House mouse

Its back. Sat in the sofa yesterday and saw it running across the floor, under the dining table and disappear under out chest of clothes to iron. The little bastard.

We thought he had moved out, on to more lucrative houses where people live who actually have some food at home. Last time JD spotted him he tried to catch him with a bowl, it did not succeed obviously.

Time for action, its serious now. While he is incredibly cute I do not want a mouse in my house. Or as my mom pointed out, as they breed quickly, an invasion of mice... So I googled for a solution and it turns out the council provides a pest control anti mice attack for £47.50. Well worth it I think as we have been trying a number of different things for the last months to get rid of Mr Mouse.

We started with a humane trap, baited it with ham and then chocolate - did not work.

We then tried the electric plug thing that is supposed to scare the mice away with the noice - this did not work at all, the mouse didnt seem affected at all but strolled around happily on the bench next to it while it was on.

We then moved onto poison, got 4 boxes from Rentokil which were said to guarantee a mouse free home in 30 days or so. Well that obviously didnt work either.

So now we are going to contact the professional hit men to ask them to take over. Life is tough.

Work harder

Its Monday again, I feel like I say that a lot.

Am in London today, which means I sit in an open plan office in another building than normal and had to stand on the train for 45 min to get here. I am unlikely to see anything of the town apart from Victoria Station and the highlight of the day I am guessing to be that I had to buy a brolly at the station due to heavy down pour. It is a nice brolly, extra light. I know why its extra light as they seem to have made the diameter about 10 cm less than a normal brolly, which leads to a reduced effectiveness. But it is light.

I want a proper brolly, one of those in see through plastic that domes over you so you get properly covered from the rain. And being Monday and my working moral at its all time low I found a site to buy one from:

http://www.brolliesgalore.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_copy_of_copy_of_Birdcage.html

They also do matching childrens ones, for you fashion conscious parents out there.

Maybe I should also get a dog, as the dog umbrella is just smashing.

Distracting maneuver

I have spent the day with Barb and the wee ones. It was lovely and both children behaved impeccably - especially as we dragged them around Lewes to find a place to have lunch (all the Guardian readers in the South had congregated at Bill's Produce and Real Eating company) and then for some shopping at Steamers (great shop if you are 1 1/2 and lightning fast when grabbing stuff that easily break) and a lovely antique shop (Barb is haggling queen, I get embarrassed and have to leave).

The only point that Cam felt his mum was really pushing the limit was when she disappeared off to the butcher and left him with me (not at all a fun lady if you ask him) and his sister (asleep). I am not very good at managing two kids (well I didn't want to leave Lottie in case someone stole her) so I racked my brains about what to say to take his mind of the fact that his mum seemed to have stranded him with two less than interesting women. Thank the lord we are so close to Gatwick because lo and behold an airplane appeared! The boy was enthralled; he spent the next 5 minutes head bent back, eyes to the sky, admiring the plane making its way so many miles above. And then mum came back with the chicken.

Oh you horrible man!

I am planning to stop using my favorite words (thingy, bits, stuff, eeh, more stuff) and instead learn some new phrases from 1920s -1950s like 'Oh you horrible man!'. But first I need to find some.

Monday

Ah, its Monday again. Feels like at least 2-3 days out of the week is a Monday.

P was here this weekend and we took him horse racing at Goodwood. How do you pick the horse to put money on? I go by colour of shirt. And I won £22. So net spend for the day: £15. Not bad.

Sunday started well with watching the Solheim cup and the European team looking to be in an OK position. Left to play golf and it all went downhill from there. US won the cup, weather turned really windy and I ended up in a bunker I couldnt get out of.

I was slightly damp before this and after my attempts also covered in fine sand. Time to give up. After three attempts at hacking it out (1st attempt - ball flies 3 m behind me, 2nd attempt - back to original spot) I threw the ball out and then gave up completely and went to the bar with Justin. P and JD soldering on in the not so nice weather. But they probably grew up thinking that is what a good day looks like.

Food

As I have been a good girl all week eating well and exercising I am very much looking forward to going to Pintxos People tonight, I love their Fois Gras and the tuna and the hanger steak and the monk fish and the peppers and the octopus with chorizo and the cocktails and the cute serving staff.

I also deserve it after a week of hard work which I just finished off by sending an invite to a meeting next week to about 100 people by mistake - so I then had to send an apology to all to say it was a mistake and please ignore, but in the few minutes in between got enough emails asking me what on earth I was doing to make me very embarrassed.

