A lazy day at Yvonne and Nat's - Feb 2015
I awoke at 11.15 am! I work out this is about 5 am in Australia, the time I would normally be stirring. Feeling rested and warm and happy and grateful, I head to the kitchen, Yvonne has gone to her class and the beauty parlour, and I am cooking dinner in the crock pot. I follow the recipe cut out from the newspaper despite thinking it would taste so much nicer if I browned the mince first, but I think she would prefer me not to use the stove top. This house is seriously spotless, and everything has its place, and I am aware that this is important.
The butter is white, the cheese is orange and processed, and the mince is pink. I cannot resist messing with the recipe, and find her spice shelf, and add a bit of this and a bit of that. Pink 'meat sauce' needs some oomph I think. It smells good though!
I catch up on FB and call Gerald, but no response. I do some yoga as I did yesterday, on the mat Yvonne has thoughtfully provided - I told you what great hosts they are! - and dressed warmly in Yvonne’s big coat, I ask Nath to come outside with me to the snow and take photos. He is solicitous and ensures I do not step on any ice, and holding my hand, escorts me out, clearly delighting in my response to snow! A quiet and gentle man, looking after his health and eating well, drinking hardly, he has just come off a fast, and is feeling great.
I have a message from Peter Ormrod. Where are you? I send him my number, saying my phone not working yet. And here I am writing these notes. Time for a shower and some tea, I think.
I have a long chat with Carla Elfeld who wants to stop leading the Communication Course and feeling the pressure from Landmark and Cathy Elliott to stay on - she has been doing it for ten years and now wants more time with Sienna, her 10 year old daughter. Go for it, I say.
Yvonne comes home around four and we sit and talk and look at all of her albums of photos of their 50th wedding anniversary last year. Lots of photos. This is a family who loves to celebrate, no wonder we get on so well. We eat dinner early, about 5.30 and its a hit, my additions to the recipe are appreciated, and everybody has seconds and even thirds. Yvonne runs me a bubble bath with Badedas, and puts the jets on, I sit and boil like a lobster for half an hour and wash my hair, and when I emerge, Nath has made a roaring fire in the family room downstairs. Yvonne and I sit and talk some more, looking at the photos of Joshua and I here twenty years ago for her 50th birthday, marvelling at how young we look. Joshua is a baby, still slim chested, almost hairless, lanky and oh so boyish, and what a beautiful man he is today! Nath goes to bed as he has an early morning men's prayer service in Flushing. Yvonne and I talk of so many things, family, friends, and some dark issues - like the times we have felt the possibility of rape when out in public, alcoholism, the morals of the young, the expectations of young women. Yvonne feels that it is amazing more women aren't raped, as men ‘get erections all the time' - and its up to women to draw the line, ie, not go back to their apartment at 2 am. I go to bed at 11 pm - Yvonne, like Beverly, is tennis mad, and Serena Williams is playing at 3 am - she wants to nap and wake up and watch the game. Not for me!
My water bed is firm and comfortable, and I am grateful to be warm and welcomed in this home.