Green-fingered

Meet Alex, one of the roving gardeners on the books of the Eastern European painting, decorating, plastering, tiling, gardening consortium whose dropped-in-the-letterbox flyer was such a cut above the competition that I knew at once I'd be getting in touch with them. I made contact yesterday, and Irene told me either Alex or Vlad would be with me between 8.00 and 9.00 am. I described what I wanted done (front garden weeded, back garden grass cut), she quoted 36 euro per hour plus an extra 10 euro per bag to take away the resulting rubbish.

Alex arrived at 8.50 and finished just before 5.00. What a worker! It was all I could do to get him to take a break around 11.30 for coffee and biscuits and another one around 3.00 for more coffee and sandwiches. He did a brilliant job, and my 'gardens' are no longer a source of disappointment for me or the neighbours. The final bill was quite hefty, but it was worth it in the end. I'll be back in touch with this crowd to get some handyman-type jobs done. For sure.

It's unfair to say that I was as tired as Alex by the time he went, but I could certainly feel the after-effects of only a very few hours sleep, so nipped to bed for a quick nap before surfacing again at 7.30 for a bite to eat before settling down to watch Atonement on DVD. What an experience! The book is so wonderful that I wasn't at all convinced that it could be successfully turned into a film, especially since so much of the original involves Briony's over-active imagination and is heavily interiorised. But this magnificent film succeeded beyond my wildness dreams. Everything about it is superb, from direction to cinematography to acting to screenplay to music. A wonderfully intelligent and deeply affecting cinematic experience. After last night's WALL-E disappointment, Atonement gets a resounding 10/10 (12 if I could).

And now, finally, I'm back up to date. It's been my worst Blip week yet in terms of falling behind, what with one thing and another diverting my focus, but I've finally got there (including yesterday back-blipped).