I made a gratifying discovery this morning. I’d got so well ahead of myself that I had time to tot up my income from last year and it was more than I thought it was. I realise now that I’ve never taken my old age pension into account. Anyway, Charlotte the accountant hid her astonishment well, on finding that everything was listed, with invoices for expenses and so on. I didn’t mention quite how many hours it had taken, but it was only a long half day, in fact. And it’s done. Woo hoo hoo.

So LT kindly took me out to lunch today, to mark the end of the *working* week. We went to a cafe about 12 miles away, recommended by a friend who said it was “fun.” And so it was, with a pleasingly friendly atmosphere. It’s in an ex-farm building with other buildings turned into a feed shop and a tool shop and so on – there’s been a fair bit of that sort of thing around in the last decade or two. The food was very good, which is the main thing, and we probably ate a bit more than we really needed; though it was only meat and vegetables really, so hardly a heavy meal. All the same, Tim suggested French onion soup for supper, since I had some stock left from the partridge bones I cooked the other day. Two partridges for £4 fed us a roast dinner, two meals of minestrone soup and one of French onion. The vegetables and the wine in the soup probably cost about the same – certainly 8 portions at about £1 each and it felt like luxury foods.

After Simon Greengrocer put his sad story on Facebook the other day, he received a lot of support. He also had comments that queuing outside in the rain would surely put people off, as winter came. So he rearranged everything so that three people can go in and help themselves, with the assistant behind a screen and a counter. Everyone is polite and considerate, so it will work okay. I asked him if it’s helped and he said he’s been really busy since and appreciates the support he’s been shown.

I think it’ll be an early night here. I’m such a lightweight nowadays. I miss the Z whose evening started about 10 o’clock. Now, that’s when it ends.