I left my phone behind up north and grand daughter F kindly sent it back to me but when the package arrived, it was empty! The jiffy bag had come unstuck, so I have lost all my phone numbers but I have been able to keep my own number in my new phone, which I went to buy in Brighton the other day in the horrible shopping mall, Churchill Square. I went on the bus in the pouring rain with Bradley Wiggins but as I walked towards the Virgin shop, a security guard roared out NO DOGS ALLOWED IN HERE. In spite of all my pleadings he would not let me carry the dog the fifty yards to the shop. So I wrapped him up in my scarf (the dog not the security guard) and scuttled in with him under my coat though well aware that his tail was hanging out. I managed to pass by unseen and got the phone but it was a near thing. It is interesting how it varies with dogs in different places. There is not a pub in Hertfordshire which allows them as brother P and I discovered when we just wanted a bite to eat recently.But all the pubs in Sussex welcome BW with open arms and the chemist and paper shop locally keep special tins of treats for him I am thinking of getting one of those baby slings and pretending he is a toddler with a hairy face.
I am still deaf as a post in spite of copious ear syringing, but I am getting some improved hearing aids next week so have great hopes. I am a sort of moving disaster zone with various parts of my body playing up in turn: knees, hips, feet, ears, but I have been reading Alive Alive Oh (one of my Christmas books) by Diana Athill who is ninety seven and simply loves living in a Care Home and has taken up writing rather than her previous work as a publisher in her nineties and she does not complain about her health at all
I am so thankful that it is getting colder and the ground is frosty and hard instead of muddy, but it is distressing to see the daffodils and primroses out everywhere and the birds singing fit to bust, thinking that it is Spring..
I am just about to start making marmalade with grand daughter Tiger. I am always so pleased to see the Seville oranges in the shops at this time of the year. I love the smell in the house while it is bubbling away and then the row of golden jars on the kitchen table.