My turn to provide breakfast in bed for Val this morning – the least I could do really. And then to work, for a full day… more or less. It was a bit difficult to get back in the swing of things again, + certainly neither of us was working at top speed. My mind was full of the book I started to read last night – “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote. It’s really well-written, writing about incredibly dramatic events in a very low-key way. In comparison with the Timothy Leary book, which deals in an over-dramatic way with the relatively mundane. In any case, the characters, as Capote draws them, come alive, which is ironic, since most of them end up dead. But then, don’t we all.
I left work a bit early, because I was really cold, + didn’t want to relapse. So I trotted back + lit the stove. We had to be fairly quick with our evening meal, because in the evening we were going out! We had leeks + beans on toast – a Windrush favourite (and entirely appropriate to the name – + then out. We called in first at Lakeview market to get some shopping + then to Okanagan College. As part of their Community Education programme, they were showing a series of old Elvis Presley films. We’d tried to see the first one, two weeks ago – that was when we had got stuck in the orchard – + last week we had entertained James. Managed to find the theatre after wandering about – it reminded me of teaching evening class at Launceston – paid our $2.50 each, + went in – a nice small theatre. Two shorts first, a pretty silly cartoon, with distinct racial stereotyping, along the “Cry Wolf” theme. Then an anthology of stunts by what appeared to be the American equivalent of Norman Wisdom. Amusing, even tho’ cursed with the most appalling voice-over. Then the Elvis feature – “Viva Las Vegas”. It was pretty dire – Ann Margaret was an appalling dancer, but there were a couple of good songs.
Hm – even though I’d claimed to work a full day, the “more or less” comment was revealing. But I’m going to have to rein in my comments on how little actual work I did, not least because the diary speaks for itself! Windrush was the name of Val’s family home.
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