Saturday

Good morning, everyone.  It has just turned five of the morning and I know from experience that I most likely not get back to sleep again so I'm sitting up in bed, laptop on knee, for an hour or so of social media-ing.  It's chilly because I have the windows on tilt but not bad enough to make the effort to get up and close them.

Just think - in seven days I will be sitting in bed in the holiday cottage, laptop on knee, coffee to hand, enjoying the unfamiliarity of what looks like a very attractive and comfortable little cottage. Planning is well and truly on the way.  I have bought one of those plastic folders with inserts and I shall be devoting each insert to a different thing I want to do.  The Chatsworth exhibition - no problem.  Pre-booked evidence will be there but no map as the cottage is right on the doorstep of the estate.  Haddon Hall - the map is already there with a print out of info about the place.

On holidays, my Kindle is a very useful piece of equipment indeed.  One of the items on my Things To Do list is to load her up with reading material.  Lots of books for very little weight.  I won't have the normal distractions so expect that I will have plenty of time to read, perhaps with glass of wine to hand and music in the background.

Oh, it will be fun!

I got round to half sorting out the problem with my laptop.  It was all my own fault.  I spilt a glass of water over the keyboard part and then, stupidly, pressed some of the keys rather than just leave it to dry, so now, of course, those keys don't work.  I don't think there's anything one can do about that so, in the meanwhile, I have a separate keyboard that is resting on the connected one and it is working fine.  My main PC needs another keyboard anyway so, while I was buying it, I decided to get two of them as it was very reasonably priced and without too many bells and whistles (not needed) and here we are!  At some point I will investigate having the connected keyboard replaced but at the moment I need it too much and too often to hand it over to a shop for weeks.

I've been looking for lamb recipes.  Leg of lamb is so, so expensive that I haven't bought it for years but I have a good excuse (guests) so indulged.  I want to do it slow roasted because I love it that way and it is as I thought.  Rub it over with some herbs/spices, slam it in, covered, and leave it apart from basting for hours and hours.  I can manage that.  With roasties, runner beans and courgettes, it should make a very acceptable meal.  I might even stretch to a fruit crumble for dessert, that would be nice.

Well, it is first-coffee time so I will stir myself, potter downstairs and get the kettle on.  What a self indulgent life I live at times.  It's great!