We had an enjoyable weekend – made even better by our granddaughter calling us yesterday evening on FaceTime and having a long chat about what she had been doing. Showed us a really good drawing she’d done of Jenna Coleman (which we gained Brownie points by recognising!), plus a game she is designing and making as part of her graphics lessons. Really nice talking to her.

Most of Saturday and Sunday was spent at Walsingham, where we were on retreat with members of our Cake and Compline group. We took Judy with us, and the Archers and Eleanor arrived separately at about lunchtime on Saturday. We all had lunch together in Norton’s café. Dot and I shocked the others by also having a gin and tonic: gin is a bit of a speciality there. Claire arrived late, which was not surprising.

We had lovely – though quite small – rooms upstairs, which gave us a good view over the complex. We also had the use of a meeting room for our sessions, which I had prepared under the loose heading of Lost in Translation. I made use of Prayers of the Cosmos and Water into Wine, as well as some other material, and it all seemed to go down well. Claire didn’t make it to the first session.

Eleanor went home after the evening meal, because she is now a vicar and had to lead a service at St Helen’s the next day. The rest of us played a few games, including Dixit, in another meeting room. The meal itself was good, and large numbers of other people suddenly materialised: it turned out that they were groups from different parts of the country. The shrine priest had a chat with us. Nice bloke.

On the Sunday we had breakfast and eventually a third session. We were delayed by David having a long phone call from his mother (his father is very ill) and then by Claire deciding to have a bath. However, we did get through it all, and ended the day with a roast beef lunch. The weather was beautifully sunny, but with a very cold wind, getting colder in the afternoon. Dot, Judy and I visited the farm shop before heading home, arriving about 4pm.

The previous day we had our hair cut. These things need to be recorded. On Thursday I spent quite a lot of time at the UEA Sainsbury Centre refectory, where we had a couple of meetings attempting to sort out the Paston Footprints project and then having a meeting of the Steering Committee. I have only a vague idea of what happened, and I did the minutes. I think a good way of getting more out of life would be to avoid going to as many meetings as possible.

On Wednesday Dot and I walked up to Presto, where we managed to secure a table for a light lunch. Our main reason for going was to say goodbye to Kathy and Roberto, who are retiring again. They have many loyal customers, and most of them had booked tables for the last two weeks, but we were early enough to sneak in at the back. Spoke to the retiring couple and to both waitresses, who we have go to know quite well.

On Tuesday evening I went got Jurnet’s poetry evening. I never feel totally at ease there, though the quality of poetry is pretty good. On this occasion Colin Payne, the chess player/musician/poet, turned up unexpectedly, and there was quite a large gathering altogether. The theme was March Hares, and although I usually forget about themes, I did write a poem with that title, which I read. Also one called Birds of Prey.

Today is a bit sombre in mood, as Jessie’s funeral is this afternoon. I still have a b it of a cough (not helped by doing a lot of talking over the weekend); so no doubt I will be rather on edge. David is driving up.

Happily, the passport, driving licence and birth certificate all came back safely, but Phil K is far from comfortable about sending his off. I now have a certificate; so I am DBS-certified, which must be reassuring to someone. Dot and I meanwhile are still under the weather with catarrh and a cough – hers rather worse than mine. It came back last Thursday, but despite that we had Neville and Mary Thrower round for a meal, which took Dot an awfully long time to prepare but was delicious. Very pleasant evening.

On Friday evening I was well enough to drive to Halesworth despite the still persistent windy weather, and read three poems at the Swan. Good quality evening: chatted to Kaaren, Sue and Nina, as well as the Dutchman and Mike Bannister, who fell off his chair while we were talking. I don’t usually have that effect, but I think he was OK.

Earlier that day Paul came round with Maryta, who is now out of hospital (obviously). She seemed a bit subdued but not too bad. Joe arrived at the station to be met by his father while we looked after Maryta. That seemed to go OK. Paul has relinquished his flat, as he has come to the end of his lease.

