In the morning I tuned into Adrienne’s Yoga for Dancers YouTube video. Today I felt very stiff and inadequate when confronted with various balancing exercises, and strength building. I finished it but I didn’t find it easy.
In the meantime Maggi drove off to play bridge with Sarah. Funnily enough she didn’t say how she fared when I met up with her at The Red Lion in Chenies where we had arranged to meet with Kay and Ian. I arrived early for our 12:45 rendez-vous, Ian had already texted me to say that he would be 15 minutes late and Maggi turned up even later.
We chatted about this and that mostly dominated by tales of their friends and their children and grandchildren. However the subject of the Israeli-Gaza conflict also arose. While we all agreed that the Hamas attack on October 7th consisted an atrocity and that the Israeli response represents a crime against humanity with their almost indiscriminate bombing of the Gaza strip. Ian then chipped in that the Jews should ask themselves why they have been discriminated against for so many centuries. He made the same point when I last saw him for lunch at the Prime Steak and Grill in Chandler’s Cross. In my opinion I think we should ask ourselves why western civilisation has persecuted the Jews. His presumption is that they have done something wrong.
Maggi, Ian and myself had the Turkey as our one and only course. The meat was quite tough, which is unusual for Turkey, the carrots hadn’t had their tops chopped off, the bread sauce was cold and the stuffing resembled a lump of cold rock cake. The only thing on the plate that I enjoyed were the sprouts which weren’t overcooked and still had that beautiful bitter taste.
The friendly staff mitigated a very unpleasant meal. I don’t think I’ll go back there except under duress.
