It’s been a quiet couple of days and I haven’t left the premises except to walk the dog.  Did I mention that Ben had been to stay this week?  If not, it’s a bit late, as he went back to his new home this afternoon.

I did want a rest and I must admit that I’m pretending not to see a job that I really must do (a matter of writing a couple of letters and filling in some forms) but I’m finding inaction a bit of a drag.  I’ve dusted both days, and that’s just silly.  Though I have found the corners that my cleaners overlook.  It certainly shows why I keep busy, though, wouldn’t want to have to resort to that too often.

I had an email from a dear friend today, apologising for not having replied earlier to my last, but he doesn’t get to the computer very often – it was the clearest possible hint that he prefers proper letters.  Yes, that’s all well and good, but I hate writing letters by hand.  For one thing, I do it so rarely that my handwriting is terrible and my hand aches after a few minutes and for another, typing gives one a record.  I wrote to my friend Sheila in Atlanta before Christmas and, when I had her reply, I couldn’t remember what I’d said.  I’m afraid I typed the next letter, explaining both matters (awful writing, lack of memory of what I’d said to whom) and I can only hope she didn’t mind.  I know already that my pal would hate that.  There is no way to please both of us.

Having a dog in the house had its effect: I forgot to lock the door last night.  I don’t mind being alone in the house, but I do make sure I lock the doors and put the alarm on.

Oh, I know what I meant to ask you.  They’ve been dramatising Little Women on Radio 4Extra recently and now they’ve moved on to Good Wives. What I wonder is, am I the only person who finds Jo deeply annoying?  I never liked her when I read it as a child and I don’t like her now.  Yet traditionally, girls are supposed to identify with her and I don’t know why.  She’s rude and ungainly on the grounds that she abhors girliness, but being just plain rude isn’t feminist.  I don’t like any of the girls much, but Jo is certainly the worst.

I was bitten by a mosquito or similar insect last night, on my cheek, which is swollen and painful.  I have put on some anti-histamine cream – or rather, I did that this morning – but what’s with biting insects in February?  If it happens again, I’ll have to start using mosquito repellent again, as I did a couple of months ago when I couldn’t catch one of the little beasts.