Domestic help...

... is a mainstay of Chateau Wordsmith. Our previous cleaner quit a few weeks back after 5 years of service - we were sorry to see her go as she was so damn good at keeping the chaos at bay and doing the ironing. She left following a health scare and a carpe diem revelation so we totally understood why she wanted to live for the moment. She is a good friend too and we still see her for coffee.

Our new cleaner has been here a month. She's pretty good, but no matter how often I tell her not to disturb me while I'm working she keeps popping her head round the door of my office to chat. It's driving me nuts. I was interrupted twice this morning for trivial reasons after I'd specifically said no interruptions for any reason except emergencies. I was deep into proofreading the polyamory book, which needed a lot of concentration. Especially as I was marking up corrections in PDF format, which I'm still getting used to - I've had Acrobat for a year or so, but don't use it very often for mark-ups so it's a learning curve.

I finally managed to convince the cleaner to wait until I took a break, but I can see I'm going to have to have a "little chat" with her tomorrow.

Anyway, the proofreading is done and has been returned already. I've caught up with The Archers again and now I need to start invoicing clients.

And some good news. My sister passed her Hebrew A Level this morning at B grade! It might not seem that important in the great scheme of things but those close to me and mine know what a massive achievement this is for her under extremely difficult circumstances. I am so proud of her.