I have had a dread hanging over me for the last weeks as a long time ago I lightheartedly agreed to do a reading in the UR church with D. The previous speakers in the series had all been proper grown up people who spoke on serious subjects and I did not think I was quite up to it. Also I always have two main worries, firstly that no one will turn up and next that lots of people will come. In fact, it was about the right number and everyone was kind to us about it, but I am glad it is over.
Today I made a pumpkin pie to take to a Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. It made me feel like ma in The Little house on the Prairie as I was rolling out the pastry on the kitchen table.

I went to Brighton as usual on Thursday night and joined with J`s impro group Six of us played acting games for a couple of hours in J`s front room, and laughed ourselves silly.I read in the Guardian on Saturday that playing games with other grown ups is `creative, life affirming and life enhancing, about daring to let go, to be a bit dangerous and a bit real` The others are much better at it than I am but I`m learning.
I went to a reading with music, Michael Morpurgo, this evening, part of Childrens Book Week and he read from his latest book, Private Peaceful. Three brilliant folk singers, all fairly elderly men, sang bits in between. It is a heartrending tale of a chap being shot for cowardice in the 14-18 war. The hall was full of children, all absolutely silent and spell bound.
I was going to go to London for the day to see old friends K and U but I was phoned at 8am to say that snow was falling thick and fast and was settling so it would be unwise to venture forth on the motorway. In fact it turned out to be a lovely sunny afternoon so I could have gone, but instead i had a good day lolling about reading the papers. I also made the Christmas cake, as today is `stir up Sunday` and that is when my mum always made the it.

I have just been to supper at H`s to thank me for having the birthday party at the Meeting House on Sunday. It was a roll your own sushi meal. Seated round the table were: one Italian man,one Russian woman, one half Korean woman,three Japanese women, and there were four children who were a mixture of all nationalities, and me, the solitary Brit. needless to say we all spoke English! The children, spoke : English, Japanese , Italian, and Russian The food was very lovely and I ate far too much. Bang goes my weight loss plan. But I cycled there and back through the wintry night so I suppose that might have used up a few calories.
Several good suggestions for reading matter came from my recent blog complaining of being bookbound, and I am now well into `The White Tiger`Booker prize winner, and others lined up after that.

Yesterday the Meeting House was well used. There were two Quaker meetings as usual, for both the room was comfortably full, and then we had our monthly teenagers group who stayed on to lunch. I made a healthy vegetarian stew plus jacket potatoes, and then they hung around and banged away on the piano making up a song to sing at the Q Christmas party. Before they had even left, G and H arrived with their daughter who was having her 4th birthday party here. G and H, Japanese and Italian respectively, are ex residents, and were married from our house with a wonderful Buddhist ceremony some years ago. 21 children came , plus a few babes in arms, H had asked the entire class from L`s nursery school as she did not want to hurt anyone`s feelings. She had made the most beautiful and healthy food, the sandwiches were a work of art and the cake a masterpeice. The children were given Origami animals which she had painstakingly made and they all did craft work and decorated little books to take home. I loved it all and they left the house immmaculate.
I am waiting for Eddie, the pest control officer from the council (otherwise known as the ratman) as we have all seen a rather long tail disappearing behind the boiler, the dresser, and elsewhere in the house. It is very worrying, as there are no sign of anything being gnawed, and the cat has not shown any interest. G who is a vegetarian and very soft hearted waited up late on Saturday night hoping he could catch it in a trap he had devised from a plastic box and some cake crumbs. then he was going to take it out to the water meadows, but no luck. It will have to be Eddie with his sinister blue powder.

I went to M`s prizegiving at her old school last night. She left last summer and is now at college doing her A levels.. My grandmotherly heart swelled with pride when teachers spoke glowingly of her work. She was awarded a shield for Latin, and a cup for French which was her worst subject, but she had made huge efforts and got a good grade. There was something very touching about the whole event, all those hopes and ambitions, and the feeling that the staff really minded and wanted the best for the children. The girl who got the highest grades (I think it was thirteen subjects!) in the whole area was a Bangladeshi from a humble family who had had a tough time when she first came to the predominently white comprehensive. So that was something to feel cheerful about.
I am going through a bad phase of not having a good novel on the go at present. Our next book for the reading group is Tess of the D`Urbevilles, but I cannot bear to read it again as it is so dreadfully sad. I find that and Jude the Obscure upset me so. Such injustice. I can`t be doing with it.

We had two nice New Zealanders staying for B and B who left this morning to sail home on the QE2 as far as Dubai, on the ship`s last voyage. We intended to go to Southampton to wave her off but I have a sore throat and it is very cold, also thousands of others have the same idea, so we watched it on television. Everyone was weeping with emotion but I decided I don`t really approve of all that luxury and I would not like being cooped up for weeks being given too much to eat, I would want to pop down to the kitchen and give them a hand with the washing up.
I went to my writing group this morning and looked round the room and thought what a lucky woman I am to have this good group of friends who have been meeting in each other`s houses on alternate Tuesday mornings for years and years. We read out our efforts to each other and it is a delight, much better than a cruise.

T aged four can do computers now. She sits at the computer in the kitchen and writes everybody`s names and does drawings too. It amazes me. Also I am very pleased that one of the Quakes, aged eighty four, has finally learned how to email her grandchildren, and another Q has acquired a PC for her from Freecycle. She had always poured scorn on modern technology. I try to teach my contemporaries to text. I find it very useful, communication without too much bother to anybody,. Trouble is, so many older people will never keep their mobiles turned on, they think they leak out dangerous rays into their handbags or something. I am in Brighton today, and as soon as I have taken T to school plus two small boys from along the road ,I am going in to town, on the bus with my free bus pass, and I will start some Christmas shopping. I feel quite excited about it.

I am greatly relieved that Barack Obama is now president of USA, he has a kind face. But I do hope it will not mean that thousands of children will now be called Barack It does not slip easily over the tongue. We are having a celebratory supper tonight. Apparently George Bush was skulking inside the White House last night peeking through the curtains watching everyone dancing in the streets for joy because he was leaving.
I have just realised it is Guy Fawkes night, and we haven`t even got a packet of sparklers here. Someone on the television has just given a warning of the dire danger of sparklers, it is so annoying to be constantly told that everything is dangerous.

Such a hoo ha about Jonathan Ross and Russel Brand! I am irritated by Brand`s hairdo, he needs to give it a good brush and tie it back with a rubber band or something. What a silly pair of sniggering schoolboys. I must confess I often used to listen to their programme in the car and it made me laugh. But no more. I imagine them both waking in the night in a cold sweat thinking, how could we have said those things, and on the radio too? Anyway it takes everyone`s minds off the financial crisis.
I am spending a quiet weekend at home. Too cold to work in the garden. I am sitting at my desk by the aga, doing a bit of writing, this blog is just a delaying tactic.
I am starting an Eat Less programme today until Christmas. My knees are playing up. M next door and I will have a weekly weghing session on her ancient rusty bathroom scales, and she fills it in on a graph on her bedroom wall. This is our third attempt, and the competition is very keen.
I am trying to read Little Dorritt as it is on TV and I find the plot rather confusing. The book does not help, it is not an easy read, and it is very thick, but perhaps it will improve when I get into it.