Saturday night - alone (ish)

The Boss and I usually go out for dinner on a Saturday night in a desperate attempt to wind down after another frantic week of work.

But she and our daughter are some 7,000 miles and 8 time-zones away at a family wedding happening next week on a Pacific beach, whilst the boys and I are having a even madder time trying to do everything we all need to do, and keep the house in some kind of tidy order.

So the boys and I went out for an early - and relaxing - dinner, and as they finish off their games on the computers and get chased up to bed, I'm sitting here wondering if the Skype will ring and I will be blinded by the mid-afternoon sunshine from the Sunshine State.

It seems so strange to be without her company during the brief leisure time we normally spend together.

I'm keeping busy with the laundry, ironing and bits of work I shouldn't really be doing, but it really isn't the same.

Right. Boys to bed. Read the papers. An early night. Tomorrow the boys are learning to cook a chilli, which is a meal that they really love and which they have demanded. I'll need all my strength to clean the kitchen after the boys are finished.

And before they get back I also need to clear the vast Lego armies of clone troopers and imperial troopers versus pirates and Indiana Jones types that are marching across the sitting room......