At the end of Thursday Dot went to handbell ringing at the Greens (I drove her), and I did a bit more on my sermon, but nowhere near enough. Felt very tired. Cleared stuff out of utility room into garage. Dry in the evening. 

Friday was mild and dry: foggy to start with. Spoke to Amy on FT and checked arrangements for next day.  Dot did a lot more sorting out, and I finished my sermon. After lunch Dot went to the shops. I put my Canadian poems into final form, and we packed Amy’s presents. Evetts rang around 4pm, and we had a long chat about various things, including Seckford Hall and Vicky’s health. Out in the street at 5.30pm, with Des, Chris, Mark, Ciara, Sean, Mary and Matthew. Waved goodbye to Phoebe as she went out on the town for her 17th birthday. Felt a bit under the weather (probably too much to drink + fish and chips) and laid on bed for a bit, but got up to watch Professor T, then went to bed early. 

Saturday was a very busy day. Fairly mild and dry.  Amy arrived with Vicky and Matt (and David’s table and chairs) at 10.30, and we had a cup of coffee before V&M departed for Reepham to see Kerry. We had lunch with Amy before taking the bus up to UEA for the open day there. Easy journey. She checked in, and we had a look at the library before walking down to the Sainsbury Centre, where she was going to a talk on art history, which she wants to combine with archaeology and anthropology. Very interesting talk by a couple of lecturers, but Dot started coughing and had to go out towards the end. Amy stayed for tour of the Art History area while I found Dot and we went to have a drink. But Amy’s tour ended pretty quickly, and she came up and joined us at the cafe.

Walked back up and caught the bus halfway up. Incredibly slow journey into town. Got off at Orford Place and walked home via The Walk, White Lion Street, the Arcade, Back of the Inns, London Street and The Close. Looked at Canada pix till V&M arrived at 5.30 to take her home. Earlier we had given Amy her presents – some earrings and a picture by Kasia Coleman that she had wanted us to leave her when we died! She seemed very pleased.

In the evening I took Dot up to St Mary Magdalene for a concert. Wasn’t sure whether to go myself, but I was glad I did. They had some singers and did some good dramatic stuff, particularly Gilbert and Sullivan. Dot was worried about her lack of practice, but it all sounded good to me. Beverley Aspinall was playing again. I spoke to Neville, Mary, Vicki and one or two other people. Capacity audience. Earlier Norwich City were 2-0 up against Sheffield United away but managed to draw 2-2. Pukki missed a penalty. On the plus side, Liverpool lost to Nottingham Forest. 

Very wet Sunday. Thunderstorms in afternoon. Had to park car in St Matthew’s Road overnight because the bottom of our road was inaccessible from 9 to 11 because of road runners. Wonderful! At church played guitar and gave sermon on humility (a strong point of mine), which was quite well received, though I’d been a bit worried about it. Afterwards spoke to Nikki, and to the Rev Hilary Wakeman, who comes occasionally and who asked for a copy of the sermon. So either she liked it or I’m in trouble with the Bishop. Fairly quiet day after that: I caught up with my e-mails, and later we watched a couple of episodes of scandi noir Wisting, which was very good. 

Monday – was dry and quite pleasant. Went to church in the morning – dropped off by Dot, who then called in on Phyllis. Had a Bible study with Leanne and Alison. Went pretty well: Leanne brought little Evelyn, but she was pretty well behaved. Dot came later. Annette came to see us at 2pm, and we spent a long time talking and showing her the Canada pix. Caught up on (rather sad) news about Lisa, Caroline etc. Annette stayed till after 5.30pm, when I made the meal. David FTd and we heard about his time with Chrissy in Kingston. Sounds pretty good.  Quiet evening; bed fairly early.

Tuesday was a bit cooler than I expected when I was deciding what to wear to travel to Coventry to see Andrew. Not too bad, though. Caught train at 10am after taking a Covid test! Train fairly full because it was half term – a fact I had overlooked – but not too bad. Got to Liverpool St on time and got tube to Euston Square, walking the rest. Caught train immediately and was in Coventry before 1.30pm. Got sandwiches from M&S and ate them before walking over to Andrew’s via an impressive new Coventry Station building.

