I have a Lowestoft swan for the sale, which is quite exciting.  We’ve had a cygnet before, which was even better, but hey.

Tim has gone back to his place and I miss him very much.  But I’ve remembered to lock the doors, which is a good thing because I’ve been known to forget.  And I made a loaf of bread in the Baby Belling, and ate whole lots of it – with a couple of eggs and a courgette – for dinner.

I am, however, quite sad.  Because I’ll be signing a witness statement tomorrow against someone I know, who has defrauded either me or the company he worked for, I am not sure which yet, though I think it’s probably the latter.  Obviously, I can’t talk about it, but I thought of him as a friend and the circumstances mean that he did the dirty at a time when the Sage and I were vulnerable.  I know that it’s true, I have proof that what happened wasn’t what we authorised, and I grieve for him and his family because he, maybe his wife too, screwed up in a big way and I’m a small part of it.  The bell tolls, you know? Whether you ask or not.

So back to positives because we keep on going on –

Worldwide – those Thai boys and their coach, what a magnificent, heartwarming, fabulous effort it’s been.  No risks were spared – and a brave helper lost his life – and no money either.  If there’s a relief effort for the Thai government, I’ll certainly support it – however much time was given freely, it must have been very expensive.  And I wait to hear of the last three divers and the doctor, who are the last to come out.

Okay, let’s go with the football.  I don’t know if I’ll watch tomorrow, I managed the France/Belgium match tonight but I found it hard to care.  But yay us and all that.

There are some ripe tomatoes at last, but I’m being kind and virtuous and not picking them until LT is back where he belongs – which is not a geographical thing, obvs, but with me.

I made a loaf of bread in the Baby Belling and it turned out fine.  We bought bread the other day and it was quite all right, but I prefer my own – obviously that makes me a bit pretentious.  I took a few weeks to get it how we both like – now, I usually bake about once a week, we slice the bread once it’s cold and freeze it, then take out what we want every day.  No waste and I buy a wholemeal loaf for the chickens, who love bread and I usually give them a couple of slices, soaked, daily.  It’ll have to be the real thing in the morning as I haven’t anything else.

It’s LT’s birthday at the weekend and – whew – I’ve bought his present.  Nearly six years since I went to his birthday party and, as I was never going to meet any of the guests again apart from Tim himself, Mig and Barney, I was quite uninhibited and chose to be fairly life-and-soulish.  Not to an embarrassing extent really, just enough to give people the wrong impression.  Hey ho.  I’ve met a lot of them since and – apart from my calling myself Tim’s latest squeeze – I was restrained and totes adorbs, obvs.