Hello. How are your summer hols? We've got to the point where we have run out of cash for going out to do child-friendly summertime things, so tonight the Twins have invited their friends over to camp in the garden as a low-cost alternative. I think there's hail due tonight. And they've set their alarm so they can all wake up at midnight for their midnight feast. One way or another it's going to be an interrupted nights sleep. Oh well, they can all just sit inside and watch telly tomorrow, whilst I rustle up another meal from Tesco's 'everyday value' ingredients (it's amazing how many things you can do with half a packet of tortillas and some old cheddar cheese - I feel another 'Mexican surprise' coming on...) and Hubby watches Top Gear re-runs. Actually, I feel like I'm doing Hubby a disservice because yesterday he mowed the lawn and cooked supper and hoovered the entire house and put up a tent for the kids. And this morning he read through my dissertation for me (again - will I ever finish the damn thing?). But this afternoon he did fall asleep on the sofa in front of Top Gear. I guess he deserved a break. Oh, and talking of hard work, I don't want you to think that it's only him who's been at it. No sireee. Yesterday I dug up the enormous weedy front flowerbed and sowed it with grass seed. I have barely done so much manual labour in my life (in fact, I think the last time I wielded a spade was in 1994 in Tanzania). Today I have neck ache and a nasty blister on my hand, so I have attempted nothing more challenging than spritzing glass cleaner over the bathroom mirrors and making a risotto. And I went to the hairdresser's as well (I was meant to go last week, but I discovered a nit the night before - I think it was Polly's estranged stepfather, Derek), and now feel fully up to date with important current affairs issues such as why Katie Holmes really left Tom Cruise and when Prince William actually fell for Kate Middleton (and some stuff about someone from the Saturdays getting married too). I also have shorter, marginally less Kate Bush-ish hair. The hairdresser was nothing if not honest. After I'd sat down and explained what I wanted, she gingerly fingered the end of one of my desiccated tresses and said: "Well, I know what you want it to look like, but I'm telling you now, it won't end up like that." She went on to mention that it will take around a year to get my hair back into good shape, thanks to the coiffure nightmares it has suffered over the past few months.
Now, I value honesty above all things, but in a hairdresser perhaps it's a somewhat overrated virtue. Couldn't she just have told me that my hair is lovely and that I look gorgeous right now. I don't want to be told that I'll have to wait a full three hundred and sixty five days just to look normal again.
Still, what can you expect for twenty quid (I'll tell you what, a whole week of everyday value 'Mexican Surprise' that's what)? Next time I'll just pay more for the senior stylist in the hope that she's a more accomplished liar.
Hope your hols all going well.
Take care xxx