Not long after I arrived at Mr T's and we'd had our chat about the week, he got up from his chair, went to a shelf under his TV and produced one of those old style reel tape measures (last seen by me at a school athletics day). Only as he went to one end of his living room and gave me the other end to walk to the other wall did I understand he was keen to measure the dimensions of his living room carpet - once he's got some new curtains (work still in progress...), then I think the carpet may be next on his to do list.

Fortunately his food shopping list proved far more straightforward, didn't involve any bending down or shouting out numbers (in both imperial and metric...), and only required a visit to nearby Tesco and Lidl - helpful as it was pouring down outside, and I hadn't come prepared for the rain...and I was soon back (a little damper) with his trolley full of treasure for another week.