31 st July

Vicky and I went to my graduation today.  I kept thinking there may be some mistake and I would never be called up in my gown to shake the Vice Chancellor's hand and I had misunderstood and never quite got a degree at all, but no, it seemed to go ahead.  Our hands got tired with all the clapping other people.  I didn't fall over on the stage either, which was another anxiety.

I enjoyed our coffee and salmon and cucumber sandwich in the Grand Hotel afterwards particularly.  I then went into work, but overall it was a high point to get my certificate.

As I turn 50 soon and start my six-month career break shortly afterwards, I feel a sense of seasons turning and things moving on.  Everything feels symbolic in an ordinary kind of way.
Josie

This morning I went to Josie`s graduation ceremony at the Brighton Centre. She is now a Bachelor of Science in Professional Practice.   Of all my five children, this the first time I have been to one. I do not think any of the others went to their own let alone asking me.  They were at  Exeter, Plymouth, Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick and Newcastle.   I don`t hold it against them. People just didn`t make such a thing of it then I suppose.  So it was a real treat to go today and I found it all very moving.  It was wonderfully well organised considering how many hundreds of people were there,  with a string quartet in the foyer playing Haydn, and kind women helping me find my seat in a disabled place.  Josie looked stunning in her cap and gown.   It is a pity that academic gowns are not more generally worn as they are very flattering to the figure. They make people look dignified and also hide unsightly bulges and odd shapes and even the silly hats look good as they make you stand up straight.

I went to the Hospice again on Friday and had reflexology done by the daughter of a famous  Ditchling resident who is a volunteer, so that was good.    We had storytelling in the morning and poetry in the afternoon.  I am so lucky to go there once a week.

We have a big family get together in the Island this weekend for Josie`s fiftieth birthday, four generations of blooming Darlings.  

Vicky

25th July

Global warming innit.  Heat changes our culture at the hospital despite the heaving ED department and lack of beds.  There is a languid feel and I can't do my normal bustling walk.  Good things about this climate include the washing drying within minutes, and the cat looking floppy.

Got up early today and swam in the sea with my friend.  Now pleased to be in my cool kitchen.  My friend said even the crows have their mouths open.

Our friend has written a play of Vick's life, which he has done beautifully.  We will perform it here in my garden on September 7th at 2 pm.  All invited.  It will include music, poems and interpretive dance.  It is a celebration of an ordinary life, but just as successful to make good jam, as being on the telly, in my opinion.

My family are off to WOMAD festival this weekend, so I will be alone and the house will be very tidy as I am a Virgo.  I have a new Japanese foreign student arriving but I do hope he doesn't suffer from cat anxiety like the last lodger.

Josie

I decided not to risk going to Waterstones in Brighton today for the Nibbles and Scribbles writing group as the doctor on breakfast telly warned that old people were dropping off like flies in the heat and we must stay indoors with windows closed and curtains drawn, drinking gallons of water.

So this morning, my friend Phil came round for a game of Scrabble and I won by getting all my letters out on the last go with a huge score, having been losing up till then. I don`t think that has ever happened to me before.

I had a lovely time at the Hospice last Friday at the Wellbeing Group. I am going again tomorrow. There was an Art discussion in the morning, then a delicious lunch followed by poetry in the afternoon. Everybody there: other inmates, volunteers and staff were so kind and welcoming. I am very lucky that it is only a ten-minute drive from home.

The one and only thing that cheered me up when Boris Johnson made his speech yesterday outside number ten were that he said he would try to improve farm animals welfare. So I am pinning my hopes on that and trying not to think about a No Deal Brexit which will ruin us all.

