Tomorrow our furniture is returning, although Amy and Oliver agreed yesterday that they liked the living room as it is: spacious. Dot and I had returned the hi-fi and the television to the room and re-hung the curtains, but other than that we had restricted ourselves to just a couple of chairs, the piano stool and some cushions, plus temporary children’s items.
The children, and David, were with us overnight on Friday so that Oliver could go with Dot to the Norwich City match against West Ham, which was a kind of birthday present, four days late. His main present, also late of course, was a new guitar, which he seemed to like. It is a Yamaha, and has a nice tone. I also bought him a book on the Friday when I popped into the city to buy a new lectionary diary.
The redecoration and roof were finished on Tuesday as scheduled. On Wednesday Dot and I travelled to Duck End in Essex for another Otterspool reunion, at the home of Pete and Liz Stabler. Beautiful house, and a much better day than had been forecast, so we were able to spend time wandering around the stunning and extensive garden. Pete had broken his back falling from a ladder a couple of months ago, but was able to get around wearing a brace. Also present were Alan and Janice, Barry and Pat and Jacqui and Brian – and Pete Stokes, whose wife Jan died suddenly a few months ago. Great to see him; really pleased he came.
We had had a hard time finding the house (though we’d both been there before), but we eventually asked, and got good directions. On the way home we went a more direct but complicated route through Bury St Edmunds (instead of Saffron Walden and the A11) and encountered some of the darkest clouds I’ve ever seen, together with very heavy rain. Still, we made it without incident, thanks to Dot’s calm driving.
We had a lovely day with David and the children. Oliver enjoyed the match, despite the 0-0 scoreline, and Amy enjoyed playing, partly on her own and partly with me: she (we) prepared a Norwich City party for the wanderers’ return, which went down very well. The rest of us all availed ourselves of the table tennis table, newly released from its burden of curtains – best storage space I could think of.
After the service this morning, at which refurbishers of the church hall were officially thanked and we had three unexpected visitors from the UEA, we had a lunch prepared by Carrie and others. Afterwards Dot and I had a game of table tennis, during which I found a box of old chess games and books that I had lost. So quite satisfying really.