Bike ride ? Rather have a coffee

Celebratory coffee and ricotta and mixed berry muffin in cafe royal after Bravissimo . Is that an apple or a heart in the froth ? I couldn't decide . Either was it was a thing of perfection .

And the cause for celebration ? Bravissimo had no problem understanding why I was returning two , not one bra , with different explanations for both , and within seconds had credited my account and more to the point scuttled off to find me a replacement in the right colour and style . Result . Bravo .

I attempt to sign up for my speeding awareness course online but lo and behold am premature in my wish to atone . I do not yet have a reference number from Drivetech SAS . I will just have to wait . Perhaps this is part of my problem , this desire to be ahead of myself . Clearly I need to slow down a bit .

Still time to find out which course V is doing ? It must be fate .

hamster , what hamster ?

Kitty , studiuosly ignoring the hamster .

" Those Birmans are pathetic , fawning over a rodent which looks like an animated teddy bear ... cuh "

Thunder ?

Writing late last night I could hear the roll of thunder in the background . Engrossed , I thought no more of it . Half an hour later , as I contemplated a coffee break , I noticed the thunder again . If that was indeed thunder it had now been rolling for some considerable time . It was certainly blustery outside , but thunder over all this time ? Maybe it was the wind in one of the bedroom chimneys ?

Half way upstairs I realised the noise was louder and coming from the Hamster Room . Buzz , our house guest , in her wheel .

I brought her down , and whilst we watched tv , the cats watched her . Like Daisy she seemed to find no fear in being watched by two large cats . They prowled , lay down and tried to draw her towards them by patting the cage , rolled about in sheer frustration at being unable to entice her out and finally retreated across the room and turned their backs .

Kitty studiously ignored the whole charade . This hamster is nothing to do with me . I ignore her very existance . Toby finally extended a paw , Birman style , and sulked .

The police have written to me . I have a choice to make . I can pay the sixty quid for the speeding offence , and have three points added to my licence . Or I can attend a course , pay sixty seven quid and not have the three points added to my licence . I understand my sister s friend V is going on the course . I wonder if I can find out when shes attending and go on the same day . Suppose that's not really the spirit . The course nformation is strict . If I appear late , I will not be allowed admission . I am to allow sufficient time for my journey there ( so as to avoid further offending I imagine . ) I am to present for the course in a fit state to participate . If I appear intoxicated either by alcohol or drugs I will be refused entry or required to leave after entry . Oh dear . It all sounds quite scary really .

Meanwhile the rain batters on and our long ( ish ) planned bike ride is off . So instead D books his bike in for a service and I gird my loins ready to do battle with Bravissimo ( again ) . This time ( have I mentioned this already ? ) the brand new creaking bra which arrived on Thursday , has already come adrift. A piece of fabric has parted company with the " band " ( see how I know my terminology now though ) after two half days of wear . I know in my bones they will be delightful , but they will not have my size in the style and colour I need and will helpfully order me yet another , to be delivered through my door , but sadly in three weeks time , as they will also be out of stock wherever else they hold their stock . And I will be back to wearing a bra-which -doesnt- fit like the rest of the population who haven't yet discovered Bravissimo .

Oh well .

Surf's Up !....

... though you may have to enlarge the picture to see the surfers .

Today we take delivery of a cute hamster and a box of business cards ( free from http://www.vistaprin.co.uk/) and some CatCalls post it notes . I don't know which to be more excited about , being confined to the house in the post Immigran aftermath . Apart from two pick -up -the -keys- CatCalls that is , one first thing and another later today . The hamster is our latest house guest and will be staying for three weeks whilst Steph is in Italy . Although she is resident in N's room as safe haven from cats , I resolve to bring her downstairs later when close supervision is possible and she is awake and wanting to exercise . Her size surprises me though N says she is smaller than our Daisy was , and watching her reminds me of Daisy's acrobatics . Kitty is already starting to hang about outside the door . It was her long term ambition to have a closer encounter with Daisy . Time for me to start panicking again about how wise it is to have a hamster in the same house as four cats .....

