A rare sign

Is this SOLD sign a sign of the times changing? It certainly isn't a word that's much in evidence these days in the housing market. It looks as if something else caught this guy's eye as he dutifully pushed his buggy along, so I guess he isn't too concerned about property sales or improving markets.

Such matters from far from my mind this morning too. As usual, I left the grand tidy-up and clean-up until the last minute, despite the equally usual best intentions not to be faced with a mad rush to get the house respectable for my monthly hosting of the music group session. I woke before the alarm so got up anyway, knowing full well that I wouldn't get back to sleep. Indeed, I was even up at the nearby 20-hour supermarket before dawn getting in some cleaning and other essentials (what a depressing place the supermarket was at that time, with pallets parked willy nilly in the aisles blocking access to the shelves, spillages all over the place, and a general air of utter disorder. Still, I got in and out quickly and actually got through the scan-it-yourself checkout without embarrassment.

The arriving group members were blissfully unaware of the last-minute preparations or of the fact that I'd only finally got things in order half an hour before kick-off time. We had a good session, not too affected by the fact that I'd had to cancel my intended screening of a complete opera and reverting to our normal format at short notice. This was all due to my DVD player giving up the ghost, apparently as a result of last weekend's electricity interruption. It was only on Tuesday that the problem came to light, so there was no time for somebody to come forward to take responsibility for the 30-minute slot at session's end. As a substitution I took an executive decision and entertained the guys with a bit of old-fashioned radio which I'd recorded from the internet - a skit interview with Mozart.

After the hectic preparations, the session itself, the quick trip to the local pub, and the disappointment of Ireland's pathetic failure to nab the Triple Crown in the rugby international, I was pretty much pooped out, so there was nothing for it but an early night.