Jay has been settling into the routine of being a pony owner, and,
inevitably, Teresa has been heavily involved too. Jay’s busiest days are Tuesday and Saturday,
the days of her lessons (she also helps in the stables on Saturday morning),
and Wednesday afternoon and Sunday morning, when she rides by herself or with
friends. We have been extremely lucky
with
Jay also has this month to make her selection of A level subjects, which
looks like being Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Psychology. She is quite disdainful of the rest of the
family, who all took arts subjects.
Roger got a very small new toy for Christmas – a pedometer for his daily
walk. As it came off the side of a
crisp-packet (almost literally), it is a little bit unreliable, giving a rogue
reading some of the time. But the valid
readings for the month now give an average of 4,400 paces for the morning walk
of about 2¼ miles (so we’re told). But,
as those of you who have studied these things will know, that’s less than half
of the recommended daily quota of walking, which is a bit alarming – making up
the difference at home represents an awful lot of trips to the bathroom.
As to this year’s leak, we have called upon the maintenance contract
with British Gas on the central heating, and they have been very helpful. The leak is probably in the pipework
somewhere, but, as most of this is tucked away out of sight, the system has
been treated with a sealant. This has
done the trick up to a point – there’s still some loss of pressure, but not to
the extent that frequent recharging is necessary – and we are hopeful that it
will now settle down.