At 7.30 this morning, when I was miraculously out of bed, the roof people came again. This time they have put in some guttering and the missing bit of down pipe and patched up the hole in the fascia boards: not pretty, but as good as we could hope for, I guess, as a temporary measure. Meanwhile the manager has been in touch and probably thanked his lucky stars that he got compliant me instead of angry Dot. He gave us a date of September 15 for the asbestos removal, observing that it was only about three weeks. Actually it was four weeks and one day, but I suppose that’s what management is all about. The street light saga continues too. We now have the new light connected, but with a slightly bigger hole, more rubble and the original standard still there. The new light is brighter, but apparently the reason for changing was that the new ones are more energy-efficient. As the whole city seems to be involved, I wonder how much it is all costing, and how soon the energy-efficiency will pay for it. Not that I have anything against energy-efficiency. All for it, in fact. Norwich City FC could do with some: they lost at Brentford last night (2-1), and a new manager starts today: Paul Lambert, from Colchester. Not the big name some had anticipated, and he has to do something pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, a couple of British gold medals from the world athletics championships, being held in Berlin. First, the wonderful Jessica Ennis, who decimated the field in the heptathlon. Then Phillips Idowu, at last coming good in the triple jump. Usain Bolt beat the world record again in the 100m, and still looked as if he could go faster. There must be a limit, right?

We did complete that walk on Sunday: over three miles in pretty warm weather, starting at the Rosary and ending up at the new bridge across the Wensum, which is on the brink of completion, though of course delivery of  the last section has been delayed. Wouldn’t a world where nothing was delayed be wonderful? On Monday lovely wife Dot’s friend Anne did me a huge favour by taking Dot on a mammoth tour of city shops, during which they tried on many clothes and bought a few. I would never have had the stamina, but Dot thrives on it. In the evening she even had enough energy to visit Carrie, while I predictably lost a chess game I should have won – in the sense that I am graded higher than my opponent, not that I played better. In fact my loss was fully deserved. I can’t play chess in August. I’m not much good before Christmas.