Meeting an Old Friend, Finishing a Work Assignment and A Wonderfully Enjoyable Saturday Dinner at Home with Friends

Saturday, September 7, 2024

Woodbridge, Ontario

Meeting an Old Friend, Finishing a Work Assignment and A Wonderfully Enjoyable Saturday Dinner at Home with Friends

Today was a very relaxed days compared to the recent ones we’ve been having. For the most part, we stayed put at our friend Sylvia’s home in Woodbridge. After breakfast, I asked to be excused from social interaction as I had an assignment to finish. As an examiner and evaluator of the applications from Indian research scholars for Fulbright Fellowships, I had about 25 applications to read—most of which ran into about 60 pages. I had begun several days ago, reading a few applications at a time, but I did want to finish all of them today as I had a strict deadline to meet. Accordingly, I went downstairs to our basement apartment and closeted myself in our room with my laptop so that I could focus on my work and finish it as quickly as possible.

A Visit from an Old Friend:

About an hour or more into my work, Llew came down to inform me that an old friend of ours had stopped by, all the way from Mississauga, to visit us as she knew we were not mobile and could not go over to her place to see her. Vivienne is an old friend of Llew from his days in Dubai—so they go back several decades. I went up to chat and stayed with her until she left, a good hour or more later. It was good to see her again and catch up with all her family news, but I was happy to be able to return to my work again.

I stayed working right up to lunch by which time I was very pleased to have finished my work. In the afternoon, I decided that I would post my grades to the assigned person and would be all done with my evaluation assignment. Lunch was a very casual feeding off leftovers in the fridge as we had been eating out so much that there was quite a bit of food in the house for our grazing pleasure.

After lunch, we had showers and naps and generally took it easy. We knew that the evening would be occupied again with the visit of more friends.

Dinner at Home with Old Friends:

As decided, our friends Ann and Kevin came by in the evening with the intention of staying with us for dinner. Anna, being the excellent home chef she is, was likely to bring food with her. But, I noticed, to my surprise, that she actually picked up food as she is overwhelmed with her responsibilities of babysitting her little grandchildren. We made ourselves very comfortable as we spent the entire evening chatting. Anna has a hilarious sense of humor and a really delightful way of narrating her many escapades with her little grandsons. Sylvia’s son, Ryan and his wife, Sharon, also arrived to spend the evening with us and Anna regaled us with stories that had our sides splitting as we listened to her.

After drinks and nibbles, Anna put out her offerings: she brought a large lasagna, Caesar Salad, her own home made cutlets and garlic bread. It was a simple meal but delicious and filling. For dessert, Sylvaia brought out a lemon meringue pie that she has picked up from Vicci Bakery and we had ourselves a very nice pudding indeed.

And so a very relaxed day came to an end. It was nice for a change to have a day at home filled with the company of good friends and endless laughs.

Until tomorrow…cheerio.