The leaky roof is mended.

The roofman gave us an estimate that was actually less than I'd feared and he turned up 48 hours later to do the repair. The chimney has been demolished, the aerial is in the loft and, so far, no rain has come in.

The Bear is back to his normal, grumpy self. He was put out because CC did some French with a friend this morning and, at present, he is behind a book sulking because I didn't jump at his offer to go out. The room looks so much better for it's coat of paint in 'blanc coton' but there's still a huge pile of books to re-arrange, not to mention garden to dig and flowers and veg to plant so I can't see any reason to go for a drive for the sake of it. Anyway, if Bear wants to go out there's nothing to stop him.

However, we have booked a trip to England in June to go to a party for a very special friend. It will also be a chance to see other friends I haven't for some time - although Bear saw some of them during his visit in April.

Much to my relief we are going by train. There have been some pretty near misses in the car recently and I would not relish being a passenger with him driving all the way to Norwich. His eyes are definitely getting worse. This means that I must drive more and get used to negotiating the traffic and re-learning how to park.

When Bear eases the car into a space there has often been a bump lately and so I find myself tensing up in anticipation whenever we go into town. Then there was the time he drove out in front of an oncoming car at a roundabout: the driver waved his fist at me (we still have a RHD car) and then Bear told me off because my head was in the way!