This week began fairly quietly. Number Two Son and I mutually, but separately, agreeing to forego a morning newspaper in future I was able to have a brief lie-in. Our reasons for the newspaper embargo are perhaps unremarkable in these days of continual, rolling, world-wide news but very briefly are these (in no particular order). Rarely is there an article of interest to read; increasingly social and "celebrity" gossip is encroaching; there are few decent journalists reporting dispassionately on anything; trivia seems normal; editorial bias is becoming evermore noticeable; there are too many supplements (mainly on obscure aspects of life of interest only to the advertisers); and about half of the favoured paper (The Times) is sport. So, after continuous subscription for nearly 50 years I have decided to call it a day. Rupert Murdoch has finally succeeded in killing my interest, even if he did save the paper all those years ago. And I don't miss it.

Tuesday was the nadir of the week. Having decided to do something about the junk pile that is my garage contents I had sorted some items to go to the dump. Having loaded the car (an estate) I was distracted at the point of closing the lid and shut the keys in. I had (I do now!) no spare keys. The local garage came with their screwdriver and wedge and gadget to lassoo the inside lock, and after 10 minutes or so succeeded in operating the peg on the inside of the door. Unfortunately the door was deadlocked, and so a new key had to be ordered. The finale was pantomime. New key opened the door - ALARM!  - me in and clambering over the back of the front seat, the back seat, and reaching into the far reaches of the boot amid the contents designated for the municipal dump before I could operate the fob to shut off that damned alarm. But all's well that ends well as I now know that the car is virtually theft-proof (this is not a challenge!)


Other than that, which caused us to miss tea and cake with The Daughter, who is not speaking to us, it has been an unremarkable week. The Wife is caring for next door's cats while their owners are on holiday. They are lonely and we get occasional visits.