There’s no smoke

My neighbours two doors down had a big bonfire 5 days ago which smoked the downwind families out of their homes, meant washing had to be redone and left an asthmatic wheezing. I went to complain, arriving at the door at the same time as someone 6 houses further down. We were pretty clear about our feelings. So I was surprised when they lit another fire this afternoon - on one of the hottest days of the year when everyone has windows flung open. I went round and was about as blunt as I can be telling them how the children in the house between us had slept in beds covered in ash last Sunday after the previous fire (they were out but had left bedroom windows open) and they should not have any more fires EVER.

The guys are lovely but don’t seem to have got the message. However after my visit and an offer to take their garden waste to the tip for them (they don’t have a car) I had a lovely email apology from the fire-starter, a Tibetan masters student and former Buddhist monk, and an invitation for a Tibetan meal in their garden which sounds lovely. I will accept and hope it’s also a chance to check they are okay given the situation for foreign students can be quite grim.

In other news I seem to have put on about my 6kg during lockdown on top of the 3kg above my normal weight I had already incurred, so have been calorie counting. If the 9kg I need to lose I have managed to lose 2.5kg already. Tonight I get wine as my weekend treat...