I see that Pooks did a good job and kept everyone amused - I bet you cracked up when she tried to make out she was innocent. Actually she reminds me of one of Terry Pratchett’s characters – The Duck Man, the intellectual member of the Canting Crew. For those of you without the sense to read Mr Pratchett’s books for yourself - the reason that the Duck Man is called the Duck Man, and considered insane, is that there is a duck sitting on top of his head, but he convinced that there isn't.

Anyway I took a much needed day off - although it didn’t go to plan and it was only grim determination that kept me in bed to 4.00pm.

I chose yesterday as a catch up day as Youngest was not at work so I didn’t have to play taxi driver. I got up as normal and sorted the animals and the newspapers and was back in bed by 7.30 a.m. So when the telephone rang at 9.15 a.m. I was fast a sleep. Now when the telephone rings I’m instantly awake – this dates back to my mum, when the phone could ring anytime during the night if there was a problem. I always wake with that feeling of dread in my stomach.

And who was on the phone, you ask? Mr Financial Controller, that's who. Please could he send Craig with a cheque that needed signing. I was absolutely gob smacked to start with, which was quickly followed by seething anger. Not counting the fact that I was on holiday so shouldn’t have been bothered anyway – he’d asked me the day before if I had anything planned and I’d told him that I was planning on spending the day in bed to catch up on my sleep. So the bastard knew and chose to ignore it.

Basically they hadn’t got their act together in Accounts and needed some petty cash. Sandy was on holiday and had left some signed blank cheques but he needed two signatures. And of course he couldn’t possibly ring one of the Trustees. Nooooo; he didn’t want to bother them when I lived the closest.

There will be some changes going on next week – and I will not be receiving any further communications on my days off. Come to think of it I got a call on my mobile from FC the last time I was off – but as I was on the way to Gloucester so I couldn’t sign the cheque.

I should have told him I wouldn’t do it this time either with hind sight – but I was still half asleep and not thinking straight. So I got up, made myself some toast and waited for Craig, signed the cheque and went back to bed.

I did fall asleep and managed another couple of hours before the phone rang again. This time it was the Dentist wanting to speak to Himself – they’d had a cancellation and wanted to move his 5.30 p.m. appointment forward if possible. I politely told them he was at work – Oh, OK, they said. They ring him on his mobile. Arrggghhhhhhhh.

Try again or just get up? No, I’d taken the day off with the sole purpose of sleeping and I was going to sleep if it was the last thing I did. Of course if I had thought it through, I would have unplugged the phone. That way when the CPSA rang to say that Youngest’s membership had expired and did he want a new application form sending? I wouldn’t have answered it.

It was getting on to 4pm by then – which by anyone’s standards would be considered a lie in and it had started to thunder and pour down with rain. Billy is terrified of thunder, so I got up and wandered downstairs to find him. After a bit of a searching I located him squashed between the sofa and the wall and took him in to stay with my dad whilst I went upstairs and ran a bath.

I’m feeling much better this morning – not so tired. Mind you after spending the best part of the day asleep and still managing to sleep all night as well, I bloody ought to.
And I'll give it one more week, if my mood hasn't lifted by then I'm going to have to go back to the doctors.