I’m not sure if I said that I finally had the grant of probate come through last week.  Yesterday, I had an appointment with my solicitor to discuss all the things that need to be done now.  She’s a new (to me) solicitor, Will having gone to work for another firm a couple of months ago, though he completed the probate application for me first.

In the morning, however, I had a lot of paperwork to do and it took several hours.  Emails and phone calls kept pinging in, with matters that needed dealing with and some were more immediate than the thing I was working on.  I can work on undistracted, but sometimes it can be better to deal with a situation straight away, and that was the case here.  One distraction was an hour-long phone call, from someone I couldn’t hurry.  Another was a cold caller who was spoken to firmly.

The new solicitor is lovely, I got on very well with her and we agreed on the straightforward jobs I’d do and the more complicated ones that she or another solicitor would deal with.  I have no sensible alternative than to lay out some money in getting things in order, there are a few things that Russell really should have got on top of a few years ago.  On the way home, I felt tired and in need of some serious snacking, so went to the greengrocer for asparagus, kohl rabi, tiny new-season carrots, strawberries, raspberries and nectarines.  I’m a sensible binge eater and wouldn’t want to hate myself in the morning.

During the morning, one of the emails that pinged in was to Russell’s account, which I’ve now put in my name, from an insurance comparison company, cheerily wishing him a happy birthday.  I must remember to put that one in the junk folder in future.  I don’t like anniversaries, I mistrust them and would ignore my birthday altogether were it not for small grandchildren wanting to blow out candles on a cake.  I’d succeeded in not noticing the date until then.

Today has been a rush.  Wince arrived at 9 and I proudly showed him the cleared and swept workshop.  He was deeply impressed.  Then I showed him the latest toy I’d bought, which is a strimmer that you don’t have to carry, it’s a cross between a mower and a strimmer and it’s brilliant.  Even I can manage it.  It’s not for trimming edges of course, nor for slopes, but for anything else it’s so much less effort and vibration than a non-electric strimmer.  I’d also got a new blade for the electric mower and the part for the big mower, so he had his choice of power tools.

I had all of eight minutes to show him this before rushing off for a meeting, then had to hurry back to meet a friend here, before dashing to pick up friends to take them to Norwich for lunch.  I have to find a way of managing my time better – but today, I realised that I’ve triple booked on the third Thursday of next month and I might have to drop the thing I want to do in favour of obligations.  I’m not thrilled about this, but it’s my own fault.

I also realised that I hadn’t written to some people, as I said I’d do last month.  I confessed of course, no point in bluffing (though I’d have got away with it if I had).  Then I remembered I hadn’t arranged to pick up some things I’m borrowing from the school for our fete on Saturday, so that meant another apologetic email.  It’s all right, I am going in to fetch them tomorrow morning and I have set an alarm on my phone.  I have to set reminders for a lot of things nowadays.  I don’t trust my brain any more.  That is, I remember things a bit late for comfort.  I don’t drop the plates but they are barely on the posts before I spin them again.  Still better to be busy, though.