
On Saturday I went to the ChilliFest with Zoe and Dave. I ate Tacos and Chilli and Chilli Chocolate and Chilli Ice Cream (surprisingly good but not as good Zoe says, as her blackberry and apple ice cream). I bought Bert a Chilli Tee Shirt and Hannah some Chilli Sauces. I took photographs of lots of Chilli Afficianados. They were a pretty mixed bunch.
Bert was astonished at what the stallholders were charging for the Chilli Plants. "Six pounds! that's damnable!"
Today I had a fight with Pearlie, visited Lucy, made Meatballs with Chilli Sauce and Blackberry Biscuits (chilli free). I also did some more clearing of Pearlie's old abode. Bert was amazed that she had squirrelled away all the personal letters he got when he was living at home. He spent a happy hour or so reading through them. There was one particularly sweet letter he received from a chap called David Clay that he'd met whilst travelling. He was so struck by it that he read it out to me.
That's a really lovely letter. Did you write back?
I never did.
You didn't! And that letter was from the heart. He really liked you.
I know. I was a bastard.
That's nearly thirty years it's taken Bert to appreciate the friends he met in his twenties.
Pearlie also kept all his school reports. They were all much the same.
A fair term's work. Robert is capable of a far higher standard of work.
As he said himself,
That just about sums up my whole life.