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I was meant to be podcasting today, this time for a book club, but the guest has gone down with Covid, so we have had to postpone. Instead I used the time to try and get our home and our lives into some kind of order.
I had managed to book both a gardener and a cleaner to come to the house to help us with our busy, messy lives. It was money well spent. Though we’ve been trying to keep on top of the housework (with varying success), our small garden has got out of hand and climbing plants have actually managed to block a window or two. Though I’ve struggled to find a reliable gardener in the past, the guy I found seems to be pretty good and got stuck into the work. We have a little bit of grass, plus a tiny amount of paving and decking that needs to be cleaned and some hedge round the front. It should tell you how bad things had got that he will have to come back again to finish and he was really working hard. The half he has done is really excellent though. Gardening has never really appealed to me, so I am delighted that he seems happy to come back every fortnight or so to help keep on top of things.
We’d done a lot of tidying of the house as Ernie had a play date yesterday and we didn’t want the other mums to find out the kind of filth we live in, but even so it was great to get everything professionally cleaned. For a day or two we will be able to pretend that we are not scum. We are scum, but it’s great to pretend.
I think I am almost over the bug/bugs that have blighted my life for the last month. For the first Tuesday night in ages I didn’t feel exhausted (admittedly I hadn’t done RHLSTPs last night which might be part of it) and was relatively fresh for Me1 vs Me2 snooker, which has turned into a bit of a football latest scores service. But only at just after 8pm when most games have only just started. It was a thrilling frame from the first shot to the last and it’s what Self-Playing snooker is all about.
You can watch it here or
listen here.
And excitingly/terrifyingly my editor has returned the first draft of my book with her notes. The good news is that she thinks it’s really good (so do I) and the really good news is that all her notes are 100% correct about how to improve it. There were a few bits that I knew weren’t quite ready when I handed it in and she has correctly identified all of them. Let’s say it was a test of her skills! I am hoping I can work through everything in a couple of days (we have some help with the kids on Wednesday and Thursday so I have a shot at it), but by Monday might be more realistic. I want it to be as good as possible.
And slightly frustrating news that the fourth series of Relativity is not going to be going out until September - we were told late Spring initially. As it’s so rooted in lockdown I think that this delay might make it feel a bit less relevant, but hopefully the story lines are strong enough to overcome this. This is why I moved into podcasts though. If this had come out in 2021 when I was writing it then I think it would have felt super timely. It’s still the best series so far. I suspect it will be the last, but I am at peace with that. It’s so hard to write.
