Having, on Sunday morning, enjoyed an extremely laid back and leisurely breakfast of hot crusty bread with lashings of home made raspberry jam I decided I'd better try and get to grips with the gardening before the weather got unbearably hot. I spent the morning dead heading, feeding my plants (good old fashioned eco friendly tomato food!) and spraying my dahlias which I noticed were covered in black fly, I then got physical! Decided to tackle the weeds growing on my drive.

I'd deliberately left them this year as I'd noticed last year that some of my next door neighbour's plants had seeded on my drive so I thought I'd take a leaf out of the Scrooge Book of Financial Management and leave some of them to flower this year so I could gather the seeds. I particularly noticed she had some lovely pink opium type poppies that kept coming up year after year and this year I could see two plants poking up through the gravel. They haven't actually flowered yet but I'm hoping!! The task of weeding the drive was long and arduous as I couldn't just spray it in case the weedkiller hit the plants I was trying to save so I had to take the rose off the watering can and do each weed individually but I'm hoping it's going to be worth it when I have a good supply of antirrhinum, poppy and marigold seeds stored up for next year!!! I then finished up the first half of my day by planting up some cape gooseberries that Adam had grown from seed. Never grown them before so decided to go for the belt and braces approach! Planted a third in a large pot up against the garage wall, a third in the greenhouse to keep my cucumbers company and the last third I've left in a large pot which is now sitting in my porch. Surely one of 'em will bear fruit??

By this time I was particularly hot and bothered so thought I'd spend the afternoon catching up on a bit of telly that we'd recorded during the last couple of weeks, followed by a little bit of research into my next article and then, as I hadn't done any exercise other than the gardening for a couple of weeks or more, thought it was about time I dragged the Wii out.

By way of physical jerks as my father used to call 'em, I had a few games of tennis on the Wii followed up by a quick trip to the Wii 10 pin bowling alley. Obviously I wasn't as fit as I'd been when I played tennis a few weeks back as I lost 3 out of 5 games. There's something mildly aggravating about being beaten by a cartoon character!!

I then decided to get stuck into my latest article which is proving to be a bit of a bugger to fathom, but I'll get there eventually ... hopefully before Christmas.

During the evening, while I was trying to get my noggin round my research, there was a huge kerfuffle out in the garden. Cleo, bless her little white fluffy feet had caught a bloomin' baby blackbird and the parents were going ballistic. I managed to grab hold of the cat and carried her indoors kicking and screaming like a toddler while Adam checked out the blackbird which, although looking a bit dazed, seemed none the worse for his ordeal and after a bit of friendly persuasion fluttered off like a WW1 flying ace back to Mum and Dad.

The week turned out to be fairly uneventful. We did our Asda order on line on Tuesday but it became a bit of a nightmare. It seems as if just as we're getting used to something they have to damned well change it. You know how annoying it is when you go to your local supermarket and can find your way blindfold around the aisles and, two years later, go in to find they've moved everything around. It's exactly the same when we shop on line; this month they've 'improved' their website which, in effect, means that all the items have been shoved willy-nilly across the screen so the ordering took double the time. However, we managed to complete it and eagerly awaited delivery on Thursday morning.

Thursday came and our usual cheery delivery man came to the door. As normal, we went to the back of the van so he could clamber up to unload the bags of groceries and we waited to collect up the bags and carry them through to the kitchen. We've had a nice system going for the last couple of years - we put the bags container freezer and fridge foods near the freezer and fridge, those with tinned goods by the kitchen cupboards at the far end of the kitchen, the cat food ones near the cat food cupboard under the sink, the bathroom ones at the bottom of the stairs and the 'treat' bags such as crisps, biscuits, booze, etc over by our treat cupboard and shelves. But this time, we found that our delivery man was accompanied by another equally cheery chappy who was keen to carry the shopping inside. Apparently Asda, in their wisdom, had thought it would be a good idea for each driver to increase the number of orders he had to deliver in the allotted timeframe so, in order to achieve that, they put an extra pair of hands on the van to help. This second cheery chap helped carry the shopping through to the kitchen which is all very well but as my kitchen's at the back of the house I had him traipsing through the porch, through the lounge and into the kitchen. It then took us twice as long to pack the stuff away as we were in a complete muddle. Added to that was the fact that to be 'eco friendly' they'd cut back on carrier bags and left the jars and tinned stuff in crates so we had baked beans, plum tomatoes, sweetcorn and soup strewn across the worktop which we'd normally leave clear so we could portion up the fish, meat and chicken before freezing it.

