I’d been prepared to go and nurse Weeza if necessary, but her knee is doing well and she can get about quite steadily.  The dressing has to stay on for 72 hours, which takes us up to Monday afternoon and then she’ll see how comfortable she is.  I’ve promised to lend her my car, which is an automatic, until she feels ready to drive their manual transmission car again, so will take it over when she wants it and LT can bring me home again.  The knee makes disconcerting swooshing, gurgly sounds on occasion, which she wasn’t warned about at the hospital but she’s googled it and it is quite normal.

Young Rufus is nearly eight and a half months old now.  He isn’t starting to crawl yet but stands up quite steadily against a chair or table, supporting his legs against it but not needing to hang on.  He waves and claps his hands in response and is starting to make pre-speech sounds.  He sat on his father’s lap at lunch time today and ate bits of food he was given and – this was a first, they said – he drank from a sippy cup and swallowed the water rather than storing it up in his mouth and dribbling it out again.  He has very cute dimples when he smiles.  Young Gus talks proudly about “my cousin” – he’s very conscious of family relationships.  I didn’t really have cousins – my father had a half brother and we saw his family once in a while, but I never really got to know his son and daughter and, after my father died, we lost touch.  My mother was an only child, her mother having died young, and I only had one surviving grandparent when I was a child, so it’s marvellous to see all my children and their families getting on well.

And we’re back home again now and Eloise cat is sitting on LT’s lap, which makes me feel slightly jealous.  But at least it means I can type.

I’m very pleased with my new phone, which I’ve had for a few weeks now, and also with the fact that Yagnub and surrounding areas get a better internet and phone signal since the recent upgrade.  Indeed, Norfolk seems to have entered a new era – I was able to get a signal in previous blackspots today, even in Weeza and Phil’s village.  I’ve always had to use their wifi and an app to make phone calls up to now.  A few years ago, who would have believed that many of us would carry around pocket-sized computers which, as a bonus, even make phone calls?  Remarkable.