I’ve just had a most refreshing rug rethink and I can tell you it takes a weight and a half of the old mind getting it unburdoned like this. I highly recommend having the barnet attended to, Jul.

I though I’d better post something, if only to update the news section of Livster, which seems to have got stuck in a time warp.

Clare at the Travel Centre said:

“I have checked the ticket for Julio: he is allowed to re-route for a charge of £50. Date changes are permitted free of charge so he just needs to contact Air New Zealand to make the change to routing.”

That would be the $75 you mentioned. I wouldn’t do anything yet just in case you want to do another re-routing. Your date changes don’t seem to have been free, though.

We watched Miss Marples 4.50 from Paddington last night. I then discovered it in book form on your shelves and started reading it, in order to understand more than the mere gist of what went on.

We were at Ford market yesterday and I was buying four packets of seed for £2. I handed over a crisp tenner, and the costermonger asked if I wanted a bag. Although I thought it was odd him bothering to ask, I actually did want a bag, so I said yes. As I followed him over the obstacle course towards his ‘bag lair’, I found myself doling out silent congratulations that I hadn’t parted with a twenty quid note, which he would no doubt try to pretend had been a tenner, after breaking my concentration with this bag malarky. There was no way he would try it with a tenner, though, I was thinking, just as he swivelled around, make a big palavar of getting the bag open and shovelling my purchases in, and slid three quid across my palm. I looked at the coins as he turned away, shook my head in silent disgust, searched for suitable words, then, realising time was of the essence, called after him: “Hey, what about the fiver?” He refused to meet my eye, mumbled, “Ah, of course, it was a tenner, wasn’t it …” and called out to his sidekick to supply me with the missing note. Blatent, or what?

Whoah, Jul. Maybe you need to let off a little steam – I can almost hear it coming out of your ears!. I suggest getting a stave, and following the procedure outlined in this photo of a youngster apparently undergoing rudimentrary training in an unspecified martial art. For best cathartic effect, the facial posture is considered of paramount importance.

We called in at Alan and Maria’s yesterday to collect a plant and we were shown a postcard ‘from a friend of theirs’. I looked at it, wondering who was writing to them from SE Asia, only to turn it over and discover it was C’rotte. Granny also most appreciative of an endless stream of cards flowing her way. She would write, she says, but hasn’t got an address. We, too.
The big news of the day is that I planted out the spinach. Also, I had some serious fun watering the tomatoes.