On Saturday the weather was as bad as ever; so I drove us up to St Andrew’s Hall, despite Dot’s cough being quite bad, for a performance of Verdi’s Requiem by the Norwich Philharmonic (with some help from Koblenz). Parked successfully in the Monastery car park. Halfway through the first half Dot had to go out because of her cough and spent the rest of the performance (before and after the interval) in a chair by the door. During the interval we spoke to Howard, who had forgotten he was preaching the next day. Anna was second violin, and Paul was a bass. In the Requiem, not the church.

We also saw Sue and Roger Eagle and Neil and Harriet from Saxlingham, with whom I had quite a long chat. They and the man sitting beside us were all quite concerned about Dot. Probably thought I was a heartless husband for staying in my seat. But she wasn’t in need of succour: just coughing.

Yesterday I led the service, and Howard turned up with a really good sermon. Impressive. On the minus side, our BT TV box seems to have given up the ghost, but I have been using the BT player via my phone and on to the screen; so no real disaster. However, I guess I have to do something about it.

Norwich are still top of the Championship, and there was an amazing game in the Six Nations, with England 31-7 up at half-time against Scotland, and in the end scoring a conversion with the last kick of the match to salvage a 38-38 draw. Wales won the Grand Slam, but that wasn’t nearly as interesting.

Today Dot is slightly better and has done an REQM assessment at Harleston – getting there just in time after I forgot to warn her that the road was closed at Hempnall Green. She is also, as I write, at a centring prayer session. Hope she isn’t doing too much.

The massage (neck and shoulders) seemed to go well, but following it my cold did develop, and I had a couple of really bad days, though not in the usual way, mainly – but not entirely – a bad cough, which still hasn’t quite gone away. I was told by Luke this morning, after he arrived at 8.30am unexpectedly to finish off our kitchen lights, that massage can reduce the efficiency of your immune system temporarily; so maybe that’s what happened.

It was bad enough for me to cancel a meeting at the NRO on Thursday morning, but then seemed to improve a bit, and I was well enough to go round the Hendersons’ on Saturday afternoon for tea with Paul and Holly. It then got worse again, and I had a bad night before staying at home on Sunday. I then missed the PCC meeting on Monday. It’s an ill wind…

Meanwhile Dot has been going strong, braving some really cold, windy and often wet weather which shows little sign of abating. Yesterday she met William Armstrong, the former city coroner – not to plan for my demise but to help him set up a City College reunion. They attended the college together: there were two other women there who remembered Dot in a lot more detail than she remembered them. They also remembered her being met out of college by some CNS boys who were “all in love with her”. Sort of rings a bell.

In the evening yesterday I drove Dot round to Phil’s so that she could deliver his presents without presenting him with a handful of germs, which might have happened if I’d delivered them. Meanwhile I have been DBS-checked so that I can become an authorised worship assistant. So far I have been an unauthorised one. Bit nervous about sending off my passport, driving licence and birth certificate in the same envelope, but happily they all came back this morning, intact.

Bit of a hiatus there, though not an empty one. Jessie died last Friday: we received a phone call just after we arrived in Buxton for the weekend. My iPhone died too – it lost the ability to charge, and although this was corrected by a shady guy I took it to in one of the murkier parts of Coventry, it suddenly lost all sound. I had been meaning to replace it anyway, but it happened at a bad time.

Yesterday I went to O2 after the Archant pensioners’ coffee morning and purchased an XR. Because my old phone was not backed up to the Cloud (don’t ask me why), I had to take the new one home and effect the set-up myself. This was presented as being very easy, and it would have been if I could have got the SIM card in the new phone. After trying various ways round I gave up and walked swiftly back up to O2, where I was told the SIM card was bent; they had to replace it and swap the information, which they seem to have done all right, although annoyingly my Steps app failed to transfer about 5000 steps. So yesterday I must have done about 8000-9000 steps in all, and I am down for fewer that 2000.

All this may sound very trivial compared with Jessie dying, and of course it is. But she had been on the brink for a while and was in some distress trying to breathe on the last couple of days. We will miss our visits to her very much: she always made me welcome from the time I started going out with Dot all those years ago. She is the last of her generation in Dot’s family.

Yesterday, in between the two visits to O2, Dot and I went to North Walsham cemetery to put some flowers on her sister’s grave: it would have been her 70th birthday. It was odd not going to see Jessie as well. While I was paying my second visit to O2 Dot was attending an Ofsted feedback at South Walsham – possibly the first time she had been to North and South Walsham on the same day.

