Champagne.

The year started boding well with a couple of bottles of champagne in the fridge left by the guests that had stayed over Christmas and the New Year as a 'Thank You'. A bottle of Bollinger and a bottle of Taittinger, I kid you not. 'Taittinger was the Queen Mother's favourite' remarked His Lordship as he studied an empty magnum of Don Perignon 2000. 'Any more riveting snippets of useful information' I query. 'Place a conker in every corner of every room of the house' he retorts, 'keeps the spiders away'. He's got an answer for everything.

Mind you I'm feeling jolly pleased with myself today. I've re-positioned the computer in a room that now boasts two sets of French windows, one leading onto a balcony and one leading onto a terrace with a window in between. It didn't come easily mind, I had to persuade His Lordship and friend to knock a wall down yesterday thus making the most marvellous space between kitchen and living area. In the mornings we get the sun streaming in and the open fire in the kitchen makes the open plan theme eminently livable and agreeable. At least everyone else thinks so except you know who who muttered the word 'bedsit' under his breath as we all sat covered in brick dust and clutched a large glass of red. There then proceeded to be an exchange of opinion, a tiff even, a full blown row. 'You wouldn't know a bedsit if it jumped up and bit you on the nose' I blazed. For someone who has only just accepted that it is okey to actually eat in the kitchen and for years suggests that 'kitchen suppers' are a cop out by people too idle or mean to heat or clean their dining rooms the ding dong quickly cleared my newly created open space as people scurried off to their rooms seeking tranquillity.


I've been half heartedly taking down the decorations both in my open plan apartment and the more formal Le Chateau but in between bouts of wrestling with baubles and tinsel and under the clever guise of pretending to work I can indulge in one of my more favourite occupations of gazing out of the copious windows. I can't help but notice however that my inbox keeps filling up with enquiries, an extraordinary amount under the circumstances and I wonder if the bottles of champagne wouldn't be better off stored in the fridge.