At Last!
Someone has joined in the games on the map, what about a holiday theme - where would you like to go? Where are you going this year? I have always wanted to go to Timbuctoo, but I am sure I shall have to look it up before pinning a body to the map.
Hmmm, now fixing someone to the map sounds good too - who would you most like to pin to the floor and why? I think I am going to consider the enjoyment of seeing a local yokel squiggling, he not only has to consider why he's there but also prepare for an Osted. Which is worse?!! Where shall I put him.... nowhere on my wished for holiday destination of course.

I have just opened this up again to check my writing and found that half the page is missing! Tell me ethereal boss - why does this happen? Where have you hidden it? Why do I feel so out of control of this thing! Answers please in the forum!! (And now it is back again..... what is the name of the mischievous spirit that moves things in houses?)

Two down, three to go..
Last year there were five wasps nests, so far this year they have built two in the garden. Both of them under the wood that holds the guttering up - is it called the soffits? So they are becoming more discerning in their choice of site - like 'make it more difficult for her to get at us' difficult.
Yet again this afternoon I lay down on the garden bench (same one as last time!) to read a book, I glanced up and saw that they were buzzing in and out again. Pesky things. However, I have left them humming in a chemical haze, they are not happy, but then neither am I, so tough luck wapsles, go elsewhere!

Fact Monster - Wasps

My son called in tonight, he was returning from a golf match at the local County course which had been sponsored by his firm. He had had a good day, enjoyed the game and the banter with the other players. This is what work should be!
It was a beautiful evening so we walked down the lane to the stream and there were a family of swans feeding leisurely, two adults, one leading the other following their seven cygnets. It was a lovely sight, they took no notice of us and just dabbled away in the water, I just wish I had taken my camera as the sun was setting and shining through the tree tunnel over the stream. Very lovely indeed, I will go down tomorrow and see if they turn up again.

Pity about the prat who drove extremely fast over the hump back bridge and dangerously close to us, do the police hire out those stinger things?

Life Changes

Do you all like the changes that are coming our way? The internet, phones that takes photos, can be our diaries etc. They are all so exciting that it feels rather like we are breeding a lifelong addiction to - excuse me men, boy's toys. (They dont' look at this so I'm safe!!)
The computer has been an addiction of mine for some time, I use my mobile as my diary but sadly do not have one that takes photos - yet! The internet allows all sorts of opportunities to keep in contact with friends all over the world, both with e-mail, these blogspots and chatting through Messenger or something similar. They are all machines, just lumps of metal which have the ability to use electricity to do marvellous things.
So why do we get upset when they go wrong and treat it all as a personal affront? The bloggit (sorry, shout out) part of the site is the fun part - seeing who has contributed a comment to an entry is exciting, especially if people chat amongst each other.
Here's where I eat humble pie. I was cross that the shout outs were inactive and have just checked out the reason. I didn't realise that one person does all this with no remuneration or help, just because they are able to. What a lovely person to give us all so much enjoyment and I hereby shout out I AM SORRY FOR MY CROSSNESS!!

So anyone coming into the site. can you please leave a message on the map? I have also added a button right at the bottom of this page for a forum.... getting brave! (I have just double checked this - 'the dear little thing' keeps moving.. so its up to you to look for it!)
I could have been clever and put it at the top? Mmmm, could I? I don't think so.

Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours... are you all singing along with me? No? Oh well...

I have wonderful neighbours on this estate.
Ted and Freda who live next door are retired, he was an industrial chemist and she was a Head Mistress. Ted is into wood turning and he's good at it, he also has all the boy's toys that a wood turner wants and needs. I have just been admiring his latest venture - he is making a stand for a lathe to demonstrate some wood turning at the farm where he does some voluntary work with young people who have severe learning difficulties.
We got onto talking about torque - remember a few days ago I asked if a man could help with my electric screwdriver and they all ran for cover? Well Ted has explained it all and I understand it now.
My real problem was not the 'torque'ing (Ican hear you all saying things at this point!) but the size of the hole I had drilled. So to all those men in shops who have advised me on the size of my drill bits, I have only one phrase for you - SIZE DOES MATTER!

Another good neighbour, Phil, is a retired policeman. He provided the pool liner's cushion from his burnt out house, he has also delivered lots of bags of donkey manure this morning. So what am I going to be doing this afternoon?
Turning out my own compost heaps of course!!