Spent about 90 minutes with Andrew – he was bit all over the place and stooping, but not in pain. Spoke to girl with green hair, who was quite impressive: she managed to sort out his DVD player and said she would take him to buy a new razor. Was not asked for Covid test result or required to wear a mask. Got a train to Euston at about 4.15pm (delayed) and found a non-optimal seat near a woman with a cold. Easy transfer via Euston Square again, and just in time to get the 5.50pm to Norwich. Pretty full, of course. Dot met me at the station, and had a meal of smoked salmon on toast before listening to Burnley v Norwich, which  ended 1-0. While I was away Dot reorganised my bathroom, removing the bookcase and putting it in her room. Looks quite good.

Two big events this week: the Prime Minister resigned and our guest bedroom has been redecorated. Not sure which is more chaotic. Strangely the redecoration of one room seems to affect the whole house. Similarly the resignation…all right, you get the idea. Actually there were three big events: today Amy is 18!! Rather puts the other events in the shade, now I think about it.

So, back to last Saturday, which marked three days out of four without a bath! Quite clean, though. David FTd us following Norwich City’s 2-1 loss to Watford, which we watched on NOW TV, after I had spent about half an hour setting it up. Went through long process and was then told I needed the app! Aargh. It’s as if they don’t want you to use it. Still, was just in time for kick-off. Watched it on my iPad.

Earlier went to see Paul and Holly, who was up for her mum’s birthday. Maryta still pretty bad, scarcely saying a word to her daughter. Paul looked very tired. Even the dog is in a bad way, its legs very weak. Renewed our membership of Scottish National Trust – £87.  Dot spent a long time preparing the guest room for Barry to paint it, and I helped in a small way, as well as keeping the kitchen tidy and improving my study. Rang appliance repair guy twice but had no reply. Still, managed to cook a pizza in the upper oven. Took some old clothes up to St Luke’s to assist those in need, and had a chat with John Easton. 

Sunday was fairly mild; dry till evening. Felt quite under the weather in the morning: not sure why. Better later. Drove to church and led service. Carrie came late because she had been Ill and Al was also in a bad way. Afterwards Dot went with Anna and Sophie and Graham to see Phyllis, who is very frail. I took Ray and Chris home and waited for Dot in Thomas Tawell car park. Went for walk with Dot after lunch – brief encounters with Sarah and then Bob and Mary. Started watching Wisting – a new Norwegian noir. Also saw an hour of Nicola Benedetti playing various pieces – stunning talent and a really nice person too. Went to bed early to read. 

Monday was drizzly to start with, but later quite warm and sunny. Dot got up early to greet Barry, who arrived at 8 to paint the guest bedroom. He’s done quite a lot. Later Andrew Brierton rang and then came to fix the cooker, but we couldn’t reproduce the fault. He did however show us how to fix the filter on the hood and the easy way to replace the bulbs. We are now testing the cooker on and off to see if it’s OK. It is so far.  

I went up to church and we were able to have a Bible study, with Leanne, Alison and Stacey. Lots of other people around too, including Darsha. After Barry had gone Dot and I went to Homebase to buy cooker bulbs and to Dunelm to get curtain rod, then to Morrisons to buy food. Later did dome reading; also watched MOTD2 and two of the Four Quartets performed by Ralph Fiennes; followed by a film, The Running Man, which had some good points – specifically Lee Remick – but was weak in script and photography, though fairly entertaining.

On Tuesday I spent too much time trying to make my Facebook account work properly on my Desktop. Gave up in the end. It’s fine on my iPad and phone. Quite a pleasant day weather-wise. Barry is still painting. I gave Stacey (church) a lift to Hughes on Hall Road to buy a fridge-freezer. In the end she paid about £320 for one she hadn’t seen because it was in the carton. Hmm. Dropped her off at Steve’s, who had taken an autism test and done “badly”.  Not sure what that means.

