Going back a week, I completed Thursday the 18th by making one of my sporadic attendances at Jurnet’s poetry evening. Colin Payne and Hilary were both there, but attendance generally was a bit low. I read my poem about Adam Cohen and a new one called Earlham Hall. The theme of the evening was “Fathers”. We finished at 9.30pm, which was good.

The week was somewhat dominated by the CNS fifth form 1961 annual reunion, which on this occasion was in the form of Desert Island Discs. I wasn’t involved in that until Tony Friedlander managed to fracture his hip playing tennis, which meant I was asked to take over from him as one of the interviewers. Since I can’t resist putting myself in the forefront, I agreed.

I was interviewing someone I didn’t know – or to put it another way had gone through five years at CNS without consciously meeting. He had been in 5X and his name was Mike Smith. Adrian – now attaining the elusive title of slowest and worst driver I have ever been driven by – took me to Upton, where Mike lives and where he has the largest share in a community interest company, in this case a pub.

I wasn’t sure how we’d get on, and I think he was a bit worried too. But in fact we got on very well, though he’s quite different from me – a rough-round-the-edges businessman who started at the bottom and did extremely well. We had lunch at the pub and talked through Tony’s notes, correcting them where necessary.

His first wife had died a few years ago, and he had married her closest friend, Anna, who was really nice. I introduced her to Dot at the event itself, which was on Friday, and we all got on very well. We had lunch at the Louis Marchesi first – OK, but not great – and then proceeded to St Martin at Palace Plain, where Desert Island Discs took place, complete with comfy chairs. I did OK, I think, despite Adrian having some sound problems to start off with (we were on first), and Mike was quite happy. He had some good stories; so it wasn’t difficult.

The other two interviewees were Les Pye (policeman) and Roger Cawdron, owner of several pubs in Norwich, including the Ribs of Beef. I didn’t interview them, and it all went remarkably well. We were able to give Fred and Sue directions out of Norwich afterwards!

On Thursday we had a bit of a shock when the MX5 failed its MOT test and we were told we would be paying well over £1000 too get it through. We thought for a bit about becoming a one-car family, but after talking to the mechanic and service guy at the Mazda garage we decided to grit our teeth and carry on, at least for six months. The car is now in the garage awaiting repair.

The weekend was quite warm and mainly dry. On Saturday Dot and I went for a walk towards the end of the day and had a drink at Wetherspoons by the river. Very pleasant. On Sunday we went further afield after the service – where I just got back in time to pray after getting the car to rescue Phyllis from beside the road. Ray had gone to walk with her, but she found it too much. We took her home, and when Dot and I visited her after the service, she was much better.

After lunch we drove to Winterton, where it was still warm but with a bit of an onshore breeze. We walked a fair distance and then had a cup of tea outside the cafe just before it closed. The beach at Winterton has changed again, and is extremely attractive. We saw a couple of seals, plus a family of idiots climbing up the cliff below a hut on the brink. Sadly, it didn’t fall on them. Obviously I don’t mean that. Much.

Yesterday Dot was out DSSO-ing in the Stalham area while I took a bus to the UEA for a Paston database practice session with some volunteer students from UEA and Gary and Jenny from the NRO. This was led by Peter with assistance from his web expert, David Viner. He was not helped by Karen disappearing to get some books and not coming back (we later found she was in hospital again), Rebecca just not coming, and Matt not coming because his stepfather had gone into hospital at Lynn.

Karen was supposed to be supplying a log-in to the UEA system; so Peter spent some time trying to get one from the office. Fortunately the students had their own log-ins. The whole operation was pretty complex, and at the end Gary suggested making it much simpler, which I had to agree with. Still, the students (postgrad I think) seemed to cope.

In the evening we drove to Trinity for a really good talk by Stephanie Bryant of the Faraday Institute. She spoke about science and faith as seen by young people, and how they went into schools and addressed the relevant issues – sounded very much like Philosophy, as Dot pointed out. We had a chat with her. She became a Christian after reading Roger Dawkins’ books, where she was fascinated by the science but completely unconvinced by the logic. She seemed exactly the right person to talk to kids.

It rained hard overnight (we’ve had quite a bit of heavy rain recently), but it’s now dry, and we shall be heading to Caddington later and staying the night – probably our last visit to the house, and certainly the last time we’ll see David and Oliver before they leave for Canada at the weekend.

Back to square one last Thursday (appropriately enough, the day of the week I was born on) when I was given a lift by Rob to Earlham Hall, my birthplace. Now part of the UEA, it was the venue for another Paston meeting, this time about the big exhibitions planned for the autumn of 2020. Happily I was not taking the minutes.

Matt was on cloud nine, having discovered (as he thought) a previously unknown Paston, and possibly three or four. This proved to be not entirely true, but it got quite a big spread in the EDP, and was in the Telegraph too. The meeting was not totally compelling, but I got a lift home.

Much better was a talk by Brendan Pelphrey, the American Greek Orthodox monk, in the evening at the Julian Church, following refreshments at the centre. Dot and I had a chat with Elspeth, our former keyboard player, and some other people, and the talk was largely excellent. Debbie came in late, was the first person to respond to requests for questions, and then left early. We felt this was so typically Debbie that some record should be made of it.

The next day we had an early haircut, which is always a bit unnerving, and in the afternoon I had a massage by Verena, of which the same might be said. Meanwhile Joy has decided not to go ahead with her book, but Howard was happy with what I did on the Julian leaflet. I shall get paid for both, which is quite unusual.

