Free!

Yippee! I am free of work until the 5th of January – at that point I come back to earth with a bump in the shape of a meeting in Leeds. But right now I can glory in having time off.

I'm off to the Aged P's for Christmas tomorrow, which I'm sort of looking forward to. I mean, it could be a lot worse, my brother has agreed to cook the Christmas dinner, a load of my mind. On the other hand, he insists on cooking everything from scratch; I never did that. Aunt Bessie and her range of yummy and easily-coped-with frozen comestibles is my friend. I am not at home to a paring knife.

I am still glorying in having someone who comes in and cleans, even if she did stand on my toilet seat and break it. There is a serious joy in vacuum cleaned carpets that you didn't do yourself. It has to be said also that the cleaner is much better at cleaning than I am – there are part of the flat which are now clean and which I barely knew existed. Behind the lavatory, for example. I vaguely knew there was a behind to the lavatory but I have ignored that fact since I moved in to the flat. In 1994. Other nothing-to-do-with-me-squire places are inside the oven and inside the microwave.