Sorry about yesterday. Archie was here and there were too many breakfasts and lunches to cook before we left for Mass. We had a good time. He had been instructed, I gather, to evaluate my condition and decide whether they needed to call in the marines. I passed, I think, and I said to him, they're just worried because if I go down, they'll be responsible for Grandfather. At least, I started to say it, and Archie finished the sentence for me. It was a delicious moment of inter-generational rapport.

(It's now Monday morning – obviously – and I'm trying to get through to the dr to say I want to see somebody soonest. It's hard, first thing in the morning, when everybody is ringing up for the same-day appts. I'll keep trying. Six or seven failed attempts so far.)

Cookery

Archie is gratifying to cook for. Like any boy his age and size (it is not for want of size that he hates rugby) he will eat anything with enthusiasm, but he also seems to have an analytic interest in food. I think the school will require cookery lessons of him in the sixth form, before releasing him into the world, and I think he'll enjoy them. He'll also have to learn how to iron a shirt.

For Saturday lunch I made us a warm bean salad with briefly-fried tuna. Archie seemed impressed. I was able to introduce him to the fishmonger who had supplied the tuna, at Mass yesterday. The recipe came out of one of the books recently resurrected from the spare room, Noro East, and sure enough it said to grill the peppers for the salad until blackened and soft, then peel and seed them. But I've learned better.

On Saturday evening we made a start at some picture-hanging, but alas, the job isn't finished. My husband was viciously bad-tempered, as often; Archie, patient and cheerful; I feeling that if I can do this, I can do anything, maybe I'm not ill at all. At the very worst, Archie and his mother, Greek Helen herself, will be back here in a fortnight and we can finish then. Or maybe I can do it myself.

Knitting

I decided last night that the reason I am not making more rapid progress with the Milano is that plain-vanilla knitting is boring after the excitements of Shetland lace. I took myself in hand, and am currently casting-off the first sleeve. I hope to embark on the second, today. The jogless join has greatly improved tidiness.

Religion

For the Orthodox, I believe, Lent begins today. (The Easters coincide this year, East and West.) As I pontificate every year, Lent consists of 40 days plus the six Sundays. Sunday is never a penitential day, so they are, strictly speaking, outside the system. If I've got it right, the Orthodox consider the Triduum, the three days consisting of Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter itself, as something so special that they're not part of Lent – so they need an extra two days at the beginning to make up the 40.

To be filed amongst things you didn't need to know.