Monday April 1st - It's no joke - no phone or internet...

Minnie Mou returned sometime during the night and appeared at the bottom of our bed looking like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth – she lies there until she decides she is hungry and then she sits on John’s chest peering at him willing him to wake up and sending out a pathetic little mew.  In desperation she will jump on me knowing that of the two I am the most likely to relent and feed her (she is still on a diet of raw liver and John hates cutting it up or handling it).  If she gets no joy she jumps up onto the dressing table and malevolently tips my toiletries over the side until she gets a reaction.

John was off to badders at mid-day and I was foregoing my Monday Art to use the lovely birthday present which Crafty Jane and Wheelie Helen had given me (more of that later).  Before setting off to Polis we decided to pot up the strawberry plants.  I did warn John that the hanging baskets were a bit useless and when he watered them and watched the water and the soil making a bid for freedom had to agree.  It was a very strange day today – overcast but very warm and we could only see down to the road at the end of the field – the skies were yellow and full of sand.  A Coptic storm from the Sahara we were thinking.

 

Jane and Helen had bought me a facial in a salon in Polis which is run by Kate Fessas.  She is obviously very popular and, as she works part time, gets booked up three or four weeks in advance so I had made my appointment when the Smeaton’s and Springates were off ski-ing.  Helen was the appointment directly before me and I passed her in Polis Square on my way in.

The salon is stylish and calming – Kate obviously has an eye for good interior design and it is also a bit of a tardis – looking quite small from the outside but there is a lovely treatment room to the back.  I used to treat myself regularly to a facial when I was working.  I have never been blessed with nice skin having suffered with acne from about the age of 13 – my skin is greasy and prone to spots even now but as the strapline on Kate’s brochure says “it is never too late to look good” (even you Jill Wiseman whose beauty regime is worse than useless).

Kate is a very vivacious character – married with three children (would you believe) she changed her career some time ago when her husband’s job moved to Aberdeen.  I spent a fantastic hour in her tender care relaxing whilst she deep cleansed my face, reshaped my eyebrows and even managed to persuade me to have some reflexology on my feet and I NEVER have anyone touch my feet.  It was so lovely that I am going to try and make sure I can afford to pay her a visit at least every six weeks so thank you Jane and Helen for the lovely birthday gift – maybe Kate’s strapline is right – maybe it is never too late to look good.

As I pulled in to the bowling alley to pick John up from Badminton this was the temperature in the car which at that time had not been sitting in the sun and had cooled down a degree or two from being parked up in the Square.  It was a really really oppressive afternoon – I pity anyone who suffers from Asthma as today was going to be a killer.

Unbelievably at around dusk the weather really changed and we were suddenly treated to heavy rolling mists and wind – within a few minutes you could see no further than the new road and it ressembled the middle of winter.  The drop in temperature was dramatic and once again we were back to single figures.  It’s nigh on impossible to work out what to wear when it is like this.

It had been yet another bank holiday today – the third Monday in a row – this time the island celebrates its independence from the British.  We discovered that our home phone and our internet were no longer functioning and on reporting the fault were told it could be two to three working days before it is fixed.  I feel like my right arm has been cut off.