The main news, for long-time blog friends, is that Rose has had her operation successfully and is recovering well. She should, if all goes to plan, go home tomorrow and I’m going to visit in the afternoon, taking something for their dinner, though the main reason is to Rose-sit while John picks up his daughter from school.

On Monday, I picked up a lot of china for the next auction – none of it worth much, it’s nearly all damaged and nothing especially rare. I left it in the car overnight, which wasn’t at all wise, but it was raining all evening, so I just went out to feed the cats and then hunkered down indoors for the night. I think it must have been on Sunday, because I was out much earlier to feed them, that the tabby who visits occasionally came to ask for food – he mewed anxiously, I know cat talk enough to recognise what he wanted – and I put down plenty for him. He’d had a nasty mishap, his face is badly torn. I couldn’t tell whether it was a fight or an accident, but a large area on the right side of his face was red raw. He ate a lot, he is too cautious to trust me, but evidently recognised that i’d look after him. Nothing to do about it, I couldn’t trap him. I haven’t seen him since, but I suspect he’s holed up somewhere while he heals and will come for food again when he needs it, if he survives. He has a broad face just like RasPutin’s and I suspect he’s a son of Ras.

Today, I’ve been listing the china, but had to break off at lunchtime for a school training session on Safeguarding, luckily conducted online, so I didn’t have to go anywhere. I carried on afterwards until 5 o’clock, but I was too tired for the last 20 or so items. I was listing all the damage, the pattern and so on, which is quite hard on the eyes. It will have to wait until Friday, there’s no rush.

Eloise cat does not appreciate the wet weather. She asks to go out, stands at the door looking upset, then comes in again, whining at me. When she does venture out, she returns complaining that she’s wet. It’s funny. I’m very sympathetic, though, except when she’s not looking. Although the weather isn’t cold, it was so bleak that I wanted to light the fire this morning, except I had no coal. I didn’t want, being lazier even than the cat, to go out to the coal shed, but it occurred to me that Wink might have some, and so she did, half a scuttle-full. So I fetched logs from the front porch and I’ve been lovely and warm all day. I hope it isn’t raining tomorrow though, because then kind Wince will stock up again for me.

I made a fool of myself yesterday. My car assured me that I needed to pump up the tyres. So I looked up the pressure required, which is inside the driver’s door, but it was in a completely different format to that used on the pumps – it said 2000. I had to look it up. 36psi. ok. I went to the petrol station and waited to use the air thingy. I removed all the caps from the nozzles – doing well so far, until I dropped the last one and it rolled under the car. I discovered that I couldn’t see the gauge while I was filling the tyre, because I’m too short, but it didn’t matter too much as I’d entered the required pressure before starting. Wasn’t I doing well? Yes, for the first two tyres. Then, I have no idea what I did wrong, but I managed to let the air out of the other two tyres. I couldn’t do anything about it, it just wasn’t working. I looked around for help. Luckily, a staff member came out to replenish the paper towels at the petrol pumps and I asked for help. I know him slightly, his son was at school with Ro. He looked a bit anxious, he probably was supposed to go straight back, but he came to help and did the job for me. It was embarrassing. But luckily, at least, my £1 for 5 minutes lasted, with about 20 seconds to spare.