Another picture taken at Salthouse last Friday. This is Dot and Fred, though not necessarily in that order. Fred actually introduced me to Dot after meeting her at a residential weekend for Sunday school teachers some time in the very early 60s. We all became part of a group that hung out together and had occasional parties in Norwich and North Walsham. One thing led to another, and eventually Dot went to teacher training college near Watford while I was living in north London. One weekend she came down to visit me, and we saw Dr Zhivago at Leicester Square – a late-night showing. I think we got back to my flat at Stoke Newington somewhere around dawn. She returned to Norwich to teach, there was a certain amount of to-ing and fro-ing, and then I proposed under a tree in a layby on the North Walsham Road: the evening of Boxing Day 1967. We married the following July. Fred married Sue and had four children.

I’m feeling a bit better now – rather more energy, though still an annoying cough. Yesterday I went up to the dentist to have the hygienist look at my teeth, and I quite enjoyed the walk home, though I was a little tired when I got back. Last night Dot and I went to the annual dinner at St Luke’s, which was very pleasant and quite good for me, I think. Lots of nice people.

On the minus side, I have prostate cancer. The results showed 17 of the tests negative, three positive. I now have to have a bone x-ray and an MRI scan to see if it has spread anywhere. If not, they can do something to get rid of it. If it has, we are down to drugs and all sorts of nasty things that I don’t really want to think about.

Very wet day today: not nice at all.