Operation Share Flat With Daddy MonkeyPie is going quite well. These things generally do because MonkeyPie Snr and Jnr are quite similar in many ways. Apart from the characteristics inherited from Mrs MonkeyPie, which infuriate MonkeyPie Snr to no end. Certain 'looks', a tenacious stubborn streak and an unwillingness to co-operate when wronged comparable only to a cow resolutely determined to not go down those stairs.

Anyway, yesterday saw the beginning of the seasonal backgammon tournament (called tric trac or tavli over here) with me flexing my withered strategy muscles and dusting my dice luck to a spectacular conclusion where I was fairly annihilated 5 games to none. My ego wounded, we moved onto Piquet (a card game no one else in the world apart from MonkeyPie Inc seem to play). Which I promptly lost at as well.

Nevermind. I'd made my favourite dish of baked aubergines so dinner cheered me up no end. Followed by a late night excursion to the cinema to see The Crystal Skulls film which was quite disappointing. Especially as a die hard Indy fan. This stems a little from MonkeyPie Snr looking like Harrison Ford's double, if a little less bulky and a lot more international. It wasn't up to par to the old ones which were lot more charming in their unbelievable conclusions, this one was just plain silly.

The flat is cleaner than it's ever been thanks to the meticulous scrubbing action of a toothbrush. I kid ye not- an actual toothbrush. Kim and Aggie would smile beatifically within these four walls. Happy and at peace with their bleach.

I've spent the last day trying to design drainage levels for a warehouse I'm in charge of. It's trickier than it sounds, especially when your plot is the shape of a bucket. Finally cracked it today and I've spent the last hour drawing pretty elevations and sections to show the undulations of the earth below and where my happy backfilling will be. At the moment, pretty much everywhere....

Right! Off to lunch... perhaps I'll treat myself. Have a tomato in my salad. Good times! I should, really, be looking like skeletor by now but my damn amazonian tendencies just won't budge. With or without tomato.