Easter, more gardening

This weekend is unusually holiday-like for the Kiwi and me. The past few weeks have been unusually hectic, with the Kiwi's dad's 60th birthday going on last weekend and planning and execution of those plans taking up a bit of time. Well worth it though - what a weekend. So amid all the job-hunting and so on, we're taking these four days to actually have a break. I know it sounds a bit rubbish, given that we don't tend to actually do much during the week, but I think it's more that we're having a break from the constant stress of it all, knowing that there's nothing we can do about it over this weekend.



So I have been tending to our garden. It's been going a bit mental lately, with the spinach sprouting all over the place and the basil beginning to look a bit weird. I think it might be planning to bolt at some point, so I'm feverishly trying to work out how to inveigle some of it into our cooking plans over the coming days, so I can harvest it without just chucking it away. The lime tree, as I've mentioned, is seeming a little bit overenthusiastic, so I've repotted it and am trying to find out how best to prune things like this to keep it in line. I want it alive at least until it has a chance to fruit.

I've also put out a pot with some rosemary and thyme in it, although I'm not sure how well thyme does outside, particularly with the weather cooling down a bit. We'll see - it's quite sheltered where it is, and the plant seems reasonably mature, so it might make it. We'll have the full Simon & Garfunkel if I can find some sage, but apparently that's a right bugger to grow and it always reminds me spookily of rabbits' ears, so perhaps not.

The mystery tree seems to have gone back to sleep. I think it only likes it when there's tons of sunlight and constant warmth, so it looks like we're back to the 'is it just a dead stick?' phase for a while. Everything else seems to be thriving, especially the parsley, and the chilli plants are looking more promising by the day.

So that's the garden update so far - other highlights of the weekend are an Easter dinner out west tomorrow at which I'm cooking a paella (others are doing other bits), and some sort of networking event at a local wine merchant on Monday night which could be entertaining.

One last note before I go and read the paper or something - I had a truly bizarre dream last night which I'm moved to share with you all. Working back at my old job, my boss had sent me to work at a Virgin Megastore, under the sea. It was laid out like the old Piccadilly store, but was submerged a long way off the coast somewhere. The only customers were terrifically rich people with submarines, so whilst the footfall was quite low, the average spend was massive. My role here was to improve the customer service processes, specifically around the handling of telephone and email complaints. I came up with a few options but the staff involved were highly resistant to change and to be honest, seemed to be managing ok. Working in this store was seen as a really great job for most of the staff, who spent most of their days sitting around listening to music and maintaining their spotless racking and promotion spaces, rarely troubled by customers. I remember looking out of the front window to the parked submarines outside and thinking what a great idea it had been to open a branch under the sea.

I would like to point out though, that this is in no way indicative of my normal thought processes whilst acting as a retail business consultant.