Pride comes before a fall

All domestic smugness was replaced last night when I discovered a swarm of maggots in my sesame seeds! Urgh! It was so disgusting I nearly puked. Am going to have to have a full de-maggotting of all dry goods tonight too, as I'm sure there must be more lurking in the cupboard. Where do they come from? It was truly horrendous.

And on top of that Princess O is waking up every night because she's scared of the dark, despite the fact that she has a night light and now a Fifi and the Flowertots doll which lights up and sings a lullaby when you press its tummy. I'm at the end of my endurance with it, and I really don't know what to do next.

Even more depressing, I'm starting to feel a bit sick about all this website/Facebook malarkey with my book, being consumed by fear and self-loathing, that it's a stupid idea, will never work, that the book is crap anyway, etc, etc. Argh!

Domestic Goddesses R US

Am feeling a bit tired today, but totally smug after a ridiculously domestic weekend which included: hanging all my washing outside to dry on the line (doubt there'll be much more of that this year, and there's been precious little already); harvesting some vegetables from the garden (lettuce, tomatoes, courgettes and beans) then turning them into delicious homemade food for a picnic, supplemented by some extra veg from the organic box! (The culinary goodies were courgette fritata, middle eastern aubergine dip and green bean and tomato salad, yum!)

Took princess O to aforementioned picnic in Regent's Park with a couple of my friends - we had to pretend to be a family of donkeys which turned out to be slightly embarrassing walking around on all fours and munching on grass, but she loved being our keeper.

The culmination of the domesticity came only last night though, when I used the carcass of the chicken (organic naturally) that we had for dinner on Sunday evening and boiled it up with some more veg to make fresh chicken stock. I swear I had a moment of deep joy looking at the jug of fragrant amber as I put it in the fridge this morning. Trouble is, I'm so knackered by all this housewifery that I'm not sure I'm actually going to be able to manage to make anything with it before it goes off! (And as soon as I put it in the freezer I know I'll never remember to defrost it till it's too late.)

Anyway, it was quite pleasurable after a summer of childlessness and then being away on holiday, to just come home, relax and enjoy being a mummy again.

Thunderbirds are Go!

Wow, I've finally done it, the website is live. I can't quite believe how quickly it's all happened. One minute I was lying in bed desperately trying to think what I could do about getting this damn book published, the next I've got a fully functional website and a Facebook group with 50 members (which might not be much just yet, but give it time.)

My mind is now racing ahead on all systems to the next stage of the process, which is of course lots of PR! It's all slightly sick making as I'm generally not that comfortable with this type of self-agrandisement, but I'm trying to imagine it all in the third person, as though I'm talking about someone else, so I don't have to think about it too much.

Anyway, I emailed the local paper today to see if they'd do a story, and am also hoping work might come up trumps too. Could I be the next Jade Goody/Kerry Katona? Known for nothing more than their hideous ability to turn up on the front cover of any/ever magazine for doing nothing more than fart. I do hope not!

It all seems like a long time since I got back from holiday though (something I've failed to write about in my rush to get the website going, but it was the most utterly lovely week in Sardinia, which I would highly recommend to anyone looking for crystal clear sea, gorgeous beaches and absolutely delicious food! I can't remember being so relaxed in a very long time.)

And rather gratuitously (because in reality I completely fancy the guy in the ad) and to prove that I have, I think, mastered the art of adding pictures/film into the blog, I'm also putting in a clip of the "D&G light blue" TV ad, because if it isn't in Sardinia, it looks just like it (and D&G have a house on the Costa Smerelda in Sardinia, dontcha know, so it really could be.)