T and S

Sharon's birthday this Friday. This years present (err... Christmas also) is half of Trinny and Susannah, who happens to be called Gail. My wife is hardly the overweight tracksuit-clad specimen normally found on the aforementioned show, but was nevertheless delighted with my choice of gift. A couple of hours going through what colours work and making some space in the wardrobe, then a day of accompanied shopping. Personally, I would rather chew my arm off than spend a day shopping (accompanied or not) but that is one of the many differences between men and women.

And now my back hurts!

Off work today and most likely tomorrow owing to me doing my back in as I attempted to sort out the very end of the garden. We are going to turn this into a play area, but are having a rather large fir tree chopped down next month, so I have to clear a lot of rubbish for that to happen. Still, we will not be short of wood for the fire this winter. I was going to put a motorbike picture up for a bit of variety, but George won out as more people are interested in him rather than motorbikes. Went to the BMW bike place in Hertford on Saturday to look at F800, their newish v-twin which I am being seduced by and even though I do not want to buy until next year, the guy was trying to draw me in with various deals and all that. I held firm.... Otherwise, on the home front we are still trying to squeeze our upstairs extension plans through via various measures, not least with the assitance of a retired architect who has dealt with the planning department for years and lived in the village for just as many years. But we could be waiting a long time for that, so we are looking to get the kitchen done instead. I have a quartet concert on Wednesday at a cancer hospice in North London and there are loads of other little things going on in our life, but things start to get boring if I go on about them. Back to doing nothing for me...

And back from the Cotswolds

Going abroad is great, but I have to say that we do also enjoy spending a week on holiday in this country. Two hours and we are there; no flights or boats to contend with. We stayed in Broadway, which although not that far from my home patch, was not a part of the Cotswolds that I was familiar with. We had a lovely cottage on the high street and for the end of September, we were extremely lucky with the weather, only losing Friday to rain. We took George to the Wildlife Park near Burford and also to a fun play centre in Warwick, but he also enjoyed our walk to the Broaway Tower and back, learning to say sheep on the walk down (given that we passed so many of them). He then proceeded to call anything with 4 legs a sheep, so we are still working on that. Back for a quiet weekend at home.