Formality

I’ve heard of the 7 year itch in marriages, but in the Dower House we have the 7year hitch in appliances. Not content with the boiler and the internet signal going on the blink, our much acclaimed cordless vacuum cleaner has decided to have terminal failure and only work for about 4minutes before it needs a recharge. Needless to say it is 2 months out of the John Lewis guarantee time, but we decided to seek their help in finding a solution. This meant an orienteering expedition through various pedestrian walkways down the closed Leith Walk past the demolished parts of the St James Centre, 95% of it now a 95% gigantic hole in the ground. The vacuum solution? I’ll keep you posted.

My two printed calendars arrived at lunchtime and I suggested to His Lordship that we might walk to Morningside and hand one in to David and Luca. If they weren’t at home, I would leave it at their door.
Happily they were in but sadly HL declined their invitation for us to step over their threshold. Why? You might well ask.
The explanation seemed to depend on the meaning of ‘going for a walk’. Apparently that does not mean doing anything else such as entering someone’s house if an invitation has not formerly been made beforehand and agreement has been reached on accepting.
I must remember to visit solo in future and, for the record, I am more than happy to welcome casual visitors into the Dower House.