Reading in the early hours

It is 4.30am, Sept 12 2010. I am in the UK reading a book I purchased yesterday from the famous Chatworth House in Derbyshire. The book is titled "Mad World", subtitled 'Evelyn Waugh and the secrets of Brideshead.'

EW is one of my favourite writers and 'Brideshead Revisited' one of my all time favourite UK mini series. How could I resist?

The Duchess of Devonshire who owns Chatsworth house is the youngest of the notorious Mitford girls, with whom EW was well acquainted.

On page 10, the author Paula Byrne desribes EW's fascination with maunual dexterity. E.g. "obseving the local chemist melting wax to seal paper packages."

It took me right back to the local co-op store where I would run errands for my mum and the neighbours. Cheese was sold by the pound, half pound or quarter in wedges. I loved watching the slow precision of the wire cutter making its way through the huge yellow sphere of cheddar, and admired the accuracy of the assistant in correctly assessing the weight.

Cut forward a few years to my pre nursing student days when I worked in the Xray Department at age seventeen. One of my jobs was to mix and measure out the barium meal for the day's procedures. I quickly became adept at making the exact amount. One of the radiologist's noticed and said to me, 'Good guessers never marry.'

That haunted me for years, but I showed him. I married twice! BUT I have been single longer than I have been married.

What does that say about a person? Does it indicate that a tendency to exactness does not gel with the messiness of compromise in a relationship? Does it mean that there is intolerance for a partner that does not measure up, thereby dooming a relationship to failure?

I've been known for my patience and tolerance but maybe it is all a front. Maybe underneath  there is a  longing for accuracy, exactness and non compromise. (what is the negative for compromise???)

My oh my. Look where you've taken me EW... up to 0455 hours. Can I sleep now?