Steve and I have never even
thought about ‘The Date Night’. It must be a modern thing probably, we said one
to other, negotiated within a marriage or partnership where one partner feels
they would like a few hours where there are no distractions. They hope they will
have the full attention of the one they love. I have noticed it being mentioned
on social media posts these days by people I know, a few of whom seem like they
are not the most likely to have thought it up within their own ‘bond’, if they
even have one of those.
My husband and I have
nothing like that sort of set in stone assignation. Our lives, work, training
and level of exhaustion all rule out anything so solid. Our outings are not a
regular thing but generally a last minute arrangement. Steve has just come to
the end of a very busy work period where he worked all week long for the last week in
March and then had Friday 29th afternoon off when he came with me to
Leather head for the first on my triple swimathons. Very early the next
morning he flew out to Marseilles
in the South of France to work the series on French Antiques fairs with a group
of other transporters and shippers for the clients that they were there to take
care of.
Meanwhile back at home I had
two more long swims and was helped with support of friends. I was invited for
brunch on the Sunday which was Mothers day, by my daughter Jacqueline and her
husband Martin and their little dog Louis, who is referred to as my grandson
since he knows me as ‘Nanny’, that was a happy and relaxing few hours. Apart
from that I had my own company.
On Monday I had been told on
the phone from France
to take a rest day by my coach/ husband. There was no choice for me since it
was the day My Castle opened for the summer season. People tell me that I shouldn’t refer to Arundel Castle as My Castle. The reason is that
it actually belongs to the Duke of Norfolk. Yet I have been to visit that
castle more times than most other local people and therefore I must have some
Right of Way of something similar surely. I used the Earls Garden as my bolt
hole when I was chief carer for Steve’s mother in her last couple of years. Our
cousin Sally would come and sit with her while I hid for a while scribbling
poetry notes. I would sit or wander around by Oberon’s Palace or deep in The Stumpery
or the greenhouses or in the Fitzalan Chapel or the White Garden.
Anyway, that was where I sent my sports rest day, in the main body of the
castle and playing in the Keep and the Armory.
Back to my husband. He
arrived back from France
very late on Tuesday night, it was almost midnight. He was up and out early
with a few more pressing days. On Thursday night he ended a twelve hour day
arriving home at 8.30 pm. Meanwhile my little car, Marcus who is about seventeen
years old and was owned by my daughter for his first few years, decided to throw
a wobbly and would not start. He had been playing up all week, even though I
talk very nicely to him, understanding of his age and delicate form due to some
rust patches. “Please Marcus” or even “Pretty please Marcus pet” slowly lost
their charm and by the end of the week, no amount of kind talk would stir him
to life.
On Friday at 2pm I had an
appointment with my Acupuncturist Feng, at Harmony Acutherapy clinic in Chichester. I told Steve that I would take a bus but he
said that he would be able to finish early and that he could take me over there
and do the shopping while I had my treatment. My husband is something of a
kitchen Diva and likes to select all his own wares. I only get to do shopping
for washing powder, ironing water, water softener, bleach, coffee, etc.
After that he said we would
get something to eat and then I could pick a movie. This is an area that he is
not allowed to be involved in; he cannot pick the movie…. EVER.
So Friday afternoon I went
into Feng Wang, who knows more about my body that should be mentioned in
company. He knew about the three long swim days and set about calming my body
down starting first with my head…. My family and friends think this is very
telling. Then he worked on my poor old overworked and stretched back. Then
pretty much everywhere else. If he were a fairy or a wizard and simply waved a
wand and said “Soothey woothey wiggley woozy”, and it could not have worked
better. But I would have missed quite a lot of the strange treatment that is
heavenly. I left feeling light, calm and refreshed.
Steve had come to meet me,
and we had a light lunch of salad frizzé followed by steak frites in one of our
favourite chains ‘Cote’, just South of
Chichester''s ancient Cross. There was time for that because the movie did not
start until 4pm.
There was no question what
we would see. I am one of the group that Stephen King calls ‘His Constant
Readers’ We have both read, Pet Sematary, about six months ago and their was
absolutely no hesitation when I told Steve that was what we were going to see.
He said that was ok and that it was just as well that he remembered everything
about it. I said we had read it but actually we had it on Audible on a long
journey through Germany, and
Switzerland
and both thought it was one of Stephen King’s best. Not THE best as far as I am
concerned; but right up there close to The Stand, Dreamcatcher, Duma Beach
and the Dome.
Of course, we had discussed
that it would make a very scary movie at the time that we listened to it on our
three day journey in autumn last year. We both thought that we probably would
not jump right out of our skins because we knew what was coming. However we
both did at the first spot. Then because it had to be so re-written and
compressed to squeeze into a two our film, it was blood and bodies and the
newly un-dead all over the place and that for me made it less scary.
Steve and I talked
afterwards about people who like to go to horror films and I don’t bunch myself
in that crowd but I am an SK fan. Maybe, I put forward as an idea, that they
are people who do not get enough exercise to raise their heart rate and need to
be frightened to give their usual slow heart rate a kick start now and then,
Steve just gave me The Look, for that remark. It is a scary movie but I also
think that if you have not read on of SK’s books you have missed a lot, for he
is a great writer, he is feeder of new idea’s and I like that use of good old
boy expressions and the use of other peoples work and music references.
The cast are excellent. The
father/husband character is superb and he was in another choice from the next
film on my list, Aftermath, Jason Clark. The wife/mother was Amy Seimetz and
John Lithgow as Jud the old guy across the road from the house with the Pet Sematary
in its grounds. What a little star the happy darling child/super horrendous
back from the dead child Ellie was, little Jeté Lawrence. So ghastly, that I
had to smile a couple of times that she played it so well. There were less than
a dozen people in the cinema at the
twilight showing. Date afternoon over.
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