Great PR balls-up story in the paper today.The head of public relations for FEMA (thankless job) apparently staged a press conference about the California fires and got agency staff to pose as reporters.

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Was out on the Town Lake trail this morning, ambling along with Storm while Erik went for a run. We spotted him heading back towards us and crossed to the other side of the path. Some fat old bloke was ahead of Erik, half-running, half airing out his belly. Storm stopped to give a blade of grass an intense sniffing and fat bloke saw us but didn’t slow down. He pushed passed us and as he went by wheezed ‘walkers should be on the left’.

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We went to see a solicitor yesterday to get our wills done. The good news is that Erik will never kill me for financial gain. Unless he turns very stupid. We spent pretty much the whole meeting discussing what would happen in the event of Erik’s death (I get the dog and the cash) or in the event of us dying together (the dog goes to a friend and brothers, sisters and charities get the cash). It was interesting to sit there and realise the relative insignificance of my death, financially at least. I still have a few more years to make my lasting impact on the world and any achievement will be all the greater the older I get. Still smoking and drinking wine daily at age 98? What an incredible woman.

We were also asked to note down any personal items that we might want to leave to specific individuals, either things of high value or of particular significance to others. So I’ve been wandering around our place looking at my stuff and wondering who the hell might want it. Apparently, it can help to figure this out if you think about what items you might grab if there was a fire and you had to leave in a hurry. My most treasured belongings, aside from all things husband and dog related is my Queen memorabilia - the band, not the Head of State, although I do have a Silver Jubilee tea-towel and mug stuffed in a drawer somewhere. Admittedly this is rather a sad indictment of my life and also suggests that I wouldn’t be very efficient in a fire, lugging around my Queen Box set with pristine vinyl copies of every Queen album every recorded and binders of the quarterly Queen fan club magazine that spans 17 years. When I was staying at my mum’s last month she wanted me to go through her jewellery and choose any pieces I might like so I could enjoy them before her death. This seemed rather an unpleasant idea to me, and suggests that she might actually die, which I’m in complete denial about, though it wasn’t quite as bad as her suggestion that my brother could also select some pieces which he could then sell for a bit of cash. My other valued possession is my wedding dress, but I was planning on being cremated in this in a ghoulish and not really Miss Haversham tribute. Anyway, I’m thinking of inviting a few people over to have a sort of pre-death house clearance. Anything you fancy, just let me know. Though I should warn you that most of the good stuff is Erik’s.