[Aunty Mame]

Hi all, hope everyone is feeling good. Kaddy - enjoy seeing your son.

Sheepish and Louise ... so good that you've picked yourselves up. I know how much pride I had to swallow (several times) last month when I was all over the place, but it was so great to feel the support from here.

DG - happy anniversary to your business!! I've got a marketing suggestion for you - someone sent me an email today advertising a USB wine tap!!

I didn't know that "stroppy" was not a universal term, but it is obviously a kiwi-ism. "Stroppy" is a word usually applied to women, but not usually in a negative way. Its a bit of a "dont mess with me, I'm in charge, get out of my way" sort of thing. I like days when I feel that that as I usually get a lot done because I'm not constantly re-visiting whether I'm doing the right thing, or trying to please other people.

Things are definitely looking up on this side of the world ....... sold some furniture this week which has simultaneously given us some cash and some space in the house! And its been a good wek for exercise and the rain stopped last night and today is a beautiful day. But the best news is that Uncle Mame has been offered a fantastic job - because he was not having any luck getting anything he wanted he applied for something that he could do just fine, but which he felt was going backwards a bit. Anyway, they rang yesterday and asked him to come in to have a chat, and this morning they asked him to take on another role leading a 3-year change management programme. He is brilliant at this stuff and prides himself on doing these things in a way which is people-centred, instead of those nasty horrible "if you dont do it our way you are out the door" processes. We met for coffee afterwards and he looked like a changed person - all the light is back in his eyes, and he is cheerful again, and he was off to get stuff done at home.

Of course, all this "things going well" stuff is presenting new challenges - I've developed some strategies for dealing with things when I'm feeling like shit, but my first response to things when they work out is currently "yay - lets open the champagne"!! We have decided to go out to dinner tonight to a nice place where we usually do our celebrating, and I think I will find that hard. Particularly as it is Friday night - which is the night I find hardest. I went and bought a bottle of Ariel AF (well, 0.5%) bubbles, and I'm going to suggest that we have a glass of that before we go out, so that I feel like I've had something celebratory with him.

anyway, hope you all have a good Friday and a good weekend ......... I will be hanging around the house cleaning out clothes and linen and books, so will check on regularly if anyone is around. For those of you in the US, have a great holiday weekend!!!

mame