B & B, that's me!

Well, I'm sitting here at 10.15pm, having had a rather exciting evening. I was expecting a new Foreign Student, and she duly arrived from Genoa at about 5pm; a very pleasant young woman, 23, nice and polite. She came bearing gifts from Italy in the form of food, mostly: two packs of genuine Genovese pasta, some fresh pesto (which tastes divine) and a pack of "pandolce", which I've never eaten before, but which looks dericious:-) It's for sure that we won't go hungry.

Anyway, there we were at 7.30pm, sitting eating a simple supper (salmon fishcakes, new potatoes and lots of vegetables, followed by gorgeous little chocolate pots) when the phone rang and it was one of my BBFs who was giggling away, and asked me if my double room was occupied. I had to admit not - though it is now spotlessly clean and ready for visitors - and she asked if I would take two nice people she had just met, Belgian cyclists, who were looking (rather desperately) for a place for the night! Well, what could I say but "Why not?", and before I knew it I was making up the bed, finding towels etc and welcoming these two people in. What larks! Brighton is that sort of place though. I have to admit that they were taking a chance in hoping to find a decent B & B on a Friday night, in Summer, in Brighton, and without prior booking. Luckily they found first Mary and then me - it could have been very different. So here I am with a house full for the night, ready to be up with the lark to make breakfast for three, and looking forward to having a bit of extra cash for the weekend. Nice surprise.

Good Intentions all round.

I have a feeling that I've just passed my third Blogging anniversary - how time flies. Though I must admit that my blogging record has been abysmal so far this year. Generally, since I bought my Laptop, I don't use the computer nearly so much - which is a bit of a mystery really. I thought that I would use it more because of the ease and convenience of having the laptop, as it were, on my lap! This is not how it has turned out - I used to look forward to sitting down at my desk in front of the computer screen and writing, but I just don't have the same feeling any more. Don't know why. Anyway, I have fallen short in many other areas too - I'm not writing at all, except for the occasional piece of copywriting (which doesn't really count as creative writing) and my E-Bay activities have also ground to a complete halt. Of course I have had Daughter and Grandson here for just over 6 months, and didn't really have space and time to myself in the same way. So let's hope I get back to more productive times again soon. Whatever hapens, I have to stop making excuses!

The other thing I must do is spend some time catching up with all my Blogging friends. Just like "real" friends, they need and deserve my time and attention, and I've been a very dilaltory and absent "virtual" friend for the last six months I know. Aplologies to all, and I promise to pay visits, make comments and generally behave better.

My poor garden is "drizabone" and in desperate need of a good shower of rain; I got the new curly hose out to water it this evening (the outside pipe and tap has been fixed courtesy of my lovely downstairs neighbour's lovely friend) and had a naughty ten minutes spraying the plants and topping up the pond. Actually I'm not sure if we do have a hosepipe ban here at the moment - but if we do, enough people saw me this evening, so I may be reported.

Weather permitting, I'm off to the Shoreham Flyover Car Boot Sale in the morning, picking up my BBF on the way, and I think we're meeting up with Daughter and Grandson there for a bit of mutual bargain-hunting, followed by a cup of tea and a bacon sarnie sitting in the sun. "Perfick", as Pop Larkin would say.

Time Out..

House to myself. A pile of washing and ironing, beds to change and an eerie peace.
Daughter and Grandson have moved out - gone to share a house in Hanover with an old school friend of hers who is training to be a Barrister. Not that that fact is particularly material. The most important thing is that they are old school friends from Cambridge days and will hopefully get on well together.

At least they aren't far away - about ten minutes driving if the traffic's reasonable, and since I'm looking after Grandson three days a week in the holidays, that's perfectly do-able. Actually it's really nice because I get plenty of time to do my own stuff and still keep up with him and Daughter, without us being in each other's pockets.

To backtrack a bit, Grandson had a really good Summer Term at school; he acted in his class play and concert with great gusto (he knew everyone else's lines and songs as well as his own), and it was a delight to see his shining face onstage - he enjoyed performing so much. He has worked very hard too - he learned to read and his writing and spelling have improved hugely. And to cap it all, he had a really impressive school report and lovely comments from his Teachers. He ran in the races on School Sports Day (he got a first, a second and a fourth),after which we had a picnic on the field in glorious sunshine. So a good time was had by all. And Daughter and I took him out for dinner to celebrate his end of term. Lovely - and now we're in the eight weeks holiday!!

Great Summer weather so far - we've had picnics on the beach and we've made a kite to fly down on the Lawns. I'm still doing regular gardening days for my Therapist and some copywriting for the local Estate Agents, plus improving my Brighton suntan. And I'm planning a trip up to London soon for the Summer Exhibition and a whizz round on the London Eye (I believe it's called a flight, which is quite scary).

Time for bed - I'm pleased to have caught up a bit. Night,night, sleep tight and don't let the bed-bugs bite...