Roses are red, Violets are blue, I love you so much, I cleaned the loo

A small victory I will enjoy the moment..Oh there it goes.

I am half way through the week of nothing to look forward too.

I tried on Monday to muster up some entertainment, I went up to London early in an attempt to find some innocuous pumps for my orthopedic feet, no joy at all. I thought I might catch a couple of exhibitions, ha, stupid is.. as they say. Monday is NOT a good day for visiting they were all closed of rehanging, I peered through many a window and that was it. I tried on copious amounts of clothing neither needed or as luck would have fitted, so money saved. All this in murkey drizzle not fit to lift my camera up for, so slim pickings on the visual front too.

My painting class was awesome, we have a new teacher who is great. Says it as it is. We had to spend half an hour mixing flesh tones, yes you guessed it, the first of the life classes. I mixed over 30 tones which stopped him in his tracks I can tell you, just call me Mr Max Factor, he dismissed 10 of them as too pale and then we had to paint not with a brush but a palette knife, I loved it. I have never done it before but what fun, he gave wise and sage criticism that really moved the painting on and by the end I felt I had not made a bad fist of it. He marveled at the thickness with which I applied the paint wondering if it would dry this side of Christmas, God knows how I will get it home, but hey I loved it. I can thoroughly recommend life painting as an excellent de-stresser, truly.

Talking of love, I love my new COS dress but sadly so does every teeny, tiny, little bit of fluff that floats around my bedroom, we have a cream carpet and a leaking duck eiderdown so the overall effect is to make me look like I've been tarred and feathered. The previous Velcro magnet was a black cardie which I would lovingly defluff only for it to be covered the minute I put it on. So whilst I will never look very smart wearing it I will still love it.

Yesterday was spent doing all those grim jobs I put off, luckily Emin had meetings so the house breathed a quiet sigh of relief for a while. I am currently entertaining Leyla whilst two teenagers sleep, trust me this is a good thing they are cheaper than when they are awake

I know I will receive scant sympathy, hey it's all about the holidays with us teachers isn't it? Well this mornings rise and shine was at my usual ungodly hour, Emin managed to wake me as he rolled his sorry arse out of bed, he then bellowed at the top of his voice that the dog had not only pissed twice but pooed as well, I lay there wondering why I needed to know this, If I get up I clean it up without any fanfare at all, so up I get, turns out he just wanted some company. What the fuck is the dog for then?