… about going to London tomorrow. It’s the first time in more than 18 months that I’ll have been there - that occasion was to see a musical too, Spamalot, and although I don’t know yet what we’re going to see this weekend (possibly Mamma Mia!), going to two musicals is the reason we’re going to London, courtesy of Marion’s ten-years-long-service award at work.

I have some time knocking around by myself though tomorrow as she’s in a work-related meeting (typically), so I might go to London Zoo if the weather holds fair. That’s somewhere I haven’t been in about 15 years. And that time, it was about 15 years since the previous time I’d been… so, I guess I might make it there again in 2023? I’m sure there have been an awful lot of changes since my last visit, and my camera is all charged up and ready to go.

I’ll have to remember to send some postcards. And I’ll definitely take plenty of photos. And possibly even drink a cocktail or two (and take photos of those, too) since our hotel has a cocktail bar. It also has an iMac in every room, apparently…

I just wish I didn’t have to fly over a) early in the morning and b) on Ryanair!

… at the local recycling depot. So I suppose it’s not dumping, exactly. We cleaned out the garage yesterday - which involved moving everything out on to the grass, sweeping and washing the floor, waiting for it to dry, and then putting everything back - so there are a few things for Freecycling, and I took a fluorescent light tube, some cardboard, and a stack of empty and almost-empty paint pots down to the depot. Yay me.

I’m a good recycler, actually. We have a weekly bin collection, but one week is the blue bin for recyclables (card, paper, plastics, tins - glass has to go to the bottle bank at the nearest supermarket) and the other is the black bin for general waste. As much as possible goes into the blue bin, and all compostable waste goes into the compost bin at the back of the garden, including some paper and card as ‘browns’ to round out all the grass clipping ‘greens’ that go in. I try and throw away as little as possible, though I still get embarrassed sometimes by how much crap does get thrown away.

I can’t remember the last time I took a plastic carrier bag from a shop though. I always carry big reusable carriers, plus a fold-up fabric one in my handbag. (Ugh. Handbag. I always hate to think of myself as someone who carries a handbag as opposed to a general purpose rucksack or something, but alas - even as big and squashy and useful and denim as my current bag is, it definitely fits into the ‘handbag’ category.) Even so, we have a HUGE bag full of carrier bags hiding in the under-stairs cupboard. They do come in handy sometimes.

… not how to do anything in particular, just helping to show him. In a dog show. And as you can see from his rosette, Zebedee won First Prize - in the Female Handler class, although that wasn’t me, that was Marion, his owner. I only walked him round for the Medium Dog class (by which time he was a bit hot and knackered and had a rough collie right up behind him, which put him off).

I’ve never actually even been to a dog show before, so it was generally a new experience. It was a meet of the local Lurchers & Terriers club, so there were races and proper judging for all of them. It was held at a local tourist attraction kind of farm, which has fancy breeds of domestic animals (plus an emu for some reason), which although it’s only about 10 miles from my house, I’d never been too before. So we got a good look around it, and I petted a donkey and some goats and lots of puppies.

Anyway, as well as the ‘proper’ dog show, there were also a series of ‘novelty’ classes for household pets. So Zeb got entered for Best Female Handler, Best Mongrel and Best Medium Dog, and then had to go out again for Best in Show. Which he didn’t win, but never mind. He seemed to have a decent day - lots of interesting smells! chickens! other dogs! children! spending lots of time with his favourite people! - and Marion and I both enjoyed ourselves even if we did get sunburnt.

And it was something I’d never done before, so yay! (?)

… although not for any particular reason, it’s not like I’ve had a long or difficult week at work or anything. I have been busy, but, you know… two weeks to go.  Less than, actually, because next Friday I’m heading over to London to join Marion in a musical extravaganza weekend - 2 musicals in 2 days (maybe 3, even).

I have Stuff to do this weekend though - as always - including picking up part of my dress and going shopping for other wedding-related odds and ends. And tomorrow is the Farmers’ Market in my town, and I usually go down and buy meat and vegetables and eggs - good fresh, local stuff. Might get some Armagh cider too as a treat.

… that I’m starting a new job on August 11th. My manager knew, of course, and the company I’m going to. And my family and a lot of my friends. But today I started telling other people at work, and it’s amazing how fast the grapevine can function. :)

Also today, I am mostly … starting to write

… because my pal Cavantucky and I have a pact to produce 10,000 words a week till we get our old NaNoWriMo novels finished. I think she’s more likely to make the counts than I am, but I’m going to have a go anyway. I’m resurrecting my 2003 novel which got dumped at around 26,000 words and needs probably twice that many again; I re-read it recently and it’s actually not too bad, which is comforting.  Word counts are being posted on Sharp Words, anyway.

At least I can rest easy in the knowledge that I’ll still be working in Belfast a couple of days a week, come November, which means I can organise meetings and things again (if there’s anyone else local, anyway). And perhaps this year, I might even get to meet Cavantucky, since she lives less than 2 hours away from me… and that’s not really that much driving as far as I’m concerned.

… because I didn’t post yesterday’s (didn’t even get scanning it till now, in fact) because I was fairly busy.  But here’s my doodle-pet - a cat, of course.

And to further prove my complete lack of artistic skills, here’s today’s body (which I think looks a bit like plasticine Morph):

Also today, I am mostly … doing housework

… and wondering why Ozzy is sat on the garage roof. He can see me through the study window when he sits there, and now I know he’s there and staring at me, it’s a bit disconcerting.

Anyway, back to the housework. If I want to have a bath tonight, I have to clean out all the paper bits left from my last LUSH bath (Champagne Supernova bath ballistic).