The Queen and I

We’re about to go off to the south-west of England - Cornwall for a week and Devon for another week - taking my 87-year-old mother with us. It’s been jolly hot in Britain – I’ve just looked it up and it was 83 degrees here yesterday, which is 28.333333333333335 Celsius, according to Google. And let me tell you, we were aware of every one of those 3s. It may not sound hot to you Australians and Midwesterners, but we’re fairskinned Celts and we don’t have air conditioning or houses that are designed for hot weather. We’ve been wilting, especially those of us who’re covered in black fur. No, I don't mean me or even Mr Life (well, maybe him a bit). Cassie and Sirius Cat have been spending the days lolling in the shade, proving the scientific truth that black colours absorb heat and that it’s better to be a white cat if the weather’s hot.

And it’s all very well if you can loll, but some of us have been cutting the grass, ironing and so forth.

Fortunately my mother is one of those people with no fat on them – unlike me – who doesn’t feel the heat.

It’s my birthday today, or rather, my official birthday. My actual birthday is tomorrow (Happy Independence Day when it arrives, American friends) but we have to go to the airport at 7.30 am and get on one of those nasty flying machines, so I decided to celebrate it today instead. Look at my nice cards. I usually take my own bodyweight in books on holiday, but since we’re flying I need to be a bit more circumspect.

Look at my nice presents too. Just what I wanted.

And a couple of DVDs.

I don't know why this is sideways. I didn't take the picture sideways and then I rotated it on Picasa when it came out this way. Still, you get the idea.

Ditto.

I was hoping to celebrate becoming 59 (eek!) by getting the new carpet laid in Daughter 2’s room. The saga of this room is a long and tedious one, beginning with Mr Life putting up a cornice and preparing the room for decorating. If Mr Life has a fault (surely not! you cry) it’s that he doesn’t quite have the stamina common to people in my family, and so this has been a very very very long process – I think it began in January - during which Daughter 2 has been camping in Daughter 1’s vacated bedroom. Eventually, however, the painter came and painted, the carpet layer came and laid – and the carpet was faulty. Today, a fortnight later, the replacement carpet was laid -and it was faulty. Same fault. Much has been the grinding of teeth, the heaving of furniture during heat waves, the filling up of our sitting room with said furniture and the general dissatisfaction with cruel fate.

Still, nil desperandum, it’ll all be the same in 100 years, every cloud has a silver lining (really?) and suchlike clichés. Meanwhile, I’m off to see if Andy Murray can beat Andy Roddick to get to the final of Wimbledon. See you in a fortnight, everyone. Have a good time in my absence and be sure to tell us all about it.