Whoops!

On Saturday morning, at about 8am, there was a loud knock on the front door. I staggered towards it, dressed alluringly in my pyjamas, sporting curry stains from a previous night's dinner, my hair probably something of a birds nest. I was closely followed by a half-naked Son 2.

It was the home delivery parcel man with a box of cheap books from The Book People, which needed my signature. He was quite chirpy for such an early hour, though I did idly wonder why he was so chatty.

Fast forward to Monday lunchtime, another loud knock. Home delivery parcel man again, this time with a box of DVDs son 1 had ordered from Amazon.

'Oh, you're dressed today', he says, sounding a little disappointed.

'I'm sorry, you caught me at a bad moment on Saturday', I reply.

'It wasn't bad for me', he winks.

Oh dear. I think he must have seen more than I intended. I knew I should have done up some of the buttons on that deep neckline...

Three notable things:

1. A busy day yesterday sorting out doctor's appointments, making surreal calls to the Child Benefit office who couldn't answer my question, and working in between on the bookkeeping, until my eyes went funny.

2. A friend called by today with a tray of Italian patisserie, brought home from Lake Garda as a thank you for keeping an eye on their house in their absence last week.

3. After a conversation with a Jewish friend who recently visited Auschwitz, the capture of Radovan Karadzic comes as a relief. Watching the news this morning, I was surprised to learn that he was a actually originally a psychiatrist who had recently been working in a clinic practicing alternative medicine under a false identity. Hopefully this will finally help the families of his victims move on with the rest of their lives.

I'm back

Well it's been almost a month and what better way to mark my return to blogging than meeting up with a crowd of fellow writers and bloggers?

The Novel Racers held a meet in London on Saturday and it was wonderful to meet in real life so many people who I already felt I 'knew' from blogging. They were, without exception, just as lovely as I'd expected and the conversation flowed freely on the fifth floor of Waterstone's, Piccadilly. A great afternoon.

You will also be impressed that I considered the credit crunch and bought no books at all in Waterstone's, though I did treat myself to a pretty little notebook decorated with an antique style butterfly design. Although it was tempting to shop and party on into the evening with those Novel Racers who were staying in Central London, I decided to go home, probably just as well as son 1 arrived home shortly after me, feeling rather ill with a nasty virus.

I still have virtually no time to write for a few weeks, but the Novel Racer meet has invigorated and inspired me and I am looking forward to getting back to work seriously in the autumn.

Three notable things:

1. Son 2 has no school transport for the next two days due to a council strike so I am going to let him stay home, rather than battle dangerously through the rush hour traffic with a child who tries to exit the car each time it grinds to a halt in a traffic jam.

2. Train tickets have been booked for son 1 and I to visit the grandparents at the end of August, provided everyone concerned is well enough.

3. The knee-height grass in the back garden has been hacked back by Hubby, but our garden and our house are both beginning to look in need of some TLC, for which we currently have neither the time nor funds. One day...