I've been on a bus!!!! It's months and months since I've been on a bus! But it's all right. It wasn't a First bus -- it was a Yorkshire Terrier and strictly speaking I'm not boycotting them. It was being driven by a trainee driver. A girl trainee driver. I learned quite a lot listening to the trainer (There are millions of good reasons why a bus might be late. There is no good reason for it to leave early)

But you may wonder why I was on the bus in the first place. Ordinarily I walk to work, it hardly being worth the bus fare to travel a mile and a half. But it was at the bus stop as I charged past, running late for a meeting with Peter-my-boss. Mind you, I had no business being late. I had, officially, been up for hours. The radio came on at its appointed time. The Builder enquired about the time -- omigosh .... It's half past six and he needs to be at the agency for 7. I had forgotten to adjust it!! Run. Rush. Dash about. And off he trundles at 5 to 7, fed, watered and armed with lunch. Perhaps I can have a cup of tea and catch my breath a bit and do some useful things. Back he wanders at about 10 past. No job for him today :-( Tea for him too, then. And somehow I seemed to find my way back to my nice, warm and snuggly bed. Where I peacefully remained until The Builder's phone rang. It was the agency. We've got something for you, come back. And there was me running late when I should have had plenty of time and got loads of chores done. Sigh. Never mind. I was here in time for the meeting and I've done a mini-desk session. And now I'm eating my breakfast and contemplating a cup of tea.

We've had an interesting couple of days. We had a fantastic birthday dinner on Tony's behalf on Sunday. In defiance of the bird flu scaremongering we had roast chicken - with plenty of wine for its antiseptic effect. Tabitha and Gareth were there. So too were Freyja and Mark who had veggie chicken wellingtons. We rang Tony -- after all it was his party; we figured he should probably be there too.

Yesterday we went to Chesterfield to meet our mortgage advisor. I've never had a mortgage advisor before. It feels very grown up!! I hardly ever go to Chesterfield and I'm not sure why really. It's only 10 miles down the road and it's a pretty little town. Lots of mediaeval and Georgian buildings. Market squares. A church with a twirly spire. We got there with half an hour to spare and had a wander about -- until we remembered that we hadn't actually paid for our car park and had to dash back before the parking man found us! We got to the advisor's office with minutes to spare :-) He says we can almost certainly buy a house. Perhaps we will buy a house. For less than he says we can spend we could have a house in a village with a view over fields *and* of a castle. We shall ponder. We went to Chatsworth and had a Sunday lunch on a Monday and bought some more vegetables. We went home and pottered about. Then I had to come to work. Four whole hours. Quite exhausting!

It's quite a stunning morning today. The sun is shining. The sky is blue. The grass is white. And it's bloody freezing!