Christmas Dinner
Have I mentioned that my mother sees the world through half an eye? It makes it difficult for her to judge where to pour the tonic when the lunchtime g&t is taken, so sometimes there are spills.. and she has other wonderful effects of colourful shooting stars instead of flowers in her garden. (LSD??) There are also the downsides that she simple does not see people and things or certain colours, blue is now black for her. And watch out those intending to move to Worcester, she drives a buggy.....
However, she is the queen of the compost heap makers! We decided to dig out her three heaps yesterday, so she got her gardening stool and the hosepipe, sat on the stool and was ready to water the new heap. I donned the boots selected the tools and started digging.

The first heap was dry and not working so we sorted it out and covered it up; the other two though were of a Christmas dinner quality, lovely stuff! I got quite excited by it all. Lovely dark moist compost, any plant - no, every would want to be tucked up in that. So the lilies, the clematis and the lovely scented winter flowering shrubs had their Christmas dinner yesterday. Oh and the Bishop of Llandaff was treated too as he is a childhood friend of hers.

What do you do?
When you are waiting for a phone call - where do you hide? What do you do?

I decided to weed the furthest patch of my garden and then gradually worked closer and closer to the house as the time for the call came closer.
And it was what I expected, they wanted a literacy specialist, they loved what I did with the children and what I could offer, but.... Damn that word but!!!

I shall weep tears into my tea cup, pick myself up and look all over again. Sorry about that!!

Phew!!!
Well that's over... I have had an interview for a job which looks lovely. Now comes the wait for the result - the trouble with interviews that go well is that I never get the job, so I wish I could say that it was awful and remain positive. We shall see. The panel was exceptionally good at making me feel welcome so I hope that it augurs well.

Now which compost heap shall I dig out in a frenzy of waiting? There are five on offer, except that I've planted a courgette plant on top of one of them, so perhaps I shall leave that in peace.

I have actually finished it!
The pond is finished, the edging sorted out and some plants have been anchored into the water as well as the surrounding soil.



As my friends will know, this is quite an achievement for me! I get carried away with ideas and then don't finish things... messy person!! This time though, it is done. And what's more I am pleased with it. The whole project has taken several years, from the time Livvy took an active dislike to the tree in the lawn and cut it down, then Rupert dug out the roots for me so that I could take my time digging out the rest of the hole. It has been a monumental task for me, but I am so pleased that it is finished. When the plants grow over the liner at the edge and the lilies (can't afford them yet - when I get a job I will treat myself to those) cover the water then it will be pretty.

A robin spent much time collecting food for her family whilst I was digging around today, she became very brave and followed my digging moves.
So my garden is approaching the completion state that I have planned over the six years that I have lived here - almost to the day. It will be the anniversary on Thursday - shucks, I'll have to open a bottle of wine!!
Here's what the house looks like now.



It is very quirky but I love it and am very happy here.

Girls' Night Out!
Hull. The name of the city is not very prepossessing, the place is also not a wonderful experience. So, why have I been going there? I have been trained as an Interactive White Board Trainer. Great! I can now play with the wonderful interactive toys - well, I could if I had one! But that's not the point of this entry.
Ronnie, another woman on the course, who has a similar attitude towards life to mine, decided that we should have a girls' night out on the way back in Castleton and what a good decision that was! The drive over there was beautiful (I am talking about the part after all the motorway stretches, caravan rear ends are not my favourite view!)
We were recommended a pub in a small village as a stopping off place. Lovely view, but the doors remained firmly closed, we didn't take this personally as they also kept out other travellers!
This was the view from the pub's garden, or would have been...



Castleton is lovely, a village with lots of amenities - there were oodles of pubs! Definitely a place to stay in and leisurely walk from one bar to another. The hills around were - well hilly and breathtaking. Mainly taking ours as we walked up one of them. Ronnie threatened heart attacks but I kept muttering 'wimp' and we eventually got to the top of the hill. The walk was supposed to go around Mam Tor, but we discreetly decided to walk back down the other side of the hill we had just puffed up. No point in spoiling the day we thought!



On the way up we went into a huge underground cave just behind a large school party. (Can we keep away from short people? No.) They were so well behaved though - it was a pleasure to be in that group. The guide was extremely good with them, showing them all the parts that had been in the Narnia sets and other films that had used the cave as the backdrop to the plot. Claustrophobic at times, but I'm glad I went in.


