… because I seem to have been very absent.

Well, ok. I know why I haven’t been blogging, and it’s not because hayfever did get the better of me (despite what Mr Anonymous suspected from my last post). However, work /did/ get the better of me for April and May, and I’ve only really just caught up with myself in the past few weeks.

So what has happened? Well….

Work happened. Lots of it, with lots of accompanying stress and long hours and hair-tearing. But it was all over and done with, with much rejoicing, on May 31st…
… which was the day that George was killed by a couple of greyhounds, which completely ruined my good mood. But at least I never have to wonder again about who he’s living with and where he is; he’s buried in my back garden, safe and sound. I do miss him though.

I bought a new car at the beginning of June - a bloody big diesel-fuelled dark blue Nissan Primera - and Colin & I took it all over Wales in the middle of June. Ferry to Holyhead from Dun Laoghaire on Saturday 9th; a night’s stay in Llandudo; a drive the length of Wales down to Barry to stay with my parents; much visiting of relatives and places (a couple of trips into Cardiff, and a visit to the Roman Baths in Bath); a night’s stay in Llangollen on the way back up, and then the ferry home again on Sunday 17th.

My birthday present from Colin was an engagement ring to replace the one I’d lost that I’d had last year in June - garnet & silver again, naturally. On my birthday, I also got a new cat, Clover, who’s a skinny little tabby about a year old. She’s my lap-cat replacement for George, although I’d already arranged to have her well before he died (she was being looked after by a friend who volunteers for the rehoming centre, and had already had her kittens rehomed). She’s a sweet girl and I’m very fond of her already - she’s settling in with the other 3 ok.

Had a week off work in July too, and cleared out the study so we could paint it. I have several other decorating projects in mind for the summer, too, especially since my parents will be over at the start of September. It’s a good excuse to clear out various rooms though… but I have to sort through all the junk that came out of the study first into keep/chuck/charity piles, before we can start on anything else.

I need to start my regular blogging again, anyway. It’s good for my creativity (which was entirely stifled by trying to meet my last work deadline) and I really need to start writing other things again, too.

Just under nine weeks to my next deadline anyway, and I’m going to try and enjoy having a busy life for the next few months.

Also today, I am mostly … recovering from reading the seventh Harry Potter novel twice in two days

… but it had to be done. I can’t help reading it fast the first time. I’m too greedy and impatient to ration it out as friends of mine do; I had to read it in one sitting (just under three hours) and never mind the fact that I spent the final 40 minutes desperate for the loo but unwilling to move. The re-read was much more leisurely and almost more enjoyable in some ways because I could see where things were leading.

… because I had too many good meals over the weekend. I made a roast chicken dinner on Friday night when Colin got home from work; a gang of us went out on Saturday night to the superbowl in Derry, for his birthday, and had a three course meal and home-made birthday cake; and last night we went out for a very nice dinner with his family (I had venison). And I’ll be eating out again tonight pre-gig, probably just pub grub, but still….. Walkies galore for the rest of the week, I hope. Maybe I’ll bounce some of it off tonight.

Also today, I am mostly … looking forward to tonight’s gig

… and playing the Automatic and the View and Mumm-ra and the Horrors pretty much non-stop on my MP3 player. I rushed out and bought the View’s album on Saturday, and very good it is too.
I’m also exchanging emails with Marion about her insistence that I wear a hat, and my intention not to wear one on the grounds that if I wore a cowboy hat with the dress I’ll be wearing, I’d look like a fat Calamity Jane. And that’s just not a look I want to have (other than at Halloween, anyway). I left the lime-green and purple leopard-print hat at home anyway… We shall see who wins the battle of wills. I have a notoriously twistable arm, but I’m trying to stand firm.