A surfeit of babies and the reluctant writer

Much amusement last night when, as usual, I was doing a million other things whilst cooking dinner. Which resulted in my chips being rather on the flambéd side of flambé. Not for the first time, I apologised to Lord H for my appalling catering skills and, again not for the first time, he insisted that everything was wonderful. Just as he was spinning these usual lies, he speared an errant chip with his fork but it was so … um … crispy that it careered off the plate and bounced against his glass with a distinctly loud crack. Ah well. If the Government ever wanted to find Weapons of Mass Destruction, my advice is to look in Godalming first.

Today, I am drowning in babies. Terrifying thought. Firstly, well done to Ang for the birth of her twin boys, and equally well done on forbearing from sending me a picture thus far! To me, they all look like Winston Churchill, you know. But as long as people get what they want in life (including babies) then I’m happy – happiness is such a rare event these days that it should be celebrated at all costs. And secondly, all good wishes to Steph from the Health Centre who is going on maternity leave and is throwing a lunchtime party to mark the occasion. It’s supposed to have a bathtime theme(!) so I’ll be taking a small selection of bath goodies. But I’m certainly not wearing a towel. God forbid.

I’ve also been attempting to sort out financial links on the student care website and in the brochures, both current and upcoming. Dammit, but why does the Government decide to change all their student websites during the summer, when we’ve already got our new literature poised and ready to go?? I suppose they think we in the educational world have nothing to do then. Ah, would that were true … Not only that, but I’m trying to sort a website query out with the Chaplaincy – and, as I’ve said before, dealing with Men of God does give you a very true-to-life concept of what it’s like to deal with God Himself: you send numerous messages, get no reply for many months and, when a reply does come, it’s not answering the question you asked in the first place. So, as ever, I’m no further forward. Sigh.

Tonight, I’m planning to be at the Guildford Writers meeting but I won’t be taking anything along to discuss. I just don’t have the heart for it really. Besides I’ll be too busy worrying about what’s happening to the blue tit family on the Springwatch webcam. They don’t appear to have the most intelligent of parents; this morning one of them tried to force-feed the chicks with a worm the size of Manhattan and, when the babies couldn’t get it in their tiny beaks, the adult ate the worm itself. Mmm. Later, a blue tit parent turned up in the nest with nothing to offer, looked terribly confused as if it didn’t know what it was supposed to be doing there and then left. Time for the social services to be called in, I feel …

Today’s nice things:

1. The chip disaster
2. Babies but only for people who want them
3. Birds.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers