How to be a trendsetter

M brought home a new shower tray from one of his suppliers yesterday. This is because of a leak in the old one which occurred last autumn, or thereabouts. At one point the whole carpet was soaked through with water leaking out under the shower tray and staying on the concrete surface. We could never be quite sure where the water was coming from and the remedy in the end was to pack the area under the tray (accessible from the broom cupboard) with towels, which are replaced every – well, when we remember. Our shower tray was a special order, because it’s particularly large. I discovered many years ago, that when someone does dirty jobs, the nearer he is to the walls when he showers, the more difficult they are to clean. There’s another reason why it’s special and I hardly dare confess this. It’s green (or is it avocado, or savannah or pampas – it’s such an uncool colour that I can’t even remember the fancy name of the time.) When we built our house, many eons ago, savannah, or whatever it was, seemed so sophisticated, as before that, only blues and pinks were available. Now everyone’s into white, but our bathroom is still this colour, and short of buying a new bathroom suite, we’re stuck with it. Actually though, I think it’s so old-fashioned it must be due to make a come-back, like flared trousers.

It’s been a horrible day, but when I was out delivering M to the station today, there were masses of flowers around. I passed a glorious flowering cherry or peach, and in my garden we have lots of muscari – a beautiful blue – and lots of splashes of yellow and white polyanthus, as well as a few daffs. My sister-in-law popped round this afternoon for a chat, which cheered up this miserable afternoon.

What did I accomplish yesterday? I didn’t, but today, I have at least printed out three short stories for a competition. It’s some time since I sent anything off and the closing date is May, when I’m normally concentrating on VAT and holiday. I’ve also arranged to go into Jennifer’s office in a couple of weeks to try and sort out Goldenford’s filing and bookkeeping for the accountant. Now there’s a nice creative occupation.

Oh, I nearly forgot, Virtual Tales (www.virtualtales.com) are doing a special offer of a free story which you can send to a friend for every copy you buy - I think that's the general idea - for April Fool's Day. Virtual Tales are the e-publisher of my novella, A Bottle of Plonk, in bothe-book and serial form. Visit them and have a look.