Slap my wrists if it hasn't been a fortnight since I last posted. We've been busy since, with lots on for me at work. I had two trips to London, and we had our annual photoshoot of students, which took up all last Saturday. Between the three photographers (myself included), we took some 2,400 frames, which is going to leave us with a lot of editing and choosing to do.

On the home front, we're getting closer to having the garden work finished. The slabs we've been waiting for to complete the patio have finally arrived (nearly two months after the initial batch). Not sure if I've mentioned the troubles we've had there. Cue saga...

Don laid around 2/3 of the patio before Easter, but couldn't finish, since they didn't have enough slabs at the merchants to complete the order. Well, after waiting over a week's delay for the extras to arrive from the supplier (cos it was Easter), someone at the merchants managed to send the extra slabs back to the supplier (presumably some twat in the yard thought it was an over-order). So, we waited for another week, whereupon the new slabs arrived. Unfortunately, they appeared to be not just from a different batch, but from a different quarry. They were differently packed, differently coloured, differently textured, and differently sized! No way could they go in the same patio as the stuff already laid. So, we complained to the merchants, the merchants complained to the supplier, and the supplier went hunting around the region to see if he could find some slabs from the original batch. The next day, the word came back 'yes'. That was the 3rd May. They finally turned up another two weeks later, and at least this time they match. The merchants (apart from the initial cock-up) have been OK, so it's half-marks to BPS. Bradstone, however, get nil points. Five weeks to correctly deliver some pre-cut stone from Derby is, frankly, crap.

So, between rainy days, Don has been getting on with what other bits of garden he can - meaning our new deck and pergola. On the remaining day of last weekend I spent about 6 hours painting the pergola with some wood protection stuff, and one evening I installed the liner and pump for our pebbly water feature. Since then, we haven't needed much pumping to generate a water feature since it's been resolutely chucking it down... Hopefully, we'll get the patio finished this week, and then I can tie up the last bits of painting and plug together the electrics.

Anyway, no-one reads this stuff except to hear about Jessica, so I'll tell you that she's looking much better. She's gaining weight (up to around 8.5lb) and we had our first smile last weekend. We've bought her reusable nappies - half from a local company, half at the NEC Baby Show - I'll probably write about that sometime later. I'll see if I can upload some new photos too. TTFN...