Left you teetering on the brink last time: I can now reveal that we did go to theatre (in a taxi) and managed to get through it without any explosive outbursts of coughing, sneezing or screaming. The show was Sunset Boulevard, and the reason we were there was because Linda, the dentist’s wife who we’ve known for thousands of years, had the lead role. She was very good too, as were the male lead and the younger love interest, but the show itself is not brilliant. Some good choreography and chorus work, and probably the one memorable song, which I’ve now forgotten. During the interval we had drinks with the Hendersons, and in the circle we sat behind Ross (the dentist) and his daughter, so were able to make approving noises which should find their way back to Linda.
That was on Monday last week. The next day Dot went on a retreat with Anna to Clare Priory in Suffolk. She was still far from well (with the additional problem of diarrhoea caused by the antibiotics) but really enjoyed her two-day stay. While she was there I took my brother Phil to Bowthorpe hospital (with Joy) for orthopaedic triage – he has problems wth his spine. He is now officially under the surgeon, though this doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll have an operation.
On Friday we felt well enough for our scheduled weekend in Buxton with the Evetts, though I’d warned them that we had few reserves of energy, and seven-mile walks were probably out of the question. In the event we didn’t walk very far. On the Saturday we drove through the Winant’s Pass to Castleton, which brought back memories of one of our youthful haunts, though we couldn’t locate where we used to stay. The sky was blue but there was a bitter wind, and later on it started snowing. We did a tour of the Peak Cavern, which has a very low section that I vaguely remember. We then had a pub lunch and walked round the town in the snow until we found an outdoors shop and I bought a proper cap, which was certainly more appropriate than my baseball cap.
More snow was promised, but in fact most of it vanished overnight, and on Sunday it just rained incessantly. It was quite a bit warmer, which I believe is known as small compensation, because “warm” is a relative term and wet is wet. However Dave came up trumps with a visit to Hathersage and David Mellor’s design factory, which kept us safely indoors for most of the day. There was an excellent cafe and a kitchen shop that even I found interesting. We also went on a tour of the unique cutlery factory, built on the site of a gas holder.
Returning home on Monday, we stopped at a cafe in Darley Dale with the Evetts (not sure why) and then went our separate ways. Dot and I ended up in Coventry to see Andrew, who seemed a bit bemused as to why we’d come. However he seemed pleased when we took him out for a short walk. It was still very blustery, but not too cold, and he got a look at a building site that interested him. Afterwards Dot and I drove home, stopping at Cambridge Services for a Kentucky Fried Chicken and arriving in Norwich before 7pm.
We could have done with a quiet day after that, but no such luck. At 10.30 yesterday we were at the Archant Coffee Morning, which was quite pleasant, and afterwards Dot had a quite long meeting at Little Plumstead. In the evening she went and watched Norwich lose 3-0 to Spurs, rather as expected. If we go down it will be because we threw away the win over Liverpool.
While she was there I went to the Book Hive for the launch of Keiron Pim’s book on David Litvinoff. The place was packed. I chatted to Steve and Sandra Snelling and a couple of other people, and later to Rowan (Keiron’s wife) and briefly to Pete Kelley. The Hive hadn’t got enough books in to cope with demand, and so I’ve ordered it from Amazon. Keiron was interviewed by a fellow author and came over very well. When I was editorial training manager at Archant I recruited both Keiron and Rowan. They now have three daughters, and Rowan is a teacher.
I’m glad to say that both Dot and I are appreciably better, though by no means 100%. We still cough quite a bit, but our energy levels are up.