Day 3. No heating or hot water. I am coping admirably with the disruption but might lose my patience today. I find the lack of communication very wearing. 3 professional people promising to call me back but didn’t.

The eye of the storm in a home emergency (boiler leaking lots of water) is not the time to find out how utterly shite your home insurance emergency cover is. I’ve got no water, no heating and on my last bit of water in the kettle. The engineer hopes to come by 6pm.

Twitter was really really good for a while wasn’t it? Christ those were the glory days. What larks we had.

Well this all looks fine

Just bawled my head off in the cinema watching Hamnet. Very emotional, if you are fragile - avoid!

📣📣 If you know Paris, I’d love your help for a work thing. If you were to go somewhere in Paris to read a book, where would you suggest? All non touristy ideas gratefully received. Can be a cafe, gallery, library, outdoor space etc etc

New slippers. Who dis?

Heading to my mums to get the update on whatever The Daily Mail is saying. I have to remain sweet lipped as last time I questioned the general thought process I was excommunicated from the inner family for 4 years. For having notions.

The best present I received this year was a handmade book of tokens filled with such delights as ‘one hedge trim’ and ‘one car wash inside and out’. I asked for a ranch hand and it’s the next best thing.

My toxic trait is painting my Xmas wrapping paper the day before I need it. I really liked my weird jammy dodgers.

I am still working in my dressing gown because the minute I decide to have a shower the postman will bring me the two parcels that have been missing for weeks and today decided to send me a tracking update. Here’s what I learned - always always check where deliveries are going to come from.

At the risk of seeming massively attention seeking (u ok hun?) I have a serious question. How does one go about finding a therapist? Having rinsed the official channels I’m not sure at all. It’s time to jump in. But where?

My micro acts of feminism are texting my son in laws to ask about plans for grandkids, babysitting and where is the dustpan and brush type questions. Can’t be bothering the supreme daughters with all that. Next I’ll be referring to football as men’s football. Slowly slowly.

Very sad to learn that Mr Brian Patten has left us. My teenage years were spent mostly alone, moping about and reading The Mersey Sound. I still have my copy.

Endless roasting of allotment tomatoes. I blend them after roasting, pop portions into freezer bags and freeze them flat so I have a tomato sauce library at hand for the dark days ahead. #allotment #preserving #winterprep

Painkillers and limited movement are very draining. I would very much like to dig the garden, walk in a forest or swim in the sea. And then to sleep in the recovery position. #hipreplacement #convalescence

The rest of the allotment treasure. Abundance! #allotment

What a year for blackberries. Our allotments are full of them. I went for my first gentle visit post op, couldn’t resist a pick and am now making jam. #allotment

One week post hip replacement- I walked unaided across the room yesterday. It’s been a savage few days but a mini miracle is unfolding.

I’ve been hand printing lots of wallpaper in the last few weeks. I’ve to get all my orders completed before my hip op.(hip hop op) I grabbed a pic halfway through this 10 metre roll but can’t miss a beat or my block might dry. Blue is v popular currently. #printmaking #handprinted #artiststudio

Guess who’s getting a new titanium hip in a month? Thank you NHS!

I can’t seem to have a conversation with 90% of my friends these days without them showing me something on their phone. It’s okay, you can just tell me. I don’t need proof. It’s part of the addiction. Have you noticed too?

Practised my rusty signwriting skills on some new numbers for my allotment #allotment #signwriting

Just watched Jamie Oliver launch a new plate/dish/cup range and thought… haven’t you got and done enough mate? Give the potters a chance.

And thus it comes to pass. I am on the waiting list for a hip replacement. Hip hop hobbledy bop.

I do not want to look at a screen today, I wish for a pastoral life of keeping chickens and growing vegetables. I have the 4 day weekend blues.

My new allotment neighbours have taken to playing a loud radio when they are working on their plot. It’s really doing my head in as I like listening to the birds and the wind in the trees. I don’t want to upset them. How would you tackle it? I’m wary of being a killjoy.Help! #allotment #predicament

I adore a creative open / closed sign

I was very pleased with my daring purchase of a bright blue new top to continue my Margot Leadbetter impressions. Until I hung it on my stairs where an Ikea blue bag was waiting. Now I know the top must have been designed around this icon of modern life and I don’t know how I feel about it.

My onion farm is underway. Nothing but the best for these babies. Allotment life has resumed. #allotment #growingfood

I wish this was my allotment but I don’t have 7 spare days a week, a rotavator and 40 years of experience. I’ve yet to dig my potato patch. If it was a competition I’d come last.

Coming back into London after 8 weeks in South Africa is a bit upsetting. I felt safer there tbh

Mountain drive this morning. Can’t wait to get home to my allotment tbh

I’m very pleased with my new hand woven fan. It’s just like a sunset and now I want a collection. I’m somewhere hot but didn’t want to go on about it.

Ive only just noticed the massive # in the top right corner of my feed. Am an idiot.

"work family" are you out of your fucking mind

Also just had a pedantic accountant chase me for a £4 invoice from August 2024. And not even wished me happy new year. I’ll take my sweet old time with that request.

Of all the things I had to accomplish this week, placing a lunch order with a New York delicatessen for an event which I won’t be attending has been ridiculously time consuming. With no local phone number. FML. I’ll complain all day but no one else would pay me this much to work from home. ☕️🫖

Not a pleasant first day back at the grind. Too much talking, thinking and typing. I’m out of practice.

Garlic buds peeking through the frozen mud at the allotment like little crocus tips. I’ve planted around 70 cloves this time as it’s a worthy crop. And it was still light here at 4:30pm today. Hope and Spring is nigh.

Elon Musk should have bought Facebook. Much more of a love match.

The leftover cans of cocktails won’t drink themselves #volunteer

Today is the shortest day. I’m going to light candles, clean the house and welcome the light. Happy Solstice! It’s better than Christmas.

I just had my first ever Pernod and Black. Like drinking liquid Black Jacks. Never again. Heartburn.

Why doesn’t the Sky News app give the full names of the men who raped Gisele Pelicot? This is the media channel that loves every morsel of detail. Something striking about that for me.

I’ve never liked Masterchef much with those two self satisfied presenter blokes. Making the brilliant Grace Dent a presenter is a very smart move.

Remember the giant avocado I ate? I decided to hatch the ENORMOUS pip and it grew a root. I’m thrilled. Thrilled! That is not my finger, it’s a pink bar of soap.

I have observed that there is a high proportion of Middle Aged Men among my peers who have a strong conspiracy theory/right wing mentality. I went to a presentation about compost last night that became really odd with a sudden descent into climate change denial and conspiracy theory. #notallmen

See normal sized avocado nestling next to these giants? I ate half of a giant one and I was full for hours. It was a top tier avo, not a bland gimmick like those miniature parsnips/carrots they try and swindle you with at Xmas. Only available in a Zürich Coop supermarket £4 or the Dominion Republic