We seem to be having the tail end of a hurricane here, (although my better half has sworn that the weather in London has been fine for the past two days!), but despite having the lightson because it was so dark and miserable I decided to go out anyway! Had a lovely walk round a couple of local villages: got very wet feet and frizzy hair and I got blown around all over the place, but it was good to get some fresh air.

None of this bothered the local wildlife: when passing through a church yard, I noticed that the gravestones were covered in ladybird larve hatching out in to ladybirds, hundreds of them. I have never seen this happening before. And when I got back home, there was an enormous grasshopper sitting on the boot of my car!

I have only one regret: I should have work my new walking boots! My feet and the bottoms of my jean are soaking!

Well, I am home alone tonight. Did no real work whatsoever today, and have managed to trash the house. Somehow I managed to get more of my dinner on the floor than on a plate, and now its nearly midnight and I am sitting here drinking cider, eating garlick bread (the only thing in the freezer that doesn't require any proper preparation) and watching CSI.

Brain still on the blink!

To all those people on my friend list that chose not to blog in English. I have deleted you. Very sorry, its nothing personal. I just don't have time to read your posts in French and German any more. I feel a little guilty not to be widening my horizons in this way anymore, but there you are.

I also apologise to those poeple who have not blogged for two years - I have deleted you too, but I doubt you will even notice I am gone.

I am at this moment supposed to be working.

Actually it was a project that I have been working on for about 18 months and something that I have been really enthusiastic about desperate to get going with...but now here I am with the time to do it and no real distractions and my brain just won't behave.

So far this morning I have done anything possibe not to get on. Tidied my desk. Tidied under my desk. Checked and replied to my emails, even the ones from Misco and M&S that I usually just automatically delete. I have read them all, meticulously. I have faffed about on face book. Re-read this weeks post-secret. Polished my desk. Looked up Open University courses (I quite fancy the forensic psychology degree). Checked my bank balance. etc etc etc.

And now its time for lunch.

Not one of my most productive days I'm afraid!

Have now been to M&S twice in two days and still haven't managed to order the sofa I want. Should have ordered it last summer when it was in the sale, but then decided that I had another priority to save up for.

Anyway, the old sofa is ok, but it was from my old flat, and so isn't quite big enough for us, and there is space for a larger one in the new house.

The new one however, is only on special offer at the minute in "new" season fabrics, not the old fabric that I want - until Thursday that is!!! Also, have had to measure every dimention of the new sofa, and the doors at home to make sure that it will fit through,(I know someone who tragically made that mistake before!).

In other news, I have purchased a new pair of walking books, and a new waterproof jacket and hopr to get out somewhere walking in the next week or so to wear them in!

Plan to have a big clear out of my clothes later today, might even have a clothes-swap party (thats not nearly so dirty as it sounds!)

Also, looks like my cousin will still be in "processing" for another four weeks before she is finally deported.

Having spend the last week on edge waiting for a phone call from my cousin who is about to be deported from the US, I learned about an hour ago that she is not "in the air" or even "flying out tomorrow" as her poor husband has been told only after phoning every hour on the hour for a whole day. Instead she is "being processed" which may take up to two weeks.

Ok, I don't really understand the system over there, but why is is ok, to refuse to give accurate information to family, including her husband, about where she is and when she will be sent home. Considering that they are refusing to let her out of the country without anything but her passport and the clothes she is wearing (ie, no phone or credit cards), it would actually be quite useful for someone in the family to know which airport to expect her to arrive at, so we can at least go and bring her home.

Funny how writing something down suddenly makes you do something about it.

I trying to get the spare room tidy so my cousin can stay, I have lapsed back to my old OCD ways, and while the spare room isn't exactly spick and span, I have managed to clear out my own wardrobe, polish the inside of it , put away all my winterclothes in to plactic storage boxes, throw away nine pairs of shoes and all the broken coat hangers, and sort a further pile of clothes and shoes for recycling.

Kitchen is next on the hit list.

Don't feel relaxed any more, but do feel back to normal!

Arrived back from a lovely holiday on Friday to a nice clean house. So how come it now looks like I have been burgled?

I am sitting here in my pj's because I have nothing to wear that doesn't need ironing and there are piles of washing and washing up everywhere.

Not sure what happened in that two weeks that I have been away, that has turned my usual ocd need to keep going round the place with flash wipes, into a lady of leisure.

Could it be that I am actually relaxed for the first time this year??

Just one slight problem. My cousin is currently being deported and as I speak she is on a plane on its way here (bigger problem: US immigration will not release the flight number or even the destination airport - very helpful, NOT!). What will she think of the mess I am currently living in?

One of the best things about the last recession was the cheap clothes (although now I am older I know that cheap clothes are immoral and exploitative). However, one of my best buys in 1995 was a little lacy cardie from New Look, which cost 99p in their sale.

Much to the disgrace of several of my friends I have been wearing and patching this old cardie up for the past 14 years. Until last week that is, when I got it out of my suitcase while on holday and found that there was nothing left to patch up on the elbow.

I have been looking for a replacement for this little cardie for quite sometime now, but haven't been able to find anything I like in the right colour. So today, I have purchased a book full of knitting patterns for cardies, so I can knit one myself in whatever colour I feel like! Surely evenings sat watching TV and knitting have got to be far more productive than wasting them findling about on facebook!

However, it is still a sad day when my favourite bargain has to be consigned to the bin.