Call out the divorce lawyers

I have decided that The Builder and I may need to get divorced!

Through my younger days I had quite bad psoriasis, mainly on my elbows.

Gradually, the elbow on my left arm cleared up. The right elbow remained troubled, sad, scaly and ITCHY.

One day, I woke up and realised that my elbow had been clear of psoriasis for some time.I thought back, and realised that it was more or less when Ross went back to Australia. Freyja had gone back at a similar sort of time, leaving me and the cat in sole possession of the flat.

Eventually, everyone trickled back. Austin, Julia, Ali and Zoy stopped by for a few weeks, but by then I had moved down to the botanic gardens with The Builder (into a house alongside the park, you understand – we weren’t in a huge cardboard crate in the park itself). I stopped thinking about psoriasis and set about enjoying all the comings and goings.

Time past. My skin remained itch-free

Then The Builder and I got married.

Almost immediately, I came down with a scaly, itchiness in my ears.Can you get psoriasis in your ears? Dunno – but mine sure were itchy. And scaly.

Then I came down with a scaly rash on my right kneecap. Never had a rash there before. And then, my elbows came down all over itchy and scaly.

It is perfectly clear to me that I am obviously allergic to marriage, that the allergic reaction manifests itself as psoriasis and that the only solution is an immediate divorce.

The Builder has suggested that it might be a cheaper and less time-consuming move to apply some of the vast quantity of E45 dermatological cream that we have lying about the bathroom, especially if I am not actually planning to move out. He may well have a point. We certainly have lots and lots of it, and a little goes a very long way. I’ll do that, then. Hold off the divorce lawyers!!

We had a lovely evening on Saturday. We had arranged to meet Freyja together with Noel and Ellen, the two Kiwis who came for Christmas lunch, for a meal at Zeugma, a Turkish restaurant in Sheffield. They do rather nice and plentiful plates of food which are not hugely expensively. I had learned from previous experiences and made sure I didn’t have a whole lot to eat in the course of the day! Kal, who had been at school with Freyja and for a time was her gentleman attendant, was a happy and unexpected addition to the party. We had a lovely evening. The food was good, the company was pleasant. It was nice to catch up with everyone.

But The Builder wishes it to be clearly understood that when Kal suggested how much his share of the bill would come to and he (The Builder) insisted that it should be £3.50 more – in the general hubbub of conversation he had thought Kal had said his share would be £50, which would clearly be a ridiculous amount for a 6th share. In fact, Kal had said £15, and the rest of us were a bit surprised when The Builder insisted it should be £18.50 – especially since the next thing he said was that Kal should put his wallet away and we would treat him. I will admit, though, that it was very hard to hear in the restaurant, especially when the nice, quiet people on the table next to us were replaced by a very noisy crowd indeed!!

Noel and Ellen are heading back to NZ mid-May. We must arrange to see them again before they go.

Sunday was pleasantly peaceful. And extremely sunny. And remarkably cold! I spent most of the day in the kitchen running up supplies for the freezer. I was very pleased with my homity pies and extremely pleased with my soups. My roast pork was rather delicious too. Not so sure about the venison, mushroom and ale casserole. I am still having trouble convincing my mind that venison is actually food. It isn’t as though it tastes unpleasant. It’s just that ever since Tony bred deer through the 70s and 80s I’ve tended to think of them as pets and not food. Which is remarkably inconsistent of my mind because it has no trouble recognising home grown sheep, ducks and chickens as food and would have no trouble with cows and pigs, although I have never actually grown them. I shall work on it!

It was extremely sunny and very bright when we left home yesterday morning at 07:00. And extremely cold. Minus 8.5!! It was a full 10 degrees warmer this morning. Which may only be plus 1.5, but at least it was a plus! And it’s still sunny, just not quite as bright as it was yesterday. The Builder is hopeful of getting up onto the allotment and continuing his digging progress. I will very, very soon begin to have things to say on the garden blog :-)