It is a truth universally acknowledged and so on that if as a group of middle aged women get together these days they’ll inevitably start talking about menopause. I mean, forget annual magazine or cheese subscriptions or whatever, menopause really is the gift that keeps on giving.
This week’s tick on the menopause bingo card was a bout of vertigo – I’d had a few twinges last weekend but only when bending down, but it landed fully on Wednesday and I couldn’t even sit up without feeling dizzy and sick, so I had to take a day off work. It is apparently all to do with oestrogen receptors in the inner ear. Why does one even need oestrogen receptors in the inner ear? It’s not like we have to listen to the damn stuff. Answers on an HRT patch to the usual address, please.
Luckily I was recovered by Thursday as I had a dinner date planned with old friends – Kersti (old school friend and ex-flatmate in our early days in London) and Nicky, over from New Zealand for the first time in years. Nicky had her two daughters with her so we had to mostly behave, but it was so good to see them both and briefly Nicky’s husband too. We started with a drink in a pub in Farringdon and then headed for the Market Place Food Hall in St Paul’s as none of us could decide what we wanted to eat. Kersti and I ended up at the Argentinian Grill while the others ate Nepalese dumplings.
Saturday was also a busy one: Thing 2 and I went to the cinema to see Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling, Ryan Gosling’s cardigan and a (not The) rock. Based on a novel by Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian, it was fairly long at about two and a half hours but was completely engrossing. It’s a buddy movie in space. We laughed. We cried. We were utterly invested for the whole thing and my copy of the book should arrive tomorrow.
Ryan Gosling sort of passed me by until La La Land and Barbie but he’s wonderful in this. Go and see it. Take tissues.
A spur of the moment decision saw me out in the evening as well, at The Eric Morecambe Centre in Harpenden with Miriam and family watching a comedian called John Robertson and his The Dark Room show. The world’s only live action text-based video game experience, apparently, it’s described as ” improv comedy + retro gaming
fused into a deranged heavy metal game show” and I can’t think of a better description. I’d never heard of him before, but since this is a year of trying new things I decided to join the outing and had an excellent time. It’s hard to explain without ruining it, but it was very well done and perfectly timed. He did photos at the interval, took questions at the end and called everyone Darren. Also recommended!
Today is a walk with Thing 2, coffee with Miriam and Edith and then some interminable ironing…same time next week!
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
Report for Murder/Silent Bones/Common Murder – Val McDermid
What Kirsty did next 
The Dark Room! Was there mention of a flamboyant potato?
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