I am having a passionate affair with the small fan on my desk at work. When I am on my way in, I long for it. When first I arrive, I sit and bask in its gentle breezes. And if I could, I would make it portable, so we could be together everywhere we went. Despite the air conditioning, it is too damn hot (well, too damn hot for office clothes anyway) ... global warming is clearly plotting to drive me north and turn me scottish.

Or possibly icelandic.

We've had some good news this week, the level one British Sign Language course that we thought we'd missed out on for this year is actually starting again in September. It's very nicely timed and located, and Ezekiel and I are very much looking forward to it. We've picked up a few signs already from the pub meet last week (which was a little nervewracking at first, but turned out to be lovely ... when did we both get this shy?) and this should give us the foundation we need to build a good working base for the language.

We'd talked about doing this for so many years and never quite got around to it (and then had our ability to plan derailed pretty heavily when Ezekiel fell ill) so I'm so happy we've been able to find an opportunity that isn't too far away, is nicely timed and should be able to work out for both of us. Being able to sign is going to be hugely useful when she can't wear her hearing aids and when we're in places that are just too damn loud ... it's a hell of a lot of fun too thus far.

Now, if I can just get myself organised enough that I don't need to work on the weekends and pluck up the courage to head down to the community circus as well, I'll have both of my current projects off to a flying start .

On a different note, there's a TV show Ezekiel and I watch called 'The Closer' that we rather enjoy, it follows Deputy Chief Brenda Lee Johnson of the LAPD and her priority homicide team and provides a good mixture of typical procedural show grit and people drama that has kept us coming back for several series now. Anyway, Brenda is engaged to an FBI Agent named Fritz, and a big part of the drama we see is the workings of their ongoing relationship. One of the things we've noticed is that they have a lot of important conversations in metaphor; especially the ones where the emotional weight is too heavy for them to bear the actual words.

I am quietly pleased that Ezekiel and I are able to talk about the important things without doing this; to sit down and speak honestly with each other even when things are heavy. We had a conversation last night that proved that all over again and it makes me very happy to have that with someone.

We're clearly with the right people, eh.

I'm off now, it's time to do horrible horrible things to our poor little front room .