Oh, call me a safety first sort of girl. You’d be wrong, but call me it all the same. All the restaurants in London, and I’ve booked one I’ve been to already, because it was divine – really, for a girl from the provinces it was just about perfection – and convenient for where I’m spending the early part of the evening. Also, Ro hasn’t been there and he’ll like it too and I promised to take him for the final part of his birthday present – we like to make birthdays last.

We had a barbecue at Weeza and Phil’s house. We are very full. It was yummy. Phil made burgers, and all oniony and fresh herby they were (meaty too). We took sausages and they did veggie kebabs and corn on the cob. We took the polite strawberries and they had a cheeky chocolate gâteau (do you know, Blogger is such a pedant that it underlines that as incorrectly spelt if you don’t put in the accent).

The baby is due on Thursday. Weeza still feels very cheery and still, from behind, has a waist (although a bigger bum than usual). I assured her that within six months she will have lost all the weight and more. My weight used to drop below 8 stone, I told her truthfully. “You were the perfect size before” said Phil to her, smoothly.

All I have to find now are our train tickets. They are in one of two rooms. It shouldn’t take long. *coughs loudly*

The town centre is still off. The butcher opposite Al is quite despondent about the meat in his fridge – it’s a huge walk-in larder fridge and although the meat will still be quite all right, it may have risen above the temperature he’s allowed to sell it at. They reckon the power will come on later this morning at about 11. Al will put his Saturday girl and boy on to shelf stacking and he’ll serve the customers – the Youth of Today aren’t too good at adding up, and he thinks the lack of a till will confuse them completely. The scales are operated by mains or battery, so they’re all right.

A sudden and complete power failure really made life difficult for businesses. The banks had to close and Clays the printers came to a complete halt. The amount of electricity they use means an emergency generator would not cut the mustard. We called at the local garage – obviously, the petrol pumps were not operational, but Jonathan said that cars were stuck up on ramps and couldn’t be got down. Not good for anyone who’d sent their car in for a service and wanted it back later in the day.

There is a wedding at the church today. Not knowing if there would be any electricity, I had to explain that there could be a problem with the music – an organ is powered by air, provided by a pump. One local church is in the middle of a field and has no electricity supply, so it is still hand-pumped, but nearly all church organs were converted to an electric pump years ago. The groom, a resourceful young man, arranged to get a generator and I said I’d meet him this morning and help set it up – I was glad to be able to ring him and say that the power was back on after all.

At least I defrosted the fridge.

I have a little list of things to do before I go away on Monday. One of them is to buy more credit for my phone, which is down to £2.30. I remember there was about £25-worth at the end of October last year and I haven’t bought any since. Those of you who have met me will remember how reticent and taciturn I am, as that will demonstrate.

It’s raining. It’s a good think that I, bored, went out for a half-hour bike ride last night, because I probably won’t be getting my healthful exercise today. You know how moths and things fly at the car in the dark in the summer? – they do the same at bikes. I had to blink constantly not to get eyefuls of insects.

Have you missed me? Hm. I see. You hadn’t noticed I was missing. Okay. Fine.
This is what happened. And a picture! Our electricity was off for 13 hours. Actually, that’s pretty impressive work, considering the damage that was done. The roof of the building housing the transformer was blown off – they say it was found on the marshland some distance away, in which case it was jolly lucky it didn’t go any other way and hit any part of the town.

The Sage needed my car today, so Weeza drove over and spent the morning here and afterwards we went off to inspect cars at various showrooms. She lived in London for 9 years and didn’t need one there. She took the pram, to make sure it would fit in the boot of any vehicle she was interested in. Phil cycled to the station today. This was fine, I expect, as it’s pretty much downhill all the way, except the last mile which is by the river on the flat. Of course, you’ll spot the disadvantage in the home journey. He also has another 3 mile each way journey at the end of his train journey. He’ll become remarkably fit and healthy, if he survives the next few weeks.