Hay is much better and we went out this morning, first to transfer money from savings to current account to pay the pianola bill, then to the café to celebrate him feeling like eating again and then to the store round the corner from us, where they sell all sorts of useful things and also small pets.  I’m not so keen on small creatures in cages on the whole, though we’ve had such things ourselves when our children were young, but the ones there are beautifully looked after with clean bedding and fresh food and water, and I know there’s a quick turnover of rabbits and guinea pigs and so on.  Since I don’t care to take advantage by using it for half an hour’s entertainment without buying anything, today we came out with dog biscuits.  Hay carried them and then fed three to Ben, having first told him to sit.

In the afternoon, he was tired again so we cuddled on the sofa under the duvet.

Wink phoned this evening to say that she has been given the date for her operation, later this month.  So I’ll give apologies for various things and go down and stay with her until she can manage by herself.

A few anniversaries have passed recently – four years ago I was recuperating from my own hip replacement and eight years have now gone by since I started blogging.  I try to avoid making a big thing about actual anniversaries, or even about the passage of time.  But even I am becoming more aware as I grow older, though I try not to be.  Usually, I think of a given date more in anticipation and, if I’m busy, I forget on the actual day.  That seems ok to me.

Again, we have escaped most of the filthy weather that other parts of the country have suffered from.  There was a heavy hailstorm soon after 8 this morning, but the effects soon vanished and it didn’t rain again until the afternoon.

Dilly doesn’t teach on a Thursday and her mum is looking after Hay on Friday.  I’ll really miss him.

Little Hadrian isn’t very well.  He came to me as usual on a Monday, but looked heavy-eyed and was sneezing.  He didn’t want bacon for breakfast, though tucked into toast and jam.  We spent much of the morning cuddling on the sofa, watching CBeebies, the tv programme for little children.

Today, Dilly emailed to say that she was staying home to look after him because he wasn’t well enough for nursery, but was I free in the afternoon?  Of course – and I’m pleased to say that he ate a slice of ham and half a buttered biscuit, which was more than he’d eaten all morning.  Later, he ate a few mini-Cheddars and drank quite a lot of Ribena.  Then he fell asleep.  When he’d arrived, you could see the pain in his eyes, but later he looked better.

People arrived for a meeting when he was still asleep and he was much admired.  He is indeed a beautiful child.  Tomorrow, I’ll have him again – Dilly teaches on four days a week, though not always full days – I’ll fit in with her.  It wouldn’t be easy on Thursday, but that’s her day off anyway.

As a result of this afternoon’s meeting, I’ve offered to host another brief one next week, the same day as I’m interviewing – and, of course, that’s the way I like it.  Being busy, fitting things in, feeling useful. I realise it’s a flaw in my character, but it doesn’t bother me.  It’s only one among the rest.

The piano tuner came for the most obvious of career-specific reasons and he admitted to have brought the bill for the restoration of the pianola.  He was deeply embarrassed and had a lot of explanations, without coming to an actual sum of money.  Finally, I suggested he might give me the bill at the end and run…I have known him for so many years, either side of 40 – “we’re older than we look,” I said…and that’s almost what he did, went out to his car at the end and fetched it.  Yes, it’s a lot.  Not beyond the bound of what I’d thought it’d be, somewhat more than my optimistic moments had suggested.  About halfway, in fact.  I’ll transfer money from my savings to my current account tomorrow and pay him.  I wanted my pianola at any price and that’s that.

Wink left today, after a really good weekend.  I’m waiting for a phone call to say she’s safely home.

And I’m taking the rest of the evening off.  Books and newspapers await.  And online Scrabble, I dareasy.

All is fine, darlings, just a bit busy.  I’ve had some big documents to review and rewrite and, by the time I’ve finished with them, I don’t want to spend more time at the computer.

This weekend’s highlights, which I will write about another time, DV, are that Wink is staying and that Weeza threw a lovely party yesterday for Ronan and Dora, with both families (except for a brother and a brother-in-law, who were working).  There were 23 of us and it was great fun.

Today, back to meetings.  Several more this week – but I spent quite a long time in the greenhouse on Saturday, turning out rather than planting, but a step forward – and things seem to be going forward quite nicely.  More of that after the governors’ meeting on Thursday, perhaps.

What I need are more bite-size items on the radio.  I listened to a detective programme the other night, but fell asleep before the murderer was unmasked.  So I listened again last night in bed, starting some 15 minutes in … and woke a few minutes before the end, having missed the solution of the whodunnit.  What’s a Z to do?