Friday 3rd June, 2016

I was having lunch last Friday with an old friend.  As is often the way these days the bulk of our conversation was shared between two topics.  Our children and Brexit.  I don’t think I’m allowed to mention the latter as Nomura’s house position is strictly neutral and this is very much a house email offering after all, but woe betide the powers that be if I can’t refer to the kinders.  They havn’t tried to stop me yet more’s the pity for you lot.

 

So anyway, my friend described his youngest daughter, aged 15 and who I havn’t seen for quite a while, most affectionately, adding with a degree of pride, that she was now also “fabulously acerbic”.  Is being acerbic something to be proud of I mused to myself?  I hadn’t really thought of any of mine in that mould.  To be honest I wasn’t even sure I would recognise it for what it was.  But on Sunday evening when Sophie and I were sitting round the table for a delicious supper of barbequed lamb chops in the company of all four of our children I think I witnessed it.  Admittedly we don’t manage to get all together so often these days, but Lottie’s comment “Well this is nice.  Normally when we’re all here there’s a turkey in the middle” was acerbic enough don’t you think.

 

Earlier that day I fell out of a tree.  I was cutting down a dead rowan branch by branch and feeling quite pleased with myself at how it was all going.  That was until the ladder slipped.  I had the presence of mind ( go me ) and a split second to switch the chain-saw off before tumbling six feet or so, clattering into the ladder on the ground below machine still in hand.  I would like to say I am none the worse for wear but I have a nasty graze on my left leg and an enormous bruise.  But most of the hurt was caused by Jimmy, my second daughter, when I was relaying my brush with death over the very supper mentioned above.  “Oh dear daddy, what if you’d dropped the chain saw onto one of the dogs”.

 

Yup.  Acerbity.  Nasty word in this house as far as I’m concerned and nothing to be proud about at all.  Smart Alec’s more like.

 

Oh, and I got a speeding ticket on my trip up to Rugby last Saturday.  All in all it was a pretty ignominious weekend to be honest.

 

By the way if it’s a bit quiet round your end maybe you’d like to try a little mind exercise.  As I wandered out of the back door during my BBQ session it struck me what an odd collection of stuff was assembled on or around the table.  So I took a photo for you.  Look at the attached for 10 seconds then tell me how many of the items you can remember.  “Give us a twirl Anthea.”