The week begins...

So another week begins and that means Art.  I am not sure about this picture - it is a challenge and the flower is causing me angst - I am sure it will be ok in the end but there is a lot of huffing and puffing involved!  How difficult can it be to recreate the blue of the hyacinth?  Bloody difficult I can tell you.  The butterfly doesn't look natural and the hyacinth doesn't look that good either - let's hope the glass vase brings it all together but somehow I doubt it.  This is the first picture I have had real doubts about but I am thinking it is good to stretch yourself and I am in no hurry to finish this.

John has taken his mum out this morning whilst I am at art.  Janet has bought some nice albums to take back as gifts and we have chosen photographs to go in them but too many for me to print so the local camera shop on the roundabout has got the honours.

I receive a telephone call from Phillipos whilst I am at art - apparently I have received a parcel which I must be given IMMEDIATELY ON ARRIVAL and he is concerned - I assure him that I will pick it up on my way home.  I have ordered new bras - they have taken just 3 days to come from the UK - they are not immediately required but the sender must have thought so!!

On my return John and his mum are still out so I get on with a bit of housework and then Boo wants a cuddle and I am forced to lie on the bed and have a quiet half an hour or so with him- subsequently he has been involved in a fight with Matriarch Fluffer and is sporting the equivalent of a feline black eye - we will need to keep an eye on it to ensure it doesn't get infected.  He will be fine I am sure but the estate gang warfare is making him uneasy.

John and Janet have gone down to Universal to see his cousin Karen and her partner Dipak who are in the throws of buying a holiday home.   They are very excited and will be back in a month or so to complete the purchase.  Universal is a fairly new man-made area which we are unfamiliar with but is probably the ideal location for a lock up and leave.

I savour my snooze with Boo Boo and then get ready for week two of our belly dancing class - it is exceptionally hot here today which means that the dance studio after 30 little girls have pirouetted and pli'ed will be fairly ripe!

Diana and Rob are out and about with visitors today so she thought it unlikely that she would make belly dancing.  I offer to pick up, and do pick up, her neighbour Salome (Sally) and take her down with me.

We arrive early so spend a bit of time looking around Home Concept which is underneath the dance studio.  It is a lovely shop and I always feel guilty about going in and having a mooch and then not actually buying anything.  A lot of their stuff can be bought cheaper (and therefore of inferior quality) from Jumbos but then if it is just 'stuff' the quality isn't important.  Sally loves this shop and I have to drag her out so that we are not late for swirling our satellite by which she means cellulite!  Sally is forgiven - her native tongue is Lebanese!

Outside we are met by Luscious Lynda who is sporting a t-shirt that I covet.  Lynda loves life and doesn't apologise for it.  She will be joining us for the next village clean and is grateful that today I take a photograph of her front rather then her backside which is all I seem to get when we are litter picking.

Belly Dancing is hard and it is hot but I feel fabulous afterwards - tomorrow will be a different story.  Even though we still have plenty of visitors left to come it feels like we are gradually returning to some sort of normal routine.

John and Janet are home when I return.  John contemplates watching a movie which he has seen recommended on the internet but when we find it and settle down this one should have had a NOTWWTP (not one to watch with the parents) certificate!

Talk about stand-easy productions.  We settle for the Great British Bake-off instead which has some little innuendo but that I can cope with - somehow I cannot imagine Pru Leith uttering a four letter word that starts with a 'c' not even if her souffle sinks!