The day has gone very well.  A meeting – sorry, I do bang on about them rather – was constructive this morning, then I went to buy the chicken feed and a bale of hay before Ro and Dora arrived to take me out to lunch.  We went, at my suggestion, to a very good local pub and Ro nudged me when a couple arrived at a table across the way.  It was his former History teacher, also a former staff governor and, when they got up to leave, he looked across at us with a hint of uncertainty – it’s more than a decade since we last saw each other.  So I greeted him and we had a fairly long chat.  He’s a lovely man and was a superb teacher – Ro did a History degree on the strength of his teaching, not that he’s used it since (not that this means it was anything but valuable and worthwhile).

Roses came through for a drink in the evening, which turned into dinner, with the two of us pooling our food …. which sounds a bit odd.  She provided lamb steaks and leeks, I had corn on the cob, red peppers and runner beans, and an Aga to cook them on.  We have drunk wine in a quantity that may well give her a hangover in the morning.  I did suggest stopping and going on to soft drinks, but she was game to keep going.

Lovely friend Graham phoned from New Zealand this evening, which completed the day well.