Monday 25th July 2016

5 months to Christmas.

And what a wonderful feeling it is, not travelling to a bloody airport on Monday morning. A Monday morning. You know what I mean.

The alarm can go off at a normal time, or we can lie in bed ignoring Mulder's plaintive cries for breakfast, and pretend we're still asleep. That is until Vanessa come on when the alarm goes off, being all cheerful and chirpy. She's clearly on drugs.

Jools makes coffee and prepares her lunch, and I potter around upstairs, getting my dressing gown on and sweeping down the stairs like I own the place. Which I half do.

Coffee is great. I mean the morning does't seem right without a cup or two.

And then Jools is off out to work in the car, braving the traffic that is still out there. But the queues of Friday and Saturday are mostly gone, so she speeds to work ready for her day. And I make another cuppa, have breakfast and listen to some radio before I begin.

And then: work. Switch on the computer and get on with the mails that came in over the weekend, and any other issues that might have happened. The cats are sleeping somewhere outside, so I am left mostly alone. And the day passes quietly.

I finish work at half three, sit outside on the patio with a magazine for a while, and then I look at the lawn. We have let it grow, as this time of the year we get a good crop of clover near the shed, and the bees and butterflies all feed on it. But in allowing the clover to grow, so does the grass. And I suppose is between 6 and nine inches long, and required some serious mowing. And created bags and bags of cutting. And the repeated emptying of the box meant the who process took over an hour, and I am all hot and bothered all over again.

Once done done, I make a glass of iced squash and sit once again on the patio, where various cats try to convince me that it's dinner time already. They had a point, it was nearly 5, so I give in and feed them, so they can scatter once again.

Dinner once again was insalata caprese, and is always welcome on a hot and humid day, as is the couple of glasses of red that I wash it down with.

Its cool in the evening, so after watching some TV we sit outside as the sun set, warmed only by a large tumbler of smokey single malt.