Village life

The last week has involved a good deal of time over at the pub. So hurrah for that.

Our mates turned up on Wednesday and we all went over to the pub for a few, then back to the house for Pimms and tapas in the garden (ooh, get us) and then back over to the pub for dinner in the evening. Cod and chips, I had. It was lovely.

They didn't bring the spaniels so the garden remains unflattened.

It was great to see them again, and to sit outside in the sun talking bollocks and drinking. Marvellous.

Annoyingly, Mr WithaY had to go into work on Thursday and Friday so I spent those days meeping about on my own at home, wasting my life on the Internet and doing the least tiresome of the long, long list of domestic chores. Although a neighbour did pop in for a cup of tea one afternoon unexpectedly, which was very pleasant.

There was a big village event on Thursday, with the Grand Opening of a new pedestrian bridge. Ribbon cutting and everything. And then back to the pub for tea and cake. Hurrah!

We have a hugely busy road running through the middle of the village, which in some ways is great (plenty of trade for the pub and the garage, a bit of variety and plenty of spectacular accidents to watch out of the window) but in other ways is not (risk to local people being mown down by crazed fuckwit drivers who think that a speed limit is a kind of vehicular serving suggestion).

There are several rivers locally, hence bridges, and as most of the bridges are quite old, there are no pavements (sidewalks, American readers). The upshot of this is that you have to squash against the side of the bridge as huge juggernauts thunder past at 60 mph, 10 inches from your head. Not relaxing.

Anyway, we now have a lovely wooden bridge which crosses the river beside the road bridge. And as it is much lower down you can stand on it and watch the giant trout scampering about without being smacked in the back by some galoot's wing mirror as he tries to steer, change the CD, eat crisps and reset his fucking SatNav at the same time.

And we had cake. All in all a grand afternoon.

Other news: Have been seriously considering my future re: international rock goddess status. My lovely guitar teacher is asking me questions about what I want to do in terms of technique (eg: Lucy, you really should learn to play lead, it'll be good for you, here, let me teach you some Pink Floyd), which in turn has me wondering what, if anything, I will do with myself. In terms of music, I mean.

I am now halfway competent at playing songs, well, just the chords, and as I can sing a bit it is quite nice.

However, I am very aware that this is NOT ENOUGH. I need to be better.

It's funny. When I first started attempting to play the guitar, many years ago, I imagined that I would arrrive at a level of competence where I could play some songs and that would be sufficient. I thought once I could play and sing a few songs I'd be happy with that. And guess what? I'm not happy.

I am the "old woman in the vinegar bottle" of rock.