This weekend has been a series of ups and downs, at the end of which I find myself feeling up, if tired.

Though I have a sneaking suspicion that I should be feeling down instead (and that is unlike me as my general personality is �realistic optimist�, not �annoying pessimist� � and that is the topic of another entry that I thought I had written before, but it turns out I haven�t, so it will have to go on the agenda).

Ah-hem. Anyway, the pros and cons discovered over this weekend:

Pro: My heavy, fast spinning washing machine is beautifully balanced and capable of spinning without making so much noise my neighbours want to kill me.

Con: My washing machine gets halfway through its cycle, to the point where the clothes are clean but at their most water-logged, and then triggers the circuit-breaker in my apartment turning off all the power. I try a couple more times and it does the same thing. At this point I stop, not least because I am at the time watching an episode of Red Cap in which one of the characters gets electrocuted and I immediately start contemplating the horrors of living alone and the fact that, Bridget Jones/Miranda Hobbs-style, I may not be found for weeks. The good news on this is that I own neither cat nor dog, so when I am found no animal will have eaten my face for want of feeding.

Pro: My heater works really well, as having been wrung out by hand and put in front of it, my clean clothes took only 48 hours to go from completely saturated to pretty much dry, even my track pants.

Con: I am so busy at work that I do not have time to write this entry, or stay home for half a day to get the electrician and/or washing machine guy out to solve the problem.

Pro: There is a Laundromat two minutes walk from the apartment. And the work I am very busy with is good interesting work.

Con: I have no coins with which to but the Laundromat to use.

Con: Having not broken a single wine glass � mine of anyone else�s � for at least 8 or 9 years, in the last week and a half I have broken two. Both mine, both new. Though, I am beginning to suspect the fault might be more that of the glasses than of my clumsiness.

Con: We picked Saturday � the coldest, wettest, windiest day in 6 years � to clean out the garage at our old house and fill a skip with debris.

Pro: I then spent a beautiful and sunny winter Sunday afternoon sitting in the beer garden of a pub having a few quiet ones with Sooze, the Jacket Swinger, and some other friends.

I suspect it might be the last one that left me on an �up�.

And now, back to work.