Retreat and advance

So Webber didn't win, but Button did, and our local man, Rubens Barrichello, held his 8th position.  Sadly I didn't see the race (which I gather was more eventful than Bahrain) mainly because of the time difference.  I'm blowed if I'm going to get up at 6 am to watch cars crashing, to say nothing of losing an hour's sleep with British Summertime beginning. (Did you know it's officially European Union Daylight Saving Time?)  Then we had a shared lunch at church to say goodbye to Laurie who's moving to Romania to set up a B&B - and so I missed the 1 pm repeat.  However some things are more important than even sport - of which people are one.

Meanwhile winter has returned, not with the ferocity of Scotland and Northern Ireland here, but I'm feeling fairly frazzled again. The parish church is open during the day this week in an 'Open Retreat' for Holy Week, which seems a good idea. Feebly, when it was pouring with rain on Monday, I chickened out of going down; there was a compensation in that a great friend turned up in the afternoon, while Jane was out.  She made me a cup of tea and passed on the Stanford latest. Then yesterday I managed to bash my wheelchair on the doorpost and the air promptly hissed out of the tyre. However Jane was made of sterner stuff and wheeled me down anyway. Afterwards we threaded our way through the estate via the greengrocer (one of the glories of Grove) to the Cornerstone Bookshop to have a cup of coffee. This time we met no less than six people we knew while there, including a couple who told us their granddaughter was going to have her wedding reception there in May. Now that's a good wheeze. This year I seem to have more connection with Holy Week than last year. Perhaps I'm not so drained.

This morning the engineer came round to mend the wheelchair - and fitted new solid tyres. So they'll never deflate and Jane won't have to pump them up ever again. Yippee! The engineer's not on call this weekend and was looking forward to spending time with his boys. He's a nice chap. This morning I've been working on my book. The editor, Tony, has just sent through the proposed cover. I like it. Utterly different from My Donkeybody!