The Strange Affair of the Changing of the Bed

 

 

We all have our funny little ideas, and one of mine is something that my mother in law always laughed at. Mind you she laughed at a whole lot of the things that that I do or rather I should say did. It is getting on for three years since she died after several short stays in hospital as her health went seriously downhill. She had a fair old innings though and was ninety four when she finally did pop her clogs and if she got her way, which she quite often did, she would have joined the great cocktail party in the sky where she will party away forever with never a hangover in sight. She did love a gathering, a few drinks and good company. I am sure that she will be alternating the eternal party, with holding court with all the newcomers at the great heavenly reception ball, all dolled up in a pretty dress, lots of slap on her face and her hair done immaculately and wearing lots of sparkly bling; she could catch up with the word on the street from every newcomer to cross the finish line at the Golden Gates, getting all the passwords right before Saint Peter would let them in.
 

 

Anyway back to one of the things she witnessed me doing that she found strange, if not down right stupid. My dear husband Stephen has to work away from home every now and then, sometimes doing a delivery to France, Germany or Italy and sometimes bringing a load of furniture back either for ourselves as stock or any number of other transporting jobs in our antiques and shipping world. Now the thing Mother found so laughable is that when I know the he will be returning home I always, always change the bedding so that he has a nice set of fresh bed linen to fall into on his home coming. I do not have any regular day when I change the bedding normally; my own mother always did laundry on a Monday and ironing on Tuesday, I wash and iron any day I please,  in fact with all out sports wear I do washing pretty much every day. On many an occasion I would explain the logic to the changing of bedding ritual to her but she always scoffed. When Steve has been away from home moving from hotel to hotel he is climbing into clean bedding every night, so to my mind, should he not have clean linen to come home to? 

 

Actually it was a little unkind to rib me so cruelly about it, because I did all the household laundry and bedding and clothing. When she was still with us (she lived with us for twenty four years, and right next door for another ten years before that), and I was always the washer woman. When it came to the ironing, I did all Steve’s shirts and trousers first and after that, I ironed all of mothers things, then the sheets and pillow cases and lastly my own clothes, so if anything was left un-ironed because I had run out if time, it would only be a shirt or two if mine that was left wrinkled in the cupboard. 
 

Stephen will be home fairy late tonight after being courier to an Australian client of ours who we have known for years and who was driven all over Europe by her dear husband when he was alive, so she prefers to have a driver and for preference Steve, who she knows well and who as a third or maybe even fourth generation antiques dealer is there to talk to about the goods being bought although the lady has firm ideas of her own it is nice to confer sometimes. She will be buying a 40’ container and Steve will have taken her to a handful of standard French Antiques fairs and other regular calls. There will be two trucks coming back full of French furniture. Steve and she left last Thursday and our other driver left on Saturday to meet for the last two fairs once the first truck was almost full. 

 

 

Whilst Steve is away I do my best the shed a few pounds in weight since it is nigh on impossible to diet with Steve around; just being in the same room as him is fattening.

They have been away for six days and I have taken off three pounds on a diet of mainly fruit, plus some eggs, salad and a few nuts. I gave the usual daily hit of chicken, salmon etc. a complete miss on this occasion. It was also a trial to see if I could cut right down on the amount of coffee I drink and I have done well with that only having two coffees per day. Yes, yes, it’s not so much the amount of coffee although that is an issue, as the creamer and honey that I lace it with that is the problem. I do need to lose some weight if I am to continue with my sport. With triathlon you can carry extra weight swimming and on the bike but being heavy when it comes to running is not a great idea, especially at my age; I need to make it easier for myself and not harder, which it is when carrying a spare tyre or two around the middle.

 

 

 

 

Steve is a wonderful cook and gets quite hurt if I don’t eat every scrap of the delicious meals he makes me. All fresh, he shops daily to make sure of that, lots of salad and perfectly times vegetables. That all sound pretty healthy doesn’t it? Not if you add ice cream for dessert though.