Until very recently there was an independent greengrocers shop on the main street in Malvern. The fruit and veg there wasn’t necessarily as beautiful as the offerings in a supermarket – the potatoes often had soil on them, which would never be allowed in Waitrose! – but it was much cheaper. And Pete the proprietor […]
I hardly think that the weather has inspired me to do some spring cleaning – it snowed heavily all Wednesday morning, and was completely un-springlike. But I have taken advantage of the fact that I’ve been off work all week to do some more tidying up and sorting out things that I’ve simply not had […]
One of the things I want to do this year is start to clothe the terraces of sleepers with some plants. My wish list is quite specific – I want year-round interest, preferably evergreen climbers that can cope with poor soil and a north-facing wall, and – most important of all – ultra-low maintenance. But […]
I have some badly-needed and much anticipated time off work now that I’ve made it through to the end of the Financial Year. I did little over the weekend except sleep, but I woke up this morning with more energy, and decided to do some de-cluttering and tidying up. The living room and dining room […]
I bumped into an ex-colleague of mine at work today, who used to work quite closely with Chris. She left several years ago, but still does odd bits of consultancy for the company. I hadn’t seen her since Chris died, so she asked me how I was doing and we had a quick chat in […]
It’s the end of the Financial Year tomorrow, and I’m really looking forward to it! It has been completely manic at work for the past month, culminating in a final report on my main project, which I was responsible for producing. Writing the content was challenging enough – there is a lot of stakeholder politics […]
On Saturday there was a Spring Gaudy at my Oxford College for my year and the two years above me. This is a once-every-ten-years black-tie dinner when we get invited back to Balliol to meet our contemporaries, and (of course) get asked for donations to support the College. It was the first really big formal […]
DAR phoned and left a message at 08:30 on Wednesday to say that they had sourced the correct element for my oven, and when could they come and fit it? Unfortunately, I’d left the house hours earlier to get to an all-day meeting at a customer site, but I phoned them in a coffee break […]
Thank you to everyone who has commented to say that DAR are reliable and that you recommend them. The oven-repair man arrived on time this morning and swiftly diagnosed that yes, indeed, the element is broken. I had told the shop the make and model of my oven, and he had come prepared with a […]
Carol is making fun of me in the comments for having a house which seems to attract tradesmen like butterflies around a buddlia bush. But it’s getting worse by the day! On Thursday evening my oven packed up. That was particularly annoying because I had made a huge effort for my dinner and prepared a […]
