Thursday

Morning, all.  Up at stupid o'clock (two hours ago) so today is going to be a long day.  I might even go back to bed in a little while, set the alarm and see if I can catch some shut-eye.

I know why.  The next cold has landed.  It is ridiculous - while teaching, together with many colleagues, I would go down with 'something' at the end of each half term.  Now I am a lady of retired leisure I don't think my body has caught up with reality yet.

Anyway, I hope I can catch some more sleep shortly.

Upstairs is now Christmas ready, more or less.  For the first time in ever I don't have to move clutter from the yellow room to my room while guests stay and then sleep in mess until I get round to moving it all back.  The bed in the yellow room is all made up for Alex on Sunday night and then I will remake it for John over Christmas.  In the blue room, one bed is made up for Beth on Sunday and the other is ready for Christmas.
There are a few bits and bobs that need moving into the garage but not many.  There are a couple of bags of rubbish that will have to hang around until after the collection today as my bin is currently full.
There's even some room for the sewing machines so they are not cluttering up the downstairs space over Christmas.

Downstairs also needs a bit of a declutter but nothing too much; most of the mess is superficial and will take very little time to sort.  Ditto for the kitchen.  It should all be nice and spick and span by the time the cleaners come for the pre-Christmas clean next week - an annual treat to myself.

It feels great!

Yesterday afternoon I went to Morrisons and spent a very happy hour watching and listening to the school choir.  Lots of coins were dropped into the buckets and there were some very appreciative comments from the shoppers.  I was so proud of them.

After tuition (second to last of this year - the last one is today), I set to and made some more fudge.  When I say 'set to', I mean loading Thermione and leaving her to work her magic for about 20 mins.  I'll make some more this morning and then see if I have enough for gift.

I'm also off into school this morning to help Y3 with their DT project.  Pasta salads, I gather, so I had better take an apron with me!

Then, normally, it's Y2 in the afternoon but my computer has decided to play silly devils and won't start so it is possible that the wonderfully brilliant Eddie can come round this afternoon to take a look and, fingers crossed, sort it out for me.
I am very glad that, when I lost access to my school laptop, I bought another laptop because that's what I am now using.

Later on I will be doing my last tuition session of this year.  Everything is planned, which is good.

Today's music is back to traditional.  It's the wonderful Willcocks version of 'Away in a Manger' sung by the choir of Kings College, Cambridge.  It's a wallow in nostalgia for me!

Now I have to decide - do I get going with some work or do I go back to bed?  Watch this space.