1 A weasel ran across the road in front of me. It always surprises me quite how small they are.

2 When I took Ben for a walk this morning, he disappeared over the bank towards the river. It’s only a little river, but all the same, I’d rather he didn’t jump in. He came back when I called but later took a paddle at the cows’ drinking area.

3 I slept soundly last night. It was lovely.

4 I’ve been getting a lot of emails from various friends whose accounts have been hacked into. Four people yesterday and another two today. I’ve changed my own password, I suggest you do so too and are vigilant.

5 Having changed the password, I had to update several other places too, iPhone, iPad, gmail notifier. It was a bit of a nuisance, actually, and now I have a new password to remember. But it was a year since I last changed it, so a Good Idea.

I like these ‘five things’ posts.  Stops me waffling so much.

1 For the first time, I had to pick up after Ben.  He, like a lot of dogs, is very modest when it comes to lavatorial matters and usually vanishes into a remote corner of the field.  Bitches don’t care, in my experience.

2 I achieved quite a lot this morning, getting the Sage’s car insurance searched out and bought and dealing with our house insurance amongst other things.  That is, the insurance is not due yet and I’m not paying until it is, but I’ve gone through all the paperwork.  The Sage has finally handed over all such things to me, which has probably been a good move as he is very loyal to those who have his custom and is reluctant to switch.  Sadly, loyalty isn’t always a two-way thing.

3 I visited my friend in Norwich hospital.  She’s brave and cheerful, but hasn’t felt like eating since Sunday which is probably the reason she is quite weak.  And she lost her hair again over Christmas.  Still, she’s resolute and has booked a place on the Nadfas visit to Holland in the autumn.  If she’s able to go, we’ll share a room.  While I was there her daughter arrived, then another friend and then another, so I left at that point.  Jill was really pleased, she’s very sociable and was charmed that so many of her friends visited on the same day.  When I arrived home, I rang a couple of other people who I know are fond of her, to let them know she’s in hospital.  It was such a silly accident, she fell between two pieces of furniture and couldn’t extricate herself and had to wait until her daughter arrived to rescue her.  it didn’t injure her, but it was the weakness that made her fall that is the problem.

4 I spent an hour or so setting up the new phones we have bought.  I reflected that I seem to have reached the age when getting to grips with new stuff is a worry rather than a pleasure.  I’ve done the immediate bits and will do the rest, such as programming in phone numbers so that we know who’s ringing, when I’ve recovered from the stress of the basic stuff.  In a day or two, I will have to teach the Sage how to listen to messages.  Actually, it’s easier than the last phone.  I had to buy new ones because the Sage had left two outside and they were rained on and the rechargeable battery on a third has failed, so we were left with a single useful phone, plus the one that works without electricity.  We never use the landline except for phoning abroad or for 0800 etc numbers, we always use our iPhones.

5 Mysteriously, my iPhone has got a shattered back.  It’s always kept in a leather case and I don’t remember dropping it, but I must have – it still works, I only found out when I took it out of its case: the glass is broken but still in place.  It’s covered on our homoe insurance, but there’s a £100 excess so I may get it repaired instead.  I’ll have to look into it.

It’s going to be a busy weekend, so please excuse me if I miss a day or two.  I’ll be back, as they say.