The bliss of an empty mind

My usual Wednesday includes meeting lots of my friends for "catch up" and can even involve two lunches, and certainly far too much coffee, by the end of the day I am often as bug eyed and twitchy as a meerkat.

Today I had deliberately kept my diary empty. The decision was made, a lie-in was in order, lolling in my pit with Kate Atkinson (not actually K.A. I hasten to add, before I get involved in litigation, just her latest paperback) A blissful shower during which no one turned on any taps or flushed loos so I escaped the "invigorating" temperature change . I did give the kitchen a cursory tidy, enough to feel lightly virtuous, and then to Sainsburys where I hardly forgot anything, certainly not enough to warrant a second trip ! The joys, the joys.

This afternoon I lazed on the sofa watching 2 rom-coms back to back and Mistresses. I read and caught up with bloggery. Sadly there were not bronzed youths fanning me with ostrich feathers and feeding me with Turkish Delight, but even so it has been a pretty fine day.

I love my friends dearly but sometimes it is so wonderful to be silent and unsociable.......... next week back to harum scarum.

Spring "not" cleaning

Having made the worrying discovery there are 211 books under my bed, and others have escaped and are re-colonising the staircase only months after a major purge, I felt it was time to do some tidying. This may, or may not, include rehoming the De-icer I found under my bed, (hate to think what Freudian overtones that may have). Socks have been paired, nasty, nasty tangles of hair caught and released back into the wild and shoes lovingly replaced back in their boxes. Please note that nothing of any housewifely worth has been done. I can see out of the windows so they obviously don't need cleaning, there are no horizontal surfaces for dust to collect anyway and I shoved all of the "don't know where to put this" items into the ever useful ottoman.

I did however take a hard stare at the shelf behind my bed - my take on a bedside table - and felt it deserved the itemisation normally given to handbag contents........ go on, make me feel better about my slovenly habits - please.

There is a radio, books I am currently reading and sufficient medications to stock a hypochondriacs pharmacy. There are also my hoard of little books, ones that say its ok to be curved, how to be chic, how to shop, all the useful stuff , bits of jewellery including amazing sparkly stars from the V&A, nail files, ointments, unguents and potions all promising me the world if not eternal life, yummy Paul Smith perfume, yes, you can see a box of Opium talcum powder, how retro is that ?, assorted vials of perfume from The Perfumed Court and my sons ticket from last years Leeds Fest. Sadly, you can also see the coffee splashed up the wall courtesy one of my daughters cats who had decided it, too, needed coffee. When I get breakfast in bed, it is to share ! No, the dog does not sleep on my bed, he doesn't even know about upstairs, and you are not to tell him !

Progress has been made in the garden though; I've been out into it ! It is still there ! I came back in as sunshine in Yorkshire is something of an illusion, it does mean light, it does not necessarily mean warmth, but maybe next week .

And just to prove that sometimes I do tidy up - the dining room, the only book free zone in the house is now cleared. Some weeks ago I listed the items on the table, the rummel that had relegated us to eating off our knees. It has gone, yeehaw, but we are still not going to be eating like civilised human beings as I have plans.... I have scarlet/shot black silk and I feel the need to make a Vivienne Westwood style slightly bustley, certainly rustly skirt, updates will follow but I fear that it will all end up under the spare bed, home to all the other unfinished projects. (And yes, they are Christmas decorations on the light - ready for next year !)

Who watches the Watchmen - that'd be me....

Well, what tales to tell ? It has been a good week, the temptation to kill people has been at Defcon 4, which for me is very acceptable, (probably very acceptable to the NHS as well ), a sash window has been removed, reglazed, repaired and replaced all in the space of a single afternoon, albeit the afternoon with horizontal sleet, an day was spent at "Spooons" hanging with my boys (sorry) and a trip to London looks as if it is going to happen.


For those who haven't already lost the will to live, details as follows.

Dogs/windows and windowcleaners make a lively combination. Digger decided that naughty, rude windowcleaners should not, under any circumstances, be allowed to even look at his windows. Nobody told the windowcleaners this, so dog went through the window to tell them himself. Silent one decided he knew how to mend this destruction, and he did. Unfortunately it is a long, painstaking job, more unfortunately it had to be done when the weather was testing its full Northern repertoire, from damp to f**in' freezin'. This time even lying on the sofa under the newspapers wasn't enough to save me from the chill. I took to my bed.


On Wednesday I went to visit boychild at Uni, and gathered a tribe to go for beer and a burger at Wetherspoons. (yum). Some of his fellow students I knew from school, others are more recently acquired friends, and had apparently requested the opportunity to meet me. Whether this is because I sound utterly fascinating or because they want to meet the woman who made boychild the man he is (saving for therapy as we speak) I don't know, it may even have been the offer of food and beer - "surely not?!" I hear you cry - It would appear that I have agreed to accompany one young lady, who is reading languages, on a train journey across Spain to catch the ferry to Morocco where we will lie on flat roofs, draped in white linen, smoking sheesha pipes and channelling our inner Talitha Getty (Don't worry, I will explain who she was to the young !).


Oh, Oh ! went to see "Watchmen". Loved it, numb bum at 3 hours, but still very good, my only criticism would be the marriage between reproducing the graphic novel, and the morality tale with huge special effects was a little clunky. It has also enabled me to find my new fantasy me, Silhouette, a superhero from the 1940's, gorgeous costume and cheekbones to die for. Actually the only picture I could find makes her look like the bastard lovechild of Adam Ant and Michael Jackson.

but see, we could be sisters ?




Cassandra has tagged me for a Me!Me!, so shortly you will be treated to a list of why I am happy with my lot. Hope I don't have to think too hard, but the Empress is tired, she must leave you now ...........



Until tomorrow