Another satisfying weekend.... First, the bathroom. We've bought paint for it - it's a metallic sparkly very dark blue, sort of disco infinity, yeah baby..... Also purchased a new light and Andrew spent today manfully fitting it, so the bathroom now has lots of sparkly halogen loveliness. Plumber David who is lovely will be returning later in the week to pick up his thermos which he left behind and to complete the last little bit of tiling, then Andrew will be painting, and then it will be virtually complete.. So exciting to see it come together.

Succumbed to the lure of the garden centre today and returned home with a quince (Geisha Girl, a lovely delicate, creamy peach colour blossom) and a hamamelis - yellow, although they also had some beautiful rust colour ones which tempted me sorely. Also bought some more granules for combating the ever present cat crap menace - I loathe them. Bulbs are now poking through most excitingly with lots of crocus in bud, and some hyacinth and narcissus not far behind. Apart from last week briefly, it has been wet and mild rather than cold so bulbs developing well. Tomorrow should be an interesting day in work.

I can't believe it's already Friday and so much to write about. Firstly, the Glamorgan sausage controversy. This is a Welsh delicacy - a meatless sausage, usually made with cheese, breadcrumbs and sometimes chopped leeks, and very delicious it is too. Before Christmas, my friend Leila (down in deepest Devon) found some on sale in her local Sainsburys and sampled them, and called to say how much she had enjoyed them. This then developed so that when I was out and about and saw one, for instance at the farmers market, I would text to report a sighting. Yes I know, little things etc..... Anyway, during a recent conversation on this subject (when we weren't solving the Middle East peace crisis, or lamenting the state of the modern novel) we agreed that actually a Glamorgan sausage has a really naughty ring about it, just begging to be a synonym for a deviant sexual practice. A Cumberland Sausage has no such ring, somehow it sounds worthy and hearty and rather dull, but a GS..... Anyway, I've asked several colleagues to put their thinking caps on. This led to some very interesting and surprising revelations and suggestions, most of which so far have revolved around knee tremblers in the wilder reaches of Merthyr.... however, I think the search is still on. So far, the suggestions are sex with two vegetarians, or watching two vegetarians having sex. I welcome any further thoughts....

Today is Leila's birthday - hurrah!! Go Leila..... Sounds like she had a really lovely day getting on the right side of a Chocolate temptation, admiring a waiter's cute butt, and wanting to ravage the flower delivery man...... Excellent.

Work is interesting. We are continuing to work on the new job descriptions and person specifications for the management restructure. New supervisory posts are being created for flytipping and hazardous waste, graffiti and flyposting, public conveniences, an asst to our transport manager, two senior supervisors, a new service support officer, a service development officer, and two new rejigged management positions. So exciting, working on these and seeing the ideas take shape and become reality. With our Enforcement unit, we are setting out for taking on skip permits,dog fouling, graffiti, highway permits for tables and chairs, abandoned vehicles, trolleys (S 99) and new notices under S 33, 34, 46 and 47 - can't wait! The new CNEA is what a colleague describes as a helicopter gunship for us - I like his turn of phrase. Personally, I love the idea of my own submarine, but really I'd like a tank with a RPG on the front to attack flytippers, caravans, cars with sickly baby on board stickers and men who drive wearing hats...

The bathroom now looks so gorgeous - I expect an orderly queue to form of admirers at the front door. The shower curtain is perfect for it - tomorrow we go to buy the paint for the finishing touches (and then I can visit a towel emporium, ha ha ha ha.... )

The plumbers are here! Contrary to popular urban legend, they are delightful, arrived exactly on time, appear neat and professional and brought their own stuff for making tea and coffee. Lead plumber even entered a brief but knowledgeable discussion of London theatre and has recommended a restaurant to us; I suspect he is a friend of Dorothy. So the transformation is under way. Very exciting. I have spent the day quietly cross stitching out of the way downstairs - it has been a real treat.The sampler is progressing well. Young master is in London today, returning later tonight and working from home tomorrow so it will be his turn to enjoy their company.

An enjoyable weekend which was quite quiet. We went out for a meal on Saturday night. When the taxi picked us up, he remembered us from previous forays down the Bay, which was nice. Went to Woods Brasserie, our first time there. Lots of young French staff with outrageous accents. Do they practice them? Is it some Inspector Clouseau style conspiracy? Do they stand in the back room together practising? Delicious food and an impressive wine list. I would recommend and would certainly go back there again. After the meal we went for a romantic evening stroll which was lovely but very, very cold so we toddled home and watched a DVD.

Inspecting the garden on Sunday, we now have three crocus flowers, and lots more in bud- wow!! Very happy and very impressed. Lots of other interesting spikes emerging - I love watching them grown and turn into flowers. On a less exciting note, did a huge pile of ironing. Ho hum.

