Freed from the wrath of the dreaded Norovirus, as described previously, we re-embark on life’s great passage.

Helped along by the obvious arrival of Spring, with its bright sunshine and irritating hum of strimmer, hedge clipper and lawnmower, the inevitable ’spring cleaning’ regime starts to rear its ugly head. Bouquets of bleach and limescale remover fill the air; detergents are poured into sink and bath plugholes that have been clogged with 2ft long hairs – thousands of them – for months and sticky stains that have haunted far corners of the kitchen floor have been attacked with a dose of Flash and hot water. I was even tempted at one point to reduce the height of what was once described as my ‘in-tray’. But how can you run a successful business having nothing in the intray? What would you have to do then? I am a staunch believer in the use of a hardback book. Little chits of paper are far too easily misplaced or overwritten, but if it’s written in the big book, it won’t get lost, and as any absence of a ‘job done’ tick stands out like a sore thumb, it is fairly watertight. Why then, do I forget to write things in it, I wonder?

Years ago my own productivity seemed to be directly proportional to the amount of pressure I was under. Deadlines were tonics and life-or-death decisions were run of the mill. Where did it all change? There’s still pressure of course. Life would be dull without it. But I think my advancing years are making me into a bit of an old cynic. I look at some people doing the blue-arsed fly thing and wonder if I ever did that. Time has taught me that virtually nothing is worth getting into that much of a sweat about.

Poor Mrs C has heralded in the arrival of our warm Spring weather with what is a direct consequence of the aforementioned cleaning bug. On a freshly cleaned bathroom floor, that strangest of phenomena – horizontal gravity – got the better of her again, whipping her legs from under her and throwing her at great force into the door edge, producing a most artistic tattoo, with blends of black, blue, green, purple and yellow on her left bicep. At least it’s narrowed down the choice of Spring attire available, as vest tops and short sleeves tend to clash terribly with the vibrant colours of the tattoo.

All is not lost though… daughter No1 is home from Uni for her easter break, so she’ll be actively looking for activities to fill her time for the next few weeks (won’t she?) and once the others finish for Easter we’ll be scratching our heads finding tasks and chores for them all – …….. I wish! Our abode will positively gleam from all the attention it’s inevitably going to receive. We’ll see!

Off to clear a bit of space to put my wine glass down on now, before the ‘experts’ change their minds again. This week is a “Wine is Healthy” week, isn’t it? Or was that last week?

Nigel