Well, we did go to Felbrigg for a walk with the Hendersons last Monday. In the course of it I discovered that my energy levels have dipped dramatically: all three of them could walk faster than me, and that’s not counting the dog. Not sure why this should be: I suspect a hangover from the various minor health problems I’ve been having. Up to now, my stamina has always been very good. Yes, I know: I’m getting old.

In the evening another stamina-sapping event – the annual parish meeting. As members of the PCC we had an added bonus: as well as the main meeting (80minutes), we had a half-hour pre-meeting meeting and a 20-minute post-meeting meeting. Happily there was a meal too. During the post-meeting meeting I suggested that Jesus would not have had a health and safety policy. I could have added that if he’d done a risk assessment, we might not have been there at all, but I knew I’d be crucified if I’d said that. Ho, ho.

An altogether more relaxing event the following day: Cake and Compline at the Archers, with everybody in attendance. According to my diary nothing much happened the next two days. I was probably asleep, or writing articles for Parish Pump. I seem to remember a couple of short walks, but it was very cold.

David left for Canada on Friday. I always feel rather nervous when he’s so far away. Before he left, however, we had a Paston Footprints steering committee meeting, which went surprisingly well, possibly because Dot made a cake.  In the evening, while David was in the air, we went with the Robinsons to the Wildebeest at Stoke to celebrate Philip’s 77th birthday. I drove there from their house, and impressed Philip with the speed of the journey. I think “impressed” is the right word. The meal was excellent. Duck.

More excitement yesterday, when Dot and I drove to remote Mautby for a Paston-related event put on by the local church as a kind of launch for their “hub” of the Footprints project. They managed to fill the church for a talk by Rob and Lucy, plus various re-enacting. We attracted the Lord Mayor of Yarmouth and Ingrid, the deputy head of one of Dot’s schools. Peter shot a video – https://youtu.be/fjfex8IpswE – and a reporter compiled something for the local paper and its website. in the churchyard I had a long talk with a woman who claimed descent from Robert Kett. She said she was not feeling rebellious.

Meanwhile, Norwich City went 3-0 up away to Leeds and managed to hang on to draw 3-3. We listened to the nail-biting conclusion on the way home.

Today we had a cake (by Anna) at church for Phyllis’s birthday, and a very pleasant service. Chris Denton called in afterwards to talk about her mother (Anne Travis), who is in a care home, and we are arranging to go to see her near her birthday, in a week or two. Afterwards Dot, Phil and I pooped over to the old church to show our faces for the Flintspiration weekend – a kind of celebration of Norwich’s old flint churches. Stuart was in charge as usual, and doing a good job. He told me he had been inspired by Rosemary, a church member who died some years ago and who was lovely.

We did drive to Holt last Wednesday as advertised, had a scone in Byfords and bought a new strip light from our favourite lighting shop, which has everything electrical that you can’t get in Norwich. Also picked up my replacement jumper from Bakers and Larners: the assistant suggested that it was probably the washing machine that had caused the holes; so we bought a special washing bag. And some food, though there was no suggestion that food had caused the holes.

At some point during the last few days we noticed that a tyre on Dot’s car looked flat; so after filling the tank  with petrol we checked the tyres and found that the one in question  was 8 psi, when it should be 25. Another was in the mid-teens. I suspect two very slow punctures, which I shall have to keep an eye on. Reassuringly, the tyres on my car were fine, but we seem to have lost the chargers from both cars. Dot suspects the cleaners.

On Thursday we had a visit from Sam and Lucy, together with the irrepressible Elliott (3), who had a go on my guitar and generally ran amok. Fortunately, he didn’t break or lose anything. Nice to see them: a fairly rare event, as the rip from Southampton is not easy.

Ini the afternoon we went to a meeting at the Smiths on Aylsham Road to discuss the future (I love these small agendas). Also present were Carol, a retired Anglican vicar and hippie who goes to C3, Andrew Partridge and Simon Snell. We talked about the different congregations and what they did or didn’t have in common. Surprisingly interesting.

On Friday we both attended Chris Wakeley’s funeral at St Mary’s, Ditchingham. Dot got there by a circuitous route from a Yarmouth school where she had attended morning assembly, and I went direct. It was at 11am. Actually it was over a quarter of an hour late starting, and quite bizarre, in a C of E sort of way. Many were dressed in Norwich City colours, and the opening music was On the Ball, City. The vicar didn’t seem to be fully engaged, which is not surprising, but on the plus side, Dot went to school with his wife. We didn’t know anyone else there apart from Katy, Chris’s daughter, but the church was packed. Our connection with Chris and Katy is that Chris’s mother was Maud Lincoln, who was a stalwart of St Augustine’s when we first went there, and as a result Chris and Katy used to come occasionally, though they haven’t been for quite a while. Katy is in a wheelchair with chronic ME.

