Last Tuesday I was about to get in the bath when the man arrived to service our house alarm. He was one hour early, but I did manage to adapt.
On Wednesday I was up early again – this time to go to Coventry with Phil, who drove us in his Merc. Quite a good journey there, and we took Andrew to the Harvester at Allesley for a meal. This was going reasonably well until Andrew managed to get a bit of steak stuck in his throat, resulting in embarrassing scenes. He did survive it, however (not sure I did), and I walked him round the car park and then we drove to Corley and back to Minster Lodge, where we had a cup of tea. Staff as always friendly and helpful. Daisy was in charge; Helen away at another home.
The journey home was a bit more difficult: the A14 was subject to long delays at the approach to the A1, and we diverted via Kimbolton, Grafham Water and Papworth. This was OK, but when we joined the A14 again near Cambridge, there were long, painful queues. Still, it didn’t snow.
Up early again on Thursday, partly to welcome Colin to do work on our drive and partly to go to see the nurse about my cholesterol and general health. The latter went well, but we waited all day for Colin to come, and he failed to put in an appearance. In the evening we went with the Hendersons to see King Lear – a very good production at the Maddermarket, with David Newham as Gloucester and Trevor Burton as Cornwall. The guy playing Lear was particularly outstanding, but there were so many deaths towards the end that I was worried that no-one would be left standing at the final curtain. (It was the first time I’d seen the play.) Afterwards we said hello to David and had quite a chat with Trevor.
Friday, and – yes, I was up early again to greet Colin, who again failed to show up. However, Sam and Gary eventually put in an appearance and demolished the very thick concrete by the garage, as well as the pillar by the wall. Colin did eventually drop in, and made various promises about when it would be finished, which, like so many verbal promises, were not worth the paper they were written on.
In the afternoon I attended David Paull’s funeral at Earlham. This was full of people I did not know, but fortunately Frances was there with her husband Bill, plus Gerald Nunn, and Eric from the Pensioners’ Association. Afterwards I did manage to chat to Richard Bond and Trevor Burton (again) plus one or two other trainees I’d forgotten, such as Matthew Clark, Dominic Castle and Julian Forde. The reception was at Park Farm, where I had a chat with David’s wife Iris as well as Frances and Bill. I knew literally no-one else. So after a few sandwiches and a prosecco I departed to pick up Dot from St Augustine’s Hall, where she had been assisting Anna and Carrie in an art project involving the Queen.
On Saturday we did not get up early, but did a large shop at the supermarket before watching (on TV) Norwich lose 0-1 to Arsenal despite, as usual, playing pretty well. Same old story.
Got up early again on Sunday to go to Carrie’s licensing service at St Luke’s, at which Dot and I were playing with Steve, Richard and Angela. Steve asked us to play a couple of our songs during Communion; so we have now played in front of the Bishop. Well, not exactly in front; more to one side. Afterwards there was bring and share lunch and I spoke to Barbara Bryant, who edits the diocesan magazine, among many other people. Outside, the weather was turning unexpectedly warm.
Afterwards we were about to leave to visit Jessie when Des came over and had a look at the garden (that’s not why he came over – that’s just what happened). This made us a bit late reaching North Walsham, buying flowers and visiting the cemetery, but we reached Jessie’s by about 3.40pm, which was OK as we were staying for evening meal with Roger and Debbie. Cod pie and a couple of delicious sweets, neither of which I was able to resist.
So that was nice. We got home in time to watch the grand prix, but fell asleep before the end. By the time we dozed off, nothing was happening.