The News in Five Minutes

Right... four months to catch up on and only five minutes in which to do it. Yeah, nooooo problem. Nothing's happened.

If only life were that peaceful!

The reality is that I seem to have been marking almost non-stop, and when I do have some time off, it's so that I can help the long-suffering Tosh decorate. My parents have visited twice to help, too (from Germany, so this is no mean thing). We were finally at the stage last week where we only had ordinary decorating to do; everything structural is done. The valuer from a local estate agency came over to tell us what a rip off the house-selling system is, but at least we now know the figures and can plan accordingly. It should be another couple of weeks before we can actually 'officially' advertise the house for sale, although it's already 'theoretically' on the market.

With impeccable timing, one of the cats is about to have kittens. No, sillies, I don't mean right this second, but certainly any day now. We shall just have to cross all Bridges of Great Difficulty as and when they arise, but the most awkward problem will be what to do with them when we go to Kentwell Hall in July. We're already taking Daisy, who was in a terrible car accident on New Year's Day (see my German blog), because she is incontinent and needs special care sometimes (although mostly she is as easy to look after as any other cat). I have to start training her to walk on a lead, in the hope that we can give her at least a bit of exercise whilst we are at Kentwell. The others will be fed as usual by our neighbour who lives in the field out the back. What if someone wants to view the house? It will smell of stinky cat litter and stuff, if I don't come back at all for ten days. I'll have to come and clean or something, if the agent can warn us in advance of any impending visits.

There, that was the news in five minutes. Time to get back to my marking!