My folks have come visiting today and I’ve tripped myself on another of life’s banana skins. They have been holding off from visiting because they’ve been trying to give us time to finish the kitchen before they came. We have cut it to the wire because we’re installing the new sink today so that we can use the kitchen properly for the first time in a week……well, make that month…..er OK – three months actually.

So, they were instructed to arrive “late” in the day to give us chance to get the sink in and working before they arrived. Ha ha – good joke that turned out to be. They arrived, as requested, at 5pm. Were we ready? Like hell we were. Both of us were covered in grot, the sink was in place, though no actual plumbing had been done and it wasn’t fixed down or in fact of any use to man or beast. There was no water of any description (hot or cold) in the house so we couldn’t even make them a cup of tea after their journey. Fortunately for us, Mum took charge of going to the annex to make us all tea.

By 6.30pm, it was obvious it wasn’t going to get finished so I recommended we retreat to the pub, allowing us four pleasures – getting to speak to Mum and Dad without stress, a hot meal, spending some nice time with the dogs and (perhaps most importantly) the ability to drown our sorrows over a pint or three of Doom Bar. It’s amazing how much better the situation seems when you reflect on it after a few beers.

Rosie and Archie got spoiled to death by Marcia as always and we had a lovely time.

The only downside is that tomorrow, we still have to fix and plumb the new sink before we can have any water. I'm worried that DM and I will be over ripe before we get the supply switched back on!

These bananas, over ripe as they are, will have to wait until tomorrow before being made into another banana cake!