Bear has definitely not been himself recently.

Apart from the worrying fact that his short term memory seems to be failing and his knees are really playing up he is actually being NICE.

Yes, of course, there are moments of irritability but his overall demeanour, for nearly a month  now, has been calm, pleasant and (almost) affectionate.

"Why?" you hear me cry. "What can possibly be the reason?"

Why has he been so goodtempered when everything should be conspiring to put him in a black mood. The bedroom is still not quite finished so he is sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the lounge while, for the last week, I've been able to make it upstairs and get a better night's rest on the clic-clac (bed settee) in the spare room.

What's made him so solicitous for my health and well-being? A couple of weeks ago he brought me a cup of tea before I was up. This came as such a shock that  I was completely disorientated and had trouble getting into my routine of chores that morning.

When I've been reluctant to go into town to eat he hasn't shouted and accused me of not doing what he wanted. No, he has agreed that he didn't really feel like it either.

The only outing we have had, apart from doctor's appointments was to buy a new wardrobe to replace the one that fell apart. (He has put it together again in the garage but it would collapse if we were to try and move it back.)  He saw an advertisement in the brochures that clutter up the letter box every Tuesday.

I groaned inwardly. It was at my least favourite shop, and it was priced at 179 euros: enough to tell you that it would not be very good quality.

Nevertheless, not wishing to be accused of pouring cold water on his ideas I agreed to go and look. The said article was virtually hidden at the back of the shop and looked even worse in the 'flesh' than it did in the leaflet.

However, I held my breath  - and my tongue - waiting for his reaction.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"Well, it's not put together very well and the handles aren't very nice. . . . "

"No, it's a bit of a disappointment." he agreed. "Let's go and look in BUT."

Now, BUT isn't a great deal better than the store in question but it was worth a try and it was a relief to escape the monstrosity we had come to see.

There were wardrobes I liked at this shop, but they were far too expensive. In the end, we compromised on something that didn't look as cheap and nasty as the one we had seen at first but wouldn't break the bank.

Bearing in mind Bear's state of health and record of disastrous DIY I insisted on paying a bit extra for 'livraison et montage'. He protested (he had offered to foot the bill) but gave in remarkably easily. We're expecting delivery on Wednesday.

Apart from that little outing life has been incredibly quiet - almost relaxing: definitely not normal for us.

Bear is simply not 'dans son assiette' (in his plate). In other words, he is not himself, he's under the weather or he's sickening for something.