This was the approach to the cave.
Definitely a good way to return home from Hull, and what's more, the pool still had all its water in it!

How many brick walls can you bang your head against at one go?

I have been receiving hints about there being a paucity of my bloggits on this site over the last few days. Well the reason is that I have finally got on with the pond. My lovely daughter cut the tree down in my garden at least two years ago, in fact it was three. (She decided that it was boring tree and in the wrong place, I used to hang my washing in it.) There was however, a very nasty weed growing there - one of the oldest plants which does not go in for eradication. So I had to dig the whole circle of surrounding soil out and get rid of said soil away from my garden. Nice and easy? Huh! My garden was a run for pheasant chicks and so was just hardcore down to about knee depth. You don't dig - you chisel the bits out.
So here is the hole after 2 years with some sand - ready for off!



Then it has to be cosseted with sand and my neighbour's carpet liner - not needed any more since the house went up in flames. (Not a good thing that.)



Then - all on my own I laid the butyl liner out and filled it with water. Good eh!!



Then my lovely daughter comes for a paddle, what we didn't notice was a hole in the liner - a little circular hole which gradually let the water out.... however, she had a paddle first!



Then today I took up the leaky liner, exchanged for a new one and did it all over again. ...



It never rains but it pours, then I dealt with the wasps' nest, but I will show you those photos tomorrow.

Mad Dogs and English women....
I met a wonderful person last summer on holiday, she loves travelling and has been all over the world. This term she has taken the time off to cycle across the States on the transam trip. Now nothing would induce me to do this, but she was very excited and had the courage. Have a look at the link on the side, it takes you to a site which is being writtten by a couple who are also doing the trip. They are having a really good time - apart from the dogs! 2,000 miles so far and heaven knows how many more.... mad people.

These grew everywhere in the garden that Edison planted. They were so lovely, I have never seen them growing naturally before. Pity the vanilla orchids weren't fruiting!

Cars can be lovely creatures - the 2CV, those lovely old (and I mean OLD) box type ones and the Model T that Ford built. This one is for my sister who does like and understand cars. She has an old version of something splendid which I think is yellow. This car was lovely too..

Help!
In the past I have denied that a man could read this page, now I am cringeing... If there is a man who does, and who knows how to use an electric drill/screwdriver, would you be kind enough to tell me what I am doing wrong when I try to use the screwdriver bit - please? Sometime the whizzy round thing just whizzes without turning the screw in the hole and I don't get very far with these mad plans that I have for making things for my garden. I am using the correct sized drill bit to go with the size of screws, but I don't always get things to screw in. What is the difference between speed 1 and 2? Should I be using them for the different activities?
Now the girls who read this will be laughing their heads off and I don't blame them....
Is there a kind man out there?

Girlie talk...
Does anybody have those awful decisions that I have - whether to buy cotton wool balls or the flat things that come in cylinders?
I like the look of the puffy cottonwool balls and the coloured ones are now sold in schemes, which is very pretty. But they don't work as well as the dull flat things which come in white or white. If I use the balls, the cleanser drips off the edge and onto me or the floor; the flat one's just cup the goo and then work wonderfully on removing the make -up. Neither of them, I have to say, removes the wrinkles. Storing the balls is also more problematical too - they never look very decorative in my lovely blue jug - the colour effect is lost to the world (well, anyone who uses my bathroom that is...)
Life is full of such difficulties......

The Girls' Done Good!!
Shropshire has been trying to set up county squads for girls cricket for the last few years and this year I am privileged to be the manager for the U-13 squad. They have been to indoor coaching sessions throughout the winter and outdoor coaching but tonight was their first match.
It was a 'friendly' against a small village youth squad - boys even, and it was the first time they had played against any other team as this squad. They played well: the bowling was pretty accurate, only two wildly wide overs, their fielding was OK and their batting definitely shows promise. And they won!!
I am so proud of them, it is an exciting thing to be part of. Our next big step is a match against Warwickshire U-13s on Sunday. That is going to be a different matter, as our coach told them, they are going to have to step up their quality of play quite radically for that. But tonight we are all happy!. Well done girls.

