My phone goes for a swim

The Lord be praised we woke and we had water today which is such good news because (a) we have Lou and H coming for breakfast and (b) John has treated me to a cleaner to get the house absolutely spick and span before tomorrow and TD.  Oh how wonderful it is to turn on the tap and the water comes out - I will have clean floors thank goodness.

So Lou Lou and H came for breakfast and brought absolutely everything with them for the four of us to enjoy croissants and coffee before they embarked on a busy day dogging.  How fab that I had nothing to do - they can come anytime!  Actually it is nice when they come because it makes sure that John and I sit down together and eat together and eat outside - we aren't really very good at doing that at breakfast time because we always have a million and one things we want to get done and with TD looming we have at least a million and two.

So breakfast over Lou and H went on their merry way and I went down to the Hotel to show Claire the cleaner how to get to our house.  C the C was very thorough - I clearly am a slut amongst cleaners as she cleaned things I never even thought about.  I was slightly mortified that surfaces still sported the accumulated smut of a winter's woodburner - C the C's cloths are going to need to be industrially cleaned in order for them to be able to be used again.

Anyway spurred into action I decided to clean the conservatory windows - John was going to do them yesterday but couldn't as we had no water and today he had shot off to Polis for a haircut and to pick up some ice.  It crossed my mind when I put the steps outside on the path and one foot was on the doormat that it was not entirely stable but I stupidly didn't move it and so when I overstretched to clean the top corner of the glass I felt the steps wobble and I knew that there was only one place for me to go and that was in the pool.  What I had not realised was that the phone I had got all organised only at the weekend after months of my other one cutting out and breaking down was in my pocket and got a right old soaking.  I have had to dry it out in the sun and put it in a bag of rice - apparently it can take up to a week so I will keep you posted.  Back to the old crappy phone for the time being!! Serves me right as John would say Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

C the C worked like a trojan and I had a beautiful clean house by the time she had finished - almost too clean to want to make it dirty again.  We spent the rest of the day being very careful everywhere! We almost considered locking the cats out - for about a millisecond!

We are getting there now - some last minute garden tidying was done and although the garden is looking far from its best I have the first ever flower on my climbing plant which I want to cover my shed.  No idea what it is Elaine would be able to tell me - it is a Pandoria or Mandevilla or some sort of thing - anyway it is quite pretty whatever it is.

We completed erecting all the bunting we have and set up the brollies we have borrowed and packed fridges full of ice and water and juice and pop.  Checked and double checked our lists - decided to abandon some ideas and add others - sorted photos and wasted a lot of time having a laugh at hairstyles we have sported over the years! Eventually we declared ourselves as ready as we were ever going to be at this late stage - all we need now is for everyone to enjoy themselves tomorrow and it will all have been worthwhile.

I must just thank Sarah Dickinson for sending me out my new very pretty daisy sandals.  She was wearing a pair when she was here on holiday and I admired them and she said that she would send me a pair and she did - they are lovely so thank you so very much for remembering.  

Finally today before collapsing into bed I tried out the disco lightbulb I bought some time ago in Jumbos.  We don't anticipate anyone staying too late tomorrow but I thought that if they did we could could have a bit of a light display in the conservatory!!