Saturday

It's 6.30pm and I'm seriously considering going to bed. It's freezing cold in this house - lost most of the circulation in my hands and feet already - feel like they could snap off at any moment. It's this house, north facing - once it gets cold - it stays cold, deep cold.

Managed to warm up earlier by gardening, I'm the proud owner of a pair of half-price secateurs from the Robert Dyas sale and have cut the Photina right back and tried to shape it so that I get a high canopy with plenty of space underneath - and light for other plants - and the bay tree at the back of the garden needed some control. I had a general clean up and chopped everything up very small and added it to my long-term compost bin. There was a lot of greenery so I should get a result. One thing I seem to accidentally be very good at is making compost. I also turned over a lot of the garden, the soil here is a really vile clay base and water just sits on the top and never drains away - hopefully it will be OK for a while. Looks a lot better now - but there is still a skip load of crap to get rid of and I keep digging up rocks and stones. I know most of it is bomb rubble and probably the remains of the coal shed and the bomb shelter - but sometimes I think there is another whole house buried in my garden.

Very surprised at just how much new growth there has been over the winter from the ornamental stuff, I found a photo from 2 years ago and there has been a HUGE spurt in everything. Once the weather improves and I have cleaned up a bit more - I'll do a 'before and after'.

The other most interesting thing I did today was start watching "the Wartime farm' - sequel to 'The Victorian Farm'. I love it. Mid you - I basically live as if it was the 1940's - so why wouldn't I.

Friday I unexpectedly spent with a client trying to write proposal for joint projects - I'm going to be doing the same tomorrow (Sunday) - it's REALLY in my interest to help them get work -it's a 2 way thing.

Completed the paperwork for my PPI claim, that's going back to them in the post. I have no idea whatsoever what will come back. We live in hope.

I made such a big Lasagna on Friday night it will last until Wednesday, at least - I should have exercised more control - I even had it for lunch today.

Today's top tip.

Don't waste your money on one of those stupid little machines to take the fuzz and bobbles off a tired wool jumper - they are crap, I had some success with a barbers clippers but frequently shaved holes in my jumpers - today I managed to save the life of a really nice jumper by brushing off all the stray fibres and bobbles with a dog brush - very successful it was too, delighted with the result.

Dentist on Monday. More ritual humiliation at £20 a time. Whatever I do, it's never enough. I can measure out the last few years of my life in spans between visits to the dentist and the hygienist - currently about 8 times a year all together. They never actually 'do' anything - just tell me how badly I'm doing.

I just went outside to bring small dog in from the garden, I'm quite sure it's warmer out there than in here.