Domestic goddess…

Sue is revelling in her new role of domestic goddess. In fact she has gone way beyond the call of duty and has almost entirely redecorated our house single-handedly. She has had some help from her mum and from Jamie and me (I am a bit concerned - Sue's mum has offered to repaint the outside second story windows - if only she had a ladder long enough - mother like daughter).

I am doing my little bit tonight by cooking dinner for us (not easy for a rank amateur like me to come anywhere near Sue's level of expertise). Luckily the supermarket has a good range of packet sauces and the like. At least I know where the wine section is!

The weather has been good, unseasonable so - perhaps too hot to be working in. We could have another scorching summer like last year (hooray for global warming), or it will collapse (like a Kiwi batting order). Then we will have autumn upon us for when my folks come over in a couple of weeks (if it does we can always blame them for bringing the NZ wet weather with them).

The arrangements for my work junket to California is pretty much set now. To save the company money on the flights I travel out and back on a Saturday (flights are cheaper if your stay includes a Saturday night). This means I lose out on a couple of weekends. The bonus is I get on upgrade to Premium Economy, and I get to spend the weekends in California - with a car - a couple of miles from Laguna Beach. Oh life is so tuff.

We are starting to eat some of our crops from the allotment now. We have had several pickings of rhubarb (one of the plants is an heirloom coming from Granddad). We have plenty of salad and herbs at the moment and very soon we will have the first of the early potatoes. The strawberries and raspberries are coming into season (if you can beat the garden's local critters). There are only a few more plants to go out (until we put late plants in for winter and next spring).

I have ordered some more music - I couldn't hold off any longer. It should be delivered in a couple of weeks, so I will give you a rundown then on more bands you've never heard of.

The car passed its MOT test! All sorted for another year. Actually it is not too bad (there is a slow leak in on of the tyres - actually it is leaking through the alloy wheel! And it has a small oil leak - nothing to worry about except it drops oil on the exhaust, which gives off little plumes of blue smoke - all very theatrical really). Still it is a very high spec' car with a big engine (fuel prices are on the way up) and air-conditioning (a rarity in the UK. And at this time of year you can tell who has it - they're the ones driving with all their windows up).