A Good Weekend

Finished: Book I was reading.

Gave: Gift and cards to Wife for being the world’s greatest mother.

Missed: My own mother. And Match of the Day (again!)

Made: Hammerbead rubber men with kids and Mother’s Day cards for above.

Planted: Pansies, Lobelia, Sunflowers, Courgettes, Tomatoes, Peppers, Pansies, Magnolia, Aster, Petunia, Celene – with the kids.

Sat: 45 mins sustained mediation in three sessions with varied results. Temptation to check whether the countdown timer was workng on my mobile was almost overpowering. Realising more and more that my life is ruled by a series of beeps and wav files.

Watched: Everton lose to Blackburn. Thank God Liverpool are playing like dogs at the moment.

Visited: Mother-in-law and father in law. He usually invites me to park in the tightest of spaces whenever I go there. It’s a mind game. “No, no, no. Pull her in here. Miles of room.” I always hesitate, which weakens my position. Wife argues against my ability and I hold my nerve, because to turn down the challenge would be a double cop out. (”What’s the matter?” “Wife wanted me to park over the road. She knows what I’m like.”) She usually gets out as I mount the curb for the second time. To make it worse, father in law usually offers to get the car out of the tight space when we come to leave. “No, I’m OK,” I always say, followed by everyone who knows what I’m like encouraging him to get the car out for me and point it in the direction I wish to travel. Sometimes, when we turn up on a surprise visit, he greets us at the door and always asks “Where are you parked?” I point over to the car halfway down the street in the generous parking bays and he squints and looks over my shoulder down the road like he’s working out what timezone that falls under. But he’s great and I love him like family.

Wrote: Letter to children’s short story competition (about which more later)

Ate: Three doughnuts, spaghetti, pizza, chips, rolo chocolate puddings, biscuits while driving, stilton, peanut butter toast, crisps and miscellaneous.

Invented: The brie, cranberry and grape tortilla wrap, henceforth known as “El Franco”. I am currently devising a “Croque Se�or”, due to soft launch in Q4 2005, pending resources.

Drove: To nearest big town for wife’s scrapbooking ambitions and nearly into in-laws daffodils.

Got a job: Doing some market research to talk about credit cards one night this week. Easy money. Ka, and indeed, ching.

Donated: Money to Comic Relief for daughter’s obstacle course race at school.

Went: To the dentist.