Great Excitement!!
I have been linked to another site - it feels so good! Whatdoesn't feel so good is the fact thatmy new microphone won't work and the display on this screen has suddenly enlarged itself and I have haven't done anything to it - honest!
I think the pooter saw the html book from the library and it took fright - it has just cause!

Windows

I have mentioned to one or two people the hazards of changing window frames in their houses. I recently sold my home after having some building work done on it - this included new window frames. The buyer's solicitor said I would need a FENSA certificate. Baffled reaction from me - what is one of those? To cut a long story short, if you have changed any window frame since last April, then you have to have a certificate to show that this was done by an installer who is 'certified' to put in the correct windows.

The house sale should have taken about 4 weeks, and here's another 'but', it took 4 months. The builder said it had been sent for but had probably gone to the street with the same name as my house. Good try - Fensa had heard nothing from him. (You can check online and I frequently did!)
Next excuse - I have sent them off, I thought you meant the window insurance certificate - no, I already had that.
Then Fensa told me that he had not paid his affiliation fees so no certificate could be issued. They would issue new forms, but it would be quicker online - 6 weeks quicker!
I rang the secretary of the builder, "Oh yes she said, I've got all the forms, they're here on my desk..." This was 4 weeks into the process.
I kept my temper and asked if she could do me a real favour and send them off, of course she would, she'd do it first thing on Friday, she was just off to fetch her son from school.
Next problem, the builder had changed his bank account and so the payment did not go through, so the second begging call to the secretary was to set up the direct payment. "Oh yes, I'll do it on Friday when I go into town." Mmmm, getting nowhere fast here.
However, daily phone calls which were of the friendly type prompted her, the FENSA man was brilliant - he did the nasty act and we got it sorted in about a month after I had made personal contact with him. Then the sale went through - after the Listed Building Consent approval was sent, but that is another story that added to my woes.
At one stage I rang my original builder nad asked him if he still had the old frame and could he put that back into the house. We both agreed this might be the only solution to the impasse.....
Moral of the story - avoid new windows like the plague, if they are really necessary check that your builder is a registered FENSA installer, don't pay the builder till he provides one of these certificates, then when all the papers are in, put them with your house deeds and do not lose them. Selling a house is agony in itself, reorganising the office work of a builder is not something to be taken on lightly!!

What a change!

This is to show you how he has changed from that 10 year old who plagued you.....

Marathons

Most people run marathons, all over the world, me? I make mistakes in life and then make a marathon out of putting them right.

Yesterday was a case in point, I realised that the tracker I had put in here was tracking both blogs that I am writing, so I put another make in. At this point I removed something that should not have been moved, the design went haywire and I spent the next four hours trying to sort it. (The worst part was realising that I had lost all the shout outs!)
In an attempt to start all over again, I used a different design which would not accept anything where I put it, then I came back to the blue page and tried, forgot that you have to publish changes before they are activated,,,,duh!
Bed time was late last night but at least I think it is now sorted. I shall hie me to the library to get a book on html and see what I can understand, very little in all probablility!

At Last! I am allowed in again!!

Sundays - the day to walk over to the shop and buy the paper, then come back to a good cafetiere of coffee with dates, feet up and have a gentle read. That is my idea of bliss for Sundays. Well today my son appeared so we went off to the village, I trotted all the way after him - he has long legs. We talked non-stop together and at one point he commented on my breathlessness and asked was he walking too fast.
Well, of course I denied it! I completely disagreed that I walked any slower on my own, but I agreed I didn't talk to myself non-stop - usually. I normally stop to talk to others over their garden walls - they were rather a blur today though!

He made up for it all when we returned by cooking some lunch which was delicious. Food always tastes better when someone else cooks it and he is a good cook.

He left you a message my firend - on your blog and on messenger, so have a look? The photo is to follow.

Tonight's the Night!!!

The essay has been finished and posted. What a relief!! I won't go into the reasoning behind my doing this degree, but it is agony! However, today sees me two thirds of the way through - providing I pass this module of course! So, tonight...

The wine has been cooling for several weeks, the olives have been bought and the sunflower, pumpkin and other seeds have been toasted together with the pine nuts. I have to admit that it is the olives that are causing me some angst. Previously I would not have looked at green olives, I was a black olive woman - not kalamata either, those ones from Sainsbury's in the black tins, they were the ones. But, (thers's always a but!) Sainsbury's have started to sell some delicious, to die for, green olives. So in the past, there was no problem, wine, olives and home to the bottle opener. Now there are more decisions in life. I can't cope!!!

