It is almost a relief to be on the taxi rank.
I have rushed about all day, Doing Things.
I can’t now remember what they were, but I know they were very important at the time. I have made some chocolate ginger biscuits, I know that because I have got one in the door pocket of my car, to wake me up at the nightclub later, and also I have made cherry and coconut chocolate for the same purpose. I like that very much and I am having to be restrained about saving it for special sugar boost emergencies later on.
I ought to be more restrained about it anyway. I have become very portly lately. This is because in the summer there is not very much time for exercise. I have given up eating chocolate buttons, as a sort of token gesture towards good health and well being, but I have not become in the least thinner because of it, what a waste of suffering.
I actually thought longingly about the gym, and the PamperMe Beautiful Loveliness WellPerson Spa this morning, how splendid it would be just to be able to waste an hour cycling nowhere or rowing along the wall of the gym, followed by some loafing about in a sauna, but it is not to be at the moment. I wrote to them and told them I would renew my membership from October 1st, which is the next time when I think that the demands of Life might have eased off a bit.
October suddenly seems very close. This year has scarcely begun and it is over.
I spent much of this morning reconstructing Oliver’s coat.
He has got to have a proper waterproof coat for expeditions, and they are expensive. We were troubled about this until Number One Son-In-Law very kindly donated an old one of his.
This will be perfect in that it is broad enough to be worn over a dozen Merino Base Layers and Soft Shell Lightweight Fleeces, and all of the other gubbins we have been obliged to purchase, but of course its sleeves were about a foot too long.
This morning I cut them shorter, not without some trepidation, because if I messed it up then either we would have to shell out a small fortune for another, or he would have to put up with the humiliation of looking peculiar with elbow-length sleeves.
He would probably not have minded this much, after years of being parented by me he is accustomed to looking peculiar occasionally.
I cut them and stole some of Mark’s glue to hem them, and then stitched them for good measure. Then I made a little Velcro tab so that they could be wrapped around his wrists and fit properly.
Readers, it was a triumph, by which I mean that when I had finished it fitted him, did not appear to let in water, and also I only sewed the sleeve shut once, and it took me hardly any time at all to unpick it, so it didn’t matter in the least.
I was very pleased with myself. It looks almost like it might have been made like that, especially if you have never seen a waterproof jacket before.
He tried it on and expressed his satisfaction, by which I mean that he nodded vaguely, stripped it off as fast as he could and then dashed off to go and talk to his friend Harry who was calling from inside his computer.
In fact he is being very patient about trying things on. We had a major Dressing Up evening last night, when I got everything out of his bag and made him try it all on.
He liked it all, except the woolly jerseys, which I washed in hair conditioner today, so they are acceptably soft. You can see him in the picture, looking forward to rugby in Scotland.
Incidentally, the adverts on here do not seem to be improving much. Mark looked on the rural broadband computer today, and found that he had one offering to introduce him to Muslim brides, and another one telling him that somebody else’s broadband would be much better.
Nobody is ever going to buy anything at this rate.
