A surreal sign in the dunes at Winterton.

I managed to win my chess game on Monday night, and the team won 5-1. I gave Jonathan Wells a lift home afterwards. I’ve known him since he was a schoolboy player thousands of years ago. He is now very strong and plays on top board for North Norfolk, though he lost on Monday. My game on Board 5 against Peter Hodkinson ( I was White) went like this: 1 c4 c5 2 g3 g6 3 Bg2 Bg7 4 Nc3 Nc6 5 Nf3 Nf6 6 d4 cd 7 Nxd4 0-0 8 0-0 a6 9 e3 e6 10 b3 Qa5 11 Bd2 Qc7 12 Rc1 d6 13 Qe2 Bd7 14 Rfd1 Rfe8 15 Be1 Rad8 16 b4! Nxb4 17 Ncb5 ab 18 cb Qb6 (if Qa5, Bxb7 and the knight cannot be saved) 19 Bxb4 d5 20 a4 Rc8 21 a5 Qa7 22 Nb3 Bf8 23 Bc3! Nh5 24 Bd4 Qb8 25 Nc5 Bxc5 26 Bxc5 Ng7 27 Qb2 Nf5 28 e4 Ne7 29 Qf6 Rxc5 (if Kf8, Qh8 is mate, and White was also threatening Bd4) 30 Rxc5 Qd6 31 Rcc1 Bxb5 32 ed Bd7 33 de Qxe6 34 Qxe6 Bxe6 35 Bxb7 1-0 With the exchange up and the a-pawn about to queen, White wins easily.

Yesterday I wasn’t feeling too good – couldn’t get warm – but while Barbara and Dot were in in-depth discussion about Philosophy4Children I drove down to Bally and picked up the two pictures I’d bought from Rupert: one of his own and one of his mother’s. In doing this I discovered it actually was very cold, which made me feel a bit better, especially after we lit a fire when I got home. Before that I called in at Morrisons to pick up food for the evening meal – for which we had six, including us.

Today I felt quite a lot better. We had our hair cut by Linda in the morning, and then Dot went into the city to meet Carrie while I filled our garden waste bin with leaves. Surprisingly I felt OK after this.