Caught up on stuff again, then went to see Norwich City lose 0-1  to Luton. This was definitely “badly”. City had a man sent off and didn’t seem to have any energy or much idea what they were doing. Luton weren’t particularly good either, but they scored. We should have scored twice. Took Des because Jonathan was at the theatre. Watching Ralph Fiennes recite (by heart) the third of Four Quartets. Interesting. 

Wednesday was quite pleasant, dry and mild. Barry with us from 8am again. Spent some time helping him to get the curtain pole on straight. He also painted the downstairs loo. Total for three days: £350. Dot got the guest bedroom looking really nice, and I spent ages putting the books back in the bookcase, but in some sort of order. Quite pleased with the result.

Started writing sermon, but didn’t get far. Bridget came and did some cleaning. Still lots of stuff all over the house, waiting to be put away. Dot went to orchestra with Janet in the evening, and it went very well. I took some more clothes to St Luke’s and tried to give them some books, but they weren’t interested. Afterwards walked over to station and got some cash out – mainly to get my steps up. Read some of Imagine Heaven, and when Dot got home we watched the penultimate episode of Doc Martin. Sadly Spurs lost 2-0 to Man Utd.

Today it rained most of the day, often quite hard, but it wasn’t too cold. Dot went to buy boxes to pack up redundant stuff. Helped clear up in morning, but by lunchtime was exhausted, partly because I had a bad night last night. And of course there’s a lot of dust about, largely as a result of the Prime Minister resigning…

Finished Monday by watching another episode of Karen Pirie on ITV hub, which is a bit of a trial because of the numerous and long adverts. Persevering because it’s pretty good and the last episode is recorded on “proper” TV. Earlier had a long talk with a BT guy about a new HomeCare contract, but sorted it out in the end. He arranged for  an engineer to look at the radiator in my room tomorrow. Miraculously, after I spoke to him, the radiator started working.

Tuesday, October 11 –  Again didn’t sleep too well. Up in time for arrival of Anne , who is having lots of problems with Philip (though he was well enough for them to go to Blakeney on Friday). We showed her all Dot’s Canada pictures on TV, and Dot gave her a couple of small presents. Still feeling very tired. Quite a big shop at Morrisons and filled up with petrol. Took Eleanor to Judy’s for Cake and Compline. Dot told everyone about Canada and the book she’d read – Imagine Heaven. Watched University Challenge earlier and a new comedy called Stuck, by Dylan Moran, which is pretty good. As I was cooking supper the downstairs power went off, and it took some time to persuade it to come on again. Problem is with the cooker, but not sure what, why or where.

 Wednesday was quite chilly but not too bad for walking. Bit of rain around teatime. Interesting day. Gas man came around 8.30 and fixed our radiator – problem was the pin in the switch, as I suspected. He also checked the boiler and turned it down “to save money”. He left just after 9am, and Dot woke up at 9.30am, not knowing he’d been! At first she refused to believe it, but I convinced her.

We went into the city about 11.30am to see Charlotte’s exhibition at St Peter Mancroft, and bought four cards. Then went to Jarrolds to buy a card for Amy, but there was nothing that was any good. Ended up in The Bay seafood bar and shared a plate of salmon – very impressive. Then Dot went on to church to help with the Taize event, and I went home, intending to pick her up at 2.30pm. Sadly I discovered she had the car key with her; so I walked to meet her in The Close. Both of us have done a lot of steps today! Dot went to orchestra in the evening, picked up by Janet. I caught up with e-mails and finished editing pictures. Watched Doc Martin – good stuff.

Thursday – Dry after overnight rain. Bit chilly. Got up early. Darsha, a Sri Lankan woman in need of a place to rest during the day, arrived with Carrie about 9.40 and stayed till about 2.30 – we gave her lunch. We had a chat, then she watched TV while Dot went shopping for her music room project and I caught up again, creating a shared album of edited pix, among other things. In afternoon Bridget came and did some cleaning: I had a chat with Des and Jonathan about inept bush-cutting by council.  Watched Ridley and another episode of Karen Pirie. Both pretty good. 

