace Collection.  This massive art collection was given to the public in 1897 and remains a free venue to this day!  The shear volume of art and artifacts is mind boggling!  For any that are passionate about art, an afternoon is simply not enough time to take in all of the pieces on display.

We started with a guided tour which was very informative and our guide, Victoria, presented the history of the collection and its origins with what felt like an "insider's" perspective!  We were so very awed and impressed by the Collection, the building and the history!  It was well worth taking the afternoon to see it.  We took the surface buses rather than the tube.  As we do not have time restraints, the extra 20 to 30 minutes for the journey doesn't matter, and as I've mentioned before, we like taking in the local architecture we get to see from the bus!

One last item for this post:  My darling bride has found some absolutely essentials for our Peanut, sorry, our Gracyn!  These items had to be dispatched across the "Pond" to Canada (Edmonton) without delay and so we engaged the services of the Royal Mail!  I'm interested to see how long it will take for the package to get to Gracyn!  And an FYI; the postage was as much as the cost of the items!  We sent a couple post cards as well.  Postage to Canada, £3.60 (about $6.80 CAD)!

Cheers to all! 

Please feel free to share the blog with anyone you wish to!