Mr T was keen to share the ups and downs of his week the moment I'd walked through his front door, and, not for the first time, it related to his success (or otherwise) with the turf accountants. Seemingly the winnings he thought he'd secured this week had been subject to a reduction due to the imposition of Rule 4, which (as I now know in some depth...) allows the bookies to apply a haircut on the payout if something "untoward" has occurred in the race...yup, me neither, but I am so much wiser for today's teach in on so many fronts...I could sense beneath the normally engaging and chatty exterior he was quietly seething about the injustice of it all...

An interesting conversation with Miss N today (who isn't a native English speaker, albeit her English is pretty good), as she recalled a colleague telling her that when British people ask "how are you" (which is how I greeted her at the door this morning) they aren't really expecting a ten minute explanation of exactly how you are...I admitted that the nuances of the English language can sometimes be confusing even to native speakers...and that the answer "I'm fine" can be equally baffling in terms of the breadth of circumstances it can cover.

Fortunately the shopping, apart from confusion over dates vs olives on the list, was not in any way subject to any nuance, although I do fear I left Miss N even more confused on the greeting front.

A reasonably short list today for Mrs S, who is clearly keeping up to date online on what is on offer at the world's politest supermarket, as she asked that I get her two boxes of the "porridge oats with the scotsman in the kilt doing this..." (at which point she accurately, and impressively, mimed putting the shot from her kitchen chair, thankfully without falling off said chair, which would've been awkward...).

A welcome return to see Ms V, and this time to help her take a new microwave out of its packaging and put it onto the shelf in her kitchen. After clearing space to allow the box to be opened, whereupon we discovered there was a further box inside the box that contained the oven, it was a case of lifting the thankfully not so heavy new unit out and putting it onto the recently vacated shelf ready for use.

I removed the packing tape, and showed Ms V how the grill tray fitted into the oven, and then perched the old microwave onto the empty box in her living room, and cleared a way back down her hallway. As always, Ms V was very grateful for today's assistance!

It was only as the bed started to come to shape did Ms E's daughter comment that it seemed very low (due to having very short legs...), and would be unsuitable for her 90 year old mother to sleep in, simply because she wouldn't be able to get in and out of bed!

I'd opened the box to find a very neat arrangement where all the parts for the bed were zipped into the headboard - so with the news, weather and then an interesting crime thriller on the nearby tv as background entertainment I got to work. The parts all seemed to come together ok, but it was only when I attached the footboard and headboard to the frame was it apparent just how low the bed would be to the floor - not quite a futon, but not far off!

At this point Ms E called her mother's social worker to say the bed wouldn't work for her elderly mother, and that they'd probably have to find an alternative for her.

I agreed to dismantle the frame (or as much as I could without damaging any of the now attached fittings), and stack them neatly back in the packing box. Ms E's daughter asked if I could get them back into the headboard, as it was possible the bed could be used by someone else, so it would be nice to have it back in its original box. I was reluctant to remove the screwed in fittings, but agreed it was worth a try.

By some miracle, all the parts did fit, and with a ziplock bag to contain the remaining loose nuts and bolts, we soon had it back in the original cardboard box, ready to be taken away. Ms E's daughter will continue her quest to find a suitably tall bed for her mother to return home to.

After last week's failure to find shallots for Mr R, I was determined not to return empty handed this week. Tesco's shelves weren't stocking them, but his local greengrocer had both the round and elongated versions, so I was faced with a choice on which to get - I went with round, but next time I'll know it's the longer variety (easier to chop...) which gets his vote.