Afterwards we returned to Norwich in time to get our hair cut by Linda. This was a highlight – or several highlights, in Dot’s case – and nicely timed for her concert with the Sillars Orchestra on the Saturday, not to mention the Friday night game at Carol Road, which she attended while I watched it on NOW TV, after I’d missed the first half-hour trying to figure out why it didn’t work. It turned out to be Apple’s brilliant new security system, which supplied me with a verification code but nowhere to insert it. I turned the BNSS off and saw the rest of the match.

Dot attended the rehearsal at 2.15pm on Saturday and during the break between then and the performance called in to see the Hendersons and eat smoked salmon sandwiches. Meanwhile I caught up on some tidying, tried unsuccessfully to get the printer to work, and went to the performance in the company of Judy. We parked on Mansfield Lane and walked up through the churchyard, thus avoiding the parking mayhem up top. However, this did mean we had to walk down a steep path in the dark afterwards, which was fun.

The performance was excellent, with all the usual suspects in attendance. I particularly liked Peter Warlock’s Capriol Suite and Edward German’s Henry VIII Suite. I could have done without the music from A Chorus Line, though it was well performed. In the raffle, Judy won a purse, and Maryta a bottle of Pinot Gris.

More excitement yesterday when, after a Holy Communion that included healing prayers for Christine and Ray, Dot and I departed hot-foot for the Brome Grange Hotel, south of Scole on the A140, where we celebrated Angela’s 60th birthday with Rodney, Andy and Donna, Victoria Rose and John and Margaret. An extremely convivial occasion, with excellent food. Highly recommended if you’re in the area.

Later, when we were too tired to concentrate properly, we received a phone call from Maryta asking us to go for a walk at Felbrigg this afternoon. Dot agreed to this, and we are still trying to think of ways to avoid it in view of the inclement weather. This morning I got a call from Andrew’s CPN, who had been to see him. Apparently Andrew told her he hadn’t seen me for a long time. Hmmm.

An eventful week – more eventful than we had anticipated after David’s car (our old one) broke something at Little Plumstead on the way home from Ranworth on Wednesday. We had been out for a walk and had been intending to return home for a cup of tea before going for another walk from home. But on the Plumstead road there was a lot of noise from the back nearside, and we couldn’t pin it down, even after pulling into a side road and exploring the underside of the car.

After driving a few more yards rather gingerly it appeared that the engine protector had come adrift. David called roadside assistance, and I headed off to look for a bus (in case the assistance was a long time coming). In fact help came quickly, and it was established (apparently) that the shock absorber was broken as well as the engine protector). So David, Dot and the children got a lift back home, and I eventually walked to Salhouse station and caught the 16.34 into Norwich.

The next day (Maundy Thursday) there was some delay before the low-loader arrived to take David and family back to Caddington, but they got back just in time for Amy to be given a lift by Miranda to her sleepover at Amilie’s. Meanwhile Dot and I were having a long rehearsal with Phil for our Good Friday event, running through the songs and hymns and watching a few YouTube songs by way of a break.

This paid off the following day when we had an audience of just over 30 at St Augustine’s – two-thirds of them from St Luke’s. Dot had been to the football at Carrow Road, and we were delayed by football traffic; so it was all a bit frantic as we prepared to start, and I completely forgot to get my guitar out and tune it. Fortunately it was sufficiently in tune when we got to the first hymn, and the whole event went reasonably well, though I was never able to relax. Happily it was all very well received, and everyone enjoyed Dot’s giant Easter cake afterwards.

On Saturday Dot travelled down to Dunstable and picked up the family outside the Leisure Centre after their swimming. Following a quick break at Caddington, they drove home and arrived mid-afternoon. Meanwhile I did a big shop at Morrison’s and cleared up. At some point during the visit there were several Easter egg hunts and other games, including Cluedo, which I somehow managed to win. I also managed to beat Oliver at table tennis a couple of times, which may not happen again.

On Sunday Oliver came to church with us. I was leading and preaching, and he seemed to enjoy it. He even played piano at the end when we did All Will be Well, and he did it very well. Later we tried some other songs at home and recorded one on my phone. He’s very musical and quickly adjusts if I change the timing, which is more than some people do. We had roast chicken in the evening, which I cooked.

