Well, I have made a start on Christmas shopping, which is pretty early for me.  I must make a List and start ticking off whom I’ve bought for.  I haven’t done a thing about a tree yet – we’ve had one in a pot for the past three years but it was rather neglected in the summer and I haven’t checked if it’s fit to use again.  I’ll do that tomorrow.  It’s only a little one.

Natasha the tortoise has finally started to prepare for hibernation.  She has stopped eating – I found a dandelion flower for her yesterday and she sniffed it and thought about eating it, but decided not to.  She’s being a textbook little tot and I appreciate her.  I must look up when Anastasia went to sleep and wake her up after four weeks.  I’ve bought a plastic box, which I’ll supply with suitable materials and put in the kitchen with a lamp above – it’ll be too cold for a wakeful tortoise in the porch by January, but it’s fine for Edweena’s hibernation.

I’ve paid my sub for the Yacht Club – the RNSYC in L’stoft, that is – although I haven’t been there at all in the past year.  It was a big part of my life for many years and I’ll never resign my membership; too much of a link with the past.  We had our wedding reception there, my parents and grandparents were members, it was a huge part of our social life when I was growing up and I would only resign if I left Norfolk/Suffolk and I never will.

Charlotte told me that she met someone last week who, with his wife, sold their house upon their retirement and travelled for seven years before buying a house and settling down again.  She told him about my ideas for having a period of time between house ownership and domesticity.  They bought a round-the-world ticket and took their time over travelling, spent some while in this country living in a camper van, with most of their possessions sold or put in storage.  While the thought still appeals, seven years would be far too long.  My reaction, for myself, was “what a waste of my time that would be, at my age!” I also realised that I don’t want to see the world so much as to see friends.  Clearly, it was just what they wanted, but I like to be part of a community.

The value of that was shown this morning.  The last couple of times we’ve had a frosty morning, the car has been reluctant to start, so I went into the garage yesterday and ordered a new battery.  I’m getting it tomorrow.  But the car wouldn’t start at all this morning and the engine coughed miserably.  So I went indoors and phoned my friend Barry.  “I’ll come round straight away,” he said, and so he did.  I do keep jump leads in the car, so I got them out and looked up the manual to find out how to open the bonnet.  By the time I’d done that, Barry had arrived – like me, he says what he means.  If he’d not been able to come for ten minutes, he’d have said so.  So we attached the two batteries together and I was back on the road again.  Fingers crossed that it’ll start tomorrow, but Dilly will be here by 9.15 so, if necessary, she says I can make use of her battery.  Then, I’ll have Hadrian for the morning, which I’m looking forward to very much.  We might make cake…..