We went out for a meal last week – a group meal for a birthday. Because of the time, CGF and I agreed to meet in the environs of the restaurant, and would contact each other to when we go there.

All fine and dandy, except when I got there I discovered my phone battery had died. Stupid Ruby – I’d had the “low battery” warning that morning, but not worried about it as I could borrow a charger and electricity from CGF later – forgetting that I would need the phone before “later”.

First I checked the restaurant – I was about thirty minutes early and CGF wasn’t there. So I did a bit of Sherlock-style psychology and thought “if I were CGF, and arrived early, where would I go?” I came up with two shops – one of them was Tiger; the other wasn’t – so went to check those. She wasn’t there.

It was still possible we had missed each other, but I then figured that I could tell whether she had arrived by checking whether her car was in the car park. A bit more psychological deduction to work out which car park she would use, and I headed there. My deduction worked – within a few minutes CGF’s car drove into the car park.

Sometimes I am a genius – but only sometimes, though

Drumming:

The county music service primarily (afaik) provides musical instrument teaching and orchestras for school children, but from time to time they open up their services to the rest of the population.

One such example was last weekend when there was a day of drumming workshops for all. There were four workshops through the day, with a choice from six types of music. We did West African, samba, Japanese Taiko, and Cajon.

It was great fun. We had wondered whether we would be the only adults there – and that CS3 would be the only teenager - but there was a full mix of ages.

And for £7.50 each (for the whole day), pretty good value.

Statistical anomaly:

OK, it may not be an anomaly, and it may not be statistical. But never mind.

I went to give blood. When it came to my turn and I was asked which arm, I said I had no preference – as I always do. And as always happens (or at least, has happened for as long as I can remember), they took from my right arm.

That set me thinking (I don’t get out much). If I express no preference, shouldn’t my left arm be chosen as often as my right? Thinking further: if we assume that people are more likely to have blood taken from their non-dominant arm, wouldn’t I be more likely to have it taken from the left, as that is most people’s non-dominant arm, so more beds will be set up for a left-arm donation.

How’s this for a solution? Yes, most people will have blood taken from a left arm, so most beds are set up that way. But when someone expresses no preference, they will be taken to a right-arm bed, so they don’t block a left-arm bed for someone who can’t give from the right.

Coming up to date:

I got drenched on Wednesday. Not just a lot wet, but properly drowned-rat drenched.

There had been slow traffic as I approached work, so rather than sit in a queue for ten minutes I abandoned the car and walked. After work (well, after a departmental meeting at which most people pretty much lost the will to live) I walked back to the car. It was raining a bit, but not so much to cause a problem.

Then the heavens opened. I was literally soaked to the skin. It got to the “this is no longer fun” stage. My fleece jacket seemed to double in weight from the water (and the sleeves proceeded to drip on my legs as I drove home). Every item of clothing I was wearing had to go in the spin drier when I got home.

And when I went out later, I got a damp bum from my wet car seat.

I don’t mean abandoned in the middle of the road. I did find a car park.

Double-take of the week:

I saw a headline that read “Police investigate after woman repeatedly falls from balcony”. Oh, the word was “reportedly”. That makes more sense.

Looking ahead:

Off to a family party tomorrow – my uncle and aunt’s 40th wedding anniversary. CGF will get to meet members of my family she hasn’t met yet (i.e. most of them) and try to work out how we are related.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. The party is on my mum’s side of the family, but my dad and step-mum will be there (even though my parents separated over 25 years ago). My mum won’t be there (as she is the other side of the world). And one of my aunts-by-marriage grew up in the same village, so you could be forgiven for thinking that she is directly related.