Last night

A new resolution to revive the habit of walking to the sea each night , and since I was dropping a video at Deb's , this took us past the church . As we returned , and before I went out to water the tomatoes and beans and peppers in the back , I picked up an enigmatic message on the answering machine . A robotic voice ( a text message left in error on a landline rather than N's mobile ) : Tell A Bee that her grand maw is keeping ( pause ) The Dorg . X

I tranlsate this to mean that Nat is to let her friend Abbi know that her grandmother is keeping the dog , but it means nothing to me and later , N explains that the ongoing saga of the dog continues and that Abbi was upset all day as their dog was to be sent to live in Darlington as her hairs were causing a health problem to a member of the family . Finally Grandma had come up trumps and said she couldnt let the dog go .

Sitting watching tv later , I must confess I wasn't seeing a thing on the screen but was thinking " there 's a dog there that needs a home and we need ( want ?) a dog .... isnt there a match here ? " , but not wanting to say anything until this thought has been properly mulled over . I'm trying to learn to be less imulsive here , and look its working . I also know there would be difficulties . The dog would only need a temporary home as there is a plan afoot for Abbi 's mum to move house so that they can keep the dog ( the dog was with dad) . How would it be to have her for a while then to let her go ? I'm not sure this would work . But , the thought was there . And the cats ? Whilst they would boss a small puppy round whilst it was new , a big grown up dog arriving would be a different matter . In the final analysis I don't think it's any kind of answer . Also if Abbi and Nat were walking the dog together , whose dog would it be ? Blah blah .

But , and this is the point here , I go off to bed with a headache , and having taken Immigran at 5 am , have an amazing dream that we get a wonderful dog , a bearded collie . There are two of them in the frame and there is a debate about us having both , but finally this doesnt happen , and this great soft pillow of a dog is lying on a day bed ( another aspiration of mine ) with my head resting on her as she is so chunky .

But we don't want a big dog . We've always had little dogs and the shar pei , though delightfully wrinkled is too big and has been rejected for that reason . Even when crossed with a pug and called an oreo pei or some such ( I may have that slightly wrong ) it's still a substantial dog .

But I remain even more convinced that we don't have to go looking for the dog . the dog is going to come to us .

Bravissimo

My replacement bra from Bravissimo has arrived at last , exactly on the day predicted . I manage to squeeze into it and it makes a strange groaning creaking noise which is slightly alarming , though I speculate that when buying from the shop its probable that any bra has been tried on a couple of times at least and rejected and thus has been slightly stretched in the process. This one however has been delivered straight from the factory or the warehouse or wherever Bravissimo bras begin their lives and is pristine . It feels enormously tight but I know now that this is the key to successful bra fitting so I take the plunge and strap myself in for the day .
Things are coming together . The bathroom is looking good , though I have no evidence that Roofing Man actually climbed up to the roof on Monday morning as there was no one here to witness the event .
Meanwhile Insurance Claim Assessor has arranged to come out next week to survey the scene . The rain continues but less forcefully and there is less water entering via the window . I have almost chosen the colour for the walls . The toilet roll stack is intact and Jessie has taken up temporary residence on the cream bathmat .
And its the weekend , almost , as well as the start of the Summer Holidays . Bliss.

I go to meet people after work to plan a conference and so pick up an e mail from D , back from Sheffield . He likes the bathroom cabinet but suggests its wrongly placed and makes some suggestions about moving the laundry basket into N's room which leaves her filling that one ( she could fill it daily with her stuff ) , and meaning I will not be able to use that one thus will have to share his which is in our room . As he points out , I wear very few clothes , so this shouldn't present a problem . He has re re sited the bin back to its original place as it matches the new cabinet . A point I had failed to note .
He is clearly not happy with the downstairs cabinet , stating in the e mail that the colour of the wood had surprised him . His comments surprise me , as it seemed fine to me , my only concern being the missing screwdriver and my inability to fix the castors which I had built myself up to . I return home at nine and look again at the wood which looks a very fine colour to me . He points out that it is nothing like the other wood in the room , despite the fact that he had ordered it on the basis that it would match . I see that he is right , and find it hard to see how I could have failed to notice this myself .
The bathroom looks great. We bring his laundry suggestions to fruition and I notice how he has stacked the thirty seven toilet rolls in a perfect three deep tower .
Really , its great to have him back . And as he always says , men can be so useful .

Marketing -his -novel -Neil notes blogging as the perfect displacement activity and really I think he is right . But there's also the life-as-blog syndrome .
I'm almost tempted to photograph the bog rolls .