At (about 11 am and about 6pm), I mix an aperitive, usually a GT, and we stop whatever we are doing and sit and chat for half and hour or so. I KNOW I'm going to be preached at about the evils of alcohol etc., etc.. Don't bother - but it is the pleasure of these modest islands of pleasure which I feel are an important part of the structure of our routine lives now we have "done" 40 years of marriage. We can spend a lot of time without speaking (but comfortably so). We are both distracted by our personal interests and do not feel the social need to discuss the weather in order to fill in the verbal gaps. We do not have many luxuries as we are still paying off a mortgage - another three years to go. So, very little cinema, restaurants and no holidays, except to visit my daughter in England. What little rituals brighten up YOUR day?
