Today has been a productive day although not in the dissertation sense. I managed to get all the washing done and dried so now it's in piles in the spare room waiting to be ironed. I took my dad around on his errands this morning, which took an hour but he bought me a puzzle book as thanks so I didn't mind. Then when I got home I found that the council had sent one of the application forms I asked for so I filled that in then sorted out my application to CILIP, got the whole lot printed, put in enveloped and posted off. I should be getting two more forms to fill in this week, sooner rather than later I hope.

Unfortunately, this afternoon I noticed that there was a huge crack in the wall above my bed, which has got worse as the evening has progressed and the plaster is sagging quite badly now. Dad reckoned there was no way to fix it and the whole wall would have to be reskimmed but I stood my ground, backed up by my mum, and said that if I pulled the loose bits off I could easily replaster the whole and paint it up again. I've done it before on a smaller scale when a huge lump of blutack pulled an egg-sized piece of plaster out of the same wall about two years ago. I fixed up the coving that was departing from an adjacent wall at the same time so I reckon I should be able to do this. I'm gonna take the piece of plaster with the paint on to B&Q to get it colour matched cos they don't do the same colour paint anymore and I had to mix my own with acrylic paint and water last time to get a near match.

A very sad thing happened today too. My uncle's mum died in her sleep last night. We knew that she had some heart problems but she was waiting for test results to see if she could have an operation to fix them. She's not been well on and off for the past few years but I really can't believe she's gone. She was such an active and vibrant person regardless of the medical problems she had. I feel so bad for my uncle and aunt because they, and the rest of us, aren't over losing my grandad yet so this muct have been a real blow for my uncle. Also, they were planning on going down to Canvey Island, where that part of their family lives, for a wedding this coming weekend. I can't imagine how I'd feel on my wedding day if I'd lost my nan the week before. Sleep well Dot...