Our annual visit to Buxton went well. We called in at Coventry on the Thursday, staying at the Premier Inn near the M6 overnight (very welcoming) and visiting Andrew the next morning. We found him in his new, much larger room with a double bed and his new sofa, which I had ordered from Argos earlier in the week and which had been delivered the day before. He seemed better than I had expected, because I knew he had had a fall in the city and been given extra antibiotics. But he was quite perky.

After leaving him (and picking up my phone from Foleshill) we had an uneventful but slow journey up to Buxton, where it was misty but without any sign of snow. The Evetts were already in town, but we decided against joining them there, as we were both tired. The evening meal was excellent, and all the usual suspects were waiting on us.

The Saturday was quite pleasant, though nowhere near as good as the sun and mild weather earlier in the week, and we decided to do a short walk from Tissington, a village which seemed to be anchored in the past. The shops were similar to ones we knew from our childhood (I bought some Fry’s chocolate), and the houses were all old: Tissington Hall was in the middle of the village. We started walking along the Tissington Trail, then cut up across fields and back to the village.

Back in Buxton I had a rest before joining the others for a cup of tea in the Chocolatier’s. Very nice.

On the Sunday it was wet and quite chilly. The forecast was also bad; so we decided on Lyme Park. With our new NT Scotland membership we were able to get into the house and gardens for nothing. We started at the cafe by the pond, then proceeded to the gardens, which were beautiful despite the time of year, and then, as the rain started to fall, went into the house, ending with a scone in the cafe.

The next day we left just after 10.30am and decided to call at Ralph and Lynne Martin’s in Darley Dale. They had just returned home from swimming at Matlock Bath, and we had a good chat and drink, plus a look at their garden. The following day I was able to show a photo I took of them to the pensioners’ group.

Proceeding south, Dot decided she wanted to go to a good quality toilet, and I suggested a National Trust property. We ended up at Kedleston Hall, which had beautiful grounds and an excellent cafe. We shared a scone, and I had indigestion the rest of the way home, which was a bit strange. We stopped again at Cambridge Services, and we got home just after 6pm. It would have been earlier, but Idiotic Transport for Norwich had dug up another road, resulting in huge queues.

In earlier news, Luke has installed most of the LED lights in the kitchen, plus a couple of switches. We had Cake and Compline at Claire’s last Tuesday, and a PHS Trustees’ meeting at our house the next day. Some big crisis is brewing at the UEA, causing them to cancel the Footprints Steering Committee meeting, but no-one really knows what it is. We are carrying on, but the project could be in jeopardy. Dot got annoyed by her orchestra conductor not showing up again and no-one bothering to tell her. She was waiting to give him a lift from the bus station.

Not sure what is happening with Maryta, but am very much afraid that Paul has given in to the idea that he should look after her at home, with professional help. He has frequent chest infections and has just had his varicose veins operated on; so I don’t think this is a great idea, though I understand his reluctance to put her in a care home.

We have enjoyed (pre-Buxton) some lovely sunny and quite mild weather, but it is now back to what we might expect for early March – grey and damp. Am just off for a massage, and I have a bit of a cold that I hope will not develop.

Not as straightforward a week as I had expected it to be. I spent quite a lot of time on the Paston Database, but then found I had to do three articles for Parish Pump (on Jill Dando, Daniel Defoe and Manchester City FC) as well as update the Paston Blofield leaflet. Dot has had a cold/cough; so in spite of the generally very good weather we have been rather restricted in what we’ve done. We hadn’t seen Jessie this week until yesterday, when we decided to ignore Dot’s cough, which is intermittent, though sometimes impressive.

I also have a bit of a cough, but nothing like as bad as Dot’s. I am just hoping it doesn’t get worse, as we are heading for Buxton next weekend.

We did go for tea with Paul on Sunday afternoon. No-one has decided what will be best for Maryta, but happily Paul has taken my advice (and that of Pete Kelley) to resist functioning as her at-home carer, because I don’t think he would last long if he did. He has frequent chest problems and had just had extensive varicose vein surgery. Dot went to see her yesterday, and she was not as angry as expected, though she is aware that she is not being discharged any time soon. (I went for another walk in the cemetery.)

