Cold.

After yesterday's lovely weather today was a grey disappointment. Frequent icy showers were not an invitation to go out for a walk. Personally I'd be happy to wrap up and head out whatever the weather but I can understand why most people would rather not. Instead I got on with the usual round of housework and exercises. The only variation was when I cleaned out the head of the hoover. I always check for hair caught in the brushes when I'm hoovering upstairs and today I thought I'd try and pry out any hair/dust caught in all the gaps using some fine tweezers and a needle. I worked for a while, and then a while more and finally thought I might as well dismantle the hoover head for a proper clean. It was simply a matter of undoing some screws and laying out the parts including two springs and hoping that I'd be able to put it back together again. When I did that I uncovered a thick mat of fluff & cat hairs. It was satisfying to clean everything out before reassembling the hoover head. Maybe the hoover (Vax) will be more efficient now. I've always been willing to have a go at dismantling appliances when they go wrong. I heard an article on the radio recently about the move to force manufacturers to 1. make goods to last and 2. not to make the innards of appliances inaccessible. 

Poor old Patch is showing his age. His arthritis seems to be not so well controlled by the steroids, I'll try and weigh him on the kitchen scales to see if he's put on enough weight to increase the dose before I resort to the vet and another £50 bill. He also tends to follow me around a lot. Partly for food which he gets as much as he wants except first thing when eating more than a tablespoon makes him throw up. After his first small meal he usually eats quite a lot. The difficulty is keeping Speedy away as he certainly doesn't need any extra food. Once Patch has eaten he likes to sleep on or next to me. In the mornings when I'm busying about I hear the patter of him following me up and down the stairs and he tries to sit on me as I do my exercises. Today I gave in and watched a programme on tv with Speedy lying on the chair seat behind me and Patch resting his head on my lap. By the time the programme had finished Patch was fast asleep and I could get on with things.