This might turn out to be a rather short entry because I am rather hoping that we will be able to stop work early and get some extra bonus sleep.
The thing is that we were obliged to get up rather hastily this morning. We woke up earlier than expected due to the phone ringing, for some reason people seem to think that eleven o’clock is a perfectly civilised time to make telephone calls to other people, and I have had to explain several times to bemused Indians in call centres that in fact it is the middle of the night here in the UK.
It was a complete tiresome nuisance, because we didn’t finish work until five last night, and were not in any mood to leap out of bed turning shining faces to the joy of the day.
Mark went downstairs to make coffee and let the dogs out into the garden for a quick preliminary emptying, and when he turned round they had both buzzed off.
No amount of yelling up the back alley produced their return, and so, grumbling irritably, we were obliged to get up and trail out to go and find them, instead of indulging in our customary pleasant habit of steaming ourselves into a slow coffee-induced awareness of the coming day.
Mark found them in the park at the end of the road, happily doing unspeakable acts to one another in the sunshine.
They have been in disgrace ever since.
We were up then, and so decided to make the best of a bad job and get on with the day.
It is nice to be at this end of a bank holiday, partly because we can stop spending the entire day and night on the taxi rank, but mostly because we have got some cash to pay in to the bank, which we did this morning. This is always a relief.
After that Mark went off to the farm to bash the camper van about a bit. I had got a long and complicated form which needed to be filled in and thought I would have a go at it this morning.
After half an hour I started to realise that the toothache which has been bothering me on and off for a day or two was starting to become a serious throbbing discomfort.
According to the lovely Spanish dentist there is nothing whatsoever wrong with any of my teeth, no abscess, nothing to find that might be her responsibility to fix.
She thought that the ongoing toothache problems might be caused by a recurrent sinus infection.
By teatime I had made inroads into the painkillers, and Mark and I sat on the taxi rank investigating online the things that you can do for sinus problems.
We found, to our fascinated horror, that somebody has invented a small teapot which you fill with warm water and salt and pour up your nose. This flushes the sinus out and gets rid of the infection and makes you feel better.
There was a YouTube video of somebody doing this very thing.
I have no words at all to describe the sort of person who might wish to film themselves in the activity of poking a teapot full of warm water into their nostril, and then leaning awkwardly over a sink whilst they upend the teapot and pour.
For some reason he stuck his finger into his ear as well.
The water, enlivened by the contents of his nose, streamed out of his other nostril and all over his face and down his T-shirt.
I was captivated.
I watched it twice.
I am not sure that my toothache is nearly bad enough for me to consider submitting myself to such an inelegant procedure. Also I am not convinced that I would not simply drown in the attempt.
The instructions were quite clear about not attempting to breathe through your nose at the same time as pouring water into it, presumably in case somebody was so maddened by the pain of their inflamed sinuses that this handy precaution had failed to occur to them. However I am still not confident that filling your head with water via a teapot up your nose is necessarily a marvellous idea. There seems to me to be enormous potential for things to go unpleasantly wrong.
Mark laughed until a customer came along and he had got to get back in his own taxi.
I am still considering the matter.
I will let you know of my decision and any subsequent adventures tomorrow.
