The birthday girls are ordering.....

Lucy is definitely her mother's daughter. The pre-ordering of birthday presents has begun from both parties. The countdown to the most expensive week of the year in the Hammond house has begun. October will bring Amy and Lucy's birthdays in two quick days and I need to get my brain in gear. I must be on top form. I am being bombarded by ideas from both of them and I feel overloaded. The key is to pick the most wanted suggestion when it comes along and seize the day and simply go out and buy it. Otherwise the consequences could be grave. Mrs Hammond has been highly skilled in the gentle art of 'suggestion planting' for years, sometimes sowing the seeds in my brain some nine months before her birthday. Lucy is learning her craft and this morning applied the slightly less subtle approach, flicking through a catalogue that arrived in the post and telling me that she wanted everything!! The female section of the family Hammond thinks that I am not wise to this, I am and I make a formidable opponent. It pays not to organise surprises, but this year I may be bold enough to give it a go. Watch this space.......