Earlier we had watched Rogue One and Fantastic Creatures and Where to Find them, both of which were well worth seeing. Slightly preferred the latter.

The weather during most of the weekend was not all that good; so we stayed in mostly. I drove David, Oliver and Amy home late on Monday afternoon. We encountered quite a few hold-ups, especially on the Elveden stretch, but after Newmarket everything was straightforward. After dropping them off I went back to buy petrol and then had some toast cheese while watching David and Oliver play computer football. All to bed by 21.45.

I was up first yesterday, and everyone was busy. David took the car to his local garage, where it later transpired that it was not the shock-absorber that was broken, but the piece of metal attaching it to the car. Ironically, this will be more expensive to replace, as it has to be a genuine Mazda part. After checking with the hospital at Warwick that Andrew was still there, I left about 10.30 and took it fairly easy, stopping at Watford Gap, where I explained to a guy handing out leaflets why smart motorways were so dangerous. He didn’t argue with me.

I drove on to Coventry (isn’t the M45 wonderful?) and parked at Memorial Park, where I rang Dot and then went for a short walk before proceeding to Warwick, arriving about an hour early for visiting hours. I parked in the cemetery and walked down by the canal, then drove to the hospital and decided to see if I could get in early.

It turned out that I could. The only person who seemed to take any responsibility for this was a large cleaner, and I wasn’t going to argue with her. Nurses were very thin on the ground and not really interested, beyond showing me to Andrew’s bedroom. Andrew himself was amazingly good – better than I have seen him for a very long time – and we had quite a conversation about various things, much of it based on a magazine I had bought him and a couple of books he had borrowed from the hospital’s stock.

I left about 3pm and drove back to Norwich, stopping at Cambridge Services and arriving at about 6.30pm. Fortunately the weather as a whole was good for driving. In the evening Dot and I were given a lift by Judy to Howard’s for a Julian evening, which was very enjoyable. Somehow I managed to stay awake, which was quite surprising in view of the white wine I drank. Sadly Anna was upstairs with a migraine.

This morning Dot had a fasting blood test, and this afternoon we may drive to Holt.

Hard to believe, but my mouth is still very uncomfortable, despite another visit to the dentist yesterday. He gave me a clean and scrape and said he thought it was all just part of the healing process, which was not really all that reassuring.  Still, it could be worse.

Other than that, very much a Coomes week. Last Thursday we drove down to see Kristine and David, and had apricot and treacle tarts.  Good journey down with Dot driving, but on the way back we left during rush hour and then ran into a hold-up on the M11 – probably a result of cars breaking down. This slowed us considerably,  but it eased after the M25, and the latter part of the journey wan’t too bad. We stopped for petrol at Morrison’s in Norwich.

The next day Jennie (Coomes wife number one) came up for the weekend and seemed much better since her kidney transplant. After lunch we walked along the river path and up to the Cathedral, where we looked at the Hostry exhibition and then walked through the Cathedral before making our way home. Later we had a meal at Prezzo’s, which was good.

It was a beautiful spring weekend; so on Saturday we drove up to North Norfolk, stopping off at Holt to take back a jumper that had developed holes in it. After that we drove down to Salthouse and then Cley, where we had a sandwich and a cup of tea, plus a short walk to the group of three hides. Saw a marsh harrier, some shovelers, lapwings and snipe, plus one or two other birds.

Drove on to Blakeney, where we had scones and tea at the Blakeney Hotel’s upstairs lounge. Then on to Morston, for a drive round the new parking facilities, and Stiffkey marshes, where we stopped for a while. It was close to high tide, but no sign of incoming water. Pretty much idyllic conditions.

Drove back overland through Langham, Bale, Gunthorpe and Melton Constable, then across country to Spixworth for the easiest entry into Norwich, which worked well.

On Palm Sunday we all went to church, taking both cars so that Dot could give Howard and Anna a lift to the station afterwards. Another lovely day. Howard spoke on Leviticus (part of a series of his), which was surprisingly interesting. After lunch we showed Jennie some pictures of the Outer Hebrides, and then she went home.

Yesterday (after the dentist and lunch) I dropped off Dot at the Greens’ for a rehearsal of their Good Friday music. .

Today David, Oliver and Amy arrived for a few days. So far we have had lunch and played table tennis, as well as watching some football. Amy has done some homework. I have also spoken on the phone to David Coomes’ second wife, Anne. Hat-trick.

