Experiment, week 14. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

1. Free Bus Fares. I don’t like buses, but occasionally I have to use one. One thing I do like though is having a Freedom Pass: the London Boroughs’ free bus pass for us wrinklies. Yes it provides free bus fares. But it also provides a lot of free tube and rail fares within London. It feels good to get something back for all the times one has had to pay full fare.
2. Sleep. I like my sleep; I always have done. For some reason I seem to be sleeping much better recently with very few nights where I wake up in the small hours and can’t get back to sleep. In fact I’ve been sleeping so well that if we don’t have to set the alarm I’m likely to sleep soundly well into the morning. Guess it’s probably catching up on all those early mornings over the years.
3. Hypnotherapy. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been having hypnotherapy for a year or more. It’s slow progress, largely because my brain is so analytical that it is forever butting in and trying to work out what happens next. But finally Chris thinks he’s found a way in, and when I saw him this week he was able to hypnotise me to a deeper level than ever before. Which was interesting. In fact the hypnotherapy has always been interesting as well as very relaxing. But there’s a lot to do yet.



4. Snowdrops & Crocuses. Spring must be well on the way because the snowdrops are out; so are some of our purple crocuses. We have only a small clump of snowdrops under the apple tree, but the woods out at Dorney, near Eton, were just a sea of snowdrops when we were there on Thursday.
5. Oriental Tree. Three or four times a year we have dinner with our friends Sue & Ziggy and (usually) their two boys. More often than not we go out to a local restaurant. So it was that last night we went to their local Chinese restaurant, Oriental Tree in Northfields. And I have to say the food was most excellent as well as being substantial. The prawns and the beef, especially, were to die for. The menu is Chinese based but with Mongolian, Vietnamese and Thai dishes and not expensive — Ziggy’s and my wallets ouched a bit but that was largely due to the amount of drink we consumed as much as the food! The restaurant is small (barely more than 40 covers) and was full all evening as well as doing a steady stream of take-outs. Having met at 7 we had eaten ourselves to a standstill by 10 — perhaps more to the point 9-year-old Harry (a child who loves his food and would have ordered everything on the menu, if allowed!) had almost eaten himself to sleep! I think we might be going back there!