Only two days into the Rugby Wold Cup and already I have had to respond to friends who have begun the inevitable round of email correspondence of predictions, analysis and general banter from all corners of the country - my email being a firm (but I do hope polite and witty!!) request to be taken off the circulation list, (especially as most don't understand how to delete all the crap at the bottom belonging to their respective organisations on security policies and you have to trawl through lines and lines of text to find a one line witty comment - which given my knowledge on the subject usually goes way over my head and therefore becomes totally unfunny, unclever and dare I say it, a total waste of my time).

It's not that I don't share their enthusiasm and excitement. I am really happy for them and the millions of others across the world who have waited for this since the last one. It's just that, I really don't get it and watching it and talking about it does absolutely nothing for me.

[Isn't it strange that the barrage of emails from their respective "works" suddenly seems an ok thing to do? Normally, I am a lone voice trying to defend the legitimacy of sending private emails during working hours, on the basis that 60 seconds spent getting your point across is more time efficient than a phone call which would inevitably turn into an exchange of points and take up much more time. But I digress.]

The next six weeks for me, will be like being single again - weird because I haven't been in that position since I was seventeen and therefore don't feel qualified to comment on what that's like! The years of feminism, girl-power and general female independence seem to have passed me by. It doesn't worry me, I am happy the way I am.

Hopefully this hasn't meant a bypass on my individuality but perhaps that is inevitable too. There is a general feeling that I am c**p without an SO and best pal of the opposite gender to keep me amused, even if it is arguing over who should be doing the most mundane chores. I do prefer company but I am past the age of pretending to have shared interests which I really don't have just to ensure I am sitting next to someone (shallow I know, but yes, we have all done it).

But my lack of knowledge and lack of interest in rugby over the years has meant that I am totally unprepared for this World Cup. Bad planning on my behalf. I really should have listened to the signs.

So now that it is here, I have to think of something which is going to keep me away from the "viewing room" as it has now become for the next six weeks. Although I think I have lost that one already and my presence is expected on a patriotic basis this morning at 11:00 - because he likes the company too!! I wouldn't mind if I thought they would win. I have even eaten porridge this morning to try to kick start my patriotism. Perhaps I should go to church instead? I think there are several relatives who would be turning in their graves if they knew games were being watched, let alone being played on the Sabbath!

Various diversions have been suggested to me by other rugby widows such as; taking his credit card shopping, re-distrubuting the contents of his wine cellar via a round hollow, spherical, glass shaped thing, tipped towards my own throat (works for a while but the consequences of doing that repeatedly over a short timescale are not to be recommended and you loose several days!), organising decorators to start the work he has promised to do every weekend for months but hasn't.

And then there are other, more basic distractions, which I don't feel able to mention on this site, but involve breaking some of the ten commandments.

So now I have to realign my thoughts to try to do the things I would like to do and which I always complain I don't have the peace and quiet to do. Of course I do have six weeks to think about it but in the mean time there is the painting the writing and the reading to start with.

At the moment I'm content to be sitting here, typing and looking out of the window at the garden. It's a bit grey but the alizarin crimson of the acer and flowering cherry are spectacular against the yellows and green of the apple trees. There are ten blackbirds dotting about the borders and lawn, six blue tits, several dunnocks, two squirrels chasing each other backwards and forwards and fighting over my neighbours apples which are now strewn, half eaten across my lawn, one robin, one fat pigeon, a few little birds I can't identify and I think I just spotted a thrush under a bush.

Perhaps the next six weeks won't be so bad after all. And at least I get a cup of coffee brought to me every 45 minutes during the day and a glass of something in the evenings. We haven't quite sorted out the cooking yet and much grazing has been going on - thank goodness for the 99p bars of chocolate the shop along the road sells.

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