Still, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  I am planning to finish today, which will leave me four days to re-read and re-write if necessary.  I’m trying not to think about Assignment: Baby which I ended up having to rewrite in its entirety in six days earlier this year – that was not a good week - and since I have several other things to do next week, I’m hoping things won’t be so bad this time.  I have been dreaming about all the things I will do once the book is sent off, like put my garden to bed for the winter and clear out the understairs cupboard so that getting out the laundry basket doesn’t bring down a cascade of Hoovers, stepladders, light bulbs, garden chairs, shoe polishes (mostly unused, I loathe cleaning my shoes) and an assortment of empty cardboard boxes which I put in there thinking they will come in useful for sending presents and then forget all about come Christmas.  Not that I ever do these things.  The impulse to clean and tidy evaporates the moment I have the time to do it, and besides, I’ll have a lot of other much more important things to do, like shopping and sloping out for drinks to catch up on all the gossip I’ve missed this last month.  And reply to those of you who’ve emailed me since the beginning of November – I’m sorry it’s taken me so long, but I will get back to you a.s.a.p.!