Because of this impulse I have, among many other things, been a rowing team captain, learnt the drums, promised to be a guitar teacher, travelled round Sri Lanka and been a step-dad to two (wonderful) girls. Ok the last one is an exaggeration, with a lot more than a night out involved before stepping up for parent duties, but the pattern is the same, I love the thought, believe I can manage it, I'm blinded by desire, it's always a lot harder than I expect, it never works out as I'd hope, but at the end I wouldn't change the experience for all the tea in, well, China, the Indian sub-continent and Tesco combined.
Last night I agreed to keep chickens...
I have no idea what this will entail. I've been harbouring this desire for some time now but with a deep fear that I just cannot handle the feathers.
In one of those 'it's a small world' moments, my neighbour in the top flat is in the rowing club and happened to sit opposite me for a Valentine's night meal for all the single rowers (if you've ever dated a rower, you'll soon know that there is only one true love - indeed one girl dumped her boyfriend yesterday on the basis that he complained she rowed too much. This may sound harsh, but it's not).
Anyway, what I wanted to explain was that my neighbour seriously wants to keep chickens and has the coop already. She has the desire, I have the space, so I blurted out, let's keep chickens!
So, come March I'll be having chickens, fresh eggs, and no doubt kittens too as I chase them round the garden in some mad dash to get them to return to their hut and lay me some eggs!
I know some readers are experts in this field so could you tell me, what are the golden rules?
