Phil’s birthday, and winter has come back in. Very cold wind today as I walked up to the sorting office, only to discover they were tarmac-ing the drive. Very nice woman said it would all be done in half an hour. Dot is in the garden, despite being under the weather since having a facial: she believes it affected her sinuses. Lot of sneezing. I am in more or less the same state but didn’t have a facial, so don’t know what to blame. We are both optimistic for a quick recovery.

It being Phil’s birthday means that it’s the anniversary of both my parents’ deaths – my mother yesterday and my father tomorrow. And it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday; so more than one reason to take some flowers up to the Rosary. I shall do that. Oh yes I will.

Last Saturday we had a “light” supper at the Hendersons’. This consisted of a starter, a roast and a sweet; so we should be grateful it wasn’t a heavy supper. Very pleasant evening, especially as Norwich City had won again.

On Sunday I preached at St Luke’s, with Karen Wimhurst leading and Steve F on sound. Interesting. The sermon went quite well, and afterwards I popped down to St Aug’s for another cup of tea. In the afternoon I walked up to St Peter Hungate to check the corbels. Glad to report they were there, and might well have represented John and Margaret.

The reason for this bizarre behaviour was that I was assisting Rob Knee on Wednesday with guiding two groups of Cromer historians round some of the Paston sites, and I wanted to make sure I knew where everything was.  In the event it turned out that the corbels were the least of my worries: when my group of 18 reached St Peter Hungate I couldn’t open the door, and broke the handle (in a minor sort of way) in the attempt. We continued unabashed to St Andrew’s Hall, where there was a school choirs event; so of course we couldn’t go in. So far, so bad.

From there it improved. When we got back to St Peter Hungate, Rob had opened it (and repaired the handle). Some of my group were very slow; so we were behind schedule, and when we bumped into Rob’s group again opposite the Cathedral, some of mine defected and headed for the refectory. By the time my group got there (having covered everything), there was little time for the promised snack before the bus left.

Happily I was not on the bus; so I could finish my delicious egg and cress sandwich (paid for by the historians, who also gave me £30). As I was relaxing I was asked to give a quick repeat tour to a couple of ladies who had been waiting in the wrong place and so missed the whole thing. So I went round again, really enjoying it this time, because talking to two people is much easier than talking to 18. They were very grateful.

Not much action the rest of the week. I have put more Paston letters into modern English and edited an article by Lucy on John Fenn & Co. And I’m keeping up with the Lent tanka, as well as stringing along with Joy. Oh, and updating websites.

Which reminds me, yesterday I called on Phil and Joy with Phil’s presents. They were both quite perky, though tired. Joy has taken to painting in a studio upstairs. Earlier in the day (or was it the day before?) I had bought Phil a couple of books and a bottle of wine.