| Fri 1 | Every week, by Friday teatime, I’m convinced it’s Saturday. Every week! |
| Sat 2 | Writing a monthly update for my GP’s patient group usually takes under 2 hours. But today … it took me over 4 hours because there was just so much healthcare news to be included. |
| Sun 3 | We had a 3 or 4 large radish plants still growing scruffily. I pulled them out today and one was a decent sized mooli. The others had some pretty little pink flowers but no radishes. |
| Mon 4 | Especially for N on her (big) birthday, we went to the dentist for a check-up. She has to go back in 6 weeks time for some work; I got away with being nagged. |
| Tue 5 | Somehow this was just a non-day. Been on zombie auto-pilot all day. Nothing happened. And I don’t feel I achieved anything. This is not good for the depression. |
| Wed 6 | Somehow we seem to have spent very little money in the last month – at least as far as discretionary spend goes. So we’re solvent again this month! |
| Thu 7 | Spent too much of the day playing around with photo carousels and sliders for websites. And writing blog posts. Oh, and it’s Thursday not Friday! |
| Fri 8 | Draconid Meteor Shower tonight. Not a chance. Yet again complete cloud cover. It’s all a piece with the day. |
| Sat 9 | While photographing the tree outside our house a lady came along and stopped to talk, saying how lovely the tree was.
What a breath of fresh light – we saw, we appreciated, and we shared some joy. So whoever you were, lady, thank you! |
| Sun 10 | Our resident wood pigeon is making short work of all the rose hips at the top of the silver birch. Soon there won’t be any left to feed the goldfinches over the winter. |
| Mon 11 | Nothing achieved, except too much chocolate eaten. Cadbury’s new DarkMilk is good, as is their Bournville Chocotoff. |
| Tue 12 | My mother would have been 106 today. Sad that she got to only 99. Still very much missed. |
| Wed 13 | Invited today for my Covid Booster jab – 6 months to the day after my second jab. |
| Thu 14 | Why is it that people can’t understand why GPs’ surgeries work the way they do? Doctors are employers who have a legal health & safety responsibility for their staff, as well as their patients and themselves. And the receptionists are not there to be obstructive, nosey dragons, but to help. |
| Fri 15 | Gave up on the day in early evening. I’d had enough of being bombarded on all sides by demands for things outside my control. Remember: Don’t shoot the messenger! |
| Sat 16 | We both to the local pharmacy for Covid booster jabs this morning. Although a minority, sad at the number in the pharmacy not (properly) wearing masks. |
| Sun 17 | N spotted another clump of huge fungi growing down near the pond and sent me to look. They’re each 20cm across and look like bracket fungi but aren’t: they’re growing in the ground and have gills. White to milk-chocolate brown wth darker brown gills. No idea what they are. |
| Mon 18 | I’ve had a batch of 16th to 18th century wills transcribed and spent a couple of hours looking at the family history info therein. Nothing exciting but they have confirmed much of what I already knew – which is always useful. |
| Tue 19 | I wake at 08:00. The next thing I know it’s 11:00. What happened there? |
| Wed 20 | A joyful morning herding cats. Find all three; one by one round them up and catch them; stuff them in their carriers … and take them to the V.E.T for their overdue annual check-ups and jabs. Return with a large hole in the credit card balance. |
| Thu 21 | Interesting London Historians talk (on Zoom) on the way the nations art treasures were protected during WWII. |
| Fri 22 | Awoke early to a lovely (just past full) silvery moonlit morning, followed by pastel peach-coloured sunrise. |
| Sat 23 | Auditing the wine stock, discovered we gad a bottle of gin which had somehow (I honestly know not how) got out of the store without having its security tag removed. No it wasn’t shoplifted! But how to get the tag off? |
| Sun 24 | At lunchtime a red kite gliding effortlessly around, not taking too much notice of the crow mobbing it. |
| Mon 25 | Oh dear, what has the world come to? Slumming it with fishfingers, chips and beans for tea! |
| Tue 26 | Doing the supermarket order today it feels as if overall prices have risen at least 20% since March 2020. However a quick check back suggests this probably isn’t so and the rises are no more than 5%. |
| Wed 27 | Lots done today, partly as I was up betimes and my morning meeting got moved to next week. Also took delivery of a pre-Christmas top-up for the wine cellar; just need more Champagne now! |
| Thu 28 | Got up this morning to find a pair of geezers digging a hole right outside our front gate. Then remembered the water company are going round installing meters. By midday the hole was covered with a temporary coloured (plastic?) plate; I wonder how long before the hole is filled properly? |
| Fri 29 | 01:15hrs. Why does next door’s security light come on? Oh, good evening Mr Reynard, trotting gaily down the street. |
| Sat 30 | Chaired the Anthony Powell Society AGM over Zoom to allow the officers to concentrate on the business rather than the technology. Glad to say it went well. Moral: Perfect Planning Prevents Pathetic Performance. |
| Sun 31 | Finally managed to break into the security tag on that gin bottle (see above) – at least enough to be able to decant the contents. But it required the attentions of my Dremel “mini-angle-grinder”! |