Floods, gales and excitement with plumbers. Yesterday, Persimmon finally sent two men round to repair/replace the broken shower tray in the ensuite bathroom. I was downstairs happily cross stitching a new sampler but I don't think they realised how clearly their voices carried as the bathroom is directly above the living room. They were having a very detailed discussion over the pros and cons of having a mistress, the practical issues and how to manage when found out. It had a kind of trainwrecky fascination as apart from anything else I didn't realise men had such intimate discussions, instead thinking they tended to mask their feelings by coded discussions about manly things like sprockets, flanges and drill bits. So if you are married to a plumber or similar tradesman, their long and irregular hours and frequent travels apparently provide an ideal cover for naughty goings on. The one who was unmasked didn't seem to regret the affair per se, more that he then had to put in a considerable amount of spadework with his wife, including several holidays in Tenerife and a more than usually flexible approach to shopping.

On a more serious note, the weather yesterday was bad, and during the night got steadily worse. The wind was so loud it woke me at night and by this morning the gales were atrocious along with the most appallingly heavy rain. Driving to work was utterly miserable as several roads were badly flooded with fountain style drains and idiots who were going too fast through deep bits and then creating bow waves. Arriving at the car park, by the top near the landfill, I attempted to use the big brolly we keep in the back of the car, but that was a complete waste of time as I nearly impersonated Mary Poppins and floated off over the tip. By the time I got down to the office, I was drenched and looked as though I had literally just stepped out of the shower.

Went to County Hall later for our monthly finance meeting which as usual was interesting - I am always so impressed by our Finance team - they are so constructive and positive, although Phil (the boss) also creates a very positive environment. Fortunately, our DSU finance is heading in the right direction, although it is apparent there are problems elsewhere in some of the others that may cause difficulties in resolution.

Our BIM meeting was cancelled this afternoon, so I returned to the depot, with less rain this time and ploughed through a big stack of correspondence for approval/signing off. Just had one about a persistent problem where a business on an industrial estate is cheesed off because prostitutes and clients use the vicinity at night and leave a range of detritus behind, often including throwing their used condoms into the business premises, to await the staff when they arrive the next morning. I strongly suspect the police will be unwilling to move the street prostitutes on in to a residential area so I am not optimistic about an early settlement of this issue. He was also complaining about the smell of the waterworks - fortunately this is not in my remit.

Also had another phone call this afternoon to say that it looks as though two of our recent four funding applications may be successful . This is great news and I am very happy. If so, this will be worth about £100,000 for the two projects (£50K each). I will write more on these once it is confirmed.

Came home the long way so as to avoid the flooded roads and have spent a contented evening in cross stitching, card making, and of course blogging..... Over the weekend we will be collecting our new tiles and on Monday the tradesmen arrive to start work on the main bathroom. It is expected to take around four days of work. I am so excited about this. I will post some photos of the before, during and after.

I have succumbed to the lure of the tile shop. On Saturday we purchased a new shower for the main bathroom and looked at tiles. The young master has egged me on (not that I needed much egging once I got into my stride) and we have selected and ordered a beautiful turquoise/aqua mosaic tile that we'll use. My wise friend Leila has also pointed out that this will be an ideal towel purchasing opportunity. Quite right too. In the evening, we went to a colleague's surprise 50th birthday party. Had a good time and it was nice to see him enjoy himself so much, surrounded by his family, friends and colleagues. I attach a photo - it was also memorable for him wearing a tie - not something he does ordinarily.

Sunday was very relaxed - old school friends Robin (without her husband who was poorly) and Christopher (without his partner, who was working) came over for lunch. We did a peasant casserole with Heaven and Earth mash, followed by date and toffee pudding - successful and delicious. A really enjoyable day, discussing gardening and putting the world to rights over a glass of red wine - can there be anything more pleasant on a cold Sunday afternoon?

Work is now a swirling morass of rumour and counter rumour. As my boss is now leaving, the Operational Managers have been asked to put their heads together and re-organise - as is always the case, there is now a healthy mix of gossip, innuendo, fact and downright fantasy. I am enjoying the process, as the rumours are very entertaining. I will write further on this as matters become clearer.

An interesting couple of days. Yesterday evening I went to a very interesting talk in the Old Library in the city centre on Brunel's impact on the South Wales landscape. I parked in our city centre depot and walked round with the afternoon shift supervisor, while being impressed and amazed by the speed at which large bits of the city centre are disappearing in preparation for our new shopping centre. It was a good opportunity to catch up with all the news from the depot. As we walked past the old Tabernacle chapel, there was a smartly dressed man in a mac hanging around looking furtive. Just as we passed he sidled up to the litter bin and slipped in a brown paper package. On leaving me, my colleague was rightly concerned and on inspection it proved to be a fine collection of porn!

The talk was excellent - to my surprise, half the Council seemed to be there. On taking a seat, my colleague A joined me (the champion raspberry tart maker) along with a friend of his from our IT dept. After the talk, then bumped into a colleague from Parks who was there with his dad, which was nice. Strolled back to the depot by which time the night shift had arrived and it was good to stay a while and have a chat and catch up with the news. I ended up staying there till around 10.40 before setting off home.

today was an interesting day at an APSE meeting. My colleague L was kindly giving me a lift (in his BMW convertible, how posh is that?) and was picking me up from home at around 9.20 this morning. Thinking I had plenty of time, of course the inevitable happened, I dawdled and by 9.18 I was in a frantic multi-tasking mode of applying makeup, drying my hair and finding a pair of earrings. Naturally,then L was late! Opened the front door, and was practically blown flat by a gale of frightening size with accompanying horizontal rain. Our bin bag(being very light) was half way down the street. Anyway we got to the meeting, not helped by a Nazi jobsworth in the hut guarding the Council car-park. Where do we find these people?