Dot didn’t go to Centering Prayer on Monday, for fear of breaking out coughing during the silence; so I gave a lift to the two women who come regularly by train. On Tuesday I went to the Jurnet’s poetry session and it turned out to be really good. I read two older poems – Italian Time and Playing with Fish – which seemed to go down quite well, and I spoke to a couple of young first-timers, one of whom did a very Christian poem in semi-rap style.

The last three days have been quite warm and sunny; on Thursday Dot and I decided to go to Cley. We walked to the hides and had a look at some birds, including a barn owl, which put in a guest appearance. Lots of stunning lapwings, and plenty of others. We then wandered back to the cafe but discovered that it shut at 3.30pm (it was then 3.34pm). This, though idiotic, turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because we drove into Cley, parked round the back on Fairfields and went to the cafe on the corner, where we had an excellent scone (me) and rocky road (Dot) before it too shut at 4pm. We also bought some fish cakes and mackerel from the Smokehouse and have already eaten them both.

Yesterday we had our hair cut and – after going to see Jessie, who was very, very weak (she thought she was dying the previous night) and having a chat with Roger – we drove to Happisburgh and walked along the cliff towards Cart Gap. Beautiful late afternoon, but a lot more of the cliff has fallen on to the beach. A pill box which used to be well into the ploughed field is now virtually on the edge. Back at home we watched a 2013 action film on TV called Olympus Has Fallen, which – while pretty unbelievable – was certainly entertaining.

Dot has visited a lot of schools this week, and possibly as a result went down with a cold yesterday; so we had to cancel Kristine’s visit. Actually we didn’t cancel it: we offered her the opportunity to cancel, and she quite rightly took it; Dot is in fact up and about today, but probably infectious. Would have felt uneasy if Kristine had come.

Eleanor called in this morning to bring a card to the people at St Augustine’s who she has just said goodbye to and who gave her a gift in excess of £100. We walked to her induction at St Helen’s on Thursday evening, and it was a lovely occasion: very relaxed and, surprisingly, warm. Quite a few people from St Augustine’s there, and I spoke to her sister Elizabeth (from Slough) afterwards. If it were possible, she seemed just as nice as Eleanor. St Helen’s is part of the Great Hospital and really beautiful – extremely old, of course. For the record, Eleanor (or Canon Langan) goes from being top chaplain at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital to being vicar and chaplain at St Helen’s and the Great Hospital.

Earlier in the day we had been to see Jessie. We had also been two days before – on the Tuesday – and both times she seemed very fragile. Roger is going in every day, and she has several other visitors regularly. This week the weather has improved, and it’s been predominantly sunny and quite warm for the time of year. I put this down to the fact that magnetic north is moving quite swiftly north-east. No-one knows why; so that’s all right.

I went up to the Rosary by a circuitous route yesterday and sat on a bench for a while. Beautiful afternoon, but I felt strangely lacking in energy. Huge number of crocuses.

On Wednesday I paid my second visit to Verena and she paid a lot of attention to my legs and lower back. I have a number of exercises from her which I can never remember to do.

The day before, Rob came round to discuss Blofield and the Pastons. We decided it would probably be best to do two leaflets, and I have kind of made a start, though I had a lot of trouble with my computer yesterday, which for some reason refused to connect with iCloud until I gave it a new password, which seems sort of self-defeating. Have been putting quite a bit of information into Peter’s Paston Database and discovered two duplicate entries. I enjoy doing it, but it can take up a long of time.

Dot went to see Maryta on Monday. She has been diagnosed with frontal lobe dementia, and it now remains to be decided what they are going to do with her. In fact Paul will have been to a meeting about it yesterday. Both Pete Kelley and I have cautioned him against taking responsibility for her care, because I know that the NHS will seize on any opportunity to do as little as possible if there is someone else to do it. We’re going for a cup of tea with Paul tomorrow (if Dot is well enough), and will find out what has been decided.

While I write this Dot is listening to Norwich City playing away at Bolton, and unbelievably they are winning 4-0 in the 60th minute. They couldn’t lose 5-4, could they? They have of course missed a penalty. Again.

