We’re celebrating tonight – two big parts of the ‘grand plan’ have slotted into place today…..not quite in the way we wanted but nonetheless they’re there.

They’re the last two ‘big bits’ where outside influence could really make a difference to success or failure but at long last they’re here. As my Mum would say ‘everything comes to he who waits’. We’ve waited, not quite completely patiently but reasonably so and now we have our grand plan more-or-less in place.

Hurrah!!!!!!

Now all we have left to do (!!!????!!!) is to make it work for us. That means a lot of hard work and a lot of tenacity but we’ve got those qualities by the bucketload. If yesterday wasn’t ‘the first day of the rest of my life’ then today surely is.

I’m not going to spill the beans on all of it now – I want to savour it a bit as our secret and to relish the next few weeks as things unfold. I’m going to enjoy the ‘now’. The rest of the world can wait.

Strangely this day was always going to be a good one – maybe it’s the impending full moon drawing us near or maybe it’s no more or less than the fruit of our labours – whatever it is it’s a good feeling considering the anguish and torment of the last few months.

I was sitting working this morning, when I noticed something from the corner of my eye. I’d got Rosie by my side and Archie by my feet but I felt the need to check out the thing that had caught my eye. It was DM. He was sat across the room from me, staring at me and grinning like a Cheshire cat (and he’d not heard the news of the grand plan then).

When I asked what he was smiling so hard about, he commented that he was really happy to have me home and that I don’t have to travel again this year. He likened the last few months to being back in the bad old days before we were together and he had to go home to Ascot every few days. I reminded him that at least in Ascot he had his own stuff and SPACE to move around – for the last few months, I’ve been living out of a suitcase, rarely in one place for more than a couple of nights. I wasn’t trying to score points off him, just reinforcing that I too am glad to be home and home for most of the next month. I just wanted to rush over and give him a big squeeze – and I’m glad to report he reciprocated!!

Not that being at home is going to be anything other than hard work – I still have to work full-time and we’ve got so much to do here too, to smooth the grand plan’s progress. What’s fab about it is that we are doing just that, smoothing progress, not waiting on other people for a change.

I will be glad when the next few weeks are over but I’m certainly going to try to enjoy the festive season and being in one place.

What’s this? It’s one of those Philippe Starck lemon squeezer thingies. DM has photographed it twice now and I still thought I could come up with a different angle. Ha – that’ll be the day.

Two years ago, I was bemoaning the fact that you couldn't buy conjunctivitis medicine without a prescription in this country - I'm pleased (no delighted) to report that's been changed and you can buy chloramphenicol OTC now - hurrah for that I say. Last year, I was photographing one of my favourite buildings - the Hoover Factory - what a place.....I just wish I'd known about 'custom rotate' then!!!!