Pain is good

I was invited to Barb's for home made brownies yesterday but didnt make it, it was the first yoga night of the autumn so I was in Shoreham Free Church hall stretching. I am now in pain as I did both pump and yoga yesterday. I cannot walk down stairs, I cannot walk but sort of waddle, I cannot sit down at loo but have to throw myself backwards as I cant bend my legs (thigh muscles being sad after being abused by all the lunges).

Pain is good, means I have done something, right? I just hope its better tomorrow as I do look a bit like I have pooped my pants when walking.

Dinner tonight was a delightful chili con carne, cheaters version, with a can of baked beans mexican style. Followed by fresh figs, grilled with a bit of honey and cinnamon, served with Total 0%. Not bad. But I think they are nicer when filled with blue cheese and grilled, so will do that with the remaining tomorrow. (I got carried away with the reduced price and bought 8, but at least we will be regular for the coming few days, especially as plums were on sale as well.)

Lamb sausage

I found an interesting spicy lamb sausage at Waitrose today. I bought it, cost me £0.15. One sausage please I said to the lady in the delicatessen and she didnt even hesitate, lots of little old people shop at Waitrose.

My dinner plans before I found the sausage was to do something with brown rice and veg. After lamb sausage it became a sausage tagine.

That sounds real fancy, it was just brown rice cooked with beef stock (no lamb stock in cupboard), chickpeas and cinnamon bark. Added (chopped) courgettes, onion and a centimeter of chili after 20 minutes and cooked for another 15. Just before serving stirred in some chopped parsley and dried apricots. V nice but I wish I had bough two sausages.

Red

My toenails are red, dark red like a mix of blood and coffee. Looking great and well worth the £28 it cost me to have them done.

We decided to take a short break not too far away this weekend, so we went to Wickwoods. It was very civilized and lovely and quiet out there. Today there was a tennis tournament on there, we didnt take part but instead had a massage and pedicure.

The clientele was quite grown up, mainly couples, all between 40-70. All very nice and smug looking, I guess not only cause they were excersising but also cause they are members of a club and know the receptionist by name. One day that will be us and our friends. Apart from the fact that I cant play tennis. I guess I can learn.

It seems like most of the ladies using the beauty salon are housewifes as the beautician asked me what JD works with, rather than what I do. I would probably not be a good housewife as I am too prone to get stuck in front of the TV eating, and even if I had a country club membership I would never turn up as it would mean having to leave the sofa.

JD is building a 3D puzzel of the earth. He is learning geography as he goes along. I reccon if we joined a puzzel club the clientel would be smug differently to country club member smugness.

Long week

This week is taking forever. Only Thursday lunchtime and it feels like I have been in the office for about 8 days straight. I need a break but am wearing high heels so can only totter a few meters before feet hurts, so can I be bothered going out at lunch? But do fancy some Kettle crisps.

Housecoat

My friend Barb mentioned that her grandmother (Hungarian) had suggested she starts using a Otthonka (=housecoat) to avoid the nasty stains on clothes that her two kids decide to accessorise her tops and trousers with. I think its a great idea and want one. So here are two photos, the left one is of a housecoat, English style, and the right one of a Hungarian otthonka. In Swedish its called 'staedrock'. But I havent seen one for sale since I was a kid and helped out in our neighbour Anita's shop where she sold bits and bobs, including housecoats.

I think Barb should get her granny to get us all housecoats and we use them and then maybe they will come back in fashion? I dont need kids to dirty my clothes, I am very competent at doing that myself just by cooking, eating, drinking.

Make it so

We went to Chichester yesterday and saw Twelfth Night with Patrick Stewart as Malvolio. I must have seen that play about 10 times, but this was a good version.

JD sat through the whole play waiting for PS to say his catch phrase but no luck.

Today we are cleaning the house and its moving forward at an ok speed. JD has cleaned the fridge and tumble dryer, I the bedrooms. We have left to tackle:

1) living room - where we have in the interim stored all those bits and bobs we couldnt find a home for in the other rooms, so this will be fun...

2) wiping floors in bedrooms and bathroom and kitchen

But at the end of it all we are celebrating having a clean house with nice dinner, and cheeeeeese with my home made chutney. Oh and some of the bottles of wine we seem to be storing in almost every room of the house. Need to have more wine drinking guests...