Popes, Prayer and paint

Life News:

A hell of a lot of painting has gone on this week - we've painted the bathroom door and skirting board, the hall cupboard, the spare room door & cupboard, some of the hall skirting boards and two sets of the three wooden frames that are a feature of our hallway. It all lightens it up nicely, which is hugely pleasing - if we'd known it would look so good, we've have done it much earlier, but it certainly should make it more desirable at the very least. And it's a lesson to us for our next home - paint everything light colours and watch the space increase!

Not only that but I've tidied the living room and spare rooms so they look much bigger - or the spare room would if we hadn't today moved everything around in order to paint, but it will do when it's back in its right place again! I've also recycled six bags of books last week and have created another nine bags of books today to take to the recycling point this week. We do have a lot of books - K did an estimate a while back and made it 1200, but it's 15 bags less now! We've also chucked away a load of old videos and tapes that we never watch/listen to - Lord only knows why we were keeping them. Laziness probably.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon behind the Student Care stand at the University Open Day - not as hectic as the last time which was truly horrible, but I wasn't feeling that well really, so I kept smiling inanely and hoping that people believed whatever it was I was saying. Most seemed to.

Oh, and Marian and I played an outrageously bad game of golf on Friday - we were so bad we became utterly hysterical at one point and couldn't stop laughing. Thank goodness no-one was behind us. Marian managed to get both her tee shots on the 6th hole into the pond, which is at least consistent, and I managed to hit not one, not two, but three trees on the 8th, two of them with the same shot. Lordy, but I'm good, um not. Thankfully, Marian and her husband came round for dinner on Friday night (pre-painting extravaganza) so we were able to drown our sorrows in good measure.

Finally, rumour has it that some elderly Catholic gent has come over to the UK for the weekend, Gawd bless 'im. I hope he enjoys his brief stay, though I do think the least we could do is give him a car he could actually get in and out of successfully. He is 83, after all, and Jaguar's don't really allow for much leeway ... Mind you, K reminded me that he must have been greatly chuffed indeed during his private audience with the Queen and Prince Philip - to be at last the youngest person in the room must have fulfilled a lifetime's ambition for him, hurrah!

Book News:

I've finished the edits for The Prayer Seeker, so I now feel happier with that. Now all I have to do (ho hum) is find someone who might want it. Suggest no-one holds their breath though! And I'm pleased to say that Tommy's Blind Date is now available at All Romance Ebooks and, not to be outdone, The Delaneys and Me popped briefly back into the Amazon Charts at No 78 though not for long.

This week's meditation is:

Meditation 429
If you’re in a desert
where ravens bring you food
and God provides the water

sneak away quickly
as your odds for happiness
probably just got shorter.


The Sunday haiku is:

A sparkle of birds
wheels and dances in the sky.
Sunlight on water.

Anne Brooke