On A Friday Night

When a person starts fantasising about a good nights sleep, she knows she has tried to squeeze in just a little bit too much life into her week. Yes, Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, after a three day celebration of my sisters fortieth birthday, a silly amount of rather dull behind the scenes admin work, and last night a fabulous Hen Party (complete with Peking Duck Pizza to die for!), I, your very own, vintage housekeeper must declare myself out of the game and make plans for the kind of pampering guaranteed to send a person silly and hopefully render her sensible in the morning.
And here just in time is Friday night! The gift that just keeps on giving.
A relieved sigh of an evening complete with radiators hiked up to the max, a floaty nightie, a new terribly pretty strawberry bonbon coloured French exercise book into which to scrawl out a poem or two, a copy of Psychologies, Gogglebox on the TV, and a meal of  poached salmon, asparagus and sweet potato mash planned.
All is well with the world on a Friday night. It doesn’t matter how much my bones ache, or what horrors have come to pass in the week gone: all is well with the world on a Friday night. I relish them. Start counting down the hours until Finn is in bed and I can claim the evening to myself.  Where once I would fill the room with candles, now I dim each lamp in turn and put a flame to just one perfect scented candle: tonight a delicious violet and rose candle sitting on the coffee table – all the better to avoid overwhelming the senses and to provide just one point for sleepy, unfocused meditation.
On Friday nights I drink a glass or two or treacly, syrupy red wine. The kind that dyes my lips a deep shade of plum. Wine and contentment.  Not the contemplation of a Sunday night. The forced expectation of a Saturday night. Or even the empty promises of a Monday night. Just quiet, relieved contentment. Leftover Easter eggs. A new ghost story on my Kindle (Jane Eyre meets Turn of the Screw. Oh my!). Jasmine balm on my temples.
And bed! Oh lovely, lovely bed. Never was their a woman more in love with her bed than I. For sleep perchance to dream, blessed by Ovaltine and a head full of plans for a weekend spent resting my body and making things happen in my head.
Happy Friday night Darlings.