Now I’m 64. Son and grandchildren came up to help me celebrate, and we had a good time, despite my feeling rather weak and lacking in energy. On Saturday I rested on the sofa while they went up to the fair on Chapelfield Park, but on Sunday, after eating a good lunch at Prezzo’s, we all went to Winterton and had fun on the beach and in the dunes. Amy was pretty lively, but Oliver was clearly a bit under the weather. In the picture above he is taking a breather with Daddy while Nana and Amy (and Grandad, for a while) went down to the water’s edge. We had had a bit of a run in the dunes first. The weather was really warm and pretty much perfect for the beach, with a refreshing breeze that even Barbara wouldn’t have thought was chilly.

I was fortunate to receive many lovely presents, including a lovely leather bag from Dot and a stack of books that I’m looking forward to reading. One (from David) contained the last stanza of Bob Dylan’s She’s your lover now, which I had been looking for for a while. It was sadly never released officially, and the bootleg version breaks off in the middle of the final verse. Great song. Today Dot has gone to do Philosophy at Ditchingham school, though she still isn’t completely recovered from a really bad cold. As I write I’m listening to the Waterboys, another present (from Phil and Joy, who came round on Saturday morning: it was their wedding anniversary yesterday). I intend to take it easy for the rest of the day.

England performed a small miracle by avoiding losing to Australia in the first Ashes Test, with our last-wicket pair hanging on by their fingernails. David knew the result but kindly didn’t tell us so that we could enjoy it on the highlights.