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Went along to an antique auction yesterday to follow the sale of a painting that I picked up a while ago. The auctioneer had given it an estimated value of £50-£80 so we were a little disappointed that it only made £30. At least we made over 100% profit.


While we were there a small scrapbook of drawings – one of which may or may not have been done by Landseer was offered up with a start price of £2000 (if my memory serves me right). The bidding went up and up and the item was finally knocked down to a man in motor cycle leathers for £4,400 – it caused quite a stir in the auction room.

We were expecting daughter and husband round this evening for a chill out session and barbeque so we trailed around yesterday looking for charcoal. Didn’t have a lot of luck as the retailers have replaced all the summer stuff with Christmas lines. So - with a bit of hardwood and some other brushwood I loaded up the gas BBQ, shut the lid and turned the gas on. It WOULD have worked – really it would! - though in hindsight it might have been a good idea to have periodically checked the progress of my charcoal factory. Having filled the house full of smoke (and probably the neighbours houses as well) I lifted the lid this morning to check what I’d produced only to discover a pile of ash. Then our visitors contacted us this morning and reported in sick – so now we don’t need the BBQ tonight. Would I call that a positive result? – Yes but no but………...

Just returned from the village pub where we enjoyed the company of a couple we know quite well. He is 57 and has recently been diagnosed with cancer. He's undergoing all sorts of nasty treatments and we were pleased to see he was looking quite good. He is shortly to start a very aggressive programme of treatment – he will either come out at the other end OK or - in his own words - he will not come out at all. I have great faith in modern medicine and with the help of this and the care of his very loving wife I hope that he will manage to overcome this challenge to his life and go on to enjoy a long and happy retirement – go for it Graham!