Did you see the lunar eclipse? Wasn't it fabulous? We were down the bay on Saturday night having a meal in a new restaurant. I thought of our friend Leila as when we went in the waitress said to us"Here's the menu. Have you eaten with us before? If not, I'll explain the concept." Cue hilarity - I mean, it's a restaurant, for heaven's sake. It's not an art installation and it's not a nuclear power station either. Harruummph. Anyway the food is delightful, and I recommend it if you get yourself past the conceptual difficulties. After we left we strolled contentedly around the Bay and basked in the beauty of a clear, starry night and a wonderful lunar eclipse that gradually and enchantingly took place above us. We eventually got a taxi home after wrestling a hen party for it, and as we got out of the taxi by the front door, the moon was at its most obscure.

Sunday it poured down - ALL DAY. Various plans for gardening and so on were necessarily halted. Andrew finished the last paint touch ups in the bathroom and we enjoyed a large joint of pork, followed by watching a DVD of Withnail and I. Not having seen it for a while, I had forgotten how incredibly funny it is and how stuffed with quotable lines. It is simply impossible to pick a favourite. We enjoyed a glass of red wine while watching. Wisely, we did not try to mimic the heroic drinking on screen, or the equally constant smoking, either of cigarettes or the family of items related to the Camberwell carrot.

Today, a typical Monday in that our beloved Councillors spend the weekend with their constituents so my email inbox is always full of queries and demands. One wanted a replacement litter bin. I emailed a courteous reply that owing to our current Council wide financial situation, all non essential revenue expenditure has been frozen - this includes litter bins. She then replies asking if we have any in our stores! I was tempted for a moment to indulge my sarcasm and mention that oh yes, we just happened to have a store with 26 beautiful, shiny bins - it would never have occurred to me to put them on the street without her asking. In any case, I am amazed by the number of Councillors who are from the ruling group and ask us to do things that are non-essential - they voted us into the financial mess in the first place, and my other pet rant, invite us to PACT meetings when only last November the Executive decided that members were in the best position to attend and should feed back to officers any questions or issues. Ho hum.

Phil's last BIM this afternoon. He is twinkling merrily and claims to be bored - it is worrying when someone who is so intelligent has no outlet for their brain - makes me wonder what he will come up with. We received a presentation from HR on Work Life Balance -an interesting issue and one that will shortly be more important for Andrew and me, as a new member of the family could be joining us shortly.....