Dot and Anne are walking in the city; it’s a bright but cool day – a distinct improvement on the chilly, wet and windy days we’ve had recently. I’ve been doing some work on the Paston Database – a list of people mentioned in the Letters or otherwise associated with the family.

Happily, I now also have the correct reading glasses: I picked them up from Boots last Wednesday.

On Thursday Dot and I drove to Kirby Bedon for the annual sugar celebration at Chris and Wendy Lamb’s rather impressive house. This consists of a selection of impressive nibbles and some champagne to celebrate the collection of huge amounts of sugar from schools just before Christmas for the benefit of shelters and charities helping the homeless. Dot encouraged some of the the schools to participate, and I helped transport the sugar to an obscure site near North Walsham – bit like drug-running, but with the opposite effect on the end-users. Sue and Roger Eagle turned up late after being prompted by a phone call from Dot: Sue was in fact at a meeting with Rob Knee about her new Paston role, arranged by me!

Afterwards we drove to North Walsham to see Jessie, who is not too good. Roger was there, too. She is in some pain, and the doctor has given her only a few days – but she has already exceeded the previous estimate by some weeks. Called in at Sainsbury’s before driving home.

On Friday I had my first professional massage – by Verena at Little Plumstead. My knee had been giving me some pain, as had my lower back, and Dot persuaded me to go. Verena was very thorough and took nearly 90 minutes if you include the preliminary chat. Felt good afterwards, but the next day everything was very painful. Happily by Sunday it had subsided, and I know feel pretty good, as far as knees and backs go.

Yesterday was busy. Dot went to the High Noon derby match against Ipswich, leaving me to hold the fort at church, where Matt joined the worship band on jazz piano for one of the hymns. Sounded pretty good. It was Eleanor’s last Sunday, and she gave a lovely sermon based on Isaiah 6 and Luke 5. She is going to the Great Hospital as their chaplain and vicar at St Helen’s Bishopgate. We gave her a gift of John Lewis vouchers, and Sarah baked a cake. There was a quick PCC meeting afterwards (small influx down from St Luke’s) to agree that a number of people should be put forward as authorised worship assistants. I am one of them. Next step, bishop.

Meanwhile Luke (and his wife Michelle) had been at Aspland Road installing some LED lighting in the kitchen. I was back to receive them on their return from the match (together with, or slightly before Dot), and Luke finished off the fitting, though he still has to install the switches and a bit more tubing (for want of a better word). Norwich had beaten Ipswich 3-1; so everyone was happy, apart from the Ipswich fans.

The previous day we had had Sean, Ciera, Freddie and Phoebe round for roast chicken, and Freddie had been very bullish about the likely score. Sean and I tried to prepare him for a possible reverse, but he was adamant – and, as it turned out, right. It was a nice meal and a really good evening.

Andrew is back at Minster Lodge and seems to be recovering well. They are planning to put him in a bigger bedroom, with a double bed and a sofa.

Just back from the monthly Archant coffee morning, with Robin and Shelagh, Brian and Tricia, Bill Woodcock, Neville Miller and many others. Maryta still in hospital, of course. Afterwards I went for a walk round the Mall to get some steps done, as I have been very lax the last three days – partly because of the bad weather. Dot is now at Alpington School, where David went as a child, to talk to both staff and pupils.

Andrew is still in hospital, and Walsgrave seems to be set up specifically to prevent patients being located, or for anyone to find out their condition. Minster Lodge tell me he’s nows stable, having been through the antibiotics, but is still suffering from diarrhoea. Apparently he’s now on Ward 30, but according to the hospital website, that doesn’t exist.

Still trying to catch up with some Paston Database work (editing material provided by Rob and Peter), which will be followed by a partial rewrite of the leaflet and some words for the Monument display board, both at Blofield.

Last Thursday went up to Boots to get my new glasses, only to find they had been wrongly put together and had to be returned to the workshop. I haven’t been feeling too great over the last week – fuzzy head, bad knee and achey back; so I could have down without the pointless walk, but I guess the exercise was good for me. Dot has now booked me in with Verona for Friday, mainly to look at my knee. That should be interesting.

