| Sat 1 |
A new year it may be, but why does everything else have to change? Spent the whole day reorganising the date-driven irritations of life. |
| Sun 2 |
Oh bugger! The first time I eat a toffee in 6 months and what do I do? Yes, you guessed … detach one of my big gold crowns. Still my dentist will enjoy the £££. |
| Mon 3 |
So it’s a bank holiday. And yet again I spend the day working, when I should have been doing family history. Gah! |
| Tue 4 |
I don’t understand why it is that we sometimes have a dreadful night’s sleep. Last night I saw 03:30, but then slept until 11:00. Why? I can’t comprehend. |
| Wed 5 |
What a wonderful bright but frosty morning. Why can’t all winter days be like this? |
| Thu 6 |
Another wonderful bright, very frosty morning – a really hard frost too, possibly the hardest frost here for years. All clouded over and dull by lunchtime. Then at sunset there was a really odd light: at first peachy, then pinker, and finally a sort of violet/lavender, but with a pretty ordinary sunset. |
| Fri 7 |
Another nice sunny morning, but another day feeling well below par, though improved. Done several LFT in the last few days, all negative. It feels like a sinus infection – made worse by the anxiety. |
| Sat 8 |
The cats definitely had the right idea today: curled up, comfy and sleeping. All the while there’s cold, grey rain outside.
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| Sun 9 |
Tonight yet another variant on Mary Berry’s Sausage Supper. This time with a couple of jointed poussin marinaded in lemon & brandy. I did plenty of veg so there’s leftover chicken & veg for cold, or risotto, or stuffed peppers. |
| Mon 10 |
Dymo label printer is printing tape in pale grey; labels are OK. Software is up to date. Buy new printer. Same problem. Install different Dymo software. Problem fixed. Not the first time they’ve screwed their software. |
| Tue 11 |
At lunchtime today I completed my 71st year. How did this happen? I thought I had a lifetime ahead. Arrggghhhhh! |
| Wed 12 |
That tree branch is swaying about. Oh, there’s a tail. Good afternoon squirrel! |
| Thu 13 |
What a lovely sunny day for a trip to the dentist! Until I’m told I need a new crown to replace the one that came off. Even more £££ for my dentist to enjoy. Can I get a mortgage on it? |
| Fri 14 |
Amongst the little band of blue tits and great tits around our garden, there’s a female blackcap. They’ve now been joined by a handful of long-tailed tits, which are always a delight to see. And do they get through the nuts quickly! |
| Sat 15 |
Someone stole Horsenden Hill. Awoke to a very foggy morning with visibility of about 100m. Horsenden Hill 1km away might just as well not have been there. They brought it back about lunchtime. |
| Sun 16 |
Oh so nearly! Rosie cat came within a foot of getting that squirrel! Only minutes earlier I’d said to N that she was certainly fast enough. |
| Mon 17 |
Went looking for my direct ancestors on the 1921 census. I think I found them all although two entries are somewhat doubtful and will need checking when it isn’t pay-per-view and many alternatives can be examined. |
| Tue 18 |
Mist descending at 04:45 so I was surprised to awake to a bright, sunny morning. Although the mist drifted in and out until lunchtime. |
| Wed 19 |
Hosted on Zoom the first of a (hopefully) monthly series of talks for the AP Soc. which replace our abandoned 2021 conference. Audience of 50+. Seemed to go well and pretty smoothly. |
| Thu 20 |
We had a long discussion over dinner about our childhoods, our parents’ childhoods, and how this has affected us. Did we get the affection we needed as kids? No. And my parents and at least my father’s parents struggled financially which has contributed to the knock-on effects. What you see now is very much me having risen above my childhood and instincts. |
| Fri 21 |
Escrow. It’s an odd word, meaning “a deposit held in trust or as security” [OED]. Derived from the Old Germanic skraudo- (whence English shred n.) via the Anglo-Norman escrowe. Although already known in Early Modern English it seems to have passed into more regular usage via the Americans. |
| Sat 22 |
Dessert this evening: fresh strawberries with flaked white Toblerone and double cream. Yum. |
| Sun 23 |
A day of best intentions being side-lined. Why? Just because. And because neither of us could be arsed. |
| Mon 24 |
We spent the day rejigging the box files on the top shelf over my desk. Lots of boxes archived and some new ones created for the overflows & expansion. Seeing the dust & muck which ended up on my desk I can quite see how poor souls can be swamped by volcano ash.
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| Tue 25 |
One of the guys I know from school (the head boy from the year above me) is writing about the old school days. Scanned and sent him quite a few pages from my press cuttings file, including play programmes and articles from the school magazine. |
| Wed 26 |
News in the last couple of days of two friends having died around the turn of the year; one 84, the other nearer 94. They were two of life’s gentlemen. Let’s hope there won’t be a third. |
| Thu 27 |
What was I saying earlier about not understanding sleep? Last night I was asleep soon after midnight and still slept until almost 11:00. So I’ve been playing catch-up all day. Anyone would think I was still a teenager! |
| Fri 28 |
 A quick, unscientific tasting of three different Domaine Tariquet Armagnacs at the end of dinner. (Two from Wine Society, one from Waitrose; but two of three are now not available!) Need to taste again, more carefully. Oldest certainly smoothest, though maybe not quite as much character – but all have a lovely bouquet of church incense.
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| Sat 29 |
I’m told that today happened. But I couldn’t be at all sure. Nothing seems to have been achieved, except I cooked dinner. |
| Sun 30 |
Why re there crows flying hither and yon at the front of the house? Ah, I see. A parliament of at least two dozen crows in yonder poplar trees. Apparently their annual Spring gathering for speed dating. |
| Mon 31 |
Went for my annual diabetic eye scan this morning. Why is it always on a bright sunny day? But again this year I got away without drops to dilate my eyes. Definite result. Awaiting the results. |
