A nice picture of grandson Oliver in serious mood. He and Amy are now taking swimming lessons.

I have some kind of scalp irritation around my right ear which makes it difficult to wear my glasses. As I can’t see close up without them, this is rather annoying. Still, it’s not painful, and I feel quite good otherwise. I’m down to 12st 5lb, which is not bad going.

We were going to have some friends round on Wednesday, but they could not come for family reasons – her father is very ill – so we were on our own after LD called with a letter of thanks about the Rohr event and stayed for tea and chat while Dot finished the ironing. Earlier I had patched up some wood on our back porch that was seriously coming apart, using wood filler that I moulded around the problem and then discovered shouldn’t come into contact with my skin. However, I have pretty resilient skin, and nothing seems to be amiss. Both hands are still attached to my arms. The result looks a mess but is rock solid: I see it as temporary until we can get the wood replaced. Dot is now thinking of swapping the contents of two of the upstairs bedrooms, which would involve a carpenter since her work area is attached to the wall. Maybe we would be able to combine the two jobs…

Meanwhile she is moving furniture round the living room – an activity she prefers to writing a book, which is understandable. She has a tape measure and is measuring everything. Bit unsettling.

Yesterday was Powerflush Day. Not a new national holiday, but a cleaning out of our central heating system. Clearly we had left it far too long. Huge amounts of sludge emerged, and the already big job expanded into something massive, with new pump and various other items. Fortunately we are over 60 and get it at about half price, but it’s still pretty expensive. On the plus side, the radiators now seem to be working: they had been gradually falling by the wayside. The British Gas engineer was extremely friendly and helpful, and rang back today to make sure everything was OK. I think it is.

While he was here he discovered that the lagging on our big cold tank was waterlogged – ie it had fallen into the water. Did it fall or was it pushed? If it was pushed, it must have been a long time ago. Getting it out was a tricky job, but I managed it with some help from Dot and only a small amount of water dripping down the pipe into the airing cupboard. It is now drying out in the garage, but we’ll probably get a new set, as we professionals call tank lagging.

Today I’ve started work on a book based on the characters in my EDP page. Working title: The Houseago Prophecy. Yesterday there was a letter in the EDP taking my name in vain for no apparent reason, so I replied to it, mentioning that alert readers might have noticed that my page had come to an end, expired, ceased to be, etc. This provoked a couple of e-mails sympathising – one from Bruce and one from a fairly regular correspondent – which was nice.

The weather both yesterday and today has been pretty awful – steady rain and overbearing greyness. Having the heating off yesterday was unpleasant, and its return today extremely welcome. We’re alone again tonight, but tomorrow cousin Eddie and his wife are coming for a meal.