Vicky

18th July

I have now got my new iPad, and it is a wondrous machine. I am still a bit frightened of it, especially when it asks me questions out loud.
Tiger came to stay at the weekend and gave me instruction.  She was very firm, a good teacher.    She also cleared out all my kitchen cupboards and threw out a great pile of Stuff.  Later I secretly retrieved a bent old saucepan, the only one that makes a reliable white sauce without lumps.    But it is a treat now to see all the pristine cupboards and drawers, even the crumby one that held old unusable kitchen gadgets and rubber bands.     
Healthwise, everyone says "you look extremely well" in a rather accusatory and surprised tone, so I feel I have to invent a few interesting symptoms.
Tomorrow I go to the Wellbeing Centre at the local Hospice for my first session.
Vicky

I find hot weather rather worrying, and am so relieved it is cloudy and damp today.  The fruit from the allotment is thankfully coming to an end, which is like when the Brighton festival comes to an end and I am pleased there is not so much to do any more.  I have a sense of fatigue and am sleeping deeply for about 10 hours a night.  
My friend and I went to an unfriendly folk session last night in the pub where we couldn't keep up with the Trad Irish stuff at all.  We did lead on one Scottish song and I played my violin loudly and badly.  We are going to research all the folk clubs in Brighton in the hope of finding one our standard.  
Josie

13th July

I have had a quiet week after the breast lump drama.  I am glad the sea is down my road to swim in.  Being in the water has always felt like the solution for me, back to an embryonic or pre neanderthal state.  
I am going to look for glow-worms tomorrow night.  And I am looking forward to our Isle of Wight holiday in August.  I always feel timeless in the Isle of Wight.
Working at the hospital in this heat is like swimming through duckweed.
Josie


This morning we went to the Saturday writing group in Hove Library.  I had never been there before.  It is an impressive Victorian building, complete with cupolas, pillars, pediments and echoing galleries.  It has a lovely lively atmosphere which is reassuring as I worry about Public Libraries.
The writing group, twenty men and women, all eager writers, listened to a talk about editing our work.  I wish I had heard her years ago.  It would have helped.  Too late now, but it was good for Josie who is a writer with an original voice, and who has an unpublished novel under her belt.  
Granddaughter Tiger is coming to stay tonight to initiate me to my new Ipad.  I hope she realises she must be strict with me or it will go the way of smartphones and other things of that nature.  I am still the only person left in Sussex with a Nokia phone.
Vicky

11 th July

I have been away in Winchester: seeing old friends, having tasty meals, talking, and talking.  I drove there and back in the rust bucket, my faithful Nissan Micra.  It's a toss-up as to which will last longer; me or the car.  I also went to a splendid 60th wedding anniversary party in the wilds of Dorset, driven there by someone else.  Everybody looked unchanged and remarkably young.  That may have been due to my failing eyesight.
 I came home to find that I couldn't get into my email.  IIt wouldn't accept what I thought was my password.  I battled with it for four days and then Josie solved the problem in an instant 'tho this involved phoning son Toby in Penang; don't ask me why. 
I was invited to the hospice which is quite nearby, and have signed up to go every Friday to the Wellbeing Centre.   I can go to an art group in the morning and a poetry group in the afternoon with a slap-up lunch in between.  I am looking forward to it.
I'm going to make blackcurrant jam now with fruit from Josie's allotment. 
Vicky

5 th July

Last Sunday while watching TV I found a breast lump, so have had a dramatic week planning my funeral as well as Vicks.  I found I was not ready to die.  I am keen to explore Scotland and the Scilly Isles, and possibly even Nepal.  And I'm not keen to leave my people.  I need to be well to look after Vick. 

Thanks to the efficient and wonderful NHS I was seen quickly and had the amazing news yesterday it was just a cyst, and the lump is now gone as it was quickly drained.  My dear friend R and I held hands and wept with relief.  We were on the London Road in Brighton, which is one of the more squalid roads, and it felt like Utopia.  Life feels so intense at the moment, I can hardly stand it.

My allotment is overflowing with fruit and salad.  I have a Turkish lodger who is terrified of the cat.  Most people I know are going to a festival this weekend, and even Vick will not be here.  I aim to lie in the garden and read The Salt Path, a fascinating novel about a homeless couple who go on a very long walk.

Josie