November Northumbrian rainbow

I transformed the dining room at my parents' house into my office for the day. It has to be said that the view out of the window was somewhat of a distraction, especially when these rainbows appeared in the sky.

Amongst today's visitors to the house were the postman, the home help, and the doctor. My two sisters have now left - one to Holy Island, and the other to Newcastle for the weekend - so Mr hazelh and I are now in sole charge of the parents. My middle sister will take over from us on Monday.

A major excitement of the day was that my mother allowed me to drive her (precious) Volvo. However, I was not allowed out on my own, and only permitted to go about 3 miles. It was as if I was 17 all over again as my mother took charge of instructing me on how to drive an automatic car. I have to confess that the following phrases were used:

- 'I'm 55 years old, not 17!'
- 'I'm not stupid; I'm a grown-up professor with a PhD!'
- 'I have driven an automatic before - in the US, on the other side of the road!'

My mother still thinks that it would be a good idea to buy some green P plates to put in the Volvo windows...

Today's good news is more grant success. This time it is for the bid that I submitted at the beginning of October. Bruce and I are delighted :-)

Exercise today: none.