In order to be eco-friendly our local Co-op have been giving us biodegradable carrier bags for about five years now so why Asda can't do that I don't know. What I do know is that I was, for once, extremely grateful to hear a fanfare emanating from my PC upstairs just as we were about to sort out our chaotic kitchen - an indication that I'd received an email. "Goodness", I said to Adam, "I think I might just have some work in". So I rushed upstairs to find that I'd got a nice juicy priority job. I called down to Adam extremely apologetically that I'd have to abandon him so I left the poor man buried somewhere in between the tins and the bags of frozen fish and began my work.

Now, my priority work is set on a deadline - I had 15 minutes of dictation which it was estimated would take an hour to type so having started it at around 12.00 I was expecting to get it back to the client by lunchtime. Needless to say this estimate fell by the wayside. My mother, bless her, who's now 80 decided to ring me. I knew I was probably in for a long 'listening' session as she started off, "I know you're probably busy but ...". I interrupted her and told her I was on a deadline to get some work back before lunch and asked if I could telephone her back later that evening. She told me I could but then continued, "I'm probably now going down to Sainsbury's and then I need to go into town. It's 'Roy down the road's' 95th birthday tomorrow. Did I tell you he's off to France next month for a D Day tour? I didn't know what to get him for his birthday. We've got a new fishmonger's in the town. I know he likes fish so I'll probably buy him a nice piece of fish for his tea. He's having some of us in the Close for an 'open house' tomorrow. I think I might be the only one going though because Jessie next door can't get down there with her walking frame. Hilda's not been too well so she won't be going. She's got a nasty cough and I keep telling her to go to the doctors. Shirley's not there so she won't be able to go. Did I tell you Shirley's had to have one of her cats put to sleep? And talking of cats ...". By that time I'd almost lost the will to live so interrupted her flow and told her that I really had to go. Although she sounded extremely put out, I had to be strong and told her I'd ring her that evening.

Talk about a stressful day!!! Thankfully Friday was less so and I decided to finish the day at 5.15 rather than 6.00. Well, after all, it was Poets Day (for those who are unfamiliar with the term it means p**s off early tomorrow's Saturday!). I decided to have a break from my usual CSI/Criminal Minds/Mentalist catch up and, instead had a quick wander through the radio stations on Freeview and chose the brilliant Smooth Radio. It's aimed at us more mature people and it was playing a really good selection of old 1970s disco music. It brought back many a happy memory of the school discos. I went to an all girls school and I can remember well the whole of the 4th year upwards queuing to dance with Mr Cosson and Mr Warr, the two sexiest male teachers.

Yesterday (Saturday) was spent doing various things. A bit of cooking, a bit of housework, a bit of gardening, fleaing the cat and a bit more research for my article. I got so deeply engrossed in my article and Adam, who's beta-ing a new game called Fallen Earth, became equally engrossed in his battles that, before we knew it, it was 7.00 so we ordered a wonderful Kebab Feast from a kebab shop in Norwich. You get a huge foil tray of different types of meat, two pittas, two portions of chips, a large portion of salad and a litre bottle of Coke. It costs £12.50 but then we can't eat it all in one go so we separate out the various types of kebab meat and freeze some of it. One portion of chips then goes into the fridge to be warmed through in the oven the next day for our evening meal. Even the large foil tray is washed out well and used when I make a steak and kidney pie or a lasagne so it can be frozen and then just chucked in the oven when I'm particularly busy. We then watched a DVD called Doomsday with Bob Hoskins in it. It was a bit gruesome but there's nothing like a bit of blood and guts when you're getting decidedly tribal, picking up a huge kebab and shovelling it into your mouth neanderthal style!!!!

And now, Sunday morning's here again and I'm sitting with my mid morning cuppa before I start yet more research for my article!!!