On Saturday Dot and I went to Worstead for the weavers’ annual festival, at which the Paston Society had a stall. Going to Worstead proved to be a mistake because the Worstead festival turned out to be at Dilham. Of course. Why wouldn’t it be? I rang Rob and was redirected. Had quite a good time there: Teresa turned up and we had a scone and cake. Dot bought various small items, and it hardly rained at all.

In the evening we walked up to the Cathedral for a performance of Haydn’s Creation, in which Paul was singing. The performance of both choir and orchestra was brilliant, but I was not impressed by the libretto, which was in appallingly bad English, and not Victorian English, as David Archer maintained (he was there with Bridget). I found it distracting, to say the least. Actually it made me quite angry.

Still, we chatted with Paul, David and Bridget, as well as the male Snells, who were sitting in the side aisle. It rained on the way home, but Dot had an umbrella.

On Sunday I preached on the Trinity. I was a little bit uncertain, but the Rev Liz Cannon, who was leading, said it was one of the best sermons on the Trinity she’d heard. Maybe she hasn’t heard many. It was Father’s Day, and later we had a chat with David on FaceTime.

Yesterday I walked to Dragon Hall for a talk by Adrian O’Dell on the history of Norfolk heritage as it’s related to Dragon Hall. There was a bit too much of the former, but it was all quite interesting. Dot was doing a REQM assessment in Lowestoft, and we just missed each other, but fortunately I was home in time for the Hello Fresh man.

Oliver has finished his GCSEs. He seems quite happy about them.

The weather has turned very soggy indeed over the last week, and overcast too. This has however enabled me to finish current work on the Paston Database, initial work on Joy’s book and editing of the Julian Centre leaflet (requested by Howard). Amazingly there was only one day (yesterday) this month so far when I failed to complete 5000 steps, and that was because it was too wet last night to walk up to the Cote in Exchange Street for a meal, and we had to get a taxi.

The meal was a late celebration of Anne’s birthday and was very pleasant. I had steak frites and everyone else had fish. We walked home, but it wasn’t enough.

On Monday I walked to the dentist in the rain to discuss whether he really needed to do a deep cleaning procedure. We talked for about 15 minutes, but eventually I gave in. He did it this morning (more rain on the way home), and it was only mildly painful, but it’s the after-effects I’m concerned about. To stop thinking about it (partly) we went to the cinema and saw The Aftermath, which was pretty good in that it made me think about what it must have been like in Germany immediately after the war.

After my first visit to the dentist Dot and I took the Paston display boards over to Lucy’s, where we had tea with her and Naomi. She is still complaining about how UEA hijacked the Paston project, without realising how her resigning from it at the outset didn’t help in that area. Quite frustrating to talk to her.

In the middle of the sogginess we had a dry spell late on Saturday – enough for a longish local walk –and a really nice day on Sunday, when we drove out to How Hill in the afternoon and walked down to the river, where there was the unexpected bonus of a wherry on display and open to boarding. So we did that and had quite long chat with the volunteers, who were not local enough to have heard of Timothy Coleman, whose family owned the boat – the Hathor, which was Egyptian-themed. They did know a lot of other stuff, though. Beautiful vessel.

We also looked round the eel-catcher’s hut, had an ice cream and went for a walk, though not in that order. Really lovely afternoon.

Bit cooler, with some rain last night. But plenty of sun today, and I played a pleasant game of pitch and putt over lunchtime. I was pretty awful, of course, and won only one hole (halved two), but it was good for my steps. Since then I helped Dot pick up an olive tree from Morrisons, because our garden is not full enough. While eating choc ices outside we fed a blackbird that became extremely adjacent.

While I was out Joe Logan called and tuned the piano for a mere £92 and advised selling David’s for around £250 in the Harpenden area.

Have been doing quite a bit of walking . I can’t remember why. When yesterday threatened to be a very poor day, I got a lift with Dot up to Chapelfield, where she picked up her conductor for orchestra practice. I then walked home by a somewhat circuitous route, despite rain clouds threatening, and got my steps up in time.

The previous day was easier. It started with a coffee morning up at Prospect House, with the usual suspects in attendance. I then walked to the dentist, who gave me a good clean and suggested some deeper cleaning which I am now having second thoughts about. Later we drove up to Eleanor’s at the Great Hospital, had tea with her and then took her to Cake and Compline at Claire’s.

Eleanor’s house is beautiful, with a great close-up view of the cathedral and a lovely feel to it. Would love to live there.

The previous day was PCC. I am no longer on the PCC, but Dot went. She got back very late after giving Elwira a lift home, and I had fallen asleep while reading a Shardlake book – the first, Dissolution. Yesterday the church treasurer resigned. I am not going even slightly near that.

Last weekend was not the busiest. I led the service on Sunday, which was quite enjoyable, and Saturday was really warm for the Big Lunch up on the Old Library Wood. We didn’t go, but had a look as we went for a carefully timed walk intended to get us back in good time to hand over Des’s keys to his son-in-law. This would have worked well, but said son-in-law rang while we were near the Cloisters to say he had arrived – over half an hour early. Ho, hum.

In the evening we watched the European Cup Final, which the literal-minded referee ruined by awarding an unjustified penalty to Liverpool in the 2nd minute. It was all downhill from there – neither side showed much flair, and Liverpool eventually won 2-0. Pity.

Meanwhile I am editing a poetry book for Joy McCall. The deadline is before she dies. Not sure how to take that.