Phil appears to have made exceptional progress following his operation and is now at home. The only problem appears to be that he has occasionally lost consciousness, but he thinks this is a temporary phenomenon. Joy is a bit more worried, but when I visited for about an hour today he seemed surprisingly well.
Earlier in the week I had seen him in hospital, when there was a chance he would go into rehab, but this proved to be not an option: he was making too much progress. Birgit and Joe were reluctant to have him at that stage, but now that he is fairly independent he seems to have decided not to go to Mattishall anyway. What a difference a couple of days make.
On Tuesday I had an appointment at the dentist because I’d broken a tooth last weekend. In the end I had a rather large replacement of a filling, which cost £144 and took some time. I went up to see Phil at the N&N, arriving just before 6pm and thus obtaining a parking slot easily. We chatted until Birgit arrived; I then rushed back home, just in time to be picked up by Judy for our monthly Julian meeting at Howard’s, which went very well as always, despite the fact that the first hour went by without Julian being mentioned.
On Wednesday I decided I ought to reconnoitre a few walking possibilities for the Blakeney area. I started out near Felbrigg, where I looked at a short cut, which appeared to be viable. On the way back to the car, though, I took a wrong turn and almost collided with an electric fence. That would have been a shock. As it was I just got very sore eyes from hay fever. This was the one day this week when it didn’t rain heavily.
I then proceeded to Beacon Hill, where I suspect there had been quite a lot of building going on since the walks book was published, and I failed to find the route at all, though I descended into West Runton and climbed back out again. I decided this was a non-starter for the Evetts and proceeded to Cley, where I had a cup of tea and apple crumble cake.
I then checked out Morston, where I found a kiosk dispensing tea and coffee at a key point, and then Stiffkey, which had a coffee-selling pub. I also found a beautiful spot there which opened up on to the marshes, and wrote a poem as a result. Chatted briefly to a dog-walking woman, which I know you will find it difficult to believe.
When I got home I was too tired, and the risk of heavy rain was too great, for me to go to a PV for the Lasse Press, but I compensated today by going to en exhibition featuring my friend Rupert Malliin and a couple of women artists – Annie Brundrit and Sally Hirst. It was at Studio 20 on Wensum Street, and I walked there after Dot dropped me at the bank on Whitefriars to pay in some cheques.
Yesterday it rained extremely hard, which was annoying as I had to walk to the TSB to meet the new church treasurer at 3pm. Doubly annoyingly, this was in the middle of the England-Wales football match. The rain started on my way there, and I was pretty wet by the time I arrived. Happily and to my great suprise the bank was allowing people to borrow umbrellas; so by the time I got home I was soaked instead of drowned. It was really very heavy rain.
Later I called in to see Phil briefly while Dot was cooking the meal. It had stopped raining by then. The Evetts e-mailed to say they wanted to go to Sandringham. I hadn’t checked that.