I am in Brighton for five days pet sitting, whilst J and D and family are away at Shambala, a festival near Northampton(?) D is organising children`s activities, I am in charge of : a twenty one year old cat Shirley, who is not a fast mover but like many oldies, including me, does enjoy her food and needs snacks at least four times a day, Jumble the dog who is old and creaky (also like me) plus Bradley Wiggins who is in a permanent state of excitement and euphoria. He is 3 next week so should really start behaving in a more sensible manner,and stop barking at men wearing shorts.
It is odd here in the house alone. The house stays unnaturally clean and tidy. I have had trouble getting the TV on to anything but children`s telly. It took me an hour to tune it to watch my daily fix of Pointless but I managed it in the end.
I had two outings last week: one to deliver a Quaker Exhibition which was in a huge black box (it was about conscientious Objectors in World War 1) to a Meeting House near Leytonstone in East London. so I had to negotiate the M25 and the Blackwall Tunnel and worrying roundabouts. And then I went to the Isle of Wight for one day which meant a train journey of 20 stops and took over 4 hours. However we had a good day and a spot of birdwatching up the creek at Newtown where some of the family were camping.
Also my brother P came to stay at the beginning of the week and that was a treat. We had the usual ferocious games of Scrabble which he won.
I have been reading an autobiog called An Enchanted Place by Christopher Milne, the original Christopher Robin. He had a miserable time at boarding school with Hush, Hush Whisper who Dare being played over and over, and he is forever haunted by the whole Winnie the Pooh business. His father made a huge fortune out of those four books, but never wrote anything else that was any good and it is a sad story really.