We survive a kitchen fire

With just two of us at home now, we often use only half a pan of food, freezing the rest to make a ready meal another day. On Monday, Ann chose to reheat some frozen stir fry she had made a week or two previously, and thought to add some noodles for extra filling. She put the noodles in the microwave,  but forgot to add any water and they burst into flames. Ann pulled them out, and dropped them in the black rubbish sack, where they continued to burn. Next moment, I heard a voice down the hall, "John, there's a fire!" I came out to find Ann standing in the hall, black sack in hand with a melted hole either side, with old food coming out, and pouring smoke. I grabbed the sack and took it into the yard where, ban or not, I turned the hose on it but it took some time to dampen down before I felt it safe enough to drop in the bin, still steaming from the heat. We opened the windows and turned the extractor fan on, but it took two days before the smell began to disappear from the rooms.

On Tuesday we went to Bury. A while back, I had seen the optician who made an appointment for my cataract to be done in Thetford. Unfortunately he sent it to WSH in Bury for processing, but they had contacted me to say they couldn't forward it, and it would need to be resent. Because my new injections can cause serious eye problems, the dermatologists have refered me to the WSH for an ophthalmic assessment, so it made sense to also transfer the cataract booking back to WSH. The trip to Vision Express went smoothly and they quickly agreed to resend the letter. I then went to the art shop to buy some supplies, but nearly ended up with a haircut. The shop had been sold and turned into a barber's since I last went; they have moved their entire stock next door to the framing shop.

We let Edwin know we were in town, so he and Andre walked across to meet us, initially for a drink but it turned into a full meal at a smart new restaurant called the Gastrono-Me. Edwin is thinking of updating his car, so pulled Ann in as his car-buddy to go to Huntingdon with him today to test drive it.

 STOP PRESS: He and Ann returned with a new car to collect. It is a demo car, but won't be available until garage receive their new demo car, so we will try to collect it next week on the way back from Birmingham.