It’s been a cold, cold night here and it looks as though tonight will be as cold.

When I woke this morning, it was just before dawn. I shuffled out of bed as the sun was on the horizon, pushed open the curtains to see what sort of a day it was and discovered this sight waiting for me.

I couldn’t miss out on this shot so I shuffled downstairs in my dressing gown, stuck on my fur boots and went outside onto our front path to get this shot unencumbered by a window pane. So, this is my first ‘nearly nude’ shot of the year….but of course the camera was pointing away from me, that is something for which you should all be jolly grateful. Actually, that sounds like a grand idea for a gallery – my ‘nearly nude’ gallery of shots where I’ve been taking my pic of the day in a dressing gown and shoes and nothing else.

Getting up early on a non-work day has been really rewarding – I’ve got so much ‘stuff’ done, even though some of it turned out to be rather fruitless.

We spent over an hour trying to crowbar the legs of my lovely solid oak dining table into the house from the garage where they’ve been since we moved but to no avail. The door is 1cm or about half an inch too small and no matter how many different angles we tried, the legs simply won’t fit.

So, in despair we’ve given up and called on a carpenter to come and see if he can dismantle the joints, saw off a couple of centimetres and re-joint the legs so it will fit. I sure hope so. I’ve learned a valuable lesson from this – I had the table specially made about ten years ago with dimensions perfect for our Sandhurst home. It’s nine feet long and four-and-a-half feet wide, perfectly beautiful and a grand statement. I never dreamed that one day I’d ‘escape’ the South East and move to a house with smaller doorways and smaller rooms. So, next time, I will think more carefully about the long-term when I plan something big!!! Though heaven help me if I ever decide to move again I think DM should take me outside and shoot me!!!

Blimey - look at the date - a whole month since Christmas!!!

Last year Nice was still being a pleasure and a pain