What's a girl to do?

I STRIVE to be well turned out when I show up at the office. Today, however, was a job in itself to do just that.

I got home last night to a bombsite .... that's what I get for leaving husband on half-term kid duty.The breakfast dishes remained where they had been put that very morning, the wet washing had developed an interestingly close relationship with the machine it was in, reluctant to move over to the tumble dryer, toys were scattered across the length and breadth of every room and a film of dust covered every single thing that had lain still for the past eight hours.

There was, however, a very simple explanation for this pandemonium ...... the boiler had packed in resulting in no heating and more importantly - no hot water. So before I could pull one of my finest "What the heck ......???" faces, I was met with a husband whose head was firmly set among the wiry contents of that big white box on the wall in the utility room.

The thing whose pretty green dial I constantly crank up to "three-o-clock" in order for me to parade round the house in the middle of winter sporting just the smaller items of my wardrobe. I do get told to cover up and put a jumper on, but where's the fun in that?

So, while getting stuck into a sinkful of cold water washing up, I was thinking about the new day ahead - hair wash day. There was absolutely no way I could turn up for work sporting an unkempt barnet. I couldn't possibly. I had to put contingency plans into operation ....

I suppose I could get up early and use the showers at the gym I joined during the summer. I mean, my £29 a month doesn't get me anything else since I haven't been through the doors since September so perhaps I should get my money's worth in hot water and soap suds. But then, it would mean me going out in public with no make-up applied. Tricky one, that.

No .... there was a better idea. Get mum and dad out of bed before their alarm clock goes off to open up their lovely warm bathroom for me. It was like old times, think my mum quite liked me being there first thing in the morning again. And I liked it too in equal amounts. Dad had a coffee waiting for when I came out and we enjoyed our usual bit of playful banter.

This new part of a my daily regime is shortlived, however, as we - thanks to a very handy husband - are now back in the cosy land of central heating. I just hope he's done the housework by the time I get in tonight ......

Some women are just never happy!