Pretty much a blank week. Dot has been ill since Monday, mainly in bed, and is only now beginning to recover, though she still has quite a bad cough. I still have a cough too, but we are now both managing to sleep through the night. More or less. Today is bright sunshine, but cold. We didn’t make it to church, and – as a measure of how bad things are – Dot didn’t get to Carrow Road yesterday either.

I have managed to get in just about enough walking to get my steps up to 5000 on each of  the last three days, but the wind has been bitter, and the forecast is that this week will be worse. I will put the table tennis away today and put Dot’s car in the garage after taking it for a run first.

Our neighbours Des and Chris have just left for two weeks’ holiday in sunnier climes, mainly Singapore and New Zealand. We have their key; so may set up a hotel. Their neighbours, Luke and Michelle, are moving in April.

Not exactly full of the joys of spring, partly because it’s been another grey and wet day and partly because I’m still under the weather and Dot is in bed with a sore throat. I spent Sunday in bed feeling pretty awful. By yesterday Dot was clearly sickening for something and I wasn’t feeling well, though I was considerably better than Sunday. Today I don’t seem to be making much progress, feeling very tired and heady, which is annoying.

On the plus side, we both missed the PCC meeting last night. I missed the service I was supposed to lead on Sunday too; Dot has been making many rearrangements with diocesan stuff.

I started getting a cough a week ago and wasn’t feeling too brilliant while David, Oliver and Amy were here. Still, I was well enough to carry on, though I decided not to go to the cinema with them because of the cough problem. It was great to see them, which probably enabled me to carry on when I might not otherwise have done so. I do hope none of them caught it.

I did manage to get up to the chemist to pick up my pills on Friday, but that’s not much of an achievement, and my proud steps record has completely fallen apart, of course. What a misery I am. Things are bound to get better.

Cold weather continues. Feeling rather fragile myself, with a nagging cough worsening over the last couple of days, but Dot continues in fine form.

Last Thursday I felt perfectly OK when we visited Rosie at Meadow Farm, and she seemed well, too, apart from her back. Happened to arrive while Billy Wright was there: didn’t recognise him, of course – it must be 40 years since I’ve seen him. He delivered our few items of furniture to Yelverton when we moved in.

Had a pleasant time with Rosie, including a stroll round the garden and a view of her new garage! On the way back went cross-country to Wroxham Barns, where we had a snack.

Anne and Dot went for a walk the next day in cold and wet weather. I also went out for a walk during a bright period, but it was raining by the time I got back. Probably not a wise move, but I try to keep my steps up…

On Saturday Dot was helping at a Centering Prayer event at St Luke’s run by Debbie, which seemed to go pretty well. Dot was back in time to listen to the football from Derby, where Norwich City drew 1-1 and probably should have won.

The next day we had a rather unusual event at church – the baptism of a child whose mother was Polish (probably Roman Catholic) and father a Sunni Moslem from Iraq. I’m not sure how that really works: the father was certainly not responding to the promises, which is hardly surprising. Liz did Godly Play (Baptism) very well, and much of the service (including GP) was translated by Elwira, our Polish church member who also read a couple of things. The service was really too long, and the family left quickly afterwards, which was a pity.

In the afternoon we went to the Hendersons’ for tea and cake. Very good cake too.

Monday dawned sunny and marginally less cold; so I decided to cut down the rose in the back garden. This proved quite hard work, but I eventually completed it in the afternoon, when it had grown noticeably colder. I just managed to get it all into the brown bin, which was emptied yesterday.

Yesterday we had our hair cut in the morning and then decided to go out North Walsham way. Dot rang her aunt, but there was no reply (she was out), and so we rang Lucy, from whom we had to pick up some china before her move to Norwich later this month. We were also going to get Roger’s picture framed (extremely belatedly) as we had been recommended a framer at North Walsham, but Lucy suggested a guy in Mundesley, who does all her framing.

So in the end we stopped briefly at North Walsham to pay in a cheque and buy some flowers for Lucy, then drove on to the Mundesley Gallery, where we arranged the framing (£32, six weeks), and then called on Lucy, where we spent a pleasant 90 minutes or so. I caught up on what was happening with the new project manager for Footprints and got the impression that he was very efficient and would organise everything, which is OK with me. Probably our last visit to Lucy’s house at Mundesley, because she is scheduled to move on Feb 28.

