A TWO CAKE afternoon!

I pulled up the bedroom blinds this morning to find a man standing outside the window... 

No panic - I expected him. He’s a window painter, doing the windows of the flat upstairs. He has to put scaffolding in our front garden, unfortunately. Luckily I was quick to act, and stood in front of Archie so that he would not see this sight and go absolutely bonkers barking.

In the end, because Friday is a half day for them, they started at the back, as it’s easier there for the scaffolding. I think, when they come to work outside our front windows, I’ll leave the blinds down, otherwise Archie will be APOPLECTIC.

JR went off to the gym, Archie and I sat out in the sun. Then we went for a walk round the graveyard. I found the grave of Robin Cook (a Scottish MP who resigned from the Cabinet in protest at Blair’s war in Iraq), but I still haven’t found the grave of Tom, a freed slave.

In the afternoon, Isobel, Archie’s erstwhile walker, came to visit, as she’s leaving Edinburgh to begin her career as a doctor in a Belfast hospital. Archie was delighted to see her. She’s going to join ‘BorrowmyDoggy’ as soon as she gets settled in her new city. She brought a cake she’d made, and JR had made one as well. Great! Archie tried, but he didn’t get any... (Extra)

We walked back over the Meadows with her, just to look at the blossom again, then JR took Archie further, while I popped in on an ex-neighbour whom we had bumped into at the bottle bank on the way down. I had said to her (and indeed anyone I pass at the bottle bank) as she returned a few wine bottles, ‘Getting rid of last night’s stash?, and she protested and showed me a couple of jam jars (as well as the wine bottles). But I worried afterwards that she thought I was serious, and rather rude, so popped in to her on the way home to make it clear I was jesting. She hadn’t taken offence. 

We’ve been watching the election coverage. I’m pleased to note that my vote did count. We have proportional representation in Scotland, and so the regional List seats, counted tomorrow, will be very important. 

We live in interesting times...