Despite the hour cuts at work, a sister company to ours needs some help, and thusly I’ve picked up an extra 2 days a week, meaning I now work 6 days a week.  Whilst I find it a struggle managing the housework, shopping, time with Mr. VP and everything else, I am also finding it exhilarating.

To say it’s exhausting is an understatement, and finding enough time to be able to do the chores that I was only just able to do before is a trial.  But temporarily it’s more money in the bank and a new experience - working somewhere new, though the same.

We do now have a new kitchen (!), though finding the time to sit and enjoy it is minimal at the moment, but knowing I now have an oven that doesn’t produce copious amounts of eye-watering mustard gas every time I turn it on is a good thing.  And it has masses of worktops, so I can make pastry and bake cakes.  It even has drawers that open properly, and an extractor hood.  Yes, I have been known to stroke the worktops.

I have photos from Edinburgh though, which will be put online this weekend.  It was a surprise weekend-away for Mr. VP’s 30th birthday.  He is one lucky chappie, and got the surprise of his life when he opened his birthday card only to find a pair of tickets for a tour around the Blair Street vaults (the old, and supposedly haunted underground vaults).  It was a wonderful weekend and I was very lucky to have got a consecutive 3 days off.  If you ever go to Edinburgh, you have to see the Camera Obscura.  It’s fabulous.

The garden is the main casualty of my new working regimen.  When it comes to the large back garden, it is as much as I can do to walk down there once a week, which means it’s become a bit of an overgrown jungle.  Mum came up this weekend and worked her magic on the plot, giving it a nice new lawn again (I hadn’t even noticed the knee-high grass) and she managed to pot up our yard-garden in splendid colour.

We are still walking on the beach whenever we can.
I am zipping to different places of work - something I could never have envisaged doing before.
I’m meeting new people and getting on with things.
I like being busy, and though I could really do with a few more hours, I am not minding it.

But at least you understand what’s happening to VP and why I’m not blogging as much.  Six days a week is a lot.  It won’t be forever though - just for this manically busy working period that we’re having at the moment.

I am listening to Regina Spektor’s new stuff, especially her new single “Laughing With”, which made me stop in my tracks when I heard it on 6Music (yes, we have DAB radio back in the kitchen!).  I’m also listening to Fleet Foxes and Lanterns on the Lake (a local band!).

Apart from that, all is good - busy but good.  I hope everyone out there in blogland is good too, I miss you all and hope that I eventually have the time to catch up.  Until then, enjoy Summer.

Yesterday morning before I left for work, I mentioned to Mr. VP that it’d be nice to go to the beach for a walk.  Once I’d got home from work, I almost changed my mind, but I’m so glad I didn’t.  You can see the bright blue of the sky, it was majestic.

It was already almost 7pm by the time we got to the beach, the sun approaching the horizon, casting long, lustrous summery shadows.

The sweet smell of almondy may-flowers filled the air and the sun bounced off every surface.

I kicked off my sandals immediately and ran into the water, hitching up my trouser legs as I went.  I beckoned Mr. VP and he reluctantly joined me in the icy cold of the North Sea.

It was around this time last year that I swam in that same stretch of water.  It was just as cold then, but I didn’t seem to notice it.

We walked along the beach, occasionally stopping to look at the little thing that caught our attention; a seagull squawking in the air, a tiny glass bottle caught in the sand, a Chinese raiku shard, a sun-warmed pool to run through.

The light was just right for walking and feeling the sand running through your toes.

Our footprints were the only things we left on the beach, and by now they will have been washed away and forever forgotten, except by us.

We were the only souls on the beach, we met one couple walking a dog at the start but we were totally alone and free.  We walked for an hour and a half, and loved every moment.

When we got to the car, the last rays of sun caught the pine trees that surround the area alight, and it made the most wonderful photo.

Lots of things are happening at Chez VP and I’m so glad that they are.

New kitchens are going in, once the old one has been ripped out.

I am reading again and I’m spending time with cats on the sofa.

I’m swimming again after a long break.

I’ve had feedback from the job-I-didn’t-get.

It was amazing feedback and made me feel brilliant.

I had a day so good I wrote it on the calendar, in case I don’t have one again for a long while.  Just to remember.

We’ve been walking on the beach and having baths, burning incense and making plans.

I’m taking photographs.

I’m looking back through old ones and smiling.

I’m having fond memories of people past, and keeping them with me.

We’re going to see a concert tomorrow. A band whose songs take me back to a long-gone, hot Summer.

Spring has sprung and with it, an infectious feeling that I’m back on track.

I’m done with the dark days of winter, I’m ready for the warmth and the light of days to come.