Looking forward to my week off

So, 0 appointments for the husband meant 3 days in the office for me, which was surprisingly tiring. Partly that's a whole extra layer of organisation to get food and so on sorted out to take with me, partly it's being with PEOPLE all day (my introvert's soul shudders at the mere thought), and partly it's walking up hill to get home. But I survived and now I have a whole work-free week ahead of me.

We've booked a table for 2 at Yuet Ben tomorrow. It's one of those places I've walked past my entire life but never actually gone into. So, we're giving it a go! Also on the 'local places I've never been into' bucket list is Zorbas. Maybe next month...

I also have a hair appointment on Wednesday because I haven't had it cut since August what with one thing and another. And we're hoping daughter and grandson #2 will be able to visit in the afternoon.

My actual birthday is Monday and the King has generously given me a Bank Holiday all to myself :D That is the day for lounging around and not doing very much at all. But, in general, I find 'doing nothing' isn't as relaxing as you'd expect it to be. It's quite good to do SOMETHING (clean the living room, cook a meal, go for a walk) and then enjoy being able to sit and relax.

Speaking of finding small jobs to do - the garden could really use some attention. My 'garden task' this year is to find some scented plants - I've poked around a bit on plant websites but haven't got much further and it's already May! So, that's another little job :)

I have, however, spent a chunk of money on some new organic cotton underwear, so I have that to look forward to.

I'm probably going to watch the Coronation from the pov of it being an historic event - and who knows if William will actually take up the throne? However, if there was ever a referendum for abolishing the monarchy I'd vote 'yes'. I'm far from being a staunch republican but I really don't see what benefit they bring. Just singing 'God Save the King' made me twitchy.

There's been a semi-joke circulating in Liverpool for a while that we'd like to break off from England and join Scotland, then support Scottish independence. However, speaking to an actual Scot this week I realised that Scousers might think themselves special but to Scottish nationalists we're still English - which was quite a humbling thought. They also pointed out that the SNP contains the word 'national', and a lot of British people that think well of that party recoil from the BNP, which contains the exact same word.

However, the Green Party have had a really good turn out in the local elections. Still don't know who our new councillors are but I had a 50/50 choice between Labour and Green - and went Green, of course. Apparently, most of the non-Labour parties have been trying to form a pact whereby the strongest candidate (whether Green, Liberal or Independent Party) stood and the others dropped out but the Greens didn't agree to it (perhaps on the basis of it being undemocratic...? I mean, two candidates doesn't really give much of a CHOICE does it? And Greens have Principles!). Anyway, I wonder if the other non-Labour candidates just dropped out on their own. I mean, strategically, it makes sense because otherwise the non-Labour vote gets split - just as the non-Conservative vote gets split on the national level.

We also had the first 'photo ID' voting process of my lifetime. It's just... Voter fraud is a myth. Forcing people to apply for photo ID is disenfranchising - particularly since there was very little publicity about it when people had enough time to apply and by the time the information started really coming through people would have been in a rush. It'll be interesting to see what effect it had.

Well, that's about all for this week. See you on the other side!