Restoring the spirits

The husband and I have had the weekend to ourselves for the first time in weeks.  We have barely spoken to each other, it has been bliss!  We've spent the whole weekend pottering around the house and sitting in the garden.  It has been very grown-up and civilised (apart from the fact that we may have had slightly more wine than is sensible in the midday sun...).

Our swing seat.: love.

All of our meals have been eaten out on the patio and we brought the radio out to listen to the tennis this afternoon whilst eating garlicky/lemony roast chicken with roast potatoes and salad, all washed down with cold white wine.  Then we had a little nap (yes, a nap!) before walking the dog.  The temperature has dropped a little now and it has been very dark outside for a while - I hope it rains.  In the summer I love to sit in our conservatory with the door open so that I can watch, listen to and smell the rain.  It's so refreshing and calming.  We went to the Maldives for our honeymoon last year and it was the start of the rainy season.  The weather, of course, was beautiful every day but there was a 30 minute shower [downpour] at around 5pm each day.  We had a water bungalow (a hut on stilts in the sea) with doors that opened right up onto our decking.  Every evening before supper, after a boiling hot day in the sun, we would sit coolly and quietly in our little air-conditioned hut with a G&T and watch the rain pelt into that turquoise sea.  It was breathtaking, romantic too, and the memory will stay with me forever. 

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I've been doing a bit of tidying and bit of primping.  The living room especially is looking neat and clean:

It hardly ever looks this straight.  There is usually a smelly boy (husband, J or both) lolling on the sofa.  Cushions are thrown on the floor, feet are propped up on the footstool and drinks, crisp packets and magazines are dumped on every available surface.  I love that it's such a welcoming room and that we live in it properly but I do like to see it looking tidy so that I can waft around feeling like a domestic goddess.  

I am in no way a domestic goddess and this has been proven this week by the husband finally agreeing that we can have a cleaner.  I am beyond thrilled but there is a small part of me that feels a bit of a failure too.  We don't have children (apart from J staying once a fortnight) so I feel that I should have plenty of time to clean the house.  Loads of people manage it, after all.  The thing is, we both work full time, often finishing late, and after having walked the dog, eaten supper and cleared up in the evening there's not much time for anything else.  I want to spend my evenings at yoga classes, swimming, having saunas, painting my nails and crocheting, not cleaning!  I'd even, very occasionally, like to get to bed before 10pm.  Now that A has agreed for us to have a cleaner, I'm going to try very hard to use my spare time more effectively.  I've already booked two yoga classes this week and I might even go swimming on Tuesday.  Get me.  

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I saw my sister, Sarah, on Friday night - we went to an old friend's wedding reception.  She wasn't going to come but I text-bullied her into it and was so glad I did, we had a fab time!  She hasn't been herself for a while now (she has, amongst other things, suffered from post-natal depression) but she is on the mend and on Friday night she was dazzling!  She had a sparkle again that she hasn't had for a long time - she was chatty, sociable and fun.  I think the world of my sis and I was getting quite worried about her.  We have always been great friends (apart from when we were very small and fought over toys) and spent loads of time together in our drinking/clubbing days.  Friday night was just like old times. I'm so happy that she's back to her old self.  

I found this card the other day when I was sorting through some old papers.  Sis made it for me when she was about 8 or 9 (I would have been 12/13).

Those are little pop-up pigs in the middle there, I used to collect pig paraphernalia.  Isn't it sweet!  Minimalist, yes, but lovely and one of my treasures. 

I am going to have a long shower now and settle down to an episode of Desperate Housewives before bed.  Oh and there's a bowl of strawberries and cream with my name on.

Nicki 

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