The shopping luck was definitely on my side this afternoon as I worked my way down Mr R's list - got the last of the British Asparagus and the last Rye loaf...fortunately everything else was well stocked, so it proved a quick and easy trip this week, and I avoided the rain too.

Goodness we covered a lot of ground this afternoon either side of me heading out to do the shopping (hurrah, Sardines in Olive Oil are back on the shelves at M&S) - pharmacists (good and bad, mostly bad in Mr T's opinion), printing unions, life in Clapton in the early 70s, and finally...I steered Mr T onto today's most important topic, which was who to back for tomorrow's big race. He was (moderately) impressed that I'd clearly done some homework on who the fancied runners are, and shared with me his tips...suffice to say (as was the case last year) he can't see beyond an Irish trainer taking the top prize - in turn I won't repeat my amateur error of last year and ignore his advice...

Sometimes on these tasks it's the unlikeliest item that brings proceedings to a halt, and so it was today for Hilary and I as we worked our way through the installation instructions for Ms L's new front door camera, which she wanted installed to try and deter antisocial behaviour at her front door.

It seemed we'd be able to get it fixed to the door as she wanted, but when we came to connect the camera to her phone via the relevant successfully downloaded app, we discovered it would only all work by connecting to a Wifi network, which wasn't something Ms L has installed at her home. A quick check on the interweb confirmed our concerns that there wasn't an alternative option to make it function correctly.

We explained the situation to her, and proposed some possible solutions - and let her know that if she were able to get a different camera that could operate without Wifi we would be happy to return to get it all set up for her.

...as in "not too big".

Mrs S pushed her fingers and thumbs together to indicate the size of the Bramley cooking apple she wanted me to buy this morning from across the kitchen table...I wasn't quite sure how to process that particular piece of information. The challenge was then extended to "2 sweet potatoes - again not too big" and "tub of greek yoghurt, not too small"...hopefully I met her expectations on all the items...