Monkey business and rain

I have been uncommunicative because a string of domestic mishaps have occupied my time, my mind and have sapped my emotional energy.

It started innocently enough with a water softener giving up the ghost. At eleven years old it was to be expected. Then there was section of our roof that failed. It's made of Cotswold stone tiles. Not a cheap repair. Then, we were greeted, on our return from holiday, by a fridge freezer that threw in the towel. We are still awaiting the replacement.

And there was the rain, which has been relentless. It finally made unlikely inroads into our house. The first attack was in the conservatory which fell victim to such high levels of condensation that drips soaked the furniture below and lay in puddles on the floor. A dehumidifier solved this problem but it had to be bought, and we were lucky to find one of the last modestly priced heavy duty versions in the country in a local store. An amazing piece of kit. Strongly to be recommended for any type of damp.

The latest hit was the high water table which caused water to seep up through the floor in a corner of the house. It's surprising how much drying out of carpets etc a small leak generates. It only lasted a day but I am now armed with incontinence pads to suck up any new incursions. I trust they will not be needed.

I know that none of this matches the chaos faced by victims of floods or of the terrible low temperatures facing those of you in the USA. Nevertheless it disrupted our lives and kept us on our toes.

Luckily all of this time the market was treating me kindly. My share picks were going great guns and I have cleared half of my losses for the financial year. (Losses made early in the year by my willful refusal to believe in the rally that was going on all round. Big, big lesson: FORGET THEORY, USE YOUR EYES.)

My share picks were excellent in all areas. They yielded decent returns despite the flat market. There were black days but good ones followed. Which makes me wonder about price movements yesterday which switched from good to bad as the day progressed. What makes yesterday different is that the markets dropped out of their trading range.

It is interesting. There is a theoretical explanation for the shift. The employment figures in the US, published on Friday, were significantly worse than expected. The reaction to the results, if that is what it was, did not come till mid morning (Eastern time) on Monday. That makes me think that something else caused the fall. Particularly since it could be argued that poor figures will slow the rate at which the tapering of QE will proceed. The chart of the DOW shows that the market still has a little way to go before it breaks support.

I'm holding on and keeping my fingers crossed that I will not be forced to bail out. You all know me well enough to know that I can make that sort of a decision in an instant.

To end this post on a positive note after all that gloom. Last week my

daughter rang to suggest a trip to Monkey World in Dorset. It was fabulous. The thing that stood out was the beautiful relationship between two monkeys of different species. Here are a couple of charming

pictures taken by my son-in-law.

I don't know how to persuade the blogging program to put in the pictures any more tidily than this.