The week

Vajraloka, May 2022

Quick round up of events in the last week before I head off into the unknown:

• Last minute outing for Lola II's birthday, for delicious Sunday lunch (which was what she asked for) at a fancy pub near Oxford, chosen because it's about half-way between us and was highly rated. My vegetarian choices were amazing, Lola II and Mr M reported that their starter was wonderful but there was a bit too much fat and gristle on the roast beef. The waitress who came to ask how the meal was steadfastly refused to apologise for this, which lost them the option of a return visit (from me anyway).
• Then we returned to Oxford and stayed over so that we could do a bit of tourism. What we actually did was watch two films (Bank of Dave and Tár), visit the Weston Library (interesting exhibition about the early years of photography), have a slap up breakfast in town, lunch in the market, and cake for tea. I had a lovely time.
• I had a Zoom meeting and a real life meeting with the Buddhists. It was film night at my house, there were six of us, and we had supper together then watched The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. A couple of people hadn't seen it before, and it's always fun to see and hear their reactions.
• I went to see mum and dad, and was encouraged that mum is still improving , albeit more slowly than she would like.
• Another Thursday, another badminton match. We lost the match, but my partner and I won one game, which makes it slightly better.

Now I'm about to go on a week's solitary retreat in Suffolk, which I haven't done before. I've been thinking about it a great deal, trying to work out what to take and what not to take, and planning what I might do with my time offline. I'm very interested in how I manage, but overall I'm looking forward to it.