Settling Back In

Back to work and trying to remember all the tasks I had managed to completely forget while away. This seems to me to prove the benefit of absenting oneself from the normal workplace. However, Romy worked out all the overtime we had done, amounting to some 80 or 90 hours while away. Dear me. I have managed to select a couple of weeks when I have the opportunity to take some actual annual leave, which has eluded me until now. Depending on the weather, I make take the chance to visit Paignton and try out a hotel which may be suitable for the punters. An added attraction, apart from my Devon family, is that I could try out the old charabanc which goes from Torquay through Paignton to the Agatha Christie house, and a visit to Cockington, which is apparently very picturesque and full of thatched cottages and so on. Trouble is, I shan't fancy doing either if the weather is vile. I shall ponder this.

I really do fancy holding an absinthe evening. Basically drinking absinthe, using my new absinthe spoons and pouring iced water over sugar lumps etc. The main problem with this is that nobody seems to like absinthe. Although it is probably a sacrilege, I seem to remember drinking something called pink Pernod years ago, which was basically Pernod with blackcurrant liqueur, which did taste quite good. Since Pernod is very similar to absinthe, perhaps a Pink and Green evening might be the way to go. We shall see.

My new best friend Alice turned up the other evening after work. She had some good news in that her Greek property seems to be fine, she had a good time there, and may be able to let it. She also had the opportunity of taking a permanent job which might provide a lucrative pension.

Nibby has landed at Manchester and is now resting at Macclesfield. I have obtained the telephone number and shall ring her in due course.

I must organise the Sunday lunch with Madeleine. I have a Groupon voucher which I must use for this. I am hoping she will be about soon, as I need to book this in advance. I do hope the weather improves, though the apparent lack of sunspot activities may herald another mini ice age: hardly the promised global warming, in this part of the world, anyway.