This morning's email includes an invitation to Ted LeCompte's first birthday party, somewhere in Yorkshire on the 30^th of this month. I'm his great-aunt. The date is also Archie's 18^th. Alas, neither of us – neither me nor Archie – will be there, but I can now look forward to meeting Ted the next day.

Here's the picture that came with the invitation, of Ted and his mother Jenni:

I inched forward on other fronts yesterday although the endless “Potentially Unwanted Program Blocked” pop-ups continue to persecute me every few seconds. I'll have to call in a man. I hope, tomorrow, to drive Archie from school to airport for his half-term week in Athens. He has recently acquired, in advance of the birthday just mentioned, a super-duper laptop configured for high-level game playing (we all disapprove) and his former machine is to be passed on to our niece whose present one is staggering towards its grave. I hope to gather it in tomorrow and pass it on to her the following week.

That leaves the question of me and my MacBook unsolved.

The inching-forward just mentioned consisted of buying a scarf at John Lewis, and trying on my possible wedding outfit. I also bought some wrapping material for wedding present and Rams & Yowes blankie. Almost all the scarves were long ones that you wind around your neck. I had been thinking of a modest silk square, but that is not the 2014 approach according to John Lewis.  I bought a long one and tried it with the dress mentioned yesterday and a beloved impulse-buy suede jacket from some years ago.

The effect was perhaps slightly more sporty than I would like, but I think it will pass, especially when combined with nicely-done hair and the little cloche hat I wore to Theo's wedding and respectable tights and shoes. The dress is shirt-like, buttoned all the way down the front (covered buttons, my dears – I think a friend did that for me) and shapeless. I used to wear it with a belt. Unbelted, it is of almost dowager queen or Mrs Roosevelt length – no bad thing, and appropriate for a great-aunt. The jacket suggests, I hope, the position where a waist used to be.

And as for knitting, I got the edging of the Unst Bridal Shawl going again, not without difficulty. The result is not perfect – Sharon Miller would spot it at once, although the rider of that famous horse might miss it. I must keep on with that edging at least two or three days a week, so that the skill doesn't slip away again. More edging this evening, therefore, I think. Back to Rams & Yowes tomorrow.

Today's excitement is a bone density scan for me, as a result of stopping my weekly osteoporosis pill back in February. I thought they'd forgotten about me, If I drive Archie to the airport tomorrow, it will mean three days in succession with no morning walk for my husband (since I was cavorting around John Lewis yesterday). Walking is good for him, hard on me since it leaves no possibility of doing anything in the morning, other than clearing away breakfast and making the bed and cooking lunch. We shall see.