happy holidays

dear readers, here you can see me enjoying the sea air, standing astride a musselly groyne. this picture is all the more notable because it is taken somewhere that herself has been averse to visiting for some time due to her nerves. regular readers will remember that herself was signed off work some time ago with precarious trauma. one symptom of this was a thing called panic attacks when she went to the city where she had worked. now to most of us a bit of panic is no bad thing in terms of keeping us on our toes, but when it stops you breathing and feels like a heart attack it has to be taken seriously.

since herself was signed off work 18 months ago she has only made a handful of visits to this scary place. but on monday himself had a hospital appointment there. the logistics of the peeps' morning, what with having a third attempt at getting a towbar fitted to the car (successful this time!) and therefore having to drop arthur the audi in the city of dread, the only option was for herself to take himself to the hospital in himself's car and then spend an hour or so in the delightful company of young dave and i waiting for him to finish.

after himself had been delivered we set off for the beach. young dave looked a little forlorn. unlike our local beach, which is full of dead things to munch (it is now known as the 'beach of death' after an astute observation by mrs window) , this city beach had nothing on it but stones. not a rotting carcass to be found. young dave had to make do with a forlorn balloon, no doubt left by revellers from the night before. this proved a lot of fun until young dave sank his teeth into it. with a loud pop it vanished into a shadow of its former self. young dave wolfed it down before herself could grab him.

other news this week - herself has constructed an awning for the back garden. one of the side effects of the drugs that himself has to take to keep superkidny happy is that he now faces a very much increased risk of skin cancer and therefore must stay out of the sun. not content with a collection of parasols herself decided an awning was a must. she put an advert on freecycle, a place where things are free, asking for a sail. a lovely man got in touch saying he had two sails she could have. so yesterday i spent an interesting day watching herself building the awning.

she borrowed a hammer drill from mr next door, who has a wealth of interesting tools. there followed some hideous screeching noises while she drilled holes for a pole to hold one end of the awning. then the other end was sorted. after final measurements the sewing machine came out in order to tidy up the edges. and finally it was done. himself came out to admire it. at this point a high wind blew up, flapping the sail alarmingly. herself said that we wouldn't normally be using it on such a windy day so himself was not to worry.

i hope she is right. we live very near to a railway. it would not be good if the awning blew across the windscreen of a passing train...