Saturday morning

 Yesterday we were well and truly hit by Storm Claudia and rain thrashed down all day and all the previous night and has continued through and it is still raining, Saturday.  I can get trapped in here and have been a few times and it is quite alarming when all roads to my house are flooded. It is particularly frightening if you go out only to not be able to get back as happened to me two years ago.  However, due to a low rainfall for a long time here the water-table is low and so far the land is coping.  According to the forecast  seen on my phone an hour ago the rain is due to stop soon but so far it shows no sign of letting up.   The wind was bad on an off yesterday and there were fierce gusts last night which rocked the house and made it creak.  Not my favourite kind of weather here alone. 

On a lighter note, I did go out yesterday morning to meet a friend locally and go for a supermarket coffee and chat.  It seemed like the world and his dog were thinking the same and the café was heaving with people.  The server put it down to the weather.  It looked like sharing tables but as if by magic a lot of people aware of the influx of others gave up their tables and left so C and I were able to sit at a table for 2.  

C and I have known each other for about five years meeting at the beginning of Covid during a a short course we were taking which had a switch of venue because of Covid and was shortly after abandoned completely.  I was with a group of people I had never met before and was very much the outsider.  C and I gravitated to each other in the short time before Covid totally up-ended it.  I assumed I would never see any of that group again when the lockdowns came in.   However, C and  I  later bumped into each other in a supermarket and have been good friends ever since.  We are both flexible and due to circumstances surrounding C at present any arrangements can be called off with little or no notice and we both understand this and accommodate it.  Yesterday, C whats app'd me to say she had a window when we could meet and I took it.  There is nothing sinister in this odd sounding sequence but it is private to C and not something I wish to discuss here.   

C & I sing from the same hymn sheet on most things and it feels like we have known each other for years.  It is funny how this kind of friendship can just happen - not a lot of explaining is needed when we chat, just like old friends, and no wondering 'does she understand what I am saying?' moments.   Neither of us have children and therefore no grandchildren and kind of sets us apart from a lot of the people we know and gives us an immediate private world of shared thoughts and understanding.  A bit odd but the childless will probably understand what I mean.  

We chatted for an hour and then C went to do her shopping and I came home having done my shopping before we had the coffee and cake.   The rain and wind were worse by the time I drove home and I worried a bit about the roads but I needn't have done, all the drains were coping well.  I stayed in for the rest of the day, read the papers and spent a couple of hours on the jigsaw.   

I sat next to the woodburner in the evening watching old movies on Prime.  I am currently reading a Sebastian Faulks novel in bed which helps me relax and fall asleep.  He is such a good storyteller.   I am still waiting for more blood tests which should have been this week but were rearranged by the surgery for next week.  The surgery don't seem to realise the stress these sort of changes can cause.   So I still have tension about illness and results and finding relaxation before sleep is important.