Thank you

Thanks so much everyone for your kind words on my last post. It's been ages, for which I can only blame the extremely long summer holiday ( nine weeks for my daughter's nursery! Aggh!) and a general reluctance to write much after Sarah died. And then I had a further shock when another old friend died suddenly in July from a rare strain of pneumonia. He leaves a wife and a huge number of devastated family members, friends and former students. I'd hoped I wouldn't be going to another funeral for a young person for a long time, but I'll be going to his memorial service in October. It really makes you value life and want to make the most of it.

On a happier note we have been to the south of France, Wales and Dorset and had a great time at the Larmer Tree festival in July. I hope you've all had good summers too.

We have had a problem with the electricity in the Worst House for several weeks now - every time we switch something on the lights flicker and the electricity meter starts crackling and sparking ominously. I couldn't get anyone out in time to sort it before we went away, so we finally have an electrician coming out tomorrow. I haven't dared to use the oven since we got back from France, so we're back to the repertoire I perfected during the worst days of the worst house ( although to be fair I now have a splendid 5 burner gas hob rather than a half-melted bedsit-style baby belling!)

It's all a bit odd - we had the house rewired as part of the refurb in 2007-8, and the only change since then is the new shower room. There is a peculiar section upstairs which has not been rewired - my son's room, half the landing, and the sockets in our room. Don't ask me why, but they were missed off the original spec and we didn't notice, partly because we had considerable other pressing concerns. I'm hoping they're not the cause, as I can't face any more upheaval at the moment! Particularly not in my lovely new bedroom, which I am enjoying more and more.

We have Dawid coming back in next week to replace, finally, the glass panel in the kitchen roof which cracked soon after installation in early 2008. As our original builder declared himself bankrupt ( although he is in business now under a new name), it's been languishing on the defects list ever since!