Not the busiest of months, but here goes ...

The lack of support for a school celebration dinner prompted those of us who had planned to sit together to go out anyway for a 'consolation' meal. Penns Hall was the hotel unfortunate enough to be the recipients of our custom, but a good time was had by the eight old boys and partners who attended.

October proved to be a month of reunions: the first Thursday always sees me reuniting with former work colleagues, but biannually I also meet old Scout friends. This time was one's 71st birthday, but even more satisfying was to see another recovering well from cancer.

For at least a fourth time I celebrated Diwali with my Indian friends, the Khanna family. It was very heartening to see the way their son is taking to university life, and becoming a highly motivated student.

School half term meant a reduced amount of archiving work, which was more than offset by the production of the biannual newsletter for its old boys' association: 'The Astonian'. Modern technology means the printing is accomplished in 24 hours by the printers, but stuffing 400 copies into envelopes has yet to be automated!

There appears to have been no diminution in gardening activity, though the end of the month brings that promise. My old Biology teacher advises me to await the first frost before planting tulip bulbs, as well as then lifting dahlia tubers.

Noisy scrap metal merchants necessitated maintaining a log of their music-accompanied visits for the benefit of a bureaucratic local authority, while the battle with my electricity suppliers to join the Government's 'Feed In Tariff' scheme continues. The latter has now reached the 'complaints procedure' stage, as the necessary precursor to going to the industry's Ombudsman.

With the prospect of reduced gardening activity looming, it was time to resume one of my big projects, now in its third winter: digitising my collection of 12,000 colour transparencies. Having reached photographs taken in 1989 (in Bangkok), I am approaching the 55% mark, so there is still some way to go. Several more winters will be necessary!