Brown door, strop and priorities.

1. Our neighbour is putting another coat of paint on her front door. It's a shiny brown that she says is a heritage colour for our street. It looks like well tempered chocolate.

2. Bettany is so rude and ill tempered that I leave her alone to get herself ready for bed. Not long after, she appears at my elbow and asks for help. She is comically affectionate for the rest of the evening.

3. I've been lent a book on time management, and it is such a relief to read that other people get distracted by and secretly enjoy the fun and novelty of a crisis. And that they sink into a tired ditch afterwards so the afternoon gets wasted, too. (Martin Scott's More Time, Less Stress).