Dozing Over Dickens

Staying up until after midnight last night rendered today soporific and inducing extreme somnolence.

I dozed over ‘A Tale of Two Cities’.

After I resurfaced Jackie and I enjoyed reminiscing with Becky, which always offers similar stories from our different perspectives, and revelations from our daughter’s childhood.

Later, I scanned three more of Charles Keeping’s telling illustrations.

‘Mr Lorry and Miss Press almost looked like accomplices in a horrible crime’

‘In the ocean of faces…..’

‘The château was left to itself to flame and burn’

This evening we dined on Red Chilli’s excellent takeaway fare. My main course was Tiger Prawn Dhansak; Jackie’s, Sag Chicken; Ian’s Chicken Tikka Masala, and Becky’s Chicken Curry. We shared poppadoms, onion bhajis; paneer tikka, pilau and special fried rices, and garlic naan. I drank Cobra; Jackie drank Hoegaarden; Ian, San Miguel; and Becky, Zesty followed by a complimentary, which is what we call Baileys – often given as a complimentary drink in an Indian restaurant.

73 comments

  1. Is this room what you call a snug? I’d love a room like that. It looks sooo cozy. Fire places would be welcomed to but only for the look. 🙂 It’s to warm here for a fire anytime of the year.

  2. Today is a slow day here, too, even though we did not stay up as late. 🙂 Sometimes a good nap, even over a book, is in order.

    It is a mostly sunny day here, though cold.

  3. Love that soporific somnolence. I was in bed early, but wakened to fireworks at midnight — and then had 3 back-to-back zoom meetings beginning at 6 am! I’m ready for a nap! Happy New Year!

  4. What a perfect day – start the year as you mean to go on, I guess!
    I do love your description of sharing “similar stories from our different perspectives” – so true, and comfortingly familiar to many of us, I’m sure!
    Happy New Year 🙂

  5. I was struck by the contrast between your home and the illustration of the château. There’s no question where I’d prefer to spend some hours!

  6. What lovely portraits of a dozing Derrick! Priceless holiday images. In the dictionary definition of “comfortable” I think you will find a copy of these images.

  7. You model sheer bliss. I keep meaning to comment on the teeth portrayed in these drawings. Dentistry such as we take for granted wasn’t available during those times, yet Keeping does not shy away from presenting horrific views of the teeth of his characters 🙂

  8. You have been captured well in your slumberous drift, quite like a Keeping illustration. Keeping, meanwhile has been assiduously keeping his date with the storyline of the famous classic.

  9. I love that header photo of you. It’s such a cozy, Christmas scene. My husband agrees. ? We also had a soporific day. The second illustration is nightmarish.
    We’ve had similar conversations with our children, and sometimes now, leading us, the parents, to find out things we didn’t know our children had done.?

    “A complimentary” is funny. We’ve never been offered a complimentary drink at an Indian restaurant.

    1. Thanks very much, Merril. How revealing those conversations can be. I agree about the nightmare. In fact I wished I had more pleasant pics to balance that one.

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