Saturday 1st November 2025

It was twenty four hours since we collected the cats. And for the first few hours, at least until we fed them, they all just sat and watched us, and meowed.

A lot.

Even the usually quiet Poppy.

The bed was covered with cats overnight, and their little faces were waiting when we woke up, so we could feed them.

In their eleven day absence, a ginger and white cat has moved in, and one night I caught it in our kitchen. So, I chase it, or scare it when I saw it. Now the three cats are back, marking their territory it should be seen less.

Anyway.

Saturday morning and after a cuppa, we were in the car and to the gym for some phys. Mainly because weekends are quiet, especially at seven in the morning.

So I cycle round the Grand Canyon for forty minutes, then we drive to Tesco to refuel the car and get some supplies. Including pizzas as we aim to road test the new oven.

Once home and we have breakfast, I go upstairs to finish The Rose Field, and Jools vacuums the kitchen and utility room.

Jools wants the book once I'm done with it, and has been reading the start when I have been watching football.

Mulder joins me to help me read, climbing on the back of the office chair then trying to use me as a ladder to reach my lap.

This would not be a problem if he curled up and slept, but its a place he can demand maximum attention, and block my view of the book. So I have to move my head this way and that to stop him from climbing past my shoulder.

He does give up and curls up on the floor.

I finished the book at half eleven, sad that the book and series is over, but glad I can get up and do other stuff.

Which is ironic as the next six hours I will spend either watching or listening to football.

Norwich on first on the telly. Home against Hull, and play pretty well in the first half.

Second is the opposite. Hull score within three minutes and Norwich have no idea how to score. Hull's late second was well deserved, and condemns City to their 6th (sixth) straight home defeat from the start of the season, the first time has happened at the second level in 35 years.

I am only surprised how little I am bothered by it, as the club doesn't seem to be either.

Then on the sofa with Scully to listen to radio 5 and watch the scores coming on on Final Score. A perfect two hours as far as I'm concerned.

And in stunning news, we had been invited out for the evening, to a couples' place who I met through Bridge.

They live along a narrow lane in Whitfield, but sadly are soon moving to Oxfordshire.

Ellie cooked salmon pasta bake and a fine roulade for dessert.

We talk before and during the meal, before playing cards for the last hour or so.

Finally, Peter shows us his coin collection and the stories behind half crowns minted around the country as Charles I fought the Civil War.

By then it was half nine and time to go home. Jools drove us back as I had made at least three glasses of wine vanish.