Friday and its a sticky and slow start, in fact I find it difficult to get going. Its a full moon, not that will make any difference to me. I message my friend to wish her happy birthday and that her planned day with her children and wife goes as planned. She has claimed the bum of her Collin the caterpillar birthday cake as a birthday privilege. My morning is slovenly and I finally mange to shift myself to the gym at lunch time. I get to the gym to find it very sparsely populated. I do an hour on a cross trainer burning off 725 calories and going 8.28 kilometres. My post training shower is most welcome and I retreat to the lounge for coffee and an egg and bacon brioche. I take my time to recover and finally drive home. There is a trip to the shop to buy rugby watching treats and a newspaper. My partner returns from visiting her mother with her brother. Its not been a good visit as there has been great aggravation trying to get the bank to pay the carer. The bank are convinced its a con and refuse to move the money the first time. They insist on talking to my partners mother who when talked to made the immediate response of asking her daughter what the answer is. It sounds farcical but its anything but funny, with the result that eventually the carer gets paid but its been impossible to set up a regular arrangement so there will be more aggravation in the future.

The evening starts with watching the Leicester Tigers lose their cup game, which is followed by an evening of Red Nose entertainment. A the end of the day I go to bed tired but dissatisfied that I have used the day usefully.

Saturday and I wake to a coffee with the morning well on. My partner and eldest daughter decide to go into town to shop so I make toast and get on with cleaning the fish tank out. Its a satisfying job as the fish reappear and for a while the view of the fish will be clear. Of course while I have been doing this my weekly wash swishes around adn is waiting for me to drop in the dryer once my fish duties are done. Time to down load the garden camera and to my delight I find that the hedgehog is appearing every night and seems to be hail and hearty. Below are a couple of recent pictures of our new garden resident.

The surprise is the reappearance of the fox who has visited us twice in the last five days. I thought that the first sighting would be the last but clearly we are on the foxes regular route. What amazes me is how the hedgehog, the fox and the cats that visit the garden at night seem to be able to avoid each other so deftly.

All this activity of down loading the camera means that its getting close to the first international rugby match today. I nibble some goodies adn settle down to watch what turns out to be an amazing match. Believe it or not Italy manage to beat Wales with a last minute try. I take my opportunity to cut the grass in the front garden before it becomes a jungle. The front garden gets more sunshine and looked as if it had dried out enough to be cut. It was a good decision and although the cut was not perfect it will allow the under layers to dry out a bit further. If I am lucky I will get to do the back garden tomorrow providing the weather stays warm and slightly breezy.

So having sorted the garden, I top up the hedgehog canteen adn put out fresh water before settling down to watch the Ireland v Scotland rugby match. Its a bity game and I find myself drafting the blog. So by the time the Irish celebrate the triple crown I’ve eaten tea and got most of the draft done. So now its onto strawberries and ice ream followed by France v England, the deciding match in who wins the Six Nations this year.

England lost, another heroic failure, very British. So on to other things. Two new books have come into my life today. The first was a recommendation from a friend who had read my battles with food on the log and suggested the book she uses as her food bible when she wonders why she is eating too many pastries. It is called “Eat to Beat Disease” by Dr William Li. I have only very briefly glanced at it but I note chocolate, cheese and beer are not so bad, I therefore am likely to read more.

The second book was a surprise gift from my partner and chimes in with the current hedgehog action in the garden. It is by Pam Ayres one of my favourite English poets. It is a dark tale and a plea for us humans to be more hedgehog kind and aware.

So now its the end of the evening and I take my drugs and go to bed wondering what awaits me on the scales tomorrow. I know the lawns need mowing and I will probably need to go to the gym.