*mirth*

Having gone to bed ridiculously early last night, I've been awake since 5am and just checked the weather forecast for my lunchtime freecycle mod meeting (cloudy). Occurred to me to check what it's like in Cyprus where Mark has sloped off for the week, telling me it would be 30 degrees and that he's likely to come back lobstered and lumpy. HAH! The BBC forecast says it's already raining and going to be cats and dogs-ing till the day he comes back. *wide-eyed innocence*

Missed the LAM yesterday due to breakfast not being over till after lunchtime, but have had a lovely lazy couple of days with me and Sarah watching Tony work damned hard on the garden interspersed with delayed full breakfasts and the hugest joint of gorgeous beef for dinner on Saturday. I'm sure I will, eventually, wrestle the new electric oven in to submission, but having had bacon crisped to disintegration as a first course by trying to do it in the oven, I went back to the old-fashioned multiple frying pans yesterday and probably upped our cholestrol levels by a significant amount. Lovely it was.

I splurged on buying some proper gardening tools, which did seem remarkably cheap considering, and which managed not to break or bend digging over the garden. It's all level now, the mammoth mutant dandelions have been evicted, the elder forest lopped and chopped back to unreasonably large stumps which have already started sprouting new bits, and it's possible to walk along the path at the side of the house for the first time in years. Well done, that man!

Work is as up-to-date as it's going to get (I'm ignoring the fact that I have only three days this week to draft and finalise the next hyuge document) and I'm really looking forward to a weekend here with the Givaudan crew next weekend

*HOT* news, if belated. Mark insulted the MD at the end of an interview last week, and they called him the next day to offer him the job. Not sure if there is a connection, but at least they've established a rapport. Unspeakably delighted for him.

The best news, of course, is that I have today off. P is winging or has wung her way back from Philly now and I'm hoping I didn't do anything silly like leaving her gas on; coming home to a gassed Gizmo might put a bit of a dent in our friendship... I nearly had to leave him locked out when he decided to play hard to get but I think he was just making a point.

This last week has been thoroughly social, popped in to see Lora as I was working in Southend on Tuesday, dinner with P on Wednesday, Sarah and Tony from Friday and meeting Barbara L and a couple of others for lunch today. Part of the work business is resource planning and I've pencilled myself in for 4 day weeks from July with a couple of complete weeks for hols; it will drive my managers insane but if I book them now, for after this project, no-one will argue and they'll be much less than impressed with my taking most Mondays off *more mirth!*

All change from tomorrow no doubt, but today I'm happy, not least because I've finally got 'Georgia On My mind' OFF my mind having gone to sleep, and woken up with it in mu head for the previous two days.