Miss M is obsessed with boys at the moment. There are a couple of boys she’s keen on at school, and she wavers between the two of them depending on what day it is. Suddenly she’s also very interested in helping me find a boyfriend, despite many previous occasions where she’s declared any man who comes into my life will be chased away … by her.

Her first plan was almost a year ago now - I’ve forgotten the exact date, and I’m annoyed with myself because I should’ve written it down. I’d had lunch with my friend Stephen, someone I’ve known for years - I met him the day before I started chemotherapy, so that makes it about thirteen years. Miss M likes him, mainly because he’s just as nuts as she is. After he’d left, she made it clear she’d be happy for me to have Stephen as a special friend. At least, she gave me a subtle signal, in the form of the following piece of paper.

I’d just like to add it’s taken me more than forty five minutes to upload this photograph, but the whole post was worthless without it, so it was either do it, or … find something else to write about.
Miss M's plan for me to find lerv

Anyway, over the weekend we were shooting the breeze, and out of the blue, Miss M said:
“Next Thursday night, we’re going to put on pretty dresses, go down to the pub and find you a boyfriend”

After I’d recovered my composure, I suggested maybe the pub wasn’t really the place for me to meet someone, and possibly my chances of picking up would be effected by the presence of my eight year old child. Undeterred, she told me if anyone was interested in me, she’d be happy to “step off”. She also mentioned I wasn’t meeting anyone at work or anywhere else, and I can’t deny her logic.

So on Thursday night, I’m going to have to find an excuse to not go to the pub with my under ten year old daughter, and I can picture in my mind exactly what’s going to happen, which is she’ll go absolutely go nuts, and I’ll have to come up with the best evasive tactics of my entire life. At least I’ve got three days to work out what they’ll be.

Today I’m loving: the panniers I put on my bike on Friday, which required ingenious installation, but are way better than I could’ve hoped. Riding without a backpack is sweeeet!