Monday and lots to update.

Firstly, A won a prize for his raspberry tarts. It took two goes to make them, frantic phone calls to his elderly mother in Belfast for advice and the addition of some raspberry liqeur (framboise perhaps?) but they worked! Hooray!

Had to tear myself away from the house this morning and immediately on returning home went to talk to the fish. So far, none appear to have died, in fact they dart around with a surprising turn of speed. This evening they had their first feed - horribly smelly pellets from TetraPak or something like that. They look as though they are made from recycled orange juice cartons.

It has turned into a wild and stormy night. Rain and wind blow round the house and it is now getting dark depressingly early. I did some cross stitch. I am stitching my biggest project to date, a huge item that will hopefully be a Christmas gift. Although at the rate I am going it might not be this Christmas.

Had a meeting this morning with two colleagues from our fleet management office. We have an inhouse garage that repairs and maintains our fleet. They are currently undertaking a review to assess the best likely form in the future. They are not helped by the fact they are based in a listed tram shed, which is leaky, drafty and completely unfit for purpose in terms of modern equipment, working practices or anything very much really unless you were a 19th Century carter needing a new swingletree or something similar.

Also received an invitation in the post from the local Arts Trust who are hosting a conference next month on art and architecture in the public realm. An interesting idea, you might think and I would agree with you, especially as my job is intimately involved with the streetscape. However, the invitation itself was so arty that I struggled to find a programme and nowhere did it tell you any boringly practical details like how much the conference costs to attend, or how to book or if you could attend for a day rather than the whole thing which includes a fearsome amount of evening views/occasions, almost like those 1960s "happenings". The text was so impenetrable that I struggled for a while to identify the theme and what was happening. It was also printed entirely in the most post industrial lurid yellow and black, looking a bit like a 1980s fanzine. Ho hum. I expect the designer (a la Oscar Wilde) would be very pleased that at least I am talking about it, rather than consigning it solely to the recycling bin of history.

Have received a number of emails concerning difficulties in posting comments. You go to the comments section below each day's new post, usually where it says O Comments (now I know why!). Once there, click and follow instructions. Apparently this is problematic, although if an idiot like me can manage it, there should be hope for all the bright, intelligent well-adjusted people I am either friendly with or are related to.