Woke up feeling really tense and bad-tempered today. Must be the after-effects of having such a nice weekend. Mind you, I’m still cheered by the fact that Lord H rescued me from a bathroom spider last night – he wrapped it in kitchen towel, squashed it and then placed the kitchen towel plus dead spider on the floor. When I asked him why he didn’t just put it in the bin, his answer was that we still needed to have the fun of jumping up and down on the darn thing, whilst yelling. Which we duly…

Happy Fathers' Day to all fathers out there, first off. I managed to remember to send my stepfather the chocolates he's allowed to eat (ie the ones Mother doesn't eat first ...), so I am a Good Stepdaughter today, hurrah! Mum is apparently taking him out for an airing, which includes a concert and some tea, today, so we took bets on how long it will be before he grumbles about something. My money's on the first half hour. Lord H however says that we misjudge the man - and in fact all it is…

Am feeling very modern today - have finally set up an account on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) last night, so have at last entered the modern world. Mind you, I don't have many friends on it yet - 3 so far to be precise - so if anyone out there is on Facebook and prepared to take pity on me, please do. I'd be very grateful.



Meant to be very literary this morning, but have done sod all - sorry. Might do some…

Oh, great excitement and trauma this morning! The baby swallows on Springwatch (http://www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch) have finally flown the nest. I was peacefully getting ready at around 8am when a great shout from the computer room brought me running to Lord H's aid, assuming he was having some kind of crisis. He wasn't - instead, the first of the swallows had fledged and the remaining four were looking…

Ye gods, but I'm feeling pretty Z-list today. It's the subtitle on the Blogger version of this journal (if you're reading that one) - someone once complained about it, but I kept it as it does seem to fit. Anyway, today, I am surrounded by writers who have already done it all, or are about to do it all, and are having utterly marvellous fulfilling times. And frankly, it's shit. Sorry, but it is. I know I'm supposed to rejoice in the wonderful success of others, but hell it's bloody hard…

Lord H has lost his watch– well, we couldn’t find it anywhere last night. He was comforted by the fact that he’d already set the alarm for 6.30am so it was a matter of waiting till it started beeping and then trying to find it. Good plan – if it had worked. But come 6.30 this morning and no beeping. The watch isn’t in the flat then. So it’s either in his car, at work or somewhere along the walk he took yesterday lunchtime. I’m not that worried, to be honest, as actually it’s been broken for…

Groan. The time of year has rolled round once again for getting my car MOT & service done – as I have to renew my tax disc by the end of June. Honestly, I have no idea why they give you only a bare two weeks to get this sorted out – don’t they know people have busy lives and have to book things months ahead just in order to fit them in these days?? Last year, we really pushed it to the wire. And some. Anyway, Lord H has nobly said he’d book the service etc at a garage near him,…

Sigh. I really tried hard to like “Talk to Me” on TV last night – which apparently was supposed to be the next “Cold Feet”. Um, it isn’t. Unlike the glorious CF, TTM is clichéd, dull (serious yawning …) and full of characters too much up their own arses to be remotely likeable. Loveable doesn’t even come into it, to be honest. I mean, I seriously didn’t care about the totally unrealistic love triangle at the heart of it – as far as I’m concerned, they’re all as bad as each…

Ye gods, but it took me ages to get to sleep last night. My night-time routine (mental note: I really have to get a night-time routine sometime ...) must be truly shot to pieces. Also I was horrendously thirsty, but couldn't be arsed to get up for a drink. Must have been all that Lucozade having its evil revenge at last. Still, at least I'm back on the water today, so things are returning to normal. Hurrah.



We are still glued to Springwatch (…

Lord, what a dopey day today. I seem to have had about a zillion hours sleep (which I suspect I needed) and only managed to drag myself out of bed this morning after 10am. Getting up is such an effort, you know ... But at least I managed to have a bath and get dressed by early afternoon, thus showing a great improvement on yesterday "getting dressed time" of gone 3pm. Somebody pass the smelling salts ...



Hey, and I managed to eat breakfast too - hurrah! A normal one. Though I…

... I think. Hurrah. But am about as lively as a squeezed-out sponge. Still didn't feel able to go to bed last night, though I managed to get 4 hours' sleep on the sofa early morning, so that was a relief. How I wish we'd bought a three-seater sofa though ... but where would we put it in our flat?? The plus side was that I caught up on the late-night wedding stories and, yes, Peter and Carlton did get married, and their costumes did turn up. Phew. As did Peter's estranged father, who was…

This will be a short blog, I'm afraid, as I'm sick. Having one of my nasty sinusy sessions again so was up all night last night, though I think maybe I did get about a couple of hours' sleep. Maybe. It's hard to tell as my brain is slush and I'm having trouble making any kind of logical connections. To anything.



Actually, it's a bit depressing, as I haven't had one of these bouts for a while, and I was beginning to hope. As you do. You know how it is. Or rather, it would be…

Madness in the office today – though a kind of organised, fairly contained madness, which was nice. I do so love it when there’s a secretarial panic on – it makes it all worthwhile. Anyway, I rushed around in a fairly logical way organising a meeting for tomorrow with the Guildford School of Acting, who want to come in to talk about our Freshers’ Week DVD script ideas. This meant throwing myself on the mercy of the adorable Helen from Catering – where would I be without her? – who rushed…

Forgot to say (or perhaps I’m too ashamed to confess it), but Lord H and I bought a birdsong CD at the end of last week’s holiday, so we could wow our friends with our amazing ability to distinguish a woodpecker from a sparrow. However, there are 99 tracks on it, plus a booklet (which unfortunately doesn’t include pictures of said birds, which might have been more useful), and we’re so far only up to track 12. Well, there’s only so much constant tweeting you can take really. But I do think I…

Groan. Back to work today. Honestly, it’s not that the job is horrible – it isn’t – but the weight of despair that lies on one’s back on the dreaded Return to Work Day gets worse with age. I used to be okay about this in my 20s, even though the jobs I had then were utter and insurmountable crap, but now even the thought of it has me pinned to my bed, dragging my feet round the flat and weeping in Lord H’s arms before the dreaded 8.30am occurs. Lordy, but what an eventful morning indeed.…

Is it just me or is getting back into the normal routine post-holiday just hell? It feels like a non-day really, the calm before the storm of work. A space between two definite engagements. Groan. I was vaguely thinking of popping into the Quakers again today, but couldn't be arsed, frankly. So I have had a super-non-spiritual day tripping my way down the primrose path to sin. As it were. I think that might be some kind of Medieval image, but can't think where it comes from - possibly…

We're back! Had a great time on hols, once we'd finished with the rainy days. And in fact even they weren't bad either.



Holiday highlights included:



1. Lord H's comment that if people simply pressed the "off" button on the wind turbines, then everything would be much calmer. Not sure he's got the hang of what a wind turbine does. (I love 'em, by the way. They're soooo elegant - like giraffes in Prada).



2. Playing on the only hilly golf course in the whole of…

It was nice getting back into the swing of the Glyndebourne (http://www.glyndebourne.com) season last night, but I have to say that Lord H and I were rather disappointed in their production of "Macbeth". Though, whatever they do, the play will of course be more powerful and more human than anything in the known universe ... The singing was first-class, as ever (as far as I can tell anyway - the singer playing Lady…