The past few days have been dominated by health, yet again. Dot’s colonoscopy was on Tuesday at 5.30pm, but this affected the previous two days because of the restricted diet she was allowed. She also had to take the rather unpleasant drink that would empty her bowels. On Monday night this didn’t seem to have worked, which was quite worrying. In the end it turned out Dot had been sipping it instead of drinking it in glassfuls, and eventually it did work – only too well, as usual.

However, we didn’t get much sleep that night. This was also partly because I’d had my back tooth out, and my mouth was hurting much more than I thought it would – not where the tooth had been extracted, but just about everywhere else on that side. I’ve taken quite a lot of paracetamol / cocodamol, and it has quietened down, but I still feel very fuzzy, and the site of the extraction looks infected.

As a result I didn’t sleep very well last night. In an hour or so I am going up to the dentist to get it checked.* Meanwhile Dot had her colonoscopy, which was a bit of an ordeal, requiring two lots of sedation, but actually was very successful in that it was complete and revealed nothing untoward. I had a 2½-hour wait for her, which would have been fine if (a) I’d known it would have been that long and (b) I’d remembered to take a book. As it was I didn’t do much except think about my teeth.

Afterwards we went home and had a late meal, followed by a really good night’s sleep.

In the middle of all that I went to the monthly Archant coffee morning and explained that Dot really couldn’t come. Oh, no.

Yesterday we took some old clothes to the Break charity shop on Unthank Road and returned a boxful of recyclable material to Hello Fresh by leaving it at the Rosary Road shop to be picked up. Afterwards we went to Morrisons and bumped into a bronzed Carrie S and Matt collecting food for their food bank. Carrie has just returned from a painting holiday in Naples. My tooth was feeling dodgy but I decided against going up to the dentist’s – probably a mistake.

Last Sunday I preached and led the service, because Phil was taking his wife to see her mother. As Carrie and the Greens were away I also had to play guitar. At least Liz C was there to do the prayers. Afterwards the vicar popped in to do the annual DCC meeting. We had a quorum this time.

*Possible low-grade infection, possible normal healing process. I have antibiotics.

Not much to report this week: we have had some reasonable weather, but I haven’t ventured far afield. I did manage to get up to the Cathedral at one point, partly to see the rather spectacular Hostry tapestry exhibition based on Revelation, but mainly to take a tour of David Holgate’s letter-cutting – more than 20 examples in all, plus a couple by Philippa Fawcett, his apprentice.

I’ve been rather lacking in energy, to be honest, though I did strip the ivy off the front wall and tided up a bit in the garden. Dot has been very active in the garden generally, buying quite a few plants, plus a mirror and some paint. She is now painting the hall. Colin Wright popped in on Wednesday to look at her plans for a shed, and in the end we decided on a quite different position, by the garage wall.

I did go up to the garage with the MX5 on Thursday to ask about a watery swishing sound in the bodywork. It turned out that the drainage holes were blocked on one side, and the service guy unblocked them on the spot. Before that Dot and I had delivered a microwave meal (obtained from the church freezer) to Phyllis and bought some rolls and ham for her. As we were leaving her house, Liz Day arrived to see if she was OK. Sophie has also been supplying meals for her, but the people who usually keep an eye on Phyllis are both on holiday.

While I was at the garage Dot was having lunch with Carrie B. By the time she got home I was having a cup of tea in the garden with Paul and Maryta, who had called in while buying tickets from the station. Not often I offer people tea in the garden.

Annette dropped in on Tuesday, just before Dot arrived back from her walk with Anne. We had egg, bacon and chips again and talked about the South African branch of her family, which is very, very complicated.

While not expending much physical energy this week, I have got some things done: 90 per cent of the work on our Good Friday event, for instance. Also a sermon for tomorrow, when  I also have to lead the service, as Phil is taking his wife to see her mother. I also have to  play the guitar, as all our stand-in musicians are away.

I have just read the final book in the Peter May Hebrides trilogy – this one on the Kindle. Very good. Interesting story in the Telegraph this morning about a polar bear found on North Uist. I was almost convinced until they revealed that its nickname was Lirpa Loof, which meant fluffy in Norwegian. When on the Acton Gazette, I came close to running a story about a Polish guy called Loof Lirpa, but the editor decided it might offend Poles.

Earlier in the week I decided not to call a meeting of the Paston trustees, in case one or more of them resigned. Not entirely sure what’s going on.

Today and yesterday we have been visited by a tiny goldcrest, who flutters up and down against the front door for no apparent reason. She (I think it’s a she) seems very excited. She may know something I don’t.