The Five XI: I'll ask the questions, you give me the answers

1. On some introspection I have decided that I don't dislike spiders. Especially small harmless ones. What I do dislike are the cobwebs. They are all over our balcony furniture the second the weather turns warm and nothing but nothing will dissuade the pesky spiders from spinning them. Any home remedies that do not include the words 'spider catcher' or 'squash with slippers' most welcome.

2. In true Luddite fashion I got an iphone 4 about 24 hours before the iphone 5 was announced. Of course I am not using the iphone as anything but a phone, disappointingly. It will take me the 18 months of contract time to download anything useful or blog from it. And the pictures I am taking from it are seriously dsappointing after my previous Sony Ericson camera phone thing. I am looking for some good childrens apps and not necessarily the educational number alphabet nursery rhyme kind. Suggestions please.

3. After dus saal ka service my beautiful leather filofax has given up the ghost. My mum gifted it to me and although the diary and notes pages are regularly replace the main contents of pictures and other random things are constant, the build-up like a mini-time capsule of my time. I could probably superglue it back but I think with all the beautiful modern design ones now available I shall take up the opportunity and replace it once a decade. And before you ask it, the answer is no, I will not be using my iphone as my organiser. I just dump my filofax in my bag, its heft reassuring and my handwriting getting some meagre practice.Also I like the feel of paper and pen thank you very much.

4. I am about to update my very out of date blogroll. I am removing the bottom 6 according to when they last blogged and replacing them with ones that regularly blog and I regularly read. Any suggestions for blogs I should be reading or if you think I should have you on there, are most welcome. If it's you I am removing and you think that might have jolted you into writing again then yay! but please let me know so I don't knock you off.

5. Am doing masses of things with small child, buggy, snacks, changing bag, travelcard and friends. My feet ache ache ache. ache. I need a good footsoak recipe, something easy like chuck salt in a hot tub and soak feet for 10 minutes and rainbows will appear sorts. Anyone??

Kitchen Confidential - 9

1. A 'reveal' so long in the making that all very bored parties have left the stadium.

2. As pristine as this looks in the picture, the truth is it is covered in all our stuff again.

3. I love this kitchen. It's not to everyones taste but it most certainly is exactly what I planned (except for the fact that it has no island!) and imagined it would look like.

4. To me the combination of chunky solid wood worktop, travatine floor & wall tiles, up & down lighters and shiny black units is just the right combination of sleek, soft, warm, bright and ultimately functional.

5. That's a new microwave, induction hob (which means we needed to invest in induction friendly pots and pans - yet another mortgage!) and cooker hood in the appliance section.

6. The doorway opening up has meant that the corner unit is now a curved one. I love that curved bit of the worktop best of all.

7. The new fixed sideboard on the opposite side of the main counter replaced a free-standing sideboard in a vaguely matching colour to the old light brown cupboards. We have additional cupboards above and two shelves near the open doorway. Strangely all this extra storage makes the kitchen look/ feel bigger even though it takes up more air space. The old sideboard is serving time as clothes dresser in our childs room.

8. I love my black sink. Simply love it.

9. I fleetingly wondered about the day we have to leave this house. Will new owners love it as much as us? Or will renters ruin the surfaces and mistreat it?

10. Then I stopped wondering and started cooking. Instead of worrying about the future, for now I'm just loving it. The End.