I eventually finished off all the cauliflower I’d cooked, L— came back from her trip to France, and life is back to normal.

On Thursday evening, we paid a visit to a new local café/bar/gelateria Vixen that has just opened. It opened on Wednesday, but Thursday was the first time it stayed open late. Reopened, really: there was a café there before, but it didn’t open in the evening, and it didn’t serve alcohol. It seems like a nice place, and it’s very convenient for us.

I had to shop around for home insurance. We’re coming up to a year in our house, so the insurer sent a message to say that our insurance was due to renew automatically – at a ludicrous 2.3× last year’s price. I thought this was what the new FCA rules were supposed to put a stop to. I found a better deal – better cover at a better price than last year, and with an insurer I’ve heard of. Our old insurer, Aviva, made me say why I was cancelling the renewal, so I told them:

Come on, what do you expect when you increase the premium by 130%?! I had hoped that new FCA renewal regulations would put an end to this kind of nonsense, but alas I have to waste my time switching or be taken for a mug by you lot. So boring.

I spent the weekend at the Gaeltacht Chois Tamaise Irish language events organised by Conradh na Gaeilge i Londain The name means “Gaeltacht by the Thames”, although I actually had to go all the way to Camden, considerably further away than where I live, which actually is by the river. I’d signed up for the middle class, but was persuaded to join the higher class. I was probably the weakest there, and the only person who hadn’t learned Irish at school, but a bit of a challenge is good, and it was an opportunity to absorb a lot of idiomatic speech. It was exhausting, however. Speaking a second (or sixth?) language is inherently tiring.

On top of that, I ended up walking 17 km on Sunday, so by the time I got home I was very ready for an early night.