We now have the car back: it needed a new tyre and was serviced. Now I hope it will last the next two or three weeks at least, as we shall be covering lots of miles travelling to Scotland, through the Outer Hebrides, back to Ballater and then to Coventry and home. At church today Howard expressed concern at our travelling this distance by car. I tried to reassure him, but he didn’t seem convinced.

Before picking up the car Dot and I went to see Jessie, who was in good form, and then bought some stuff at Sainsbury’s with the aim of reclaiming some Nectar card cash. But the cashier messed it up, much to Dot’s annoyance, and so the cash is still locked into the Nectar card. On a scale of world problems over the last few days, this ranks fairly low.

While Dot was at the DSSO meeting with Paul on Wednesday I walked into the city to pay in a cheque and see a 20 Group exhibition at the Forum, during which I was approached by two Chinese students who interrogated me on my shopping and reading habits. On the way back I bought some gooseberries and cherries and arrived just as Paul’s car emerged from Aspland Road.

On Friday Howard came round at 10am to discuss starting up a Facebook Group and page and a Twitter identity relating to the speaker programme at church. This was complicated by the additional presence of Suzanne Cooke and Liz Day, particularly the latter. After a while I let them get on with it, but even so Liz appears to have changed some things after it was all done. No surprise there. An additional problem is that Howard does not want to get involved personally with Facebook or Twitter. Ho, hum. I did not say this was rather like wanting a newspaper to advertise your event but refusing to read newspapers. Perhaps I should have.

Later in the day I took the recovering Phil to get his hair cut on Kett’s Hill – well, in a hairdresser’s there, to be more accurate. Joy was supposed to have come, but she felt too ill, and I have to admit she didn’t look at all well. Phil continues to make good progress, though.

In the evening we played host to Sue and Roger (Eagle) and Anne and Philip. Dot did the cooking, and it was very nice, especially the starter, which was a peach with something rather radical done to it. The evening was convivial and went well, though I have to admit that Philip didn’t seem too good. He is just finishing his prostate cancer treatment, so he can hardly be expected to seem on top of the world.

Yesterday Dot and I went to Castle Acre for a garden party at the home of the Bishop of Lynn, for whom Ann Knox Whittet works as secretary. As a bonus she and James got use of a marquee that the bishop had been using earlier!  The event turned out to be a poetry/musical afternoon, and fortunately I had taken a poem to read. There were many other offerings, some worse than others. Met a lady who was born on Barra, where we’re heading this week. She sang a beautiful Gaelic hymn. I know that because she gave us the translation first. Alas present: Kaaren Whitney and Sue Mobbs, plus most of the Suffolk poets with whom I have become familiar. Not over-familiar, of course.

Castle Acre was beautiful. Don’t know why I haven’t been there before. Tonight some of the same poets will be reading at the Seagull, but Dot and I have decided we don’t really have the time, as we’re busy packing and quite tired.  Nice service this morning, led by Phil, who seems to have the weight of the world on his shoulders, and with a talk by Howard, who doesn’t. Ann (95) made a rare appearance with her daughter Chris.

It’s getting quite warm here, and it promises to continue. The Outer Hebrides are not looking so good.

*Note on Phils: (a) Phil Lenton, my brother; (b) Philip Robinson, Anne’s husband; (c) Dr Phil Kerrison, a church member and guitar player.

So now I’m 71. I guess it was inevitable – or at least, there was only one alternative, as there so often is (grammatical joke). I would like to say I had a very pleasant birthday yesterday, and in fact I did.  My wife made every effort to look after me and succeeded. It culminated first in the excitement of having my hair cut, and then attendance at a Julian meeting at the Greens which was unashamedly hijacked by my birthday celebrations (thanks to Dot and Anna), some lovely food and even champagne. Wonderful evening.

Nevertheless she is spending today with another man – in the case Paul Henderson, who is accompanying her to the DSSO bash at Diocesan House. I am working my way down my Reminders list. Very slowly. So far I have got my pills from the chemist.

In other news, we went to London on Saturday to see the Coomes, leaving Norwich in pouring rain which apparently lingered for Norwich but turned into quite a pleasant, dry day in London. Had a lovely lunch in Leyton. David was not much different to the naked eye but is apparently deteriorating. Still, we had a good talk and solved most of the world’s problems.

On Monday I led the service in the presence of the vicar, which sounds nerve-wracking but was in fact fine. Eleanor gave a really good talk. The rest of the day we spent largely in front of the TV, watching various sporting events. France shot themselves in the foot in the Euro 2016 final by not breaking sweat until Portugal scored, by when it was too late. The reluctance to risk anything is spoiling most international football nowadays. On the plus side, Murray and Hamilton won.

On Monday I went to Bruce Robinson’s funeral at St Faith’s. A very simple service was followed by refreshments at the Marsham Arms which included all the usual suspects except Martin Throssell, who had apparently been unable to find his way there by following my directions. Had quite a chat with Cynthia and others.

On the way home, however, I got a puncture, limped into Horsford and called the emergency people after trying unsuccessfully to use the gunge kit in the boot to reinflate the tyre. Both the emergency man and the garage said this was awful stuff and should never be used, which sort of makes you wonder why they supply it. Apparently they don’t supply a spare tyre because it affects the mpg, but I would happily sacrifice a little mpg for a spare tyre. I suspect most drivers would.

The emergency man was very quick and transported the car and me to my own garage (about three miles away). As I was due to have it serviced tomorrow anyway, I left it there, and it is still there (I hope). I walked up the road and caught a bus. Later I went with Dot to pick up some pills for Phil and Joy, who both have UTIs, then dropped off a misaddressed card reader to the new church treasurer, then delivered the pills and three bags of laundry to P & J. It’s all go.