Speak to you next week!!!

I Can't Believe It's a Bank Holiday!!

After a really hectic week of working 8 til 6 - plus some, I was so relieved to get to Friday; our fish & chip night! Not that we buy them from the chip shop. Being related to the 'Tight-Wad' family we begrudge buying fish and chips from our local chippy which are running in grease and cost three times the price of 'home made', so we chuck Captain Birds Eye into the oven with Mr McCain and they normally come up with quite a good meal between them!

Saturday saw me busily delving around in my flower beds, bum in air, trying to prepare the soil for planting up today (Sunday). Adam had a pal over for the day and he likes to use my PC - they play online computer games together so, having finished out in the garden I ended up on the Wii (again!!) playing tennis and doing my half moon and triangle yoga moves. I was extremely impressed as Connie the Wii Console told me I now had a physical age of 32!! Not bad for an old 'un!

Following the departure of Adam's friend Nick, as the evening was so nice and warm we took a quick trip out to Coltishall - a village nearby, and where I grew up - posted our postal vote forms for the elections at the beginning of June and then took a leisurely walk along the river bank before heading home for dinner. Unfortunately, however, I daren't do a body test today as I rather over indulged last night - a huge skate wing with chips and, at Adam's insistence(!) a load of fried onions and tomatoes as he'd done too many to fit on the plate with his rib eye steak!! We then followed that up with another Tight-Wad recipe - a lemon torte from Asda (cost us the princely sum of £1!).

Feeling extremely replete and lazy, we decided we'd watch a DVD - the latest Batman movie; have to admit I found it so exciting I fell asleep at about 10.30 so went to bed and, as luck would have it, my second favourite piece of music was playing on the radio - Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams so the day didn't end too badly. The only real downside was the fact that I learned I was allergic to cucumber plants.

I found the other day that my fingers on my right hand were itchy and had come out in a rash so, being typically me, I decided to keep sticking my hands into the various plants I had growing indoors to see what happened. Discovered that sweet peppers, courgettes and statice were fine but I shoved my hands into my cucumbers, so to speak, and ended up with a vegetably transmitted disease. Of course, my mother, neighbours, Uncle Tom Cobbly and all thought I should immediately dial 999 and call out all emergency services to tend to my pimples, but having put a load of lavender oil onto said affected area, I'm still alive and kicking today and not a pimple in sight.

I was relieved to find that today dawned bright, sunny and warm, so, having indulged again at breakfast time with toasted crumpets, lashings of butter and strawberry jam (thought I'd need something substantial to sustain me for my gardening!), I set to and I'm now free from pots on the windowsills. I'm just hoping that Cleo doesn't decide to roll around on the plants I so tenderly planted up - but c'est la vie - if she does, she does. I don't suppose we'll starve if we lose the odd courgette or cucumber.

The only blight on my otherwise relaxing day was the fact that Barmy Blackbird seems to have returned, or possibly son of Barmy. Last year we had a male blackbird that gave the distress call from various roofs and aerials in the vicinity during daylight hours throughout the whole of spring and summer and even took to dive bombing anything that moved - including me, Adam, Cleo, all our close neighbours and even cars that passed in front of the house. We couldn't imagine that he'd actually survive until this year as we thought he'd be caught by something or run over but today he's been twittering away at me but, as yet, hasn't taken to dive bombing - Alfred Hitchcock's birds spring to mind. I keep imagining next summer - three or four generations of Spixworth's Barmy Army lining up on the TV aerial ready to run kamikaze missions, complete with flying helmets and goggles.

Anyway, I'm now indoors feeling more than a tad grubby so quick rub down with an oily rag, into PJs and then down to prepare a slightly healthier dinner. Yes, I DO feel guilty at my lack of willpower over the last few days so it's going to be rabbit food tonight - a lovely(!) healthy salad with nerry a chip or fried onion in sight!!

And tomorrow? As it's Bank Holiday Monday it's bound to be pouring with rain - we just couldn't be lucky enough to have three good days could we? Don't be silly; of course not - I've got a load of washing to do as I've been spending my normal housework hours in the garden!!