I had a lie-in this morning. Dot went into the city to get something from Boots, as well as dropping a form in at her accountant’s.

Returned yesterday from Buxton in Derbyshire, where we spent a long weekend, mainly with David and Julia, but partly on our own.

As we were making our way there on Friday we received a message to say that Julia had a sickness bug and wouldn’t be able to make it that day. We arrived at around 4pm after being diverted by the satnav via Ashbourne, and went out for a walk almost immediately. It was cold, but there was hardly any snow. Walked into the town and almost bought a jacket, then returned to the hotel for a cup of tea. Had dinner at 7pm and a relaxing evening.

The next day we heard that Julia had recovered, and they would be arrive at around 1pm. We seized the opportunity for a drive through the Goyt Valley, which was quite exhilarating, as some snow had fallen overnight and there was quite a lot on the road. Dot took a video as we drove through and out on to the Cat and Fiddle road. We then drove up to Grin Low, where we parked and walked up on to the area near Solomon’s Temple, which had quite deep snow. The weather was dry, and we had a nice walk. Dropped my phone in the snow and thought I had damaged it because it went off, but in fact it had used up all its data – something I was able to correct later at the hotel.

While we had a break in the hotel, we noticed what we thought was Dave’s car in the car park, though we had said we would meet in the town. Didn’t think they would have been able to book in that early, but in fact they had. So when we walked down to the Pavilion, they were not far in front of us. Had a snack there, and then walked through the gardens and into the town, where I actually did buy a jacket, though not the one I’d seen before. This one was a rather nice weird fish jacket in sort of Barbour style. Lots of pockets; fitted very well; very warm. Afterwards we split up and Dot and I went to the Arches, a kind of artisan market which was pretty impressive. Dot bought a cheap poncho and earrings, and we spoke to a sculptress and an Australian. Julia and Dave couldn’t find it. Rather drizzly and cold as we returned to the hotel.

Sunday, however, was dry and clear. We drove to Baslow, where we spent some more time on our own, though unintentionally. After a cup of tea in a cafe we walked up a steep road/path to Baslow Bar, where Dave was convinced we should take the narrow path by a wall. I preferred a more obvious path going along the top. Technically he was right. Dot and I took the upper path intending to cross over and return to the other path if it turned out to be the right one. But by the time we reached the Wellington Memorial that I thought they were aiming at (they weren’t), there wasn’t any real way down to them.

Dot phoned Julia and discovered that their path was horrendously muddy. We agreed to continue to the road we could see in the distance, and would meet them there. This was an unsound plan that turned out accidentally rather well. We enjoyed the walk along the top, saw some Highland cattle and some deer, but also encountered plenty of mud. I became a little worried because I could see that the point where we would meet the road was unlikely to be anywhere near the point where they would meet it, if in fact it was the same road.

As a result we cut across and down, where we encountered a river and two pieces of good fortune. The first was a bridge, and the second we didn’t recognise until we reached the wall by the road. I looked over the top and found – yes! – a pavement. So after surmounting the wall we headed downwards, all the time searching the wooded hillside to see if we could catch sight of the others. No sign for about a mile or more, and then we saw two weary figures making their way down a path approaching the road. We reached the joining point at about the same time – something of a miracle. They had much worse conditions, but we must have walked at least a mile and a half further.

It was still necessary to restrain Dave slightly. As we approached a roundabout just outside Baslow, Dave said we should turn left, and we crossed the road. I didn’t like to argue but couldn’t see how this could possibly be right. (No, it was left – Ed)  However as we started heading off up a hill with no habitation ini sight, I felt I had to speak. Baslow was indeed to the right, and only a couple of hundred yards away.

After de-booting we drove to the Chatsworth farm shop nearby and had a scone, then walked round the shop for a bit before driving back to the hotel.

Monday morning was again cold but quite pleasant, and we left about 10.40pm. Dot and I followed the satnav to Coventry, which proved a good move, because it took us through Ashbourne (again) to the A38, a good road which eventually delivered us on to the M6 toll and eventually Corley Services. From there by a peculiar route into Coventry, where we spent about 90 minutes with a quite cheerful Andrew, managing to get a DVD to work on his machine after dejamming it.

From there we drove home, stopping at Cambridge Services for some kind of baguette heated up, then got back to Norwich just after 6pm. Watched the first programme in the new series of Endeavour. Unpacked. Went to bed.