Before I go

Very soon I'll have to get on to a hot bus and hope my litre of water lasts me all the way home.

I feel much to hot to want to do anything. I finished a mock up of the flower girl dresses for my sister's wedding yesterday. It took so much longer than it should because I couldn't concentrate in the heat. After I'd finished I longed to do something utterly frivolous, but didn't know what. I wasn't hungry. With dinner to prepare and work the folllowing day a G&T probably wasn't my top option.

Happily today Mimi has sent me her copy of Little Lady Big Apple by Hester Browne. I'm so looking forward to losing myself in it on the journey home.

Tonight I'm going to make some courgette kofta. I managed to get a mix of yellow and green from the market on Friday.

And on the subject of food, a couple more things. Firstly does anyone ele crave salty foods like utterly yummy Marmite in hot weather?

Secondly I'd like to say well done to my Dad for managed to lose some weight and being so restrained when we had lunch at Wetherspoons on Friday. You are looking really good Dad! One of the things I like about Wetherspoons is that you can go to their website, follow the nutritional information link, select the type of diet you are following and it will tell you which menu items are Ok for you. Isn't that cool? It will also calculate the nutritional value of a meal.

And an update, I emailed Kenny at veganlunchcast and said I hoped he'd be posting again soon. No reply yet. Gorgeous vegan is back and sent a lovely reply to my email. Also remembered another 'lost' site - that of Chic Simple. One of the best bits was the questionnaire where their staff would tellyou which 10 items of clothng they would buy if an airline lost their luggage. I've planned many wardrobes over the years based on this. What would you buy?

I think I might be breaking my own little and often rule.

Come back soon - we miss you!

Isn't it awful when you find something you like only for it to disappear? I have been a perfume widow on occasion (Anyone remember Evermore by Avon). Magazines cease publication (Princess comic c.1981?). Favourite shops vanish (Racing Green is on the return I believe). Tesco ceases to sell greaseproof paper bags and greengrocers almost everywhere (the ones that haven't already vanished) no longer use brown paper bags.

And then there are blogs and websites. I am really starting to appreciate how hard it is keep a blog or a website up to date. I've recently found a couple I've really enjoyed reading, only for activity to cease in some cases (such as www.gorgeousvegan.co.uk) there is an explanation (nasty, difficult examinations) but the lovely Kenny at www.veganlunchcast.blogspot.com seems to have stopped posting and hasn't told us why.

Is it polite to send an email to bloggers and ask them if there is a hope that they might resume their activities?

The luck of the devil

Amazingly my white linen trousers are still white! Dearly beloved despite washing them with a whole variety of colours has managed to bring them out sparkling and clear!

I feel I should explain the white linen trousers a little further. I wouldn't want to give the impression the tI ma some kind of Elizabeth Hurley type who wear white all the time. In fact I rarely wear white (and certainly not on my lower half).

However a few months a go I saw a woman in New Look who was wearing white linen trousers with a red and white dress over the top. It looked fabulous and got round the underwear problems (nude underwear looks like you haven't got any on and any other colour is too obviously on display).

So I purchased a pair at Primark a a kind of experiment and I now have a number of dresses I wear over them or jeans. I feel (and hopefully look) fab.

The suspense is killing me

Dearly beloved put a load of washing the machine before he left for work this morning. I then noticed that the load included colours and my white linen trousers! I couldn't get the machine to stop so I'll have to wait and see what kind of colour they are when I get home tonight. Feeling extremely stressed today in any case.

I'm just hoping the items he put them with are more colour fast than previously imagined. Otherwise I'll have to get the dye out and go back to Primark.

Just how far can (and should) one go?

Blog writing is very much like diary writing in that one wants to document day-to-day life. How else can one remember the small successes and failures of life? I keep a paper diary where I record my daily doings, my thoughts and am currently using to set myself monthly targets. It's also an excellent place to store things like programmes and menus. Then when I look back in times still to come I can experience once again the atmosphere, colours and tastes. Some times it's a good place to let rip if I'm angry or upset about something. It's a good way of sharing without having to confide my petty jealousies to another person.

Maybe they'll be read when I'm not longer here. I like to imagine that they'll provide a wonderful resource for historian's of the future.

However the blog writing differs in that it is designed to be read now. Not at some distant point in the future. Hence how much should be shared?

Would it be OK to saythat I was anxious at the weekend as a result of a family situation? This might cause family members who read this to think that I was referring to them. And complaints about my work could be problematic. You are never as anonymous as you think you are.

So dear readers, I will save my anguish for my paper diary (some things are best kept private) and remember that what I post here is for anyone to read. In any case I'm certain that other people's misery is boring - you've much rather hear good, uplifting things about my small triumphs.

And so I'll leave you there for the time being. I'm off to pack my latest round of parcels.