Decay

Normally I would have spent today at my kitchen table in Edinburgh writing my Christmas cards, with a break for a bike ride just after lunch. Indeed I earmarked this day for card writing back on 7th January when I packed away Christmas 2016.

However, it became clear on Friday that my mother's computer in Northumberland needed the TLC of Mr hazelh in situ to bring it back to life after my mother accidentally downgraded the operating system and lost all her data(!) We therefore booked train tickets for a mercy mission south, leaving today and then returning to Edinburgh tomorrow - or so we thought...

Unfortunately on Friday night Mr hazelh accidentally booked train tickets not for today and tomorrow, but for next Sunday and Monday. We discovered this when we boarded the train at Waverley and couldn't identify our reserved seats.

Cue panic, a rushed conversation with the guard, and a race up and down two flights of stairs to the nearest machine to buy replacement outward tickets. We managed to do all this in time to catch our intended train - phew!

We then bought tickets for the return journey north tomorrow from the comfort of our train seat - except Mr hazelh made another mistake and bought returns, rather than singles. Aaargh!

In the end I have managed to write my Christmas cards, but at the dining room table of the parental abode. My mother and not-so-little sister joined me when I suggested that it would save money on postage if we all put our cards for the same family members and friends into the same envelopes. Meanwhile Mr hazelh has worked hard to bring my mother's PC back to life. As I type this I see that he is now installing Firefox.

Instead of a bike ride just after lunch I took a walk around the garden, where I blipped this decaying urn.

My thoughts today have also been with alfthomas in hospital in Finland.

Exercise today: a little walking (8482 steps)