Today after finishing application of sealing foam to the garden cabin we set off to Banbury after lunch arriving about 1515 after a delay in the centre. After leaving the new computer, old system box and some bits and pieces at Martin and Lindsey's house we looked around the shops. We noticed that Marks and Spencer is expanding but Boots seemed a bit tired and didn't stock what Annette wanted. The "come on" in Smiths turned out not to be as expected so Annette refused to buy.

Back at Albert Rd we found Lindsey and Alex just back. He is very cheery and his comprehension is excellent. He is recognisably saying a few words but as Martin said "he's not a performing monkey". 

I intended to leave our new portable with Martin for software loading but he set to straight away. It turns out the software I had loaded but thought wasn't working in fact is working. I'm not clear what the problem was. I realise every time I do this that I use an odd selection of software but there are historic reasons. I use a stand alone version of Lotus Notes because we used it at Castrol and I find it an excellent free form database. I migrated to MS Office from Lotus Smartsuite because that was the Techtron standard but I use Organiser because that was the Castrol personal organiser and by the time I left I had quite a bit of info I didn't want to transcribe. Martin scoffs that I still use MS Office 97 but that was the version I got used to using, plus it seems to be pretty compatible for the investment club eg. I write the minutes in Word 97

On Thursday we go down to London ready for our Great Train Journey to Germany and Poland on Friday. That will mean a long break from LJ. Feeling withdrawal symptoms already. We are at that stage where I'm sure I've forgotten things but I don't know what. The problem is compounded because we are trying to travel light -as the instructions say, anything you like but expect to carry it yourself. We are taking a small haversack and medium suitcase each. I have a gilet of many pockets for camera, wallet, tickets etc..
This luggage restriction has meant some agonising over what to take. I've got used recently to travelling by car where I take far too much.