Meeting went well. J and I did a joint presentation on smoking related litter and listened to some other presentations on highways surfacing and benchmarking issues. Left there, came home, again courtesy of the BMW magic carpet and did some ironing. Then updated this. Also just had an email, confirming that on Sunday, a couple of old school cohorts are coming to lunch.
Am really looking forward to it, and also the enjoyable process of deciding what to cook. Hoorah! Weather has calmed down slightly and seems to have stopped raining, although it is still quite breezy.

Forgot to mention earlier, that last night as I was leaving work, I walked up the car park to the landfill overflow car park by the weighbridge. The nights are noticeably beginning to draw out now which is lovely. Anyway, the sky was a stunning deep blue with just a few early stars. Just as I left the top of the main car park, I noticed an owl hunting down the hedge line. The paler underside of the wings is quite ghostly and beautiful. I stood, entranced. The bird life at work is superb - I see so many species there, it is a real treat.

Another wet Monday following a very wet Sunday and (surprise!) a very wet Saturday. Yesterday was so miserable weatherwise we didn't feel like venturing abroad - it was a day for peaceful pottering, cross-stitching and a slow-cooked, warming beef casserole cooked in port and a slug of madeira, with huge quantities of root vegetables. Today has been productive at work. We've been working on a presentation we are doing on Thursday at an APSE meeting, on our Smoking Related Litter project. Have some great photos including some I took on holiday in Edinburgh last October. As I write, Andrew is doing battle with our Christmas tree outside, trying to chop it up into smaller pieces so we can take it to the tip on the weekend for recycling.

Visited by a plumber and his accomplice earlier - they came to have a look at the main bathroom. When we moved in, Persimmon had finished it in a perfectly pleasant and inoffensive marble tile with a bath, but no shower. There is a shower in the ensuite to our room, which is great when we are here, but not so much when we have guests which is quite often. So, it looks as though in a few weeks time we will have a shower fitted. We either need to find a match to the tiles that are in there or to look for some new ones. The young master is keen on a change - I'm quite content with the ones we have but I suspect if we visit a tile shop I could be convinced. Watch this space for an update.

Most recent picture is of me and Andrew on Christmas Day and it was very very cold. Our noses ran. So we went home and had a drink.

A busy and productive end to the week. Got four funding bids finished and sent off, including the one for the pop up urinal - I love this job!

Also attended a meeting on our service area risk management policy this morning - supposed to identify risks and illustrate how we'll manage them.

tomorrow, we are seeing favourite great-aunt for a relaxing pub lunch. We are also planning a weekend away in London next month. I can't wait. Now I'm blogging in this new version it does seem a lot quicker and faster so am happy. Will add another picture - my Christmas sampler cross stitch before it was framed. It looked lovely this year - seemed a shame to put it away.

New Year, new blog. Apologies for the delay in blogging, ladies and gentlemen. I've been having awful problems with the version I was using. So husband offered to upgrade me to new version, just out of Beta, which accounts for the frivolous posts you see before this one. I'll say no more, except my revenge will be merciless.... He is obviously too used to getting away with stuff 'cos he pulls that really cute look which makes it impossible to be angry with him for more than a second... Humph. After nine years of marriage he has unerringly mastered my weak spot.

Enough frivolity. The year has started with such a packet of news I hardly know where to start. Most important first. Went to hospital just before Christmas for my checkup. Usual squirmy moment with cold ironmongery (but lovely, lovely sainted nurse who held my hand and deserves a halo) and specialist announced that all was well, and even better, they don't want to see me for another year. The best Christmas present I could possibly have asked for. Even more fabulous, he then drew me a graph for illustrating the risk of recurrence (he's even done a paper on it) which started me off at about 40% and has now plummeted to less than 10%risk. In other words, I have a greater than 90% chance of being here in three years, and after that I revert to being "normal" or as normal as I will ever be. Let us pause here for a moment and then rush around like a mad thing, open champagne and let off fireworks and then let's say a huge great HURRAH for modern medicine. I like my life and I appreciate being around to enjoy it so very much, even if it is only to moan querolously about my husband.

After that, everything else is relatively minor but here goes. Firstly, husband bought me the most fabulous necklace for Christmas - I am wearing it as I type and feel like Elizabeth Taylor (in one of her glamourous phases, I hasten to add, not a self-destructive alcoholic stupor).

Enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with assorted family and loved ones, drank champagne and Southern Comfort, and returned to work to find out that my boss is leaving at the end of March. I have mixed feelings in that I am delighted for him personally but am sorry for the department as we will miss his considerable talents. Will stop here but wanted to reassure my readers that I had not abandoned you.