Feeling the usual trepidation before setting off on a holiday abroad. Not sure why, because in this case everything is organised for us. All we have to do is get to St Pancras about 7am tomorrow. But of course there’s concern that we pack the right things (the Spanish weather seems to be taking a sudden turn for the cooler), don’t forget anything crucial, and find the hotel in London. An added complication today is that our hairdresser is coming at 11am: this wasn’t in the original plan, but she couldn’t come earlier in the week, because she’d been in hospital and couldn’t drive.

It’s certainly been cooler here this week. On Monday I met an old friend, Sue Moore, at the Forum and we had tea and a snack in the Glass House for a pleasant couple of hours, catching up on holidays, illnesses, and so on. As you do. On Tuesday we had a reduced Tuesday Group with several absences, and on Wednesday I drove out to the wilds of Wood Dalling, one of the biggest parishes in Norfolk with 14, 16 or 22 miles of roads, depending on who is boasting.

So plenty of scope for error, but eventually I found Katy’s Cottage, which is poet Kay Riggs’ house. Rob and Caroline were equally successful, and so we were able to have a Chronicle meeting at which we slimmed down our Hungate piece for use at Mannington Hall. Kay’s husband David then showed us his recording studio, small but impressive, in case we decide to record the performance for possible sale at Paston events. I also toyed with the idea of recording Far Cry, but I fear he may be expecting a more professional performance than I can deliver.

Rob said he had received a letter from Jo, resigning as a Paston trustee on health grounds, which is a bit of a blow as she takes on a huge amount of work, especially to do with the re-enacting and the possible use of the village hall. My initial reaction was that we need two new trustees just to cover what she does, but I spoke to Lucy last night, and she said that before Jo joined she used to to much of it on her own. However, we were a bit dubious about continuing with the village hall project.

This was at a meeting of the Norwich Record Society at County Hall, where they launched a volume of edited letters by Sir Robert Paston. Interesting introduction to it by a professor (not the author), painting a quite detailed picture of the penultimate Paston. Jo and John were also there.

Dot’s cousin Roger also called round on Wednesday evening. Dot has had a busy week, much of it in front of her computer sorting out her autumn programme and supplying information for a book, and now of course, as we’re going away for a week, she has to clean the house. I’m not sure why.