How it happened, I still don’t know, but I had a period of about 5 days last week where knocks to the head were rather common place. It started with a bruising from the boot door of a friend’s car as I was retrieving my stuff before jumping on a train. Next up the nervousness of a massage colleague found a foot contacting my head with veritable force. And finally, I was minding my business chatting to a friend when another friend, with gusto and enthusiasm, flung out her arms and again, *doink*, my head was in the firing line.

Whether all those events beat sense into me, or out of me, I may never know, but I live to fight another day. Yesterday evening saw a “speed dating” experience I suspect I’ll never forget (and, equally, never want to repeat!). It was a charity event raising money for the NSPCC (which was the lure to see me attend my first ever speed dating event), organized by a fairly distant work colleague. As usual, my sofa-radar was on high alert which resulted in me nabbing a rather comfy sofa on a slightly raised platform giving me a great view of the entire place, cool air from the air con above my head and the title of “Queen of the World” – not a title I had any major concerns accepting. I left the event knowing relatively little about each of my “dates” (how 2 minutes of chat counts as a “date” I’ll never know) but feeling fairly pleased with myself for opting for the “random chit chat” option. Did I meet my future husband? Not in the slightest. Could I spend an evening with any of the prospective “dates”? Possibly. Will I? Who knows. But the important thing is…I survived!

Attacks on my brain cells and speed dating aside, life continues to treat me well and I’m now the proud owner of several berry bushes (of the goose, blue, black and rasp varieties). I’m yet to discover if my yard in Morecambe is conducive to greenery growth although my little patio willow seems to be thriving. My biggest challenge is going to be keeping them sufficiently watered, particularly given my long stints away, but I’m continuing to come up with new and ingenious ways to deal with it. Whether any of them will work remains to be seen. I’ve had some big successes with my foray into the world of writing web pages (as is often the way, after literally years of procrastination, it turns out to be marvelously easy to make updates and upload pages. No crazy FTP madness for me!) and am now plotting my next upskilling: brick laying! Ha!