I have got so much to do over the next couple of days that even just thinking about it all is making me feel slightly wan and tired.
We have got an Adventure in store before the end of the week. My parents have been married for sixty years, and are going to throw a party to celebrate.
Sixty years is a long time. They had a telegram from the Queen this morning. I have not been married for nearly as long as that, but even I know that it takes a lot of patient putting up with somebody. I expect the Queen knows all about that as well, because of Prince Philip. Fortunately for me Mark is quite good at that part of being married. Anyway, it is a lot of hard work and a splendid achievement and they are going to have a party. We are all invited and it is going to be lovely.
It is in a gorgeous hotel in Yorkshire.
I am looking forward to it very much.
The thing is that this means we have not got very much time left before the whole of Christmas crashes over us like an unexpected giant wave over a sleeping sunbather.
We are going to their party this week, and working this weekend, and then we are going to the Midland for our own party and the pantomime, after which Elspeth and John are coming for dinner on Christmas Eve, and then it is Christmas.
I am not going to cook Christmas dinner. I think I have mentioned this. I am going to have Chicken Korma and Pilau Rice in the Prince Of India across the road from our house, so at least that is one worry that I do not have.
All the same, it does not leave us with very much time for manufacturing Christmas cards, making the last of the Christmas presents, wrapping everybody’s Christmas present, and packing. We think that we have got to get all of these things done before we set off to the party on Thursday morning.
We might have achieved quite a bit of this today had we not got out of bed this morning to discover another wet patch on the carpet.
This one was in the living room next to the back door.
There was one there yesterday as well, only yesterday we blamed poor Roger Poopy.
I do not feel very guilty about this because there are one or two other wet patches in the house that we think were probably him but he has escaped justice, so these things even out in the end.
Today we realised that even Roger Poopy does not wee that much, and that when we mopped it up it smelled of soap not horrid dog accident.
When we looked up it was directly underneath the plug hole for the bath.
Mark had to take the side panel off the bath. Then he had to take the waste pipes off and lie next to the bath trying to reach underneath it.
It took a very long time, and was all very messy and leaky and tiresome. He said some rude words and got wet, and there was a lot of clearing up, but in the end it was another perished seal, and he fixed it.
We wondered if we had upset the Gods somehow, that is three floods and a fire, which is quite a lot in a couple of weeks, and suggests that the Gods may not be smiling benignly on us.
I can’t think what we might have done but you never quite know with the Gods.
We lit an apologetic candle just in case, and kept a careful eye on it, also just in case.
I did lots of other things that needed doing, like making mayonnaise and washing the pots and hanging the sheets up to dry.
After that we got on with our Christmas Card manufacturing project until it was time to go to work. We have not nearly finished this yet, we thought that we might have enough time today, but we didn’t in the end.
We are getting there, though.
The first ones are coming through the production line.
We might finish things in time for Christmas after all.
