Sunday morning doing mountains of laundry, and pottering about. Found the box MJ's engagement ring came in, and something made me open it. There I discovered her mother's wedding ring which she had lost. Felt very odd. I sent MJ an email saying I would return it.

Much time spent in a futile and increasingly infuriating search for my nice secateurs to prune my roses. After about an hour I found a pair of scissors and strode about savaging bushes with them till I felt better.

My new pal Sarah came down to Brighton in the afternoon and we walked along the seafront, had a pizza and a go on the dodgems (to help with my forthcoming car pitch at work) and discussed extraordinary things while doing so. She is impeccable company and was born in the desert, and lives in Kew where I used to live and brought with her an aromatic bag of my favourite garlic sausages from the excellent butchers by Kew Station.

Ended the day with a brace of beers in the Batty before she schlepped back to the smoke. I watched a bit of football on the TV like a proper geezer, then sank Lethe-wards like a Johnny Keats who'd been at the pies.