Cringleford turned out to be slightly more interesting than expected. After leaving Dot at the school I walked down a track to Colney Lane and then beyond, down Water Lane, which turned out to lead only to private properties. So I returned to Colney Lane, where I was hailed by a man who wanted (at first) to talk about his daughter, who had been slightly injured in a car crash. It then turned out that he recognised my name from Surrey Chapel, and he talked a great deal about allied matters, such as the Second Coming and healing. His name (I checked with Phil today) was Ted Holland, and he has a bit of a reputation. With Phil, anyway.

After being talked to for about 20 minutes I completed a circular walk back to the school, and Dot soon emerged. In the evening we went with Neville and Mary Thrower to Prezzo’s and then had coffee at ours. Neville seemed to have a bad cold, which made both of us a bit nervous.

I attended the Archant coffee morning on my own on Tuesday – Dot was overwhelmed with work. Bit of a low turnout: Robin and  Shelagh were on holiday, Paul and Maryta weren’t there, and Brian and Tricia turned up late. Still, talked to Eric and Hazel and Jenni Downing. Afterwards I returned my borrowed umbrella to the bank and on the spur of the moment got my glasses tightened, as well as stocking up on First Defence, which is an anti-viral spray.

In the afternoon there was a lengthy Paston Footprints Steering Meeting, which Karen forgot, but we forged on anyway. A much shorter trustees’ meeting followed. Penny was out of bed but with her injured ankle raised. She seemed quite bright.

Bit of a technology disaster day on Wednesday: paper jammed in Dot’s printer, and although we seemed to have freed it, the LCD dIsplay wouldn’t change. In the end – after many frustrations – Dot rang Rymans (it was still in warranty) and they took it back and gave her a new printer at a much reduced price. I also took delivery of a new improved BT hub, but I daren’t use it in case it messes up David’s system. So it awaits his suggestions, probably when they come up to see us. On the plus side, our long-awaited chair (ordered in January) at last arrived and seems to be fine, or “quite good” as Dot wrote on the delivery sheet, since it had a couple of marks which she has managed to remove. It now sits upstairs, and is very comfortable.

The chair arrived while I was at Blofield, having given Lucy and Karen a lift to the church there for a meeting about Blofield joining us in the Footprints project. The meeting included Barbara and David Pilch (I was at school with David), the rector and the churchwarden. Afterwards I took Karen back to the station to catch a bus, and then delivered Lucy to North Walsham station, where her car was parked.

Today has been overcast but warm. I went to Morrisons, partly on behalf of my brother, then after lunch took the food round to him and picked up some washing. I also got some cash for him. Dot has been in and out and is at present at a “celebration” evening at the school where she is a governor. She is not enjoying it.

Still a lot of rain about, considering it’s the middle of summer. Not all that warm, either. Rain featured quite strongly in Amy’s school speech day, to which we were invited together with the other grandparents, plus David and Vicky of course. To get there fairly early in the morning we had to stay overnight, so travelled down on Friday and bought some fish and chips for supper.

This would be our last visit to Beechwood Park, and it was memorable. The speech day in a massive tent included an excellent address from the headmaster and a good motivational speech from Paul Gustard, the defence coach of the England rugby team and formerly of Saracens, where he brought a couple of wolves and a snake to training. Happily he only brought mirrors to Beechwood. (“The person in the glass is the one you have to look in the eye.”)

Afterwards we had a picnic on the playing fields – a magnificent spread prepared by Vicky and interrupted only slightly by a couple of heavy downpours. Fortunately we had umbrellas, which enabled us to deflect the water on to our neighbours. Oliver also came to this, but he departed to a party before we went on a tour of the classrooms, led by Amy, during which I was able to tell her English teacher how good I thought she was at writing. Happily, her teacher concurred. The tour ended with cake and tea back in the tent. Dot and I returned to Caddington with David, and left soon for a quick journey home (Dot driving). Amy and the Evetts went with Vicky to Aylesbury.

Yesterday was Eleanor’s birthday celebration at church. Before that I preached and was just about able to cope with interruptions from an old guy who has started coming occasionally. He sees himself as central to everything that happens, which is a bit sad and annoying at the same time. I talked about the liturgy, and why it was as it is. Got a lot of positive feedback, some of which may have been a sympathy vote.

After the lunch (provided by Eleanor) Dot and I went to the cemetery at North Walsham and from there to Jessie’s – briefly, as she was being visited by Roger and Debbie, who were staying for an evening meal. Later Iceland were 4-0 down at half time to France and eventually lost 5-2. This is the same Iceland who beat England 2-1. Meanwhile, some time last week, Wales beat Belgium in a brilliant match to get through to the semi-finals. Other sporting events: Djokovic was knocked out of Wimbledon, Hamilton won the Austrian grand prix, despite an attempt by Rosberg to push him off the track; and Cavendish won the first stage of the Tour de France, which gave him the yellow jersey (apparently the only jersey he was lacking). Oh, and England did quite well at cricket against Sri Lanka.

Earlier in the week we had cake and compline at our house (Tuesday) and I drove Dot to an orchestra party at Stoke Holy Cross to celebrate their concert (Wednesday). On Thursday I had another visit from Lily and Linda, and we walked up the Rosary, where I showed them lots of graves of people they knew, and they told me about various Surrey “scandals” that I knew nothing about. Afterwards we had tea back at the house. In the evening we had drinks and nibbles at the Hendersons, again to celebrate the concert; this turned out to be a little uncomfortable. We shouldn’t have mentioned the war.

This morning Dot had her “diabetes” eye test at the doctor’s. I drove her because of a risk of blurred vision. I shall be driving her to a school visit at Cringleford this afternoon for the same reason.