i ensured that i got home from work on friday evening with plenty of time to set my house straight, since i was expecting a visit from my friend oonagh, whom i have not seen for some fourteen years, since college.

oon’s hardly changed at all – jolly, silly, empathic, somewhat indecisive. we went out for dinner at my local chinese restaurant, cracked a chardonnay and got very silly poring over photo albums and other memorabilia from our youth. she crashed on the sofa and i grabbed a spare cat and passed-out contentedly, upstairs.

after a late breakfast, oon vanished to meet up with her partner, and i – for some reason – spent most of the day trying to get-up enough energy up to do something useful.

i was meant to be meeting friends in london, but instead felt obliged to stay crashed-out on the sofa under a couple of duvets. most of the day was spent like this, and i really can’t explain why, unless i was under the influence of a 24hr virus or something.

i rose on sunday – vowing not to be lazy – showered myself awake, listened to BH on R4, chatted with the neighbours, and spent a happy hour mowing my lawn and putting some more of the garden to rights, repotting the lemon tree, etc.

went to the local garden centre and examined various ideas for building a couple of really big raised beds for growing legumes and herbs, did some shopping, and got home ravenous. laid-out a mixed platter of cheshire cheese on melba toast, olives, chutney, etc; lovely stuff to fill-up for what i’d planned for the rest of the day.

next, i kitted-up and went out for a blast on the bike.

i warmed up the tyres on back-roads and then rode down to guillemont park offices to practice my slow-speed control and u-turns in the deserted car-park.

after a zip back homewards, i deliberately overshot the house and decided – since the weather’s been hot the past week – to try out my local “green lane”, a grassed-over farmtrack that is thick with ruts and bumps.

this was great fun; my bike is not strictly built for it, but the trailie-suspension coped and the dry weather meant i was ok on road tyres.

i hurtled up the path (standing on the pegs) and actually grounded-out at one point, but probably got 1/4 mile before the path closed up and i decided that “fun” would become “foolish” to continue. i just have to get me a real trail-bike. this was so cool, i was grinning all the way home.

afterwards: a delicious supper of foie-gras with apricot on yet more homemade wafer-thin toast, mixed green salad & roquette, morbier cheese, tomato, and a demi-bottle of sauternes – lovely stuff. putting my feet up and wandering outside later to observe comet ikeya-zhang. deeply cool.

apart from the vanished saturday, it’s been quite a fulfilling weekend.

and here we are on monday: back to work, prepping for a confcall with tony west.

ah well, reality had to re-engage at some point.

oh yeah, i am 34 yrs old today. many happy returns to myself.