Bear in mind that I am a member of the great unwashed at this moment, there wasn't really any problem today, it was wine from the fridge and olives from the garage (yes!) the toasted seeds and then total relaxation. It feels so good....

Now I only have to sort out all those piles of post, the ironing - oh I can't go on any more......

Visitors - welcome and unwelcome
I have been reminded about this incident by another blogger who is suffering from the attentions of a mouse.
In my last home they came in every autumn, - well at least it meant that I cleaned out my cupboards each year. However I am a total coward when it comes to bodies, my three year old could freak me out by chasing me with worms from the garden, when I took my usual refuge of running into the house and locking the door, he would post them through the letter box. Then what to do, - if I opened the door I would squash them and would they wiggle out of the way? No, of course not!

But back to the mice in the house. I had a family come to stay so things had to get tough - for them.
At this point in my life my children came to see me daily and to stay at some point in the week - but the days were not reliable. So my son usually set the trap in the evenings he was there, which was good. One night it went off within moments of his setting it - great, he dealt with the body.

Then there was the time when I heard it go off in the evening but had no children staying the night. So of course this had to wait until the mornnig. Said son did his bit, he opened the door of the cupboard and found the victim, then spent some time examining it and fiddling with something, the he announced with great glee, 'Look mum, its got rigor mortis in its tail...'

I take the hint!
You know things are bad when you best firend tells you that you're being boring.... OK, so you want to know about interesting things? I am not going to write about the day my 2CV went up in flames on the M54 - it still hurts, but as Livvy said, "Lucy is now in the sky - with diamonds..." She was called Lucy, my lovely car - BUT I AM NOT GOING TO GET MAUDLIN! And yes I was shouting! And I've run out of gin....

Any man who reads this (do they? I don't think any man would - its a girlie thing surely?) would snort at those three symbols - Ha! She drove a what?!!!
Shall I tell you about the time I got cross in the sauna?
Those times when you go into the sauna and its full of men who start talking cars. They use lots of letters and numbers and one-up-manship and scorn and things. (Well when it comes to cars I love the 2CV, they had character, charisma and fun.) When the men had finished their rivalries with each other, they started on me - what did I drive? A green and white hatchback I said, it has four wheels and it goes. What size engine etc etc. Well I told them and they fell about laughing and being rude, silly men!

Then I had a wonderful time when I bought my present car, she's called 'Blue' 'cos she is, and she goes like a dream. I went for a trial drive in Worcester to see if my mother could actually get into her - week-end drives and getting lost are our weekend outings together.

Then the salesman started on me: it has headlight levels that you can adjust, (me) oh yes, two of my last cars had those. You can change the light bulb by unscrewing the lamp covers - (me again!) yes I could do that two - no expensive light units you see. You can tip the seat right down - (yes...) can't you take them out? I could in my previous cars.
At this point he was getting slightly peeved, and asked what car this paragon was, I just loved telling him it was a 2CV, he could not look me in the eye after that, especially when I ordered Blue.
Now I join in the car talk and boast that my Blue has RSS, PMT, OHT and VHT, I feel so good when no-one asks me what they mean.
Does that mean that all this car talk is tosh?

Today I will be good...
I am not going to be distracted from writing my essay today. I will not watchout for the Greater Spotted Woodpecker or the Bullfinch. I will finish the next section of my essay.... after I have been to the shop to buy some things!

Wiggling Veg Destoyers

Last night saw me on the slug trail again... yes, I have joined the murderous ones. My first row of climbing French beans has been decimated by the slugs so it was time to act.
After dark, I put on my gardening clogs, took the torch and went to investigate.
It was revolting! I have never seen slugs hanging off the remains of leaves in such a desperate manner, they were literally dripping off.
There was nothing else to be done - they escape from the wheelie bin, so that tactic does not work. Stone age man mentality has to come into play. I scraped them off the stump of the plant, placed them carefully on my 'duckboard' (I am following the no digging plan - so no walking on the soil) then squashed them. Very queasy moment for both of us. I hope it was terminal for them, but they can join the food chain without any ill effects for the thrush that comes down to feed in the veg patch.
My next problem is what to do with the pigeons that are destroying the broccoli plants that Livvy brought for me.
How do these people on allotments get their rows of veg to survive this kind of onslaught. Never mind the WMD Tony Blair, what about the WVD?

