The journey to Reading was eventful, in the wrong way. In short, Tim’s car broke down on the motorway. Luckily it wasn’t the misnamed “smart” motorway with no hard shoulder and he was able to pull over safely. But it took a long time for a low-loader to arrive and take us on to Reading. We were just approaching the A1(M)/M25 junction at South Mimms services – 100 yards short of the slip road, in fact, when Tim said he couldn’t get the car in gear. He’s fairly sure that it’s the clutch that’s gone west.

Anyway, we duly got out and climbed over the barrier but Tim soon realised he had to get back in the car as the traffic noise was such that he couldn’t talk to the breakdown people when outside. So he stayed in the passenger seat and I hauled the coolbox out of the boot and made sandwiches. Luckily, we’d brought plenty of provisions and I asked him if he’d like a bottle of beer? “Well, it’s not as if I’m driving anywhere. What sort of cap does it have, though?” I was already ahead of him there and produced a corkscrew/bottle opener from my handbag. So we sat, eating Norfolk salami sandwiches on homemade bread and drinking bottles of Adnams. It was two and a half hours before Gary appeared, a really nice and very capable guy, who loaded the car up and drove us home. He deposited the car with impressive skill in the convenient parking space outside Tim’s back gate.

I’d started to regret the bottle of water and half litre of beer an hour earlier. I’d had a mug of tea and a cup of coffee before we left Yagnub and it was all rather telling on me. Tim couldn’t get at the house key until the car was at ground level. So I used his front garden, tucking myself nicely between a thick hedge and the garden wall.

Tim luckily had his driving licence with him, so has rented a car and we duly appointed a gardener and he made a few phone calls about his car. It’s old, he’s had it from new and it’s the best car he’s ever had. He’s been considering a replacement for a while – you know you’re on borrowed time after a decade or so, before something goes badly awry – but he never had a pressing reason for a change. Now, he has to decide whether to get the repair done, which will cost nearly as much as the car is worth, and reckon on scrapping it eventually, or whether to bite the bullet and scrap it now.

For my part, though I haven’t felt ill, I’ve had a headache and tinnitus ever since my second vaccination. Not badly but for most of the time, though hanging around on the motorway surely didn’t help. So it’s not been a great week, all told. However, no actual harm done and we’re back in Norfolk now.

Not all the time, we’ve even had sunshine in heavy rain showers. But it’s all pretty grey on the whole. Luckily, when I went out mid-afternoon to shut up the greenhouse, I thought I’d give the chickens some mealworm treats and they all came home, so I was able to shut up their run and didn’t have to cajole them inside later. They were not pleased with me and clustered disconsolately round the entrance to the tunnel, staring at me. I’ll let them out early tomorrow as I have to be out before 9, to get my second vaccination. I’ll vote in the local elections on my way home, which together seem to me to be quite enough achievement for the day. Anything extra is a bonus. I’m so bored. So, so bored and yet I have little inclination to get much done.

Still, never mind. It will get better. Next week, Tim and I are planning to head down to his place for a couple of days. He needs to find a new gardener and has a couple of interviews lined up. I’m just going to keep him company. I haven’t been there since early February last year. Wink will be in sole charge here for a couple of days. I must buy more Go Cat for the outside cats, they will surely succeed in convincing her that they’re woefully underfed (their bellies sway underneath them as they walk) and that they need double rations if they aren’t to starve to Actual Real Death. Likewise, Eloise cat will persuade her that she cannot eat the food put out for her, but needs a different brand, each three times a day. She does not know this yet and I’m no snitch.

Yes, well I shouldn’t have mentioned rain. No warmer but wet and windy, though not really enough rain to do much good. The chicken run is finished and the girlies had a lovely time outside today. If you follow me on Fbook or Instagram, I put up a short video of them coming outside for the first time.

Al and the family called over yesterday. By good fortune, I’d made a chocolate cake a couple of days earlier, so I could ply them with tea and cake. They brought Wink’s birthday present – some solar-powered lights for the garden – and I gave them eggs to take away, so all was happy. I love to see people, but it tires me out, I’m so unused to it. I suppose I’ll get better at this.

The only other remarkable thing is that I’ve addressed the alcohol situation. We’ve been unashamedly treating every day as a weekend and I knew, of course, that it had gone beyond a cheering-up thing and become habitual. Not addictive, of course, we don’t have that problem, which is lucky. So a spritzer before dinner and a glass of wine with is my normal preference now. Though I sometimes just have tomato juice before. Still no substitute for wine, I’d rather have nothing at all than low-alcohol versions, I don’t want to drink fruit at dinner, nor anything sugary. Water is fine, obviously, if I’m thirsty.

I’m using the contents of the salad drawer, so it’s roasted veg for dinner, vegetable soup for lunch and salad yesterday. So virtuous.