As someone who never kept a diary I'm now discovering an unsuspected benefit of blogging: I can go to the archive and find out what was on my mind this time last year. Then, it turns out, I was finishing a book and looking forward to clearing my desk. Right now I'm clearing my desk and looking forward to starting a new book. So now I know, best time to catch me with my kit in good order is mid-summer.

This week my Projects in Progress file has continued to shrink at an astonishing rate. I feel like I suddenly emerged into clear blue water. Why yesterday morning when Mr F and I applied for our new swipeable travel cards we only encountered one glitch: we'd used the wrong form. Of course we had. So I leaned on his back to fill in the correct form, then he leaned on mine and we were stamped, filed and out of there in under ten minutes. Phew. I really wanted to get that one ticked off the list, because August 1st this town closes. I know I've said it before, Liberation Day, May Day, Any Other Old Feast Day, yadda yadda, but this time I'm talking about the whole month of August. Closed. Chiuso. Capisce?

Our favorite breakfast bar is shuttered till September. Likewise the shops where I get balsamic vinegar, candles and photocopies. By the skin of my teeth I retrieved my trousers from Trouser-Shortening Lady and got a hair cut appointment. Now we can look forward to four weeks in a ghost town. A kind of Tombstone, AZ with flooded streets.

Today, with that devil-may-care attitude of a person who has whole areas of her desk now accessible to a duster, I'm out to lunch AND dinner. Way too much socialising for this baby but what can you do. When friends are in town you have to grab the opportunity and see them. Tomorrow, I dust.