Prisoner of Cell Block H

escaped today. I chose a time when the sun was out, last night's heavy frost had melted away - and I made a beeline for Sainsbury's. My second time out in the car in a week.

We have more snow or sleet forecast, so I stocked up for a siege. But I do hope I'll be able to get out next week - I'm getting stir crazy. At the moment on the agenda is a Guildford Writers meeting, the postponed visit to the hairdresser and lunch with my fellow alumni from Surrey University, followed by the reading circle meeting. While I'm there, men are coming to lag our roof, so I really hope that I'll be able to get out, because otherwise I'll have to watch them as they tramp in and out, have the loft open, making chilly draughts, and drop bits of lagging all over the floor. If I'm out, M will have to entertain them, make them teas and coffees. He'll be fascinated by the whole procedure anyway (men love watching other men work and asking them technical questions about it.)

Three copies of Tainted Tree are now in Surrey libraries and all are out on loan. The latest place to be added is Camberley. Presumably, of the two remaining books still on order, one will go to Horsley, who ordered them in the first place. I would expect one to be in Guildford too, as the book is set there. But you never can tell.

While stuck at home, I've changed the sheets in the two spare rooms, ready for the ProdigalD and family. M & I also spent some time yesterday, putting up the curtains, which I'd had cleaned. (Actually most of the time was spent putting in the fiddly clips into the top of the curtain.) If I ever get new curtains (and there's nothing wrong with the ones I've got, so it's unlikely to be soon) I will have a pole and great big curtain rings. That should save a lot of aggro. M also spotted a switch coming off the wall, so a repair job had to be carried out, with me holding the torch. It wasn't the most rivetting of jobs - and what's more, we ended up somehow fitting the switch in a slightly different place.

I have to get back to my reading circle book now. It's A Kind of Loving and gives a very accurate picture of the late fifties or early sixties. My, how difficult things were in the pre-permissive age.