Fallen Women

 I went to see a showing of ‘La Traviata’ last night at the Festival Centre in town. ‘La Traviata’ means ‘fallen woman’ which I thought was apt given my mum recently had a fall. But we aren’t talking about that kind of fallen woman, are we, regarding my mum? No, we are NOT. Anyway, I liked ‘La Traviata’ better than ‘Turandot’ purely because there was lots more dancing and it was very theatrical. The plot is basically ‘Moulin Rouge’ and the lead character, Violetta, had a fine pair of lungs for a consumptive. Beautiful costumes and the most ENORMOUS sofa I’ve ever seen added to the appeal. I had a chocolate ice-cream during the interval and made my way back to the car afterwards with my personal alarm in my hand just in case of assail by weirdo. 

My mum is looking and sounding like her previous self, which is sort of good because her previous self can sometimes be sharp, sarcastic and tricksy. She was told off for eating too much ice-cream and has now been moved to yogurt which is okay because it is strawberry flavoured. She has practised walking up and down some steps and there is talk of conducting her rehabilitation at home rather than at the cottage hospital, with daily visits from the physiotherapist and a health care person. The occupational team will visit home to make an assessment and see what she needs, but there’s no rush as she’ll be in hospital for a little while yet, probably another week. 

I’ve got the urge to find a new knitting project so Autumn must be well and truly here. There is a single swallow still in residence in the laundry - perhaps it will stay for the Winter, rather than take its chances with El Niño. The next door neighbours are having their garage roof replaced today so Nell has been at the fence supervising the workmen with erratic fits of high-pitched barking. Lord Malarkey is making a set of Scrooge-themed Christmas cards for sale in his Etsy shop; later today he’s going to see ‘The Odyssey’ at the cinema. It’s three hours long - THREE HOURS! - so whether he nods off or not remains to be seen. I understand it’s a very LOUD and EXCITING film so perhaps adrenaline will keep him awake. 

Other than that, all is fine and ticketty-boo. I am writing away on my novel on a daily basis; it’s almost like being a proper writer. I’m doing bits of garden tidying up and I shall have to mow the lawn at some point because the sudden influx of rain over the last week or so has, as if by magic, immediately turned the grass green again and made it grow at a ridiculous rate. It’s good to see. I shan’t complain. And that little magnolia tree I bought in Spring has suddenly decided to flower.