On Saturday we went up to the church hall to “help” with sorting out the store room, but I didn’t feel I did much, especially as I couldn’t lift because of my back. Dot went to Screwfix and bought some glue. Carrie was very busy, but she’s better at doing than delegating; so the rest of us were mainly at a loose end, and we eventually went home to watch Norwich beat Leeds 3-1 away. The team played very well, and Dot got quite excited.

Later we went up to Ipswich Road for a meal with Paul and Holly (my god-daughter), which was very pleasant. She is in the midst of plans to leave the Navy, where she is a Lieutenant-Commander, and work as a logistics expert for Amazon, somewhere near Manchester. She had her dog with her. As dogs go, it was OK.

On Sunday I led the service, standing in for Liz Cannon, and Liz Day did an excellent sermon on 1 Corinthians 13 – love, which she applied to people (especially politicians and the media) taking a positive attitude towards each other instead of looking for conflict. Afterwards Dot and I visited Jessie. Roger and Debbie were already there, but that was fine. Jessie doesn’t seem any worse.

Yesterday it poured with rain and was very cold. Julia and Allan visited us from Swaffham, and Dot did a lovely meal of individual shepherd’s pies. Very pleasant afternoon. Dot took a couple of people from the station to a centering prayer meeting in the evening.

Back in Norwich with much less snow than forecast – almost none, in fact. Nevertheless, we have put the MX5 in the garage to protect its battery, and Dot will travel to Sutton for an Ofsted feedback this afternoon in the better equipped car. The temperature is quite low, and there is an ice warning.

What do I mean by back in Norwich? Well, at 4am on Monday I was woken by a call from Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry. Andrew had been admitted with some kind of infection, and they were worried about him – largely, I think, because he was very agitated. I rang the hospital back in the morning and got very little further, having been passed backwards and forwards between A&E, switchboard and Ward 12.

The journey was pretty straightforward, apart from the usual crawl on the A14 near Cambridge, and I was at the hospital, managing to park, by just after 2pm. At last I found out where he actually was – Ward 12 – and found him in a four-bedded room, very agitated and with diarrhoea as well as pneumonia and probably UTI, not to mention borderline sepsis. They were having quite a bit off difficulty with him, but I managed to help a little bit, mainly by calling a nurse when necessary.

I stayed for about 90 minutes or more and then left to book a room at a nearby Premier Inn, because he didn’t seem at all well, and I thought there was a real risk he could die overnight. One of the doctors asked me about resuscitation. Got a hotel room OK and then managed to lose the door key. I still don’t know where it is, but fortunately the woman at reception was having a cigarette round the back while I was looking for it, and she said it happened all the time and gave me another one. Key card, not cigarette.

Dot had packed me a picnic lunch, which proved enough for that day. I returned to the hospital, found it much easier to park but just as hard to pay for (which is another story) and returned to Andrew, who seemed even worse. He had pulled out his cannula, and his diarrhoea was worse; so he kept trying to get out of bed.

This was not my idea of a good time. The nurses did what they could but were short-staffed. Eventually I returned to the hotel and to Lorna (the receptionist), who had to help me get through the entrance door; so you can tell I was not myself. I also had a bad knee and sore back. I don’t know why, but I was hobbling about. I tried to get a good night’s sleep, but of course didn’t, really.

Very cold the next morning, and I had a surprisingly warm bath and then went over to the Brewer’s Fayre for breakfast, which was quite acceptable. Just before 9am, and only a couple of us were partaking. The tea was good too, once I could get the hot water to work.

I had been told that hospital visiting hours started at 11am; so I thought arriving at 10.30 would mean parking was easy. How wrong I was. I did a complete tour of the car park and campus before striking lucky at the second attempt, managing to edge in rather untidily. I went up to Ward 12, where Andrew had been moved into a side room and was very quiet, presumably because he had been sedated. He was able to speak, though, and seemed pleased to see me.

I spoke to a nurse, who promised to tell a doctor I was there, but then Helen from Minster Lodge arrived, with Claire (a new carer), who were both all over Andrew. As I was worried about the snow forecast for later in the day, I left him in their hands. They promised to keep an eye on him while he was in there, and they are lovely. So they will.

