Happy Birthday Romas.

It's Romas' 28th birthday today. This year he passed his driving test and he and Laura moved into their new house, They're still in Stoke in fact still in the same street. Because of the distance we don't get to see him that often plus with work, drumming and teaching he leads a busy life. Thank goodness for FaceBook.

Today has been dry and a bit warmer than yesterday. I went into town and had a frustrating time at the bank. Neither of us does on-line banking, not because we are old fogies but because we are only too aware of the fraud that can occur. In 2015 £750 million were taken fraudulently from UK bank accounts. Trying to keep your personal details private is just about impossible, even I could easily find somebody's address and date of birth and the criminals can get into all sorts of records. To aid security I wanted my bank to make it so that the only way my account could be made into an on-line one would be if I came in personally to the bank with proof of my identity. That way I could be sure that my account was really secure. Guess what? They can't do that. Which is a shame as I've been with the same bank since a teenager. I tried another of the High Street banks to get the same response. I might be able to find some sort of savings account at one of the Building Societies but today I was too exhausted to make any more enquiries. I'll have to do that another day. Also I wanted to make sure that my monthly payments for house and contents insurance were cancelled. I've already spoken to the companies but I like to make sure. But ...... as I need the November payments to go out before the direct debits are stopped the bank couldn't do that. They can only stop them from the day. Fancy not having the software to do that. Coming home I found Peter in a similar fed up mood as he had spent the afternoon on the phone trying to sort out the phone, internet and TV for here and the new place. They're so keen to keep you on as a customer they offer more and more complex deals until in the end he just the phone down on one lot.

Wandering around the garden looking for something new to photograph I spotted some antirrhinum seedlings growing in the scree garden. As they are descended from a couple of plants bought on the last day of the Chelsea Flower Show about 35 years ago I dug them up to bring along to our new home. The flowers are bicoloured red and white and breed true.