Tired at 5 o’clock. It feels like I’ve been doing a lot today; I’m not sure whether I have or not. Late to bed last night in any case, after fighting for two hours to make my new scanner work. Those running Apple OS X Leopard and wanting to use a Hewlett Packard scanner like the HP Scanjet G4010 are going to need to download this software, rather than attempt in vain to use what comes on the disc. You’re also going to need to remember to turn the scanner back on after you’ve installed the driver. Otherwise you could be swearing one more time before finally getting everything right and heading to bed at 1am.

I’m not a fan of sight tests. Which is a shame, because I’ve been blind as a bat since I was 7. Making sight tests unavoidable if I want to see more than an inch beyond my nose. I had a double appointment today - a general sight test and a contact lens one. A double appointment because I’d been putting off the ordinary appointment for months and they finally caught up with me when I went to collect my new lenses. Damn, should have sent in The Olds!

I think the reason I don’t like sight tests is that it’s a medical checkup that really does feel like a test. Can you see this? How far down can you read? And I feel too on edge about not being able to read the bottom line, about getting something wrong. Is that a D or an O? Then they start with the “better 1 … or 2?” business, flipping lenses in front of your eyes, while you try and remember how K looked before the flurry of glass went past and a different lens clicked into place. I don’t know … can’t I just squint and be done with it?

I don’t mind the bits where your eyes are inspected close up though. All you have to do is sit there and try and remember which way is left and which way is right, so you can follow the instructions from the lady with the slight accent who tells you to “look at your right, look at your left, straight ahead”. She put some fluorescein dye in my eyes, which explains the yellow staining around the corners of my eyes … but leaves a question mark hanging over why exactly there’s a bright orange stain on my nose too.

Mo … hair. While rain falls outside, my morning has pretty much been spent watching old Daily Show videos and knitting a few more rows of a mohair scarf. Not for me, no the idea of mohair around my neck makes me want to throw the ball of yarn away. As does the idea of having to cast on again with it.

I went to the cinema last night with Suzy and her 1950s wife, Clara. Clara is actually Suzy’s landlady/housemate, but her habit of getting home from work before Suzy and making dinner for them both has earned her the title of Suzy’s wife. Though I’m not sure she knows that yet.

We went to see High School Musical 3 and - having missed the first two films - I’m very glad that the ridiculously-named Sharpay eventually made reference to the fact that the choreographer chap was her twin, otherwise I’d have been confused even longer as to why the slighty catty one was being so nice to the dweeby one.

Clara’s a fan of the feel-good factor (and of Zac Efron, who only had the 2nd most ridiculous hairstyle, so that’s ok) and I did indeed come away from the film wanting to go back to school for one more dance lesson. A large group of people bursting into song and choreographed movement really would brighten up the working day, don’t you think?

On this occasion I knitted a neckwarmer for my Etsy shop, cast off and thought, nah, bugger it, I’ll keep this one. It’s too soft and snuggly, you see. I don’t like the idea of someone else wearing it when clearly I am the one who should be wearing it. But I’ll make another one once the crazy-coloured kid’s hat is off my needles. I think wearing two might be more of a neck brace than a neck warmer, so the second one can definitely be sold … on condition that I get it back if I have to wash this one.

The leaves, they were raked. I filled a bin liner full of them and Mother Nature, upon seeing my work, today said, “Ok, well here, have some rain that makes more leaves fall off the trees and into your garden.” I’m going to need another bin liner.

Last night we went to a bonfire night celebration with John and Sam. A little early, as bonfire night is 5th November, but what the hell. There was a great bonfire with flames licking up into the sky and a pretty fireworks display that ended with a fantastic shower of golden sparks raining down across the sky. We were stood ankle-deep in the fallen yellow leaves from a sycamore tree and after all my raking earlier in the day I had a hard time not pulling them into little piles with my feet.

Afterwards we headed to John and Sam’s in their new car vehicle tank, a Chevrolet Suburban, mowing down cars and pedestrians alike as we went. Dinner was deliciously autumnal: carrot and coriander soup, followed by sausage casserole. Following that with a snooze in the car on the way home rounded off a pretty good evening.

By the way, I’m thinking of doing 30 Tiny Moments again - and therefore NaBloPoMo too - in November. Anyone care to take a leaf out of my book join me?

It’s Saturday tomorrow. The weekend. I’m very excited and do you know why? It’s all those leaves out in the garden that I’ll be raking up. The compost bin is very full at the moment, so tomorrow’s rakings will have to go into a plastic sack for the moment. But having had a potter around the garden today I was far more thrilled about all those leaves than any sane person really should be.

I cycled to the post office today and cycling through a sea of leaves on the pavement brought a smile to my face and I was sorely tempted to stop and have a surreptitious kick and swoosh through them. This was just autumnal glee. There are way too many leaves out there beyond the garden for me to let myself think about. And anyway, the composting part of my mind was still contemplating the soggy rain-soaked ad paper I’d just seen on a neighbour’s front lawn. I wanted want it.

Down on the patch there’s actually a new vegetable in town. I know, it’s very unlike me to have done anything proactive at this time of year. Autumn is more about pulling and rejoicing. And raking of course. But lo, turnips are in the ground, they’ve been thinned and transplanted and seem very merry and happy to grown. Plus, it makes me feel much better about all that moss that’s grown around the stupid onions, to see happy new vegetables in happy brown earth, being happy.

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