Yesterday was, despite all weather forecasts, a lovely day – sunny and not a spot of the promised rain. As expected it was fraught with challenges, although I have to say that these were met mostly by David! The dishwasher played up, door refused to close, no obvious reason why. David emptied it and cleaned the sills, jiggled and joggled and put it back together again without really doing anything and it was fine. Praise be – I was half expecting to have to get a new one. And they are two of life’s luxuries I never want to be without – A David AND a Dishwasher. I do love it when he’s here. Weekends are so much easier, just having him around.

Cats have collectively decided to stop eating about half the varieties for food we give them. They go through fads like that but it ends up costing a fortune when the suddenly just go off something. 9 out of 10 cats prefer Whiskers, my arse! Sometimes, maybe, but not today thanks very much and how dare you feed us such shit?! Not even I am that fussy!

Did a job that I’ve wanted to sort for ages but have been putting off. For Christmas, David bought me a lovely new watch, but the metal strap was far too big and needed some links removing. I’d waited and waited to do this, mostly because when I came out of hospital I was SO thin, my arms were like sticks and had no flesh on them at all. I’ve been trying to put on weight and get back to a more reasonable body shape – 'Ethiopian/catwalk model' really didn’t suit me. I could write pages about standing in front of a mirror and crying because I was unrecognisable. That was such a horrible experience, so scary, so very scary. But, hey, that was then and this is now, and there are only two photos in existence of me from that time, both of which are kept well under locks. So now as I’m getting better I have finally had the links in the watch removed and I get to wear it. It feels so good to have a watch back on my wrist. I’m one of those weird people who wear a watch on the ‘wrong’ hand. I’m right-handed and most ‘righties’ tend to wear their watch on the left wrist – I have mine on the right. Why? When I was at Art College and did a fair bit of painting at an easel, I held the paint palette in the left hand, so turning it over to see the time would have resulted in paint all over the floor!
Takes me back, all that talk of painting. It has been far too long since I did anything like that. I’ll have to look out a few of my pictures, or take a few photos. I did a nice series of Star Trek paintings once – only small, but each one linked to the next in an endless loop, so you could display them in line starting with any one of them and the set would still make a full frieze. I'll fish out a few others and post in the next few days.

Yesterday I also took up my new jeans, ready for Hungary on Friday. That seems to have come around very quickly. I should, by now, have several lists on the go. Lists of things to do, lists of things to take, lists of lists I need – I may be a bit anal about such things but we never find ourselves away without something we need. So far though I have been lax: no lists. Ug! Better start scribbling or it is quite possible that the world may come to a very nasty end! Lists for foreign countries that you’veen to are bad enough, but this is somewhere we have never touched foot – funny money, not even the Euro – Thank goodness the iPhone has a currency conversion App. Ahhh – I wonder if it has an App for holiday lists....

Didn’t find anything much more than To-Do lists, but got a little side-tracked downloading a few games. Sorry. Must pay attention. Concentrate. Focus! Games good though – a few word games to keep me busy on the flight and a rollercoaster game which looks like it’ll take some getting used to. I’m used to a keyboard, a mouse or at least a stylus – all this tapping, pinching swiping and flicking the screen is a new language to me and seems akin to undertaking some sort of erotic fingering of my mobile! Maybe the phone gets off on being pinched and flicked and gently caressed but its doing nothing for me!

New stalker today – Francis from Ghana. This one wants £100 for a passport so he can come to England and be my lover! Sometimes I really have to wonder how stupid these people think we are in England. Do any of them ever get the money/visa/sponsorship that they are obviously trying to extort? I shall, of course, be quite polite but spend ages now winding him up. If he wastes my time, I can waste his – for longer and much more humorously. Who shall I be today? The Rev Mike Hunt? Lord Willie Wonker? Ben Dover? Michael Fitzpatrick, or Patrick Fitzmichael? Or maybe I’m the Irish double-glazing salesman Paddy O’Doors? A bit of fun methinks with a parasite from Ghana.

We finished yesterday with a barbecue - only a couple of burgers but somehow you feel like you're getting something special when it is cooked outside - like you've cheated the weather's predisposition for liquidity! It should be fine today too, so might get the grass cut. Or might not!

Yes, we did go out last night - resplendent in my new jeans and t-shirt - to Legends. That used to be the place to be and is the venue where we hold out club nights. There was a time when you could go out any Saturday night and know there would be a dozen mates out as well, great atmosphere, loads of fun, guaranteed busy. Last night when we arrived there was the two of us and one other punter. More staff than visitors. Makes me so sad. Credit crunch be buggered - this is people who just don't bother any more. We make a point of trying to support Legends, on the basis of 'use it or lose it' but it seems that others don't have quite the same philosophy. As Joni Mitchell once said, "You don't know what you've got 'til it.s gone"