Where Is Everybody? The Sounds of Silence. Shhhh.

www.antoniarolls.co.uk for my website
www.jesusonthetube.co.uk for my other one
www.agracefuldeath.blogspot.com for the A Graceful Death exhibition, paintings from the end of life

Listen!  Nothing.  Shhhhhh.

Nothing is happening.  No one is in the house, there is nothing going on in there ( I am in the Studio in the garden, and can see the house from my window.  It is silent.) and no one is

• Speaking
• Cooking
• Looking for the Remote Control
• Looking Daggers At Anyone Else
• Complaining
• Whooping it Up
• Sleeping
• Having Tea and Talking About Life

Everyone has, at the same time, got something to do outside the house.  So Arty Man Who Has Had Much Excitement To Deal With and his Ginger Best Friend have gone out.  The new Polish Man Who Is Very Nice and loved moving in here last night because it Was Not Clean Like His Other Place He Didn't Like ( I know what he means.  We love him for his honesty) has gone out.  The Muppet went out yesterday and has only been seen like a mirage in the house once since then, near the kitchen, looking for doughnuts late last night, before going back out to friends to stay till perhaps tonight.  Or tomorrow.  At some point he will lope in and say,"Ah Mum.  I have come home to spend time with you", just as I am on two phones to two very important people and I have to deliver a pianting to Finland in 10 minutes and 13 Year Old Son needs collecting from the police station and the hamster is having a crisis.  "Son!"  I will cry, "put the kettle on and if I can I will be with you by the end of the week."  And finally, 13 Year Old Son is still at school and will find his own way home on his broken foot by train, because his mother needs to sit at home and write her blog and drink her tea. 

There is, at the moment, a deep and penetrating silence coming from the house.  There is an air of stillness that is extremely uncommon, settling over it like a cloud from a Fairy Tale.  No lights are blazing.  No car doors are banging, no doors are banging at all.  No one is having a bath.  Silence and stillness and peace.

Not for long though!  Whoopdidoo.  Tomorrow is my bithday Ceilidh and there are six extra people staying for the weekend.  That I know of.  I have given Eileen's room to the Polish Man Who Is Very Nice And Likes A Messy House, and cousin Maddy and her husband and children and best friend will all choose a sofa, a floor space, a car to sleep in.


  Yes, and Fatema and her friend are coming too and some other friends from London.  Fats has made cakes for fifty, so she will need a fanfare when she arrives.So, tomorrow, the Ceilidh will be in full swing by 7.30pm and you will be glad to know I am feeding everyone on fish and chips from the local chippie.  We will dance it all off I expect.  And if there is anything left over, my guests can leave with half a cod each and some battered sausage.  

I hear movement.  Life is stirring in the House.  The Hamster, it Awaketh.  The Sons, they Returneth.  The Pole, He Can't Get In-eth (forgot to give him his key) and the Arty Man and the Ginger Best Friend they Descendeth.  Soon, Alan he Arriveth and me, I Go Outeth.  To Tescos of course. The Silence, it Endeth.