I started doing this diary in June, it's quite new. If you haven't been following have a look at the Cast of Characters which gives a quick low down on the essential day to day characters who are mentioned here...it will make more sense if you do.

When I woke up I wasn't feeling moribund anymore. I'm going up to Edinburgh next week (it's my mothers birthday and it's a very significant birthday although she might not thank me for spilling it so I will say no further except that she will be exactly twice my age) so despite the pouring rain I thought I'd better go out and do something about it. Monday is the day when I do things that I had really better do.

Anyway the good (well, better) mood was going to be put to the test today, lots of annoying little things which would threaten to send me back to being moribund. The first was going out to the car to find that someone, and I think I know who it is, had left the rear sunroof open since Saturday. It has been raining heavily since then and the back of the car was soaked. I was ranting to Irene about this and at the same time was getting her a stamp out of a cardboard packet. I was using my teeth to tear the stamp off because I'd taken my arm off to drive by then and because I wasn't paying attention I gave myself a nasty poke in the eye with the corner of the packet. I left for town in a wet car with a sore eye and probably wearing an expression on my face that I would have laughed about had I seen it.

Went to the travel agents, booked the tickets to Edinburgh and got talking to her about car hire, she seemed to think she could find me cheaper car hire than I had but I'll be surprised if she can, requiring an adapted car narrows the options somewhat. It was most certainly an egg and chips day but my regular haunt was closed so I was forced to use an alternative venue, where the chips aren't quite as good and the egg gets rather overcooked but they do a nice line in onion rings fried in batter which makes up for it. Went to the bank to chase up the credit card, but I couln't get in to see the manager so I have to go back tomorrow.

I wasn't in a bad mood when I got back home but more tests were to follow. I've got used to the house being quiet(ish) during the day when the kids are at school but school is finished for the summer now so it's not like that any more. Added to this Hansi is ill and Irene seemed to have decided that the best way to entertain her was to play loud music. I decided to go and do a little job that needed doing in the barn. All I had to do was cut a plank of wood and plane it. As I was cutting the plank and noticing that I had found everything I needed and it all worked I noted that there's no such thing as an easy little job. Then I took the plane out. I switched it on, it went whooosh, but nothing else, the blade didn't spin, it did not function as a plane. Irene and Lorna were the last to use it and when I asked them about it they did recall that it had ceased to function although they were not sure why, and they did recall that they had meant to tell me. Hoping that it was simply the drive belt that had snapped I went back to the barn to dissasemble it. Luckily it was the belt and luckily there was a spare in the box, I must have had a moment of lucidity at some point in the past. Lorna had come into the barn by then and having seen me struggling to get the new belt on was trying to lever it on with a screwdriver. It wasn't until she left and I resorted to clamping it upright in the workmate that I managed to get it on. However I did get at least some sense of achievement from having succeeded with one hand where three had failed.

I was just getting round to some boring stuff on the computer when Sianimo called round to see Nelly. Nelly is Sianimo's horse but she lives with us because Sianimo has been living in a city for the last year. So we talked about horses and about ponds and that sort of thing for awhile. Clare came round later with a video of what she had edited so far in the film so that I could do the voiceover again, this time watching the relevant footage as I do it. She arrived just before dinner and I was hungry and wanted to eat first. Just as we finished eating all the lights went out, came back, went out, came back, then went out for good. After a while I made a phone call and found out nothing more than that the power is out in quite a wide area and they are trying to fix it. That's the third time this week. That was three hours ago, I can cope without the lights (we use candles a lot anyway, there were already some lit), I can cope without the telly (haven't got one anyway), without the stereo, without a fridge (although I'd rather it wasn't defrosting on the carpet like that), without lots of it really, but it's very odd not to be able to use the computer all evening. I also don't like not being able to screen phone calls.

So, for the first time in I don't know how long I was in bed before midnight, writing this, by candlelight, on a piece of paper. It seems to have taken up pages and pages, I won't know till I type it up whether this is how much I usually write or whether writing on paper simply makes me more verbose. Anyway it's good practice, when I go to the U.S. I will have to write it all down, I'm not schlepping a laptop around a festival site, even if I did have one. It will be quite a job to type it all out if I write this much every day.

Somewhat later The electric came back on about half an hour ago. I had actually blown out the candles and was telling myself that it was theoretically possible to go to sleep before 2.00am. Well, first of all all the lights were on by then, and I had to get up and turn them off, and I also knew that if I didn't do this now, I'd be tempted to do it in the morning, which is way more expensive, so....I turned the computer on. And it looks like quite a long entry, but it was a bit pathetic in here the last few days so that should make up for it.

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