Went out with the boys yesterday for my first turn on (I think that’s the appropriate prepostion) the inflatable kayak. I’m sure it’s a mere rubber duck in comparison to Louise’s proper one, but it was brilliant fun, steering through the swans on the lough. We’re getting another inflatable and a folding one, so three of us can go out at the same time … watch this space.

Meanwhile Martin’s put up lots more nice red shelves in the business unit, so I can get lots of books out of the boxes they’ve been in since we moved here two years ago. Nearly all my Italian books are on the new website now, and I’m coming across lots of exciting second-hand English ones that I’d forgotten we had.

As though I hadn’t enough to read, I’ve just finished Richard Ford’s The Lay of the Land (from the library). It was still very good, and oddly comfortable to be back in Frank Bascombe’s mind, but could probably have done with a more ferocious editor. But then, that’s probably true of most of us, not least online…