A day in the life of a hamster

Do people still keep hamsters in cages? With a wee wheel on which they scamper futilely in the name of exercise? Whether they do or not, in these more enlightened times, that is what I felt like today - don't stop running or you'll fall off. And of course my peaceful photo does nothing to show that, but as one of only two photos from today I thought it might be preferable to the picture of an onion with the top sliced off to reveal the fact that it was rotten through and through despite having no sign of anything amiss on the outside ...

But see - I'm rambling already. I got onto the wheel this changeable morning as I scampered down the hill - actually the road in the photo - to Pilates, hoping to arrive before I (and my mat) got too rained on in one of the capricious showers that kept falling. It was warmer in the studio today (the addition of these cheery radiant heaters helped) and we worked really hard for an hour. Then it was back up the road for a coffee, some extra Italian to use up my extra bonus points from last week, a bacon roll for a quick lunch - and, quick as you like, into the tidy coat and back over the road to the church in this photo for the funeral service for our long-time friend, neighbour and former colleague Robin. As Himself was playing an accompaniment to one of the musical interludes, I got a lumber with two former colleagues - I hate sitting alone at a funeral - and found ourselves in front of our former headie in a little Grammar School enclave. 

The service, full of music and memories, ended just in time for me to dash back to the house to join a Zoom meeting in preparation for our own church's meeting with candidates for the post of Rector. We were reasonably expeditious, with no small talk, so I was able to go out again down to the other main building in the photo, the Burgh Hall, for the post-funeral purvey. For some reason, bacon roll notwithstanding, I found myself eating a sandwich, a wee bit of quiche, a very chocolatey cake - and downing a sizeable glass of wine as I caught up with former pupils and colleagues ...

And then back up the hill, in the gloaming, in the rain. A singer dropped in to offer her services; a church warden rang for a chat. I managed to have some jasmine tea to counteract everything else. Eventually I made fajitas (again!) and we ate them. Since then I've been too poleaxed to watch anything requiring attention; the ten o'clock news passed with only vague recognition of floods in England. I came round in time to laugh crazily at Have I Got News For You - for some reason the whole lot of them, teams and questioner, were hilarious the whole way through - and decided I was too tired for the effort of getting to bed.

Is that why I'm sitting here typing past midnight?