I have just bought Beloved Daughter a flute which cost more than my car.  It's solid silver, unlike my car which is solid Ford Focus.

I bought it mostly because it was a quarter of the price that I was expecting.  Her teacher had told me that a silver one, called a straight, open-holed Yamaha 481 or something, which professionals use, would be around £4000. So when I saw this one advertised for £1100 on GumTree I just ordered it then and there.

I'm wondering whether GumTree is the next eBay. You can advertise on there for nothing.

But I think, despite its best efforts, it might be a portal for prostitution.

Two people rang up in one morning, directly after I'd posted an ad on it for Esteemed Partner's massage business.  Sashka answered the phone, and not being briefed said "No, this is not a massage parlour, it's a bed and breakfast business".

Aaggh! So that's two even fewer customers for Esteemed Partner then.  I returned the next call from a chap called 'Dave' asking for 'Mary'.  Well honestly - there's a pic of a bloke massaging someone who's fully dressed in the ad; and the copy is all about long term pain relief with particular reference to backs and trigger points.  Dave never called back. 

My final enquiry came from someone trying to get me to pyramid sell health food products.

I might go back to eBay.

And now, to make things fair, I suppose I'll have to buy Revered Son a new sax. No doubt this will be made from solid gold, and will cost more than my house.

This Christmas I shall be all by myself in the cheapest B&B on Dartmoor, while my two children wake up to their stockings with their father in his new pad in Parsons Green, and go on to join their cousins in Sussex for a jolly family Christmas Day.

We originally bought Wydemeet as a 'Christmas Home', which it is perfect for, and swore to spend every Christmas in it, for ever.  And now I have rented it out for another family to enjoy.

Hurrah! I am free! I have been struggling to prepare a Christmas meal in a 2-ovened Aga for sixteen years now, without a break. I've missed the telly!  Ive missed the riding!  I've been stressing for weeks in advance...

So I've organised this arrangement on purpose, and I just can't wait for the 'me time' to begin.  I shall be on that horse, jacuzzi-ing at my health club, coming back from parties (if I get asked to any) to a lovely, warm, friendly, cosy house, and having breakfast prepared for me every day.

And on the day itself, lovely Esteemed Partner is preparing Christmas Dinner for me, his wife, their daughter, my Mum, his wife's sister, and any other waifs and strays who knock on his door, I assume.  How modern!

So I think it's going to be really, really fun!  (Although a little part of me thinks I'd like my children back next year.)

Dear old blog.

I've been missing you.

I've broken, or cracked, or bruised some ribs.  Whatever - the end result is that I can hardly get out of bed, and have to come up with clever ways of rolling onto the floor in order to get to the loo.  Six weeks they say it will take to get better.  

Well call that three.  Or two.  I am a single mother with children to organise, a business to run, and horses to exercise.  I cant afford to be out for one day, let alone 42.

So this morning, after ten days in bed, I have hauled myself upstairs and onto my computer, to tell you how I've been spending my time.  

Shopping.  

I've lost count of how many pairs of jodphurs and electric blankets I've bought.  So far I've got four pairs of jods, and Freya's got three, and four electric blankets have been delivered. Also a set of tea, coffee and sugar tins in cream, and a Rock Box.

I have also been learning things.  I now know more about showers than anyone in existence, and we've got the wrong one.  That's why it works all funny.  So I've bought a new second-hand twin-ended pump and thermostatic head to replace it.

Satellite broadband! It's coming on Saturday!  This will add years to my life!  It's only £500 to install with a hideous white satellite dish, and £28pm thereafter for speeds of 20mb/s.  That's 153 times faster that what I have now!

Android mobiles! Yeah! You can use your mobile without a phone signal via wifi! I've bought two by mistake. One will have to go to Beloved Daughter for Christmas. 

Renewable Energy Sources! A windmill, heat exchanger, bio-mass boiler, solar panels? Or the whole lot?! A company is calling me tomorrow to discuss it all.

I am truly a woman of the modern world.