Happy Families

 When I reread my last posting, I felt I’d been a bit a harsh on Phil.  He has obviously taken my words to heart and has been far more organised with his paperwork and the piles on the dining room table are tidy.   On Friday he even got round to emailing the agents on his database with his CV.  His database is a little dated so not surprisingly he had a high number of bounce back emails.  I’m not sure if it was a result of his mailing but an agent called on Friday afternoon and has put him forward for a contract in Tring which sounds quite promising.  Fingers crossed.

My sister Julia and nephew Jack drove from Suffolk and arrived at our house just before 7pm on Friday evening.   The drive took her just over 3 hours which I don’t suppose was too bad for a Friday evening and a bank holiday weekend at that.   I’d made up a saucepan of hot chilli bolognaise sauce all ready to go on the hob even though Julia was insistent they wouldn’t want supper.  As it happened they stopped off at McDonalds’s en route so they weren’t hungry.  We spent the evening catching up over wine and nibbles.   The purpose of Julia’s visit was to take me along to her beauty clinic in Fenny Stratford.  Julia has been going to this clinic for treatment for the removal of thread veins on her face, a non surgical procedure that helps her Lupus.   Last time Julia was down she said that my veins needed doing and booked us both appointments for 9am on Saturday morning.  

After wine and a late night I thought this early appointment was quite ambitious but Julia set her alarm and we were all in the wide awake club by ten to seven.   Phil had a study day in Reading so after making everyone sausage sandwiches he was the first to leave.   We left soon after and Julia, me and Jack were at the clinic for 9 o’clock on the dot.  I hadn’t thought too much about my thread vein removal but when we got to the clinic Julia did say that there was some pain involved.  She was having a micro-dermabrasion, so after I had gel applied to my veins to anaesthetise my face, she was first in for her treatment.

I was anxious while I waited and Jack was laughing at me and picking the paint off the door in between texting his girlfriend.   Finally a red faced Julia was finished and it was my turn.  It’s a funny world, turns out that I knew Julie, the owner of the clinic, from David Lloyd.  I remember her giving out leaflets in the ladies changing room years ago but for some reason I lost my leaflet and forget all about Julie and her new clinic.  I suppose 7 years ago, I wasn’t too concerned with lines, wrinkles & broken veins.   How quickly things change.  Anyway, Julie remembered me and we chatted while she dug needles into my veins.   I didn’t see the needles as I kept my eyes shut tight.  It wasn’t too painful (waxing is worse) but one or two pricks made my eyes water.  I guess I was in there for about half an hour for which she charged me £40.00.   If anyone is interested, the clinic is called Face2Face http://www.face2facemk.co.uk/ and I will certainly think about going back for other treatments, once I get a job.

We left the clinic and Julia dropped me and Jack off at the city centre and then drove over to Stony Stratford to spend the day with our mother.   Jack had money to spend and wanted to find some summer shorts.   He was a careful shopper and we did two full circuits of the centre (both the old and the new parts) before he finally made a purchase.  It’s been a long time since I’ve spent time with a 15yrd old and I had a few smiles to myself.   We spent around 4 hours browsing the shops and during this time, Jack was constantly sending texts to texts to his girlfriend and had at least 3 telephone conversations.  I can barely send a single line text so texting whilst walking and as well as holding a conversation was impressive.  Jack is not bad looking, he is growing his hair and uses hair straightners to get rid of his curls and then sweeps his locks across his face, a style that I’ve seen on loads of youngsters.  His clothes style is preppy, smart casual with a hint of hip, skinny jeans, canvas shoes and a Fred Perry polo.   I told him that Fred Perry was all the rage when I was 15 but I’m not sure he believed me! 

When we got to the John Lewis end of the centre, I took Jack and showed him the SnoZone and the Sky Fix which he was impressed with although he was worried about getting his hair wet in the rain!  I did try and talk him to going up the escalator to the cinema to watch ‘Sex in the City 2’ but he refused.  Lunch was Burger King and then finally, money all spent, it was time to go home.  The original plan was to walk back to our house along the canal, but with the inclement weather and no coats this wasn’t an option so I called Harriet for a lift.   Harriet was up but was still in her pyjamas’; I told her not to worry but she insisted and picked us up still in her jim jams, with a hoodie thrown over and Ugg boots to complete the look.   This amused Jack and me but we didn’t comment because we were grateful that we didn’t have to walk back in the rain. 

Julia turned up just after 5 and was shortly followed by Phil.   He was glad he gone to the study day but said that the tutor was nice but crap.  Also there wasn’t any coffee or tea and he’d only had a sandwich for lunch which he’d grabbed at a garage.   So it was just as well that I’d booked a table at the Red Hot Buffet in the theatre district.   We tried this restaurant a couple of years ago and weren’t terribly impressed with either the service or the food.  The restaurant was already buzzing when we arrived just before 7pm.   Lots of hen and stag parties all dressed up in some bizarre outfits.   All four of us sampled the different dishes and had no complaint.   Julia & Phil went for the duck and pancakes and I had Thai food followed by a plate of Indian food.  Both dishes were spiced nicely.  When you book a table you get to keep it for an hour an hour a half but we had finished our meal and were back home before the end of our time slot.  The rest of Saturday evening was spent watching Britain’s Got Talent, the Eurovision Song Contest, a bit of the Grand Prix qualifying and the new Millionaire Drop show with Davina McCall. 

It was a slow start to Sunday morning.   I think Phil had kept Julia and Jack awake with his snoring and both commented on it when I came down to the kitchen.  I guess I’m used to it, but some nights are worse than others.   When Phil came down he cooked a full English and we waved goodbye to Julia & Jack around half ten.   I am ashamed to say that after they went, we just slobbed out in front of the TV with the Sunday papers.  I had all good intentions for Monday but when I woke up and saw my face in the mirror there was no way I knew there was no way I could go out of the house.  Where Julie had pricked my veins with a needle, tiny blood scabs had formed as well as a few other angry lumps and my face looked 10 times worse than it did before.   I had been warned about this but didn’t expect it to look so bad.  I’ve lathered my face with cream to sooth it; I even tried picking off the congealed blood but if anything, it’s made it look worse.  Let’s hope the scabs fall off soon, 2 days of being housebound is 2 days too many.