MOT

Rain in the night again and occasional showers to start with, then clear sky and sunshine for the rest of the day. I posted this week's YouTube link to WhatsApp, listened to Thought for the Day and then got up to make breakfast. Straight after breakfast I took the car over to NG Motors in Splott for its MOT. There was little traffic, as the school commuter rush hour hasn't resumed yet. 

I was home in an hour after a twenty minute walk to Newport Road then two buses to get from there back to Pontcanna in time to attend the Eucharist at St Catherine's. At coffee afterwards, Hilary presented me with a special jar of damson jam, made with fruit foraged last week from a wild tree on Strumble head near St Davids. She remembers from last year my enthusiasm for jam with this unusual provenance! And I recompensed her accordingly.

I collected this week's veg bag on the way home and then cooked lunch plus an extra batch of tomato and mushroom sugo for freezing thanks to a surfeit of tomatoes in the veg bag and from the garden. Clare had gone to town, and when I realised she'd be back late I had time to spare and started work preparing another Morning Prayer text for two weeks hence. I could have done with a siesta after lunch, but we received a message from Phil at NG Motors to say the car was ready, so I set out by bus to retrieve it. This took me ten minutes longer as I narrowly missed an 11 bus to take me as close to the garage as possible. The car passed the test without problem. No minor repairs needed. It's not surprising, I doubt if we've added more than a couple of thousand miles in the past twelve months.

I think I may have picked up a virus during our cruise week. As well as feeling unusually tired, my nose has been running a lot and I've been coughing up phlegm. It started the day the Douro valley was filled with wild fire smoke. Initially I believed it was smoke mildly irritating my lungs, but since then it developed gradually, like a cold in some respects, but with no temperature or added aches and pains. After supper I watched a couple of episodes of 'The Darkness' chatted to Rachel, and went to bed early to watch one of them, so I could get to sleep right away.