Not really a reference to the weather this weekend, but to the performance of Haydn’s Creation by the St Anne’s Choral Society which we heard on Saturday evening.  Our drive to Lancashire was accompanied by the sobering news from Paris which made us feel particularly thankful for the comfort and company of good friends.

Actually, the foaming billows might also have been a reference to the clouds of chocolate cream on the top of my Tiramisu Latte before they were squashed by the lid.  Our hot drinks took the barista an age to prepare as he diligently followed the recipe for each one before covering his handiwork with the takeaway lid.  I’d paid scant attention to what was going on and as a result, was surprised to find gold stars sticking to my teeth as I drank, prompting me to take off the lid and investigate further.

I might have harrumphed at this point.  No wonder we had to wait so long in the queue.  No wonder that drink cost £3.65.

Gold stars indeed.

I think we’d both built up a bit of a grump listening to Saturday Live in the car, wincing at a couple of liguistic forms – surveilled ?  Shortly after we’d got over that one (and I’d looked it up and identified which part of the world the speaker had acquired that one from)  came  “I’d like to caveat that”.  What?  Again, perfectly correct, I discover, but it doesn’t sound right and there has to be a more elegant way to say the same thing, I’m sure.

Then came instinctual.  Ouch.  What happened to instinctive?

By now, we were inured to it all, so much so that a discussion centred on Design and Beauty produced no more than a sideways glance and a raised eyebrow.  I mean, how would you react to consuming a product which would make you sweat perfume?  A colour?  I really don’t know what I think about Lucy McRae’s description of her work in the beauty continuum (for heaven’s sake!)  I’m generally pretty positive about new developments and consider scientific research to be essential to creating a better world for us all, but most of this made me question where we are going with all of this.

Gold stars on a cup of coffee?

Thankfully, friends whose bookshelves look like this provide the perfect antidote to any such nonsense and an evening of Haydn, intelligent conversation and a bit of nostalgia (40 years of shared history in some cases) accompanied by a glass or two (or three…) is the perfect way to restore the spirit.

Until the next news bulletin, that is.