A marital dispute

The Old Bat and I manage to agree on most things - except that I like Bovril, especially spread on hot toast or even just as a hot drink, whereas she can't stand even the smell of it.  I'm also quite keen on fish and chips but she is, at best, ambivalent.  But the one thing on which we really disagree is Hallowe'en.  or, to be more accurate, Trick and Treat.  the xenophobic side of me says that this is a nasty American invention which encourages children to pester neighbours demanding goodies or else!  She Who Must Be Obeyed seems to think it is a harmless thing which should be encouraged.  So much so, that she buys a pumpkin every year and scoops out the inside before cutting a face in it and placing a nightlight inside to tell the brats that we are up for giving away sweets.  It would help if the Old Bat managed to buy enough sweets, which she doesn't always manage.  It's always me who has to open the door and I sometimes have to think fast on my feet.  There was one occasion when I was faced with about seven kids ranging in age from about 3 to 11 or 12.  I had way too few sweets left so I gave them what I had and said that they could stroke the dog as a treat.  The children thought that a better treat than the sweets!

We have bought this year's pumpkin but it remains for it to be prepared for next Wednesday.

I didn't manage to get the grass cut yesterday.  Having finished the latest issue of Brighton Lions' newsletter, I set about despatching it to all and sundry.  My ISP won't let me send an email to more than 20 addressees so I have to send several.  I always insert the contact mailing lists as blind copies but the last couple of months I have had trouble with one of the lists.  My email software would not accept it in any way, either as the principal addressee or as "copied to" or as blind copies.  I spent ages tracking down the odd address that was causing the problem.  The when I sent an email to that address alone, all was OK.  Weird - but that's computers.

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The medieval Porte Angevine in Pouancé.  The clock is in competition with that on the church, both chiming on the hour.  They are usually about 30 seconds apart.