Yesterday was Thomas Miles' birthday – the younger of the Little Boys who live on the shores of Loch Fyne. He was offered the choice of a birthday party, or another family trip to Murrayfield to watch Scotland lose to Argentina in the cold and damp and dark of a November afternoon. He chose the party. But Scotland didn't lose! The Little Boys have often been to Murrayfield, but have never seen Scotland win.  (I, on the contrary, have been there four times and have seen Scotland win twice.)

Sister Helen phoned from CT yesterday, sounding reasonably cheerful although hard-pressed. Roger can still play the saxophone – that's a big plus. His facial muscles are somewhat affected by the stroke, and the scales are not all that easy to remember. But he's fine with it.

They had already started, earlier this year, investigating the possibility of moving to a particular retirement community in DC, and now I think they will press ahead. My father said once that he thought provision for life-in-old-age was better in England. (His third and final wife was an Englishwoman, so he knew something about how things are done here.) I disagree, I think. In a parallel universe, I could retire happily to Kendal in Oberlin. I have yet to hear of a retirement community here that I would care to join – that may simply reflect a failure to look around.

I went up to the shopping centre yesterday to collect a prescription for my husband. (The dr has sent the wrong insulin again.) It was ghastly. Something is really going to have to be done about Christmas. I was briefly in John Lewis' yarn dept where I briefly saw my friend Lindsay, the Rowan lady. She is one of us, and pointed me to a rack of KnitPro Symfonie needles which I had never previously noticed.

They've got the whole interchangeable-needle kit, if I ever do decide to go down that path, and the set of beautiful sock needles in five sizes for when I have lost and broken too many of mine. For now, I bought a 120cm circular in size 3.75 – I would have preferred a 4, but it was not to be found. I think EZ says somewhere that she once knit a pair of socks using needles of four different sizes. (Not strictly comparable.) I used the new needle last night, and got on fine. It'll certainly do until the package comes from Meadow Yarns.