I have one of those little calendar things on my desk that has the date on tear-off pages that have little quotes on them.

I should take today's quote on-board "For peace of mind, resign as general manger of the universe". I always have to manage and organise everything, not because I'm a control freak (although there could be a little of that) but more because I want everyone to get the best out of whatever it is they are doing and, well, I think I know best how they should do that. I hate it and really wish I didn't do it but it's bevome almost compulsive so I'm going to chill and not do it any more. Which should be about as easy as trying not to breathe.

Bzzz...again

Boo Hiss. The bees didn't come back.



And in other news, I went to the gym tonight for the first time in...well, longer than I care to remember. We have some playing field facilities on the Common and a top flight rugby team have moved in there and have allowed me and my boss to use their gym. 15 minutes on the rowing machine and 10 minutes on the bike were more than enough for me tonight. We left the heavy weight (literally) equipment where it was. That's for the big boys. And, my, they are big boys!

Bzzzzzz

Our bees have buggered off.

We have an observation hive at work and this morning, half of the bees swarmed out, hung around for a bit and then took off across the Common, terrorising a group of school children on the way. We have no idea if they've swarmed off with a young queen to set up a new hive or if they've just decided to go for a sight-seeing trip and will come back plastered on unfamiliar nectar later this afternoon.

Weekend report

Such a hectic social whirl we live in.....this weekend started off quietly on Saturday with dog walking then very little else until the afternoon when we headed down to Sussex for a 50th Birthday party. We stopped off at frieds who were kindly looking after The Lurchers for us and leting us crash out at their place as well.

The party was for OH's cousin so there were loads of his extended family there that we have't seen for years...so that was nice! But given the weather we had last week, Saturday night was bloody freezing in comparison and they had to break out the jumpers for all of us in our summer gear!

Sunday we had a nice lazy morning with friends, walking The Lurchers and eating breakfast. Then we met the family again at the pub for a couple of hours and pootled home about 5pm.

Dropped OH's car off at the garage because last week he realised his MOT ran out last month.

Then home and crashed out in front of the TV for the rest of the evening.

The only problem with weekends is that they go to damn quickly.

It's too bloody hot!

At least, it was over the weekend.

Friday we travelled down to Gloucesesestershire to stay with some friends. As lots of other friends were also converging on said friends we decided to take our tent and put it up in their garden...well, not quite the garden but they have lots of lovely land and we were on a bit of it and I'm getting carried away with what after all is a very minor point so I shall stop. This was our brand new shiny tent and I'm very pleased to report that it went up in record time with nary a hitch.

Saturday we went to a local horse trials but as it was so hot we only stayed for just over an hour. We spent all of that time sitting next to the water jump so that we could dunk The Lurchers and their canine pals into the water in between the horses coming through. In the evening several more friends joined us and we enjoyed a very scrummy barbeque and catching up on all the news as we hadn't seen each other for a year.

Sunday started very early as we stupidly pitched the tent in full sun and by 7am The Lurchers were already suffering from the heat. The drive back was appalling although fortunately there was no traffic to hold us up...a three hour journey in the heat of the mid-day sun was not the best idea in the world.

I feel very privileged to have some wonderful friends...we may not see each other from one year to the next and speak only every few months but, despite that, we pick up where we left off and still remain the best of friends. Everyone should have such friends.

A new phrase

I discovered a new phrase today.... ipse dixit.

It's definition is: He himself has said it; a mere assertion

It's such a good, round and ripe phrase that it really ought to mean so much more than that.

Pictures

I've had two pictures accepted in the BBC's Digital Britain. Whilst that probably isn't a major achievement, it makes me happy, even if they are not the best photos I've ever taken. If you're interested, this is them: Windmill, Heath.

I have some more to enter but need to shrink them so that will have to wait until I get 5 minutes. Which is not likely this week.

Peace and quiet

I have had a fantastic weekend. For the first time in ages I have had a weekend where I didn't actually have anything that I had to do. Don't get me wrong, I love my family and it was great when they came to visit last weekend and of course I was going to go down to Wales and see my Grampa in hospital the weekend before that and of course I love doing stuff for Greyhound Gap most weekends but, just for once, it was lovely not to have to do anything.

So I did things I wanted to do. I nicked a horse from work on Saturday and pootled round the Common for an hour or so and Sunday we decided to get a bit domestic and went to look at new fridge/freezers and get a new pump for the fish pond, the existing pump having expired some months ago.

The rest of the time I caught up with some sleep and Star Trek.

Teeth again

OH has a dental appointment tomorrow to have a tooth out. His appointment is at two thirty. Getit? Tooth hurty?? Oh dear...sorry.

(It is actually at 2.30 as well...I didn't make that up in order to get a cheap laugh!)

Phew...they've all gone!

We had my parents come to stay for the weekend. Which was nice. They brought a tumble dryer with them, kindly donated by my grampa who doesn't use it. Which was very nice. Even though it's summer and we won't need it for a while!

Everyone had a jolly time getting roaring drunk on Saturday night, apart from me because I don't drink. Spending the evening stone cold sober when all around you are falling over tends to result in something of a sense of humour failure on my part. But I had the last laugh as I didn't have a hang over on Sunday morning. Ha!!

Given OH's recent escapades in the tooth department , he actually went to the dentist last week and had to have minor surgery to remove some bone growing in the wrong direction. So he now has four stitches in his mouth and is all very tender. I therfore had to plan the weekend's menu carefully as he wasn't able to chew terribly much. The answer, other than bread and gruel, was lots of things with mashed potato. So Saturday night we had bangers and mash and Sunday I did a Cottage Pie. Given that there were seven of us for Sunday lunch; I always cook twice as much as I need; and potatoes seem to evaporate into thin air when you mash them so you have to do lots and lots, it felt like I spent the whole weekend in boot camp peeling spuds.

Much fun was had as my brother, his girlfriend and my mother-in-law also joined us for lunch. But much as I love having people round to stay, I do so love it when they all go home and peace returns.

Pigeons

When we went camping a few weeks ago, we were discussing the annoying call of the pigeon...the one that goes coo coooo coooo coo coo. My sister-in-law has put words to it "youuu caaannn't gooo shopppping".

If you read this, and you have pigeons near you...you are going to hate me in a few days. Because I can't get that damn line out of my head now and it's driving me even pottier than hearing the call in the first place. I'm so glad to be able to share it!

Migraine up-date: it seems to have disappeared finally. The full frontal attack of the ibuprofen style didn't appear to be working so I launched a sneaky behind the lines assault with the paracetemol. That seems to have done the trick.

Ow

I'm fighting off a migraine this morning. It started yesterday afternoon and gradually got worse through the night. At 5am this morning I was in agony. Painkillers are keeping it at bay at the moment but one wrong move and I'll collapse in a heap again.