Reidski's new place

is starting to look good. It would have been nice if the previous occupant had cleaned the place once or twice in the previous twelve months, but it is amazing what can be achieved with a bottle of domestos and a supply of J Cloths. There has been no second appearance by the mouse referred to here either which is nice.

An aside - I used to live in a hotel which was overrun by mice. I remember a very strange smell one morning when I was making toast being explained by the charred remains that subsequently popped up alongside the toast. Most unpleasant. Also, one Easter I was back from university and some noise woke me up in the middle of the night.I knew it was a mouse but couldn't see it so fell back to sleep with the light on. The noise woke me up again - even louder this time. I got out of bed and had another search but still couldn't see it. I sat back on my bed and looked to my bedside table to see what time it was according to my alarm clock...and there, behind my Terry's Chocolate Orange - MY EASTER CHOCOLATE - sat a mouse looking up at me, with chocolate on its whiskers, and far too heavy with all the chocolate it had eaten to even think about moving. I knew when I was beaten and went to find another bedroom (an advantage of living in a hotel).

Back to Reidski's sans mice, and we had a lovely 24 hours together before my trip to Essex. He now has a garden - cunningly disguised at the moment as a jungle, but we like a challenge.

Unfortunately work commitments prevented him accompanying me on my exciting shopping trip down Oxford Street. He missed out on advising me on the very important purchase which was the entire reason I needed to go out shopping, so I am hoping against hope the protractor I bought will do what it says on the packet.