Of course I didn’t succumb to a glass of wine last night. I did, on my way back through the kitchen from turning off the light over the Aga, eat a couple of roasted almonds, but that was as far as my indulgence went.

I should add, by the way, that I adopted an almond tree through CrowdFarming last year and duly received a kilo and a half of roasted almonds in November. Some were plain, some salted and some salted and herbed and they were all gorgeous. I could easily gorge on them. I gave a jar to each of my children and eat a few every day – most days, that is.

I’m very glad I didn’t attempt the plumbing matter myself, because now another stretch of pipe has given way. Unfortunately, the dishwasher was in the middle of a cycle when it did so. I’m quite glad, now, that dishwashers save water nowadays – it wasn’t too bad and the worst of it is that I can’t use water in the kitchen at all at present. I must get back in touch with the plumber, whom I’d told that the situation wasn’t urgent. I’m just piling up washing-up and am very relieved that this didn’t happen on Saturday, when Weeza and family were here. No leak then. I pulled the dishwasher out to dry underneath it and found what looked like a sloughed-off skin of pipework.

I seem incapable of fussing about anything like this any more. I don’t even treat it as very important, though I’ll soon get tired of piles of saucepans waiting to be washed up. Shrugging and not minding much certainly makes life less stressful.