One weighty item out of the way: we now have travel insurance for April. After several false starts, someone rung me who not only spoke recognisable English, but actually made sense. We completed the whole thing on the phone in less than a quarter of an hour. Changing the church account is still uncompleted. I have a lot of forms on the kitchen table.
On Friday we woke up to find a Mini Cooper parked across our driveway. As our car was parked in the drive, and there was no way to squeeze it out, we were stuck. After waiting a while, I rang the police, who suggested helpfully I should go round to neighbouring businesses (it had a business permit). After doing this and knocking up the neighbours too, I rang the police back with the registration number, and they eventually contacted the driver’s mother, who had lent her daughter the permit. The daughter was in London, and the mother had no car key.
All this had taken 2-3 hours, so I didn’t get to Joy’s mother’s funeral at Dereham. As there were 300 people there, this was not a tragedy. But we also had to pick up Dot’s pills and Andrew’s jacket (from the cleaners) and visit Go Outdoors to get me a new jacket. We managed all this because Bob next door came home after lunch and moved his car down a bit, so that I could manoeuvre our car out.
The mother, who came round and knocked at the door, was apologetic but not convincing. Next day we found the coping stone on our wall removed and broken on the pavement. Was this a coincidence?
We had a lovely evening on the Friday with the Higbees, and then on Saturday went down to London to stay with the Coomes at Leyton, which turned out to be an action-packed couple of days.
After lunch we travelled by taxi and Dockland Light Railway to Greenwich, where we visited the Turner & The Sea exhibition in the National Maritime Museum. This was scintillating: I love Turner’s work, especially the later pictures, and am not sure there’s anyone to compare with him. From there we returned briefly home before travelling by taxi and tube to Covent Garden and an extremely pleasant French restaurant.
Back at Leyton we saw Norwich win against Hull. The following day we went to a Roman Catholic Mass somewhere near Bond Street, followed by a visit to a nearby bookshop and clothes shop, where Dot bought a top. Then by tube to Stratford and the Westfield Centre, which was horrifically crowded with Sunday shoppers but contained an oasis of calm masquerading as a Lebanese restaurant. We had lunch there and then returned to Leyton for tea before setting off home – a quick and easy journey. The weather had been fine throughout.
Yesterday we saw Gravity at the Odeon: a remarkable film (in 3D) that left you wondering how they could possibly have made it, set as it was in a weightless environment. But although the storyline was very straightforward, the acting by George Clooney and Sandra Bullock (especially) was excellent.
On returning from London, incidentally, we found that our water tank was overflowing (through the overflow pipe) into the back garden. I clambered around in the loft, checked with the internet and sprayed the ball valve with WD40. I also tried to bend the arm slightly, but not sure if I succeeded. The overflow has stopped, but I’m not sure if this is a permanent repair. Obviously if you’re using the water on a regular basis, the overflow is going to be minimal. Still, I’m hoping. Very cold tonight.