Celebrations!
The wonderful part of all this blogging is the network that you enter. It can lead you anywhere - as George Harrison sang, 'If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.' and that is fun.

Two hits away I found the site http://www.seventwentythree.com/fromtheroad.htm# which has the most wonderful photography on it. (I haven't got onto inserting links yet - still in my first week of Blogging at the Plus level.) There is a section called photographs from the road and one of those series is called Whimsical People. This is a side of American people that I did not see in Florida, a sense of humour! Have a look at the site and see what you think.

Today is the 50 Anniversay of the Queen's Coronation - what has that got to do with Whimsical People? Well, bear with me...

Last year we had a bank holiday to celebrate her succession to the throne, on that day both my children came over for a meal. As they are ardently not Royalists and I am really only (can I say fractionally hearted if I don't count myself as even half-hearted?) in favour of having a promotional figurehead for the country who is not a member of any political party, (are you still with me?) I asked them to come and build a scarecrow with me. No hint of a celebratory meal you see.

They tolerated my whim, as they sometimes do and we built a rather ungainly but queenly scarecrow for the veg patch. She was dressed in red white and blue, resplendant with head scarf - (not I hasten to add one of those which cost in the hundreds!!) and reigned supreme up there.
I have to say that the veg did not thrive, it was one of the worst years for cropping anything and queenie gradually became bent double even though I could hardly believe that her tasks were onerous. But I was unknowingly creating a Whimsical Person - wish I'd known! I would have made a better job of her and taken the photogrphs. Now I am trying to imagine how to get everyone on this estate to do this as a group effort... somehow I think they would frogmarch me to Shelton first!

My firend is nagging me for photographs from the Florida holiday - here is the view from the balcony of my hotel room, sadly I never managed to capture the dolphins, but they loved this bay.

Oh dear...

When you live in a house on your own, the building's personal creakings become very familiar and are almost part of your own daily clock. When the radiators start to cool down in the winter, it is time for bed. The sun light shining into the bedroom window announces that yes I have definitely overslept – again!!

Sometimes when I go to bed I hear the telltale scurryings in the attic above my bedroom of mice paying me a visit. For the first half hour my feelings are quite generous, they need to be warm in the winter too, etc etc. After about half an hour though, I am concerned that they will chew through the ceiling and end up running all over my face in the night. I am not a brave person and this terrifies me.

So next day, I battle to the back of my garage and pullout the tall set of step ladders. (I have three sets – don’t ask!) Somehow I put them up under the loft door, turn on all the lights and then lift the hatch. Now I believe in talking to everything (even my luggage according to a friend in France!) so I warn the mice what will happen to them if they eat the blue granules that I am putting out for them, I also threaten them that far worse will happen if they don’t, so they do – eat the granules.
After a few days, the loft is peaceful again and I can put the step ladder back in its place – somewhere at the back of my garage. Then the only worries come at Christmas when I have to go up to get the decorations, you can imagine how gingerly I do this.

Yesterday, I was just doing the normal things in the morning, I had checked the bloggit and was in my bedroom when I heard a cat purring. (More necessary info here, my little house is an upside down one, I sleep downstairs and ‘live’ upstairs) A house search ensued, I shut each door after going through each room, but there was no cat. Drat, she must have just walked out.

In the bathroom later, I heard some purring so loud that it could only have come from the elusive Puma that is supposed to live in these parts. Another search - this time looking under everything and even moving furniture around. (Very dusty exercise! )

Still no cat, so I worked it out logically, a cat had been walking past the drain outside my bedroom whilst it purred. The drain magnified the sound, hence the puma- like proportions. OK, no worries, gave myself a little talking to about silliness and premature reactions to sounds.

By this time I hadn’t checked my bloggit for at least two hours, and as I am in the early stages of addiction, this was not good, so I came into my tiny little study to be greeted by …………the purring from the Assistant in Word …. Duh!
What a sad person I am not to realise this. My only excuse is that the computer has been very recently upgraded and I am not used to the sounds it makes . (And I can turn the sound levels up without realising it.....)
I must get out more.