Stress Free Zone

I am informed by the builders that this is the last day of mess! As I am writing this there is a fog of dust in the air as they remove a ceiling and install a steel in the room beneath me. The whole house (apart from one room) has been disrupted as I store the contents of the three rooms they are working on. Friends have been lovely inviting me over for lunch and excursions out and yesterday I treated myself to a day of shopping and bought two pairs of trousers and three tops!

I am beginning to get excited as apparently the new kitchen should be finished in three weeks.

I was sorting through some old papers this week and came across something someone once gave me on ''Stress Management and Ways of dealing With Burdens in Life' (though I have to admit that the whole experience of this building work has been comparatively stress free!)

• Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days you are the statue.


• Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.


• Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.


• Never put both your feet in your mouth at the same time because you won't have a leg to stand on.


• When everything's coming your way you are in the wrong lane.


• You may be only one person in the world but you may also be the world to one person.


• Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.


• We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colours but they all have to live in the same box.


• A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.


• The second mouse gets the cheese.


• It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.


• Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

I hope some of these have made you smile. Pass them on to anyone you think would appreciate them.

Whilst writing this I have just had a phone call from my daughter who is on holiday in Thailand for five weeks and tells me she has some amazing photos. In the absence of any other photos, here she is, camera in hand.