The latest member of "The Family"

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A new company of Chimney-Sweeps came to my house to clean the chimney-pipe.

As you can imagine ... they wanted to earn some "extra" money, on top of the €30 for just cleaning the pipe.

They "claimed" to have found a bird's-nest in the chimney ( - it's also possible that they put it there themselves !). They cleaned out the nest, and then they told me that I really needed to have a new "cap' put on the top of the chimney to prevent this from happening again. The new cap cost €150.

Now I don't feel *so* bad, because this cap should probably have been fitted to the top of the  chimney 16 years ago when I bought this house, but I really wonder if I've been tricked or not. 

Still, I wish a warm welcome to the *latest* member of my "family" - a new Chimney-pot.

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Another guitar-player joined the band last week, and I'm *really* pleased.

I like his playing style, and I had more fun at the rehearsal last week than I've had in the rehearsals in the past *year*.

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I'm making arrangements to go back to Britain for a one-week-holiday at Easter.

2 months ago I asked my friends in Britain if I could visit them during my trip ... and *all* of them said that the dates of my trip were "inconvenient".

It's possible then that I'll be spending the entire week at the home of  my elderly Aunt, and I'll be going out during the day to the museums, the shops, the banks (!), the bars, the restaurants, etc *all by myself*.

At least it'll be a good chance for me to read some books, and I'll be able to do the things that *I* want to do.

Although you can be sure that after my one-week-stay, my Aunt will be *desperate* for me to leave, so that she can get back to her usual quiet life.

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I drank a bottle of wine last night for the first time in *years* ... and I've had a terrible hang-over **all day**.

 - It doesn't matter how old we become ... we **always** remain stupid, and we **never** learn.

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A friend at the office bought his wife an electronic-drum-kit last Christmas, and he's asked me to go to his house sometime to give her some lessons.

I'm not really looking forward to this ... I don't think that I'll be a good teacher.

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