Dot got back from Ipswich on Monday just in time to grab a lightning-fast bite and then head off to Cringleford for a meeting, while I headed in the other direction to the chess club, where I managed to win my game on Board 6 in a Norfolk & Suffolk Cup match against Yarmouth. Final score 5-1 to us, which makes a nice change. Finished reasonably early but stayed on to watch others after analysing the game with my opponent.

On Tuesday Dot was off to Suffolk again for a business meeting with Barbara, and I wasted far too much time doing too little, though I did write a poem I was quite pleased with. Sent it to my poet friend Joy, who was very nice about it. She is in a bad way with bronchitis, which is unpleasant enough in itself, but she has so much else wrong with her following a disastrous motorcycle accident. Have almost finished the Christmas service – a combination of poetry, drama, readings and carols, one of which I wrote the other day. In the evening we had a very good Tuesday Group meeting: seven seems to be the perfect number. Oh, and during the day I did an hour’s worth of leaf-clearing, much to my wife’s delight.

Today neither of us felt too well: a combination of headiness and slight nausea, but not enough to stop us carrying on. Dot even went to the dentist, though she was relieved when I offered to drive her. In the evening we went to a PCC meeting which happily lasted only half an hour. Good atmosphere. Both of us feel a bit better now and are about to round off the evening by watching a little television. Bit worried about grandson Oliver, who has a bad cold and has been sick a couple of times, but he seems to be improving. David has not been too good either, but he also seems to be better.