Busy day, yesterday. We had a pleasant lunch with our friend, and as soon as the dining room table was clear – not until late afternoon – I deployed the Income Tax papers there. All seems to be in order, and nothing much has changed since last year. But I must keep at it.

I was unspeakably tired at the end of the day.

Rachel phoned in the evening – her husband Ed has had laser surgery for a partially detached retina. It sounds as if things could be better done, in London. His optician referred him urgently in December. The letter got lost in the Christmas system. Recent attempts to chase it up were leading nowhere. He gave up and paid to have the treatment done privately.

When I had my retinal vein occlusion a few years ago, the optician phoned the eye hospital as I sat there. They phoned me at home a couple of hours later, and I saw a doctor there that afternoon. In my case treatment wasn’t urgent, although I eventually had successful laser surgery when things had settled down. On the NHS. With detached retinas, I believe, speed is essential.

It has been decided (by us) that the cases of chicken pox reported yesterday were probably caught from Alexander’s shingles, although it is not supposed to be very infectious.

The major excitement yesterday, however, was not any of that, but Unknown’s comment on my post of two days ago. When you ask Google Images for pictures of the Calcutta Cup, you get pages and pages of results. Observe, by the way, the battered image which occurs early on. Within fairly recent memory, in the days of the amateur game, those naughty young men got drunk in the evening of match day – it had been an English vistory, as usual, I believe – and kicked the Cup along Rose Street.

However, that’s not the point. Unknown bravely trawled on and on – and found, on page 10 or so, pictures of my knitting. But for her, I would have gone to my grave without knowing. I am thrilled to the core.

As for actual knitting, I have finished the second sleeve of Ed's Gardening Sweater. I mustn’t rush things – I must compare the two carefully to make sure they are, in fact, the same length; I must reflect carefully on whether, in fact, that is the length I want. But I have every reason to hope that I will be able to attach them today. And the new needles are here, all ready.