The UK is currently experiencing a rare phenomenon: we have sunshine and temperatures above 20 °c. I usually don't take the dog 'up the park' especially in winter, as it gets too muddy. I usually walk Charlie around the town in the morning. He likes it because, if he's lucky, the local butcher gives him some turkey, and we also meet all his regular friends. While heading back home yesterday, we walked past the entrance to our local park. Because we'd set out earlier than usual, I figured I had enough time left before I needed to head to work and could let him walk around the park off the lead.

Sticky NotesMy third job after leaving school was as a Tea Broker. If truth be told, I wasn't really one; I'd bluffed my way into it, having been employed as a trainee tea broker in my previous employment. My job entailed selling half-chests of tea.

Ping @skyleap Are you still creating avatars? You've done a couple of mine, and I was wondering if you could do a St Patrick's Day one. Obviously, I'll reimburse you.

While you can buy doors from DIY shops, you need to go to a dedicated door shop if you want something nice. Bridgtown Doors is not a million miles from us, and it's pretty much the go-to location for doors in the surrounding area. An indication of its popularity is the fact that having bought two doors and all the fittings, when the wife asked when they could fit them, the guy behind the counter replied: "January." JANUARY! Are you having a laugh? We can't wait until January. Apparently, they have five fitters, and they were all fully booked until the end of January. He did offer to put us on a cancellation list in the hope someone might change their install date, thus freeing up a fitter, but I didn't hold much hope.

"Sixty-seven quid? I like that price!" The wife looked at me with that look that has taken wives years to perfect: Why did I marry you? No, it wasn't sixty-seven pounds, it was sixty-seven packs! What the hell! I'm not tiling the house, you know. Sixty-seven packs are a lot of tiles. The woman designer made a sweeping gesture with her hand. "They've got to tile up the wall." yeah, but not right to the ceiling, and we've got wall-mounted cupboards. image source Clutching my wallet and staggering backwards, I realised that at £13.42 (the price at the time), it would cost me £899.14 just for the tiles, let alone the grout and the sealer. With moist eyes, I fed my credit card into the machine while the wife dreamed of saucepans and knife blocks.