After the lull of the last few days, there is much busyness about the house. John gives the swimming pool a really good clean, my dad sweeps up the frangipani leaves, which are currently dropping in their multitudes, from the driveway, and Sian and Ellie hoover the car. I take the opportunity to work on my book.
The girls then appear in the lounge and hoover the carpet and Ellie has great fun polishing everything. It's amazing how a vacuum cleaner and a tin of spray polish can bring such enjoyment to the morning.
Recently, I told them of my first job in the UK, which was as a chambermaid in a hotel in Wales. I actually quite enjoyed cleaning rooms. I don't know what it is about the feeling, but there is this sense of having completed something which you don't always find in other jobs. I started the job just before Easter in 1993. I hadn't done very much on my own up until this point so everything was a big adventure. I changed trains in Swansea and took a little train that went along the coast.
I remember the guard asking me if I was sure I was getting off at Saundersfoot and not Tenby and I assured him I was. The reason he asked was that it was really just a siding and the train didn't stop unless a passenger actually asked to be dropped there. I found myself in the middle of nowhere with my bag and my suitcase. It was about six o'clock in the evening and quite light so I started to walk along the road. A woman stopped and offered me a lift and that's when I learnt that hardly anyone got off at that station.
The next week, my sister came to visit and we walked along the clifftop path to Tenby. The weather was glorious; to our right, were hedges of wild flowers and to the left were the cliffs; below us was the sea and a beautiful golden beach. I felt I had just walked into one of the books I had grown up on. I was even excited to see a stile - Enid Blyton books always had a stile in them, but I had never seen one before.
The other thing I remember about that Easter weekend was that my sister was a strict vegetarian and very much into 'green' things and she kept telling me how Easter eggs contained some terrible E number that was actually animal fat. I remember her also talking about the greed of people who boasted about buying massive Easter eggs or receiving twenty Quality Street eggs. I was so disappointed as I really wanted to try the eggs. Having been brought up on Charons Easter eggs, the idea of a Quality Street egg was beyond dream like. I can't quite remember what happened, but I think I may have waited for her to leave before going out and buying one!
In the afternoon, Ellie and I attempt making hot cross buns, but I think the yeast must be out of date as they do not rise at all. When I show John the pot of yeast that we used, he says, 'Oh dear, you didn't use that one, did you? That doesn't really work.' I wonder why we have bothered to keep it then, but John is someone who hates throwing things away. Besides my dad, I have never known anyone able to eat literally anything, even if it is about to grow legs and walk out the door. It's all very noble in a world in which people throw good food way because it will 'expire' in two days' time, but I do feel that keeping dead yeast is pretty pointless, though.
In the evening, Sian offers to make supper - spinach and tomato pasta - and afterwards we start watching The Crown. Series 1, I hasten to add. I am sure we are behind most of the world, but we enjoy it anyway. I know that factually there are things that will not be correct, but I like this way of learning about history.
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