Thursday Feb 1st
Tomorrow is Candlemas and we will take down the Crib, which has been up since late December.

Today I invested in some sensible shoes. Foot still uncomfortable. Came home and settled down at the computer to get lots of work done.

In a few days, my oldest nephew gets married in Australia. We have sent presents, of course, and a message to be read out., and we'll be thinking of them all.

Family weddings give one a perspective on time. Nephew O. was a tiny boy at our wedding, looking solemnly out from the family group in the wedding-pic which is near me as I write. I remember playing with him in the garden before going off to get changed into my wedding-dress and veil: the lawn had been freshly-mown and we were piling up the cuttings and playing with them...... It just doesn't seem that long ago. But since then we've had the fall of Communism and the reshaping of the political and ideological map of Europe, the arrival of computers in our homes and in our lives, mobile phones, and talk of climate change and global warming. Actually, the 1980s are a different era. What changes will O. and his bride see over the first quarter-century of their married life?