busy indian summer's day

We have been enjoying some good late summer days, perhaps in compensation for a rather disappointing August(though statistically only 1 in 4 Augusts are good in terms of warmth and sunshine)

So after a relaxed morning at work, troubled only by a rather strange man, who, despite his obvious intelligence, could not connect the fact of his feeling continually drained and unhappy with the death of his mother earlier this year, I returned home for what was as close to being a perfect afternoon as I ever get these days: no difficult or unpleasant mail waiting, followed by lunch (tinned mackerel in a spicy tomato sauce), 40 pages of my book read, 1/2 an hour's juggling practice and finally, to justify my existence, mowing a lawn that has grown only slightly shaggy in the 3 weeks since I last did it

FOOTNOTE- MY SKY PLUS BOX

I was going to write a glowing testimonial of my sky plus box, and how, with its recording facility and HD channels (which are about 10% better than normal, though not "5 times better" as the advertising blurb claims) is genuinely changing my life for the better, if only in a minor way.

But over the weekend, it, and I understand thousands of others, went down when an automated update succeeded only in disabling the system altogether. Left only with a tiny batch of terrestrial channels, I finally rang yesterday and got them to restore it. All very well, but then I found it had gone down again today. I pointed out to the call handler that I was being deprived of services for which I was paying, and that therefore I might be legitimately be entitled to a refund. At this point she offered to send an engineer round to look at it and perhaps to replace my box if it keeps failing.