The drive back went very well. I stopped at Cambridge Services, which requires quite a large diversion at the moment, and still got home in not much more than 2 hours and 30 minutes – including getting petrol from Morrisons when I arrived. I got home just before Dot, who had been to see her aunt and visit the cemetery (it was her mum’s birthday).

Felt pretty exhausted and with a very sore back. Watched some TV, spoke to Phil on the phone, ate a lovely meal cooked by Dot and watched some TV before going to bed. This morning got up late. The forecast snow had not appeared.

Compared to all that, the weekend was almost sedentary. I fasted till 6pm in solidarity with the “prayer and fasting for Britain” event at Wembley arena. Watched a bit of this (it was streamed on YouTube), but can’t say I was terribly impressed. That’s probably my fault.

In the evening we had a lovely time at Des and Chris’s with Sean, Ciara, Freddie and Phoebe; John, Daniel and Sophia from no 15; and Luke and Michelle. Good wine, food and conversation. Nice service at church on Sunday: put up a picture and fixed the caption for Ann Travis’s photo. Sarah asked me if I wanted to be an authorised worship assistant; and I said yes if she thought so. She did.

My article for the Diocesan Magazine is now done and dusted, and I think, approved, though I got into some confusion with the editor this morning about ear syringing. It turned out to be an unrelated query. Interestingly, the only person who wanted to change what I wrote about them was Liz, who asked me to alter the bit about her “work for Palestinians” into “work for Palestinians and Israelis”, which rather removed the controversial element. I decided to keep her quotes in, though.

Found myself in a meeting at Blofield Rectory last Thursday, having been invited by Barbara Pilch. Also there were Matt, Rob, the Rector and both the PIlches, and we discussed how Footprints and Blofield could help each other. Will be looking at my leaflet again to alter it to fit Footprints style, and am also involved in wording a display board inside the church, underneath the Edward Paston monument.

The meeting happened after Linda cut our hair (postponed for two days).

The next day Dot and I went to see Jessie, and I cancelled a projected visit to Halesworth poets because things had got a bit late for it to work (we hadn’t finished our evening meal in time). Instead I watched Norwich City play Birmingham on NOW TV while Dot went to see it in person. It was pretty cold: I walked there with her and ran into electrician Luke on the way back. We had a brief discussion about him fixing our kitchen lights, and as a result I feel confident that it will happen. Of course it would have happened anyway, but now it might be sooner. Norwich won 3-1 – all the goals coming in the first 20 minutes or so. The second half was pretty boring, actually.

On Sunday our son departed for three weeks in Canada, arriving at an exciting -20C. It wasn’t quite that cold here, but we have been scraping windows and feeling the chill. I led the service, and in the evening we went to the Seagull, where I did a new song, Passing Through, and an old one, The Rolling Hills of Pakefield, both with Dot on violin. Kaaren read a poem about Dot, which rather embarrassed her, but it was quite a compliment, because she loves Dot’s violin playing. I also read three poems – Climber, Epiphany and I will not write a poem. The last is about Jessie, who we went to see again yesterday, on her 86th birthday. Still frail, but clinging on.

Before visiting Jessie I went to see Dr Hampsheir, who explained the advantages of a lesser-strength statin in a non-pressing way. Turns out that if I took it, my cholesterol would reduce and I would have a 23% chance of dying in the next ten years, instead of 30%, as I have now. I’m thinking about it, but not much.

After returning from North Walsham I walked up to Boots to have my eyes tested. The optometrist was pretty thorough, and it seems I’m Ok. He suggested I could get some slightly improved lenses if I wanted to, and today I met Dot out of Presto (where she was lunching with Sue Eagle and Pam) and went and chose some frames, with help from Amy, an assistant who was as lovely as her name suggests, although not quite as stunning as my granddaughter.

After that I got some petrol, then drove Dot up to the Julian Hospital to see Maryta, where she managed to gain entrance at the third attempt. Maryta was not too bad. While they talked I was walking round the cemetery and making an amazing discovery: that it was not a separate cemetery but the back of the Earlham Crematorium. You would have to know the road set-up and the size of it all to understand why this was not obvious, but I felt sadly diminished, because my sense of direction is usually one of my strong points, and this had never occurred to me.