It’s been a calm, sunny weekend overall. Not too much going on but appreciatively the weather is dry. Final gasp and here comes the cold. I have done a little work on my cabinet restoration in the garage at last although I can see that project taking some time. Well if nothing else, I shall have lots of that next year. The plan is for us all to be finished in Oct 2012 but the signs are saying something different. I think very much it is a case of ‘hope for the best but plan for the worst.’ We’re counting down – 382 days to go!

I’ve accepted the whole thing but I find it affects a lot of decisions I shall have to make. I was thinking of a new smart phone as I currently have a not very smart Blackberry but I don’t want to be locked into a 2 year contract. The Blackberry is in my opinion an awful phone; but that may be because I am on the ‘pay as you go’ misers plan. I use it so very little that it probably makes no sense at all to go contract. It’s just that well; everyone else seems to have one. If you haven’t an iPhone well you haven’t an iPhone and these days that’s like you are some sort of underclass of human being. I haven’t got an iPad too, so I guess I am devolving into the evolutionary backwaters of humanity at some speed.

I don’t know how it is where you are but here so very like its Christmas next week in the stores with the piles of decorations, toys, cakes and biscuits etc...Remember amoretti are for life not just Christmas; Commercialism it’s the new religion. Well I won’t be buying anything just yet; unless it’s a bargain! Then it makes sense – see I have cupboards full of them. Now what did I think the mandolin would be useful for when I bought it. It certainly wasn’t for cutting my fingertips off. Note to self – give it Nick. He heals quickly which is probably lucky given the number of catering related injuries he gets in a week. The other rule of my life, is do not give Mike anything too sharp or that requires more than 2 steps to complete. Otherwise he’ll cut his fingers off and wonder what he was doing when he did.

Picked all my grapes this afternoon. Have saved a bowlful of the best to eat (and surprisingly they are delicious) and am stewing the rest as I write with gooseberries and apples (all from the garden) to make a fruit jam (jelly. ) I have no idea how it will taste but seems a good way to use all the produce.