Friday – Fairly mild, but damp. Darsha with us again, but I managed to get a bath in first. Went to dentist’s with Dot, both had check-up, but I need a filling next month. Tried again to get birthday card for Amy and eventually succeeded. Also a bit of food from M&S and some fruit from the market. Called in at St Peter Mancroft, on the off chance that Charlotte might have been packing up, but she wasn’t there. Instead bumped into Sophie (formerly of The Lathes), whose very athletic children are having trouble with injuries.

Very tired in the afternoon after assisting Dot with wrapping curtains for Darsa and moving a bit of furniture. Went to sleep on the bed, and Dot went out without my noticing. Usual 5.30 drink with Des, Chris, Mark and Ciara, but D&C left early for an engagement at Reepham. Dot went to buy fish and chips at 7. We watched final episodes of Ridley and Karen Pirie. Very impressed with latter.

The Canadian saga comes to an end:

Thursday, October 6 – Went to bed at 8.30pm after both falling asleep during Shetland. An. exhausting day, which started as Wednesday. After a nice meal supplied by Barbara, David and Chrissy drove us to the airport, parking expertly very close to Terminal 3 and taking us in, directing us to the baggage drop and then security , where there was a huge queue. Got through eventually – D&C waved goodbye after about 20 minutes.

We went and sat in the Gate area (39) after buying a banana each. Eventually boarded and thought we might have an empty seat next to us again, but eventually a youngish woman who might have been a Russian spy came and sat in it. She was very quiet except for one trip to the toilet. Rubbish meal and pretty uncomfortable flight, but did get a small bottle of wine. Watched Cry Macho, starring Clint Eastwood, which was pretty good, but I went to sleep halfway through. Not for long, though. Watched second half towards end of flight.

Easy at Gatwick; caught Purple Parking bus (lively driver) and reached car easily. Now 11am Thursday, and sunny. Drove home – long queue on M25 because of failed traffic lights on A12, apparently – and stopped at M11 services. Sandwiches at Starbucks in fairly leisurely fashion. Carried on driving because I felt Ok despite streaming nose, which was very irritating and still hasn’t stopped. Dot took over at War Memorial. Unpacked my case, and we both made some essential payments and did some sorting out.

Friday – overcast with rain in the evening. Woke at 9.15, just in time for Linda coming to do our hair at 10. Had bath afterwards. Harriet came round in afternoon and at 5.30 we went out for the usual drink, despite promised rain, which arrived shortly afterwards. Quite chilly. We retreated to underneath shelter of roof. Mark , Sarah, Ciara, Matthew and John, plus Des and Chris. Quite political. Home for omelette and baked beans before making another attempt to watch last episode of Shetland. This time successful. Earlier FTd Amy because I thought her birthday was the 10th for some reason, and started panicking about presents. She put us right, and we discovered she is coming up to UEA for visit on the 22nd! She may be going there, because she likes the course! 

Saturday – Bit chillier: four layers at football, which Norwich lost 3-2 against Preston, rather unluckily. Gradually catching up with stuff. Phil let me know about his operation, which was successful but painful. Wrote prayers for tomorrow and practised some music. Not particularly good. Watched a couple of episodes of Doc Martin. David FTd – he’d seen most of the match. I recognised his house. Very tired at end of evening.

Sunday – not a good night. Legs still itchy. Woke Dot up in time to get to church, where I did the prayers. Liz had “vision” towards end of Chris in golden robes – not like Liz at all. Strangely Dot and I had just sung in Communion “I will fill this house with glory”, one of my short songs. Meeting of DCC afterwards to discuss building hire rates: managed to miss most of it by saying hello to Ed, who dropped in, then taking Ray and Chris home. After meeting practised music for ceilidh. Phil worried about his hands. After lunch FTd Amy, who is coming up to UEA in a couple of weeks and wants us to look round the campus with her, because her mum is not well. We said we’d pick her up on the Friday if necessary. Watched all available episodes of Doc Martin and caught up with Norwich football on TV. Bed fairly early.

