Well - it's now just over one week since the Election and we now have a Conservative Liberal coalition. It all happened rather quickly on Tuesday evening - we ended up watching it all on TV - quite compulsive viewing. Nick Clegg is deputy prime minister and most of us hope that the arrangements will bring us the best of both worlds. - even though we know that deep cuts are coming! Must be a bit like a phoney war at the moment.

Its really cold at the moment - unseasonably so - we keep hoping it'll warm up but no good so far. I wonder if its the volcano in Iceland causing it?!

Work as busy as ever - my Fundrasing manager left today and so I will be picking up many elements of her work until the Charity Committee decide whether and how to cover her role. Shame as I liked working with her. Today I also held my first ever Freedom of Information appeal panel - where soemoen who applied to receive some information under the FOI Act was refused, they appealed and so we had to form a panel to review the decision. Quite interesting. I guess generally my job is interesting - I just wish it wasn't quite so busy all the time!

Guy and Ann have finished their cycle ride - poor things the weather was bad - but what an achievement. And Emily ran her 10km on Sunday!

(Grandma) Sheila takes a turn in a skid pan in a fast car at Silverstone race track on Sunday - wow!¬

Cast Ne'er a clout

What a start to May we have had. Weather really cold and today wet too. Spend all week at work and look forward to a weekend pottering about and instead spend it shopping in the dry! TK Maxx - that bastion of capitalism, followed by a trip to Marks and Spencer to buy our treat for a Saturday teatime! (Chicken breasts in Ginger and Coriander for the curious)

Also bought some chicken food for the exhorbitant fee of £8.99 for a sack of mixed corn - 20 kg. Still we are getting about 4 eggs a day at the moment from the 4 chickens - maybe we shall go and buy a couple more birds tomorrow now we have a super deluxe chicken enclosure - spend two consecutive weekends in April on it - at least the weather was warm then.

Election result was a hung parliament - Tories in the lead but are 20 seats short of a majority and so are now in discussions with the liberal democrats - they actually lost 3 seats despite all the hype that Nick Clegg had created the third party alternative - that was the exciting bit about the election. Wonder what will happen - as Lib Dems want changes to the voting system that I cannot see the Tories agreeing to.

Spain has closed air space today due to volcanic ash - hope that all sorted by the summer as we are flying this year to Corsica. Just our luck!

Emily running a 10km tomorrow in Bristol - hope she does ok.

Hope to go out tonight to Tapas bar on the Wellingborough Road - really nice there.

Tried today to order new contact lenses online - realised I need an eye test before I can reorder - drat!

Took me ages to log into this today as had forgotten password etc. - dementia and computers don't go too well together!

47 tomorrow - how old am I becoming?!

My first ever blog

Well - I've been wondering for ages what blogs were all about and here I am with one of my own. Feels a tad self indulgent! I wonder what to actually say on it - and who will actually read it. How long do they stay in the air ?

I read a book recently that consisted of the diaries of a group of people who had submitted their entries to a government department after the war - it was really interesting and very well edited as these people never knew each other and yet somehow their stories seemed inter connected. Maybe one day this will get woven into something like that!

Well where to start? I'm 46 - 47 n Sunday, married, three children - although now young adults (21,18.15) Its election day today - haven't voted yet and its 8.10 pm but do intend to. This election has been the most "exciting" - if you can ever use that word - for ages. And has shown what a farce having a first past the post voting system does. The lib democrats have gained much more support in the opinion polls and yet are likely to end up with many fewer seats in parliament than the other two parties.

Not sure if that's very interesting for my first blog but never mind!

I've been drawn to the blog by my cousing - Guy - and his wife Anne who are currently cycling from Spain, across France to the channel in aid of a cancer charity in memory of a friend. I've been really enjoying reading their exploits - this must be the worst year ever for weather in Spain and Southern France as every day it seems to be raining for them.

Oh well - must go - wonder if I'll ever do this again.!