Summer appears to have arrived – sort of. It’s been sunny since Saturday, and on Saturday itself it was pleasantly warm. Since then there has been a chilly north-east wind, but it’s lovely in the sun and out of the wind.
Dot is in Dudley, but as the last few days have been packed with incident, I’d better start at the beginning. David and the children came on Thursday, arriving for a late lunch and just after a couple of Colin’s guys had departed after doing some painting. Following this I had to abandon them to take Joy up to see Phil, who is in hospital following his spine operation. Parking was a real challenge at the hospital, and I ended up on double yellow lines, but escaped penalty. Phil was in a lot of pain, but I understand there’s been some slight improvement.
After returning Joy home (and moving Phil’s car from the car park at the top of the road down to his house – an interesting automatic experience) I had a few games of table tennis with Oliver and then we all went to Prezzo’s for an evening meal. Bob and Mary were there too, but in a different part of the building.
The next day was still perversely autumnal, but Dot and I took the children to Wroxham Barns, where Dot got four holes-in-one at mini-golf, but Oliver won. I came last. After ice creams we proceeded to Fairhaven, where we had lunch and a walk in the gardens, which looked beautiful, with lots of colourful flowers. We returned in time for a meal before they set off for home.
After they’d gone and I was clearing up, I fell down the steps in the garden backwards and hit my head on the ground at the bottom, but not hard. The only real injury was to my right ankle, and that’s grazed and bruised rather than twisted. I can walk on it with no trouble. Very fortunate – I blame Colin for not instilling the rail.
Saturday was still cool at the outset, but improved dramatically during the morning, as we set up our bookstall at the church garden party. I say bookstall – Dot thought she could get rid of lots of stuff, such as clothes and shoes and jewellery and, to be fair, she did manage to sell some. We didn’t do too badly, and it was a lovely community event, with an art exhibition / competition judged by Martin Mitchell and a very good singer-guitarist called Roger. Judy and Jenny got a bit carried away with singing and dancing, I’m happy to say. We even got a bit sunburnt.
While I was manning the stall I got a call from the hospital to say they couldn’t reach Joy, and Phil was asking for her because he was in so much pain. She wasn’t able to go in the afternoon, but her neighbour gave her a lift up in the evening. Apparently the pain was partly down to the Parkinson’s. A couple of scans showed that the surgery had gone well; so hopefully the pain will ease off soon.
Fred and Sue Riches arrived in the evening, just after we’d had a meal. They had been at an event at Lowestoft and were simply staying the night before going to another one (Barry Brown’s 75th) at Dovercourt the next day. Nevertheless, Dot gave them some salad, and we had a good talk, partly about our church and my sermon, which I gave the following day. Fred and Sue had left after breakfast.
Dot left before 3pm for Dudley, where she is doing some P4C training today with Barbara. Apparently she had a good journey. I have no car, because when I took the MX5 in on Friday (accompanied by Oliver, and after unloading stuff for the garden party from the other car beforehand) it failed its MOT. It’s now unroadworthy and has to be repaired before I can use it, which I’m told is likely to be Wednesday.
On a more optimistic note, I have booked the Glen Lui hotel at Ballater for four nights on our way back from the Outer Hebrides. I’m also trying to book a hotel at Lochinver for a couple of nights, but am awaiting a response.