After a series of dismal, grey days, sun and ice return. Well, not quite ice, but it’s very cold, though much nicer to be out in than it has been recently. Yesterday a north-easter cut through us as we visited North Walsham cemetery, and although we were there only a few minutes, it took a long time to get warm again. Earlier we had visited FM at Wroxham: he didn’t look too well, mainly because he had a huge, bloody bruise on his eye. No-one knew how he got it, and of course he couldn’t remember. He had been found in someone else’s room, and his glasses were broken. Afterwards we took J to Wroxham Barns restaurant, and I had a pie while the other two were more moderate. After the cemetery we returned to J’s and had a cup of tea. In the evening I won my first game of chess for weeks, which was one way of celebrating Burns Night.

I’ve booked what looks a rather exciting cottage on the slopes of Snowdon for July. Oliver and Amy are keen to get there as soon as possible. The rest of us are pretty keen too, but Dot and I have Canada, Florida and Italy first. This is turning into a year of holidays. I’ve also written a couple of poems, so (although the poems are rather downbeat) my mood is improving. One of the poems is about January,and the other is about Haiti.

Among other exciting news, I’ve had a swingeing haircut, and the battery on my car went dead. No connection. (See what I did there?) The latter happened on Sunday morning, so we had to unload the musical instruments and cram everything into the MX5. It was a tight fit. The battery went dead because the boot was not shut properly – a familiar problem. A music stand had jammed in there after I brought Dot home from a meditation and chanting violin rehearsal at St Julian’s on Friday. Still, Mazda Assistance didn’t take long to fix it, though I had to take it for a longish drive to recharge it. The actual event was on Sunday evening – went very well, apparently, though I resisted the temptation. Well, you’ve got to resist some temptations.