This is the happy hour of the day.  (I wrote pleasure first but then realised than a million publicans and bar owners throughout the world have already invented a happy hour)
The day time is over.   I have done some work, discovered some new things, done a few puzzles.    Because it has been raining I have taken no exercise.  Now it is dark and the evening cometh.  There are no further commitments  no bridge, no meetings, nothing.  All I have to do is feed the dog, make/enjoy supper, and watch tv or read a book (I'm only pretending  I don't do that anymore) and play scrabble with distant friends.  Life is good.

This picture is nothing to do with a glass of wine.  It's a picture of Dudley checking his camera in Egypt and it's very cruel of me to upload it.

Ben is in Brazil (where they had that terrible fire and all those young people died  and Cara and Jake and Reuben are about to go to Egypt (where they had those terrible riots and so many young people have died)   Though I know realistically that each event is far from where they are or are going, it's still alarming to  hear the local juxtaposition.

I have just completed the January chore of completing my tax return.   It's always a huge relief when it's done- and in the process of it I realise how disordered my life is.    I have this dream that one day my life will be totally ordered.  The easy way to do it would be to have a cleaner,  accountant  and gardener.-- but then i wouldn''t have any money to spend on holidays, family, and glasses of wine.

We really enjoyed our trip down the Nile.  D had now decided that we should sell our house and spend the money on many more trips and holidays.  Well yes. my position is that if we manage to de-clutter- and it will take at least 2 years, then I'll consider it- but how can we downsize when we have rooms and rooms and boxes and shelves and drawers full of things .    I am still working on the drawers (see Jan 1st or whenever it was. )  2 down and 631 to go. Does anyone want a perfectly working satellite box?  200 old New Statesmen?  6 drawers of partly used but still serviceable cosmetics?  Any of 6 combs?  1960s and 70s folk song books? 4 old cameras?  A box of assorted labels?   Two large Fortnum and Mason boxes of Christmas decorations ?    No actually they might all prove useful one day .  The nightmare scenario is that we both get run over by a bus (did you see that ghastly tandem accident in Bristol yesterday) and our rapacious children just hire 3 skips (dumpsters) and throw away our hard hoarded treasures.    I used to collect ducks and china houses- now I've boxed them waiting for someone to say they too collect ducks or houses so that they can go to a good home.

I've very nearly finished my glass of wine now- Dudley is in the kitchen making supper.  I'll start trying to upload some Egyptian photos to this website somewhere soon.

We are in Aswan but will not be going down to the Dams. This morning we walked through the agora passing dozens of people keen to make our acquaintance but we resisted their charms and have ended up very comfortably here using the hotels wifi to find out how deep the snow is at home. We think we'd rather be here. Sorry.

I have just spent 30 hours without accessing the internet, this is very hard for me.   We are in the hot sun (well actually early dusk) of the Lower Kingdom of Egypt.  Today we saw Karnak and Luxor and lots of Tourists and attentive Egyptians who long to help us and carry our bags or sell us book marks or old english (or german) newspapers.
Of course Egypt is atonishingly beautiful and the culture it promoted 3000 years ago is staggering.   Last night we were entertained by a belly dancer.  I marvelled at her firm flesh and flexible middle though I wondered at her excessive make up.  I watched her fascinatedly for 25 minutes.  This morning at breakfast our worldy wise shipmates told us she was a lady boy. 

At Karnak D pointed out the sleeping dogs.  There were 4 of them, totally realxed at key points on various parts of the temple.  They woke up politely if tourist offered them food.

D& I are nesting in our room at Gatwick before catching a plane tomorrow morning. We will probably be out of wifi for the next 8 days. I am worried because I'm not sure how I can cope with it. I have spent the last hour preparing my legs for daylight. Also there is always the nagging doubt about Bens 7 nights of partying. Actually I hope he does have people over, there is so much food in the fridge that either he will put on weight or it will be wasted.

Crispin has been nominated for an Oscar. Never has the whole family been so keen to express our relationship to him. If he wins we'll have to have some sort of family reunion Oscar party. Actually maybe we ought to have a family reunion Oscar nomination event.?

I have made a New Year Resolution:  I am going to sort out one drawer or box each day.  

This is a massive task.

 There are 52 drawers around me in the study- and if I add boxes, which are really varieties of drawers, then there are another 19.  Then there must be 20 or so in the kitchen and 50 or more in the bedroom- they include mixed up make up drawers, medicine containers, all kinds of things which are in a complete muddled chaos.  Dudley has inspired me in this by yesterday sorting out his sock drawer.

The danger is that I shall sort them by shunting most of the contents onto another drawer/box.  I shall get out our huge laundry hamper for collecting the residues.

Finally integrated them all...after hours and hours of fiddling. The key didn't live in the cloud or even in google. It lay in noticing that when you added an entry you could also identify the calendar you add it to. Simples