Monday – Still feeling very tired. Rain overnight, but sunny later. Chilly wind. Dot dropped me at church, then drove home and eventually took a taxi up to the hospital because the buses were abysmal and therefore too risky. She had an annual eye test; so couldn’t drive. Session at church was OK, but no Bible study. Had long talk with Carrie afterwards about function of hall – agreed with her that it shouldn’t be run as a business. Walked home (small part of way with Robert), and got there before Dot because bus was very slow. After lunch caught up with football on TV, and then both of us were immersed in catching up with other stuff.

After supper on Friday (chicken wings) we watched The Martian, which was excellent. 

Saturday, October 1 – Very pleasant weather most of the day, despite a chilly start. Drove to Creemore, about an hour north-east, where they were holding a two-day arts festival. Had sugar-heavy breakfast at the bakery (cherry Danish for me), before visiting the old station, where a couple of guys – guitar and bass – were singing Last Thing on my Mind,  then various studio exhibitions. A few of them were excellent (eg Susan Auld, Martha Bull and a friend of Roger’s called Sarah); others were very average.

Visited a few shops too, and I chatted to a number of people. One guy liked Dot’s perfume or maybe just her. We took more sugar-heavy stuff home to eat with a cup of tea, and Dot bought one or two items. David is apparently not too bad, but his team lost to Arsenal, whereas ours beat Blackpool 1-0 away. Roger spent some time on his machine, cutting the lawn. Many messages saying last night’s NIE reunion went really well. Did a bit of reading and fell asleep. Lovely steak for supper – afterwards watched pilot of Lewis: excellent. 

Sunday October 2 was quite cool to start with, but became warmer, especially in the sun. Had big breakfast at about 11am (pancakes, bacon, sausages and fruit) then half an hour later did a three-mile walk in the Albion Hills, genuinely just down the road, off Old Church Road. Nice autumn colours and a few turtles. Later read and slept a bit. David and Chrissy arrived just before 6pm, and we travelled to Orangeville for a meal at Greystones, paid for by David. Dot and I had lovely burger. Merry ride home, and all in bed by about 10.15pm.

Monday October 3 – Sunny with early frost. As I came down into the kitchen to get Dot an early cup of tea (Barbara, David and Chrissy were there) three coyotes walked across the frosty lawn. I was too slow, but Chrissy got a couple of pix, which she sent me. David and Chrissy did work in the small room: we had breakfast. Dot and I went out for a walk, then  David, Dot and I had a talk out on the deck while Barbara was cooking the lunch.
Afterwards, David and Chrissy left, and the four of us went for another shortish walk. Having problems with itchy ankles and shins for some reason. Did a bit of reading after we got back. E-mail from brother Phil saying he was having an operation to repair an umbilical hernia at King’s Lynn on Wednesday. Later watched a couple of episodes of Lewis, then went to bed.

Tuesday October 4 was our last full day; beginning to feel tense. Latish breakfast – scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. Finished reading Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, which was often good. Went for a walk in the Hockley Valley and found a weird caterpillar. Quite good views, but felt very tired , as I did for most of the day. Later had salmon and mashed potatoes, and a discussion about Covid which wasn’t very helpful. Sent some photos of our Orangeville meal to David at his request. Later watched another Lewis episode – one of the best. 

Wednesday October 5 – Bad night, undoubtedly because we’re leaving today and I “discovered” that our seats on the plane weren’t together. However I checked in this morning and found I could change Dot’s seat to next to mine. We did most of our packing before breakfast, and afterwards Dot and I walked right and down to Mount Hope Road, then 100 yards or so up it. Very quiet except for man delivering mail to boxes. Back home via Scott Road.