Diary update

Events chez Arbor Court these last few weeks include:

 - the sale of Jo's car - we're now a one car family;

 - the Volvo has been serviced and a new battery installed which will hopefully mean that the car won't be dead when we return from Australia early March;

 - I've started attending weekly physio classes at the Sports Centre for my knee;

 - we had some kind of respiratory bug, which thankfully seems to have mostly passed now;

 - went to corporate hospitality at the Cove Rangers - Partick Thistle match last Saturday with 3 of my pals, and Gary did similar with 4 of his;

 - received a letter from my Institute to tell me that I'm now a member of their "prestigious Gold Club" as it's now 50 years since I qualified as a C.A. I got an invite to a lunch - either in Edinburgh or London - but didn't go - I wouldn't know/remember anyone else, so my only "reward" is a little ICAS tie-pin.

We're having a bit of difficulty with our fence at the back of the house which was badly damaged in last year's Storm Arwen. It's 40 years old and was coming to the end of its life anyway. A few months ago our neighbour told me that she'd been trying to find a fencing contractor but hadn't been successful so we said we would try as well - and we found one, who came, inspected it and gave us quotes to replace it. Unfortunately we're now in limbo as our neighbour is not responding to our requests for permission to go ahead. Dilemma. Here's what it now looks like:

The first snows of winter have arrived. Nothing too bad so far, but after a long, mild autumn, the sudden plunge in temperatures has come as a bit of a shock - not least to our fuel bills. It's a battle to keep the house even moderately warm without racking up huge costs - a battle the whole country is facing.

On a lighter note, Kelly sent us this photo of the karate kids a few months ago: