Have struggled into the New Year. Dot has been ill ever since the Friday before Christmas, sometimes in bed all say, sometimes emerging for a while, and eventually being around most of the time, but coughing, spluttering and running out of energy. It seems she has the type of heavy cold shared by the Queen, among others, and it has severe symptoms and just hangs on in there. It’s viral, of course, so there’s nothing to be done. After all, this is only the 21st century.
I have done a huge amount of cooking and washing up, among other things. I now know everything there is to know about turkey crowns, ribs of beef and roast potatoes in goose fat. Dot got out of bed last Wednesday to accompany me to the supermarket, where we got £178 worth of food to tide us over into the new year. I don’t think Dot should have gone, but she had plans and was reluctant to see them go by the board.
David, Oliver and Amy arrived on the Thursday (29th), and we had pizzas in the evening, as well as opening most of our presents. The following day we had our real Christmas meal, which I cooked, as Dot was not feeling up to it, apart from the gravy. It wasn’t bad, actually. David went out and bought a new router, my BT hub decided to give up the ghost. He also fitted additional memory into my computer, and all is going really well at the moment.
On New Year’s Eve, Dot cooked the meat, but I did everything else except the soup, which Dot had invented and was delicious.. The Robinsons came round and we had a proper New Year’s Eve experience, with my traditional quiz, Amy’s impenetrable picture quiz and a rather nice meal. We ended the year by playing Twenty Questions and (sadly) watching Robbie Williams on TV while Dot and Philip discussed the tribulations of Norwich City.
Earlier in the day Kevin, Lisa and Matthew came round for a drink or two, and we talked about the past, and the present. He is currently involved in buying a hotel in Southport, but I can’t talk about that. Nice to see them.
On Sunday I managed to rouse myself to lead the service at church. I even found one pathetic little candle (all the others were missing), and managed not to lose control when Adrian turned up and expressed himself. We had Anna, Adrian and Carrie as our worship group, and three in the congregation (Mary, Judy and Julienne).
The rest of the day was quite quiet (the weather was extremely unpleasant – damp and cold). I seem to remember that we played Dixit. At some point I managed to provoke the spot above my mouth to start bleeding and broke my glasses, but that may have been some other day.
Yesterday was one of those days that are spent in anticipation of something happening in the evening – in this case the family was returning home. Oliver had contracted Dot’s cold, so he stopped playing table tennis (I shall probably never beat him again), and was clearly not feeling well. In the afternoon we watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which on reflection was probably not suitable for Amy, though Oliver enjoyed the silly humour.
After a light tea (we had had a proper cooked lunch), the family gathered itself together and left at 6.45pm, reaching home safely. Dot and I mooched around a bit and watched Sherlock on TV, as well as having a lengthy telephone conversation with Dave Evetts, who appears to have booked us into Blakeney for a week in July. I still haven’t managed to visit Andrew.
Today I woke just in time to make a late appearance at the Archant coffee morning, largely because I wanted to get my glasses fixed at Boots. They transferred the lenses into new frames for free! I have also booked my spot in to see the doctor on Saturday at an unearthly hour, though I did consult the pharmacist at Boots, who said seeing the doctor was probably a good idea. He also said I should not have let it bleed, which suggested he would have been good with stable doors and horses as an alternative profession.