Water. H20. You miss it when it's gone.

We have had an ongoing problem whereby the water pressure in the house is not always high enough to fill the tank in the roof. This means that there's no water upstairs at all -- hot or cold -- and you can't even flush the toilets.

So a local handyman came up with a solution involving a second tank and a pump. He rigged up the prototype to see if it worked and now we have a big plastic tank and a little whizzy pump in our back hall. The tank upstairs doesn't run dry anymore so now we need to set this temporary little arrangement in a more permanent manner.

Sally's dad went into a nursing home while we were away. This is sad but also a bit of a relief as caring for him was taking it's toll on everyone. He seems happy there but it's still an institution no matter what way you look at it.

At the other end of the human lifecycle, we have thrown away our contraception having decided to have another child. At least I know what 2004 will most likely hold for me now. Deliberately not using contraception is a bit weird. Paddy was planned too so we've done this before, but I don't remember it. Once we'd decided to do this it took a while for us to get around to the physical act because somehow a drunken or other casual fuck didn't seem right. It became a big deal. Needless to say, we got over it and now we're at it like rabbits!