Hello, Ludo here.

I hope you’ve been enjoying Lockley’s thoughts on the way things run around here.

We had even more fireworks at the weekend, including some next door. But not the builders side, the other one. They were very loud, even though Mummy shut our ventilator and her window, and closed the curtains. Auntie Linda was kind enough to come round to see Mummy and warn her. That was nice of her. But they still went BANG very loudly. But not for long.

To tell the truth, apart from the ones closest, it hasn’t been as bad as the builders. It doesn’t go on for hours (all day). It doesn’t have long whiny noises that make your head ache and your teeth shake. It doesn’t go bang, bang bang for hours on end (only a couple of minutes). And it doesn’t have a squealing nose that sets your teeth on edge, so that when it stops you remain tense thinking it’s going to start again any minute…

The builders are doing all inside work now, and we very rarely hear them. Mummy said they did a bit more roof fixing last week. She took a picture of them doing the corner of the roof nearest us, with the roofer sheltering from the rain under a green cloth held up by his mate.

It has been raining a lot this week. We haven’t gone out at all, and Mummy only went out at the weekend because she had Things To Do. She was very busy all week correcting a new book. On the day it had to be in she was up till three in the morning. She said it had to be in by 8 our time which is midnight in California, but she wasn’t going to get up early in case she ran late, so she finished it that night. Now she’s correcting it. Mummy works hard, but it’s mostly at the computer.

We’ve been working hard at eating our hay and sleeping. We have a very hard life. Don’t you agree?

Ludo