Tuesday 16th October, 2012       2200

Talk about the best laid plans. The forecast said (yes, I know better than to believe them) a slight possibility of a few spits of rain today but substantial amounts tomorrow. Needless to say the rain arrived today and none is now forecast for tomorrow. The result was that I never took Pepsi to the vet - I didn’t want her getting drenched, because even if I wore the cape she would have - but I simply had to go downtown not only to shop for tomorrows food but also some cigars or I would have run out by now. More by luck than judgement I escaped in between downpours and experienced some spits but never had to break out the cape. I do though now have the makings for potential meat feast pizzas provided the weird sausage things I bought aren’t revolting. My entire day tomorrow is going to be spent bloody cooking and I am regretting saying I would do chicken wings on top!

I took Happy out for dinner tonight. She is the one pleading for help after failing two exams. She’s a lovely girl, so I have agreed to tutor her (gratis) when I have spare time, the first time being Monday after lunch when I hope to find a vacant classroom that’s not on the fourth floor.

I did get a bit of bad news from Cinny (my new assistant) when she informed me that the military training will end on Thursday, meaning I have six classes on Friday. I had rather hoped it would be another day off, but no such luck.

The plus side of the rain though is that Robin came straight home tonight, obviously she didn’t relish the prospect of spending a wet, cold and miserable night.

Thursday 18th     1700

Well that was some day yesterday and I won’t be repeating it in a hurry. For the best part of seven hours I was faffing about either cooking or preparing food. In fact the easiest bit was cooking the chicken wings. However, at seven, six people sat down to dinner. We had the three members of the foreign contingent together with Kiki and two of Kevin’s students, Sonya and  Doris. I was immensely pleased to observe the wings being consumed with relish but angry with myself for having cooked the pizzas with the bacofoil shiny side down, resulting in their getting stuck to the foil. I will remember next time and everyone really put their food away. Except yours truly. It was one of those occasions where someone has spent so long cooking that their appetite deserts them. I never ate a morsel. So in 48 hours I haven’t eaten so much as a crisp, but on the plus side, all I have to do tonight is finish cooking my pizza and have that for dinner.

Olivier (yes, correct spelling and the double L apparently got him bullied in school) is a terrible influence. He has found some relatively cheap wine which actually tastes very nice so yet again six bottles were emptied, followed by most of my bottle of port. We never finished until after two and I forgot to reclaim my chairs. The result was that this morning the drawers I block off with one of them had been ransacked and a ball of string had been unravelled all around the flat and because I forgot to wedge my unlockable  cabinet I awoke to find spice jars all over the floor and all my Bisto granules spilt. Not the best start to the morning.

I took Pepsi to the vet this afternoon for more injections, her skin has all but cleared up but I will persevere to make sure. Whilst there I looked at muzzles. There was a perfect one but when I asked if it would allow her to drink I was told it wouldn’t, so had to rule that out. Instead I bought a different type but it lets her drink and eat, meaning the returning home problem is still going to be there. I can see me having to splurge on the “Old Sparky” type collar after all. Next mission is to actually get the muzzle on her.