Palm Sunday

After an excellent night's sleep, I wandered downstairs for a coffee and to read the Sunday press. Several articles caught my eye and deserved a proper read, but in general, it was just a load of fluff. After a while, Diane wandered down. She had enjoyed a night without Jasper trying to share her pillow or wandering over her head.

Zoe popped in. She wanted to finalise the arrangements for tomorrow's trip. A few minor changes were made, and the schedule was brought forward by a couple of hours. Plans are now set in stone... and I will run the girls to the railway station at 07:30.

Once Zoe left, I set about one of those domestic chores I hated. I needed to change the water filter on the fridge water and ice dispenser. This never goes well. Today was no different. I took the old filter off the wall and tried to switch off the water. The screw would not turn without significant elbow grease. Finally, the water was switched off, and I tried to release the hose from the filter. This is a matter of compressing a valve and then pulling the hose. The valve would not compress with finger pressure, so I had to exert some mechanical pressure. I did this with my penknife, which slipped and cut the palm of my left hand. I went and got some kitchen roll to stem the bleeding. I returned to the filter. I freed the hoses from both ends and then fitted the new filter. The water was switched back on and sprayed everywhere. The water was switched off. I reseated the hoses and repeated the process. The result was the same. I continued to drip blood on the floor and may have uttered a few expletives under my breath. I tried one last time. This time, I exerted far more pressure when inserting the hoses. They slipped in much further. The water was switched on. There were no leaks. This job was done. (I have a box containing 3 more filters. I wrote a message on the box: "However hard you think you have pushed the hoses in, push even harder")

I went out for a walk at lunchtime. I didn't stray far, just three large circuits of my breakfast route. I was out for about an hour and felt much better for the exercise. Once home, I managed some Kindle time until I started on dinner preparation.