Life goes on

Adhisthana, June 2018

Terrible news last week - a cousin aged only 48 living in Texas died from a stroke. The last time I met him must have been at least 20 years ago when he was living in Manchester, but Facebook is a marvellous thing and it was clear over the intervening years that he was an active, interesting, funny guy devoted to his wife and two children. It makes you think. It has certainly made me think about the things that I want to change sooner rather than later.

Despite this awful news the following weekend was one of the best for me, starting with a new Japanese cafe just up the road from Lola II and Mr M, followed by supervising them putting up their new tent, which is the same as my tent but a little bit better because it has an extra canopy section. Then I went into London to meet another set of friends and go to a show: The Book of Mormon, which is an irreverent and funny musical which pokes fun at Mormons and Africans alike, without becoming spiteful or particularly critical either. I found it amusing and reassuring that waiting for us outside the theatre after the performance were some real Mormons, taking advantage of a recruitment opportunity rather than protesting about blasphemy. A religion with a sense of humour is fine with me.

After a walk around The Green Park and a peek at Buckingham Palace we headed off to a fancy shmancy Japanese restaurant in St James's, which served wonderful food (the best tempura I've ever had and a very fine cherry panna cotta) but indifferent, if not incompetent service. There were cocktails to follow and much relaxation next morning before I travelled to the Chelsea Physick Garden for a birthday lunch with sister D and family.

The subsequent week at work and at home has been indifferent, marked by the failure to deliver my new TV, disc golf and a pub lunch with the badmintonians, and the arrival and installation of a new washing machine. I will miss that launderette. Good news on the BMI - I'm nearly there, just 200g to go. Then there's the much harder task of maintaining the weight loss.