Previously on...

I feel I should be reciting this in the manner of the brief clips that precede American tv shows to remind the audience exactly what happened in previous weeks. Not that my blog has a complex enough plot to warrant such a bit of frippery, just that bit of catching up is in order after my unusually lengthy absence.

You missed, for example, my mum being proved right as I got soaked to the skin one day and promptly caught a cold the next. Whether there was any such connection was something I'd argued over with her before as I was sure I'd read an article somewhere which disproved such a link. I stood, coughed and sneezed corrected. The moral of this particular story is obviously "listen to mother".

You missed my taking my magical slippery slidey shoes on a tour of London over a pleasingly wet English weekend. I was most happy to discover that I was able skid and slide laps around Leicester Square. Which I did with some frequency, weaving in and around tourists. The gaps of surprise I received after some close calls and the round of applause from a group of Asian tourists rang in my ears long afterwards. I actually ached the next day which came as a surprise. I exercise regularly enough that I don't ache these days. The last time I ached like that was after taking up spinning classes in the gym back in, ooh 2000. I wonder if there's a new exercise regime in this? Slidercise perhaps? Maybe I should apply for a trademark?

You missed the delight I felt when I finally managed to roll a ball onto my elbow and keep it balanced there (it's harder than it sounds), and the subsequent dismay I felt when I next attending juggling to find the most awesomely skilled contact juggler there as well. Had I not spent most the night watching him in wide-eyed bewilderment I would probably have felt embarrassed to be standing in the same room as him. He was truly astonishing, performing a large number of tricks I hadn't witnessed before with some aplomb, and once more put my meagre (albeit much improved) skills into in stark comparison. Still he was kind enough to comment on the state of my balls, which he thought were impressively shiny. Ironically enough, I thought they'd gotten a bit to scratched recently and were due for a good polishing, thus proving that if I was not the most skilled contact juggler in the room, I was at least the most anal. :)

You missed my discovery that I may actually be a whole inch taller than I've believed myself to be all these years. For some reason I've long thought myself to be 5 feet and 6 inches tall when in fact I may stretch to 5 feet 7 inches. I've yet to have any independent confirmation of this, so I'm still taking this news with a grain of salt. To be honest, I've always thought 5'6" to be a perfectly good height and I'm not sure I really want to be any taller than that.

You missed my kitchen flooding. That wasn't fun. Since I moved into the flat, I noticed that a small amount of water would occasionally bubble up into my sink, usually when someone in the flats above mine were doing their laundry. It happened rarely and caused little enough trouble that I didn't fret much over it. Not even when I sat in my living room and heard the sink gurgling. Of course, when the sink continued to gurgle and I started to become slightly concerned. and when water started overflowing the sink I positively panicked. Thanks to several towels (and some winter clothing I was forced to turn to after running out of towels) and the services of an emergency drain cleaner (god bless google!) there was little damage from the flood. I now own several more towels for use in case of an emergency which says a lot about my priorities: Candles and matchsticks? No. First aid kit? No. Towels? Yes. Douglas Adams would be proud.

There was more of course. There's always more really, but I think that's a fair enough sampling to be getting on with. I apologise for not posting more and for not posting more often over the last month. It was good to have a little break from trying to blog on a daily basis and I think I was feeling the strain a little. I'm still not sure I'll be posting daily for a while yet, but I'll try to keep you up to day on the important stuff.

How are you all anyway?