A Better Day

Indeed a much better day all round. This morning on the radio someone informed me that I didn't have to beware for another year, because the Ides of March had passed! As I'm not called Julius Caesar I hadn't realised I should beware, but it made me smile anyway.
After breakfast a delightful resident rang to thank me for something I'd done - a fairly small thing for me but it had obviously meant a great deal to her. That's one of the joys of being a councillor - just occasionally being able to make a real difference to someone.
A cold but dry morning meant that I could finish off the delivery of Focus without being too frozen, and could feel virtuous about how many steps I'd walked before lunch.
Then it was off to the FairTrade Borough Steering Group meeting where it was confirmed that we have now reached our target for retail and catering outlets. Great news and we were all delighted that the application would go in by the end of the month. We talked with enthusiasm of ways to spread the membership of the steering group and to have the councillors and officers step back a little from directing things. We even started to suggest ideas of activities over the next 12 months. That was followed by a meeting with the catering manager of the Resource Centre to discuss widening the range of products they sell. They're having a vote at the moment for which recipe they're going to enter in the Fairtrade recipe competition. Anyone who's in Newtown in the next week or so - drop in, sample their excellent cooking and vote for your favourite (Vegetable Biryani or Mississippi Mud Pie or Pineapple, Mango and Orange Smoothie ...mmm)
Some time spent with colleagues discussing things that need doing in the ward, a bit of software installation on someone's computer and then home to cook tea. By this time it was damp as well as cold, so I was glad to get back into the warm house for the evening. Even more happy when the post didn't contain any unpleasant surprises and the answerphones didn't have any difficult messages.