Tuesday was an odd day. After packing, we went to the Bean for breakfast (I had a full, minus the previously overwhelming beans) and then met Graham and Jenny outside the house – Graham for the first time: he had been laid aside with a painful arthritic illness, but was very cheerful today. After paying them for the final three days and leaving them a poetry book that I had originally intended to give to Ella, we set off at about 1pm.
This meant we had really too much time to get to Aberdeen. We took it fairly slowly, and got lost looking for the Loch of Skene, which it turned out does not have a road adjacent to it and appears to be private. It is described on the net as “a hidden gem”, which seems pretty much spot on. Well, “hidden”, anyway. Eventually we approached the airport and turned into a forested area, where we parked while Dot finished her novel. Needless to say, by then it had started raining, and dropping off the car and travelling to the airport by shuttle was quite a damp experience.
We tried to drop off our bags, but we were an hour too early for that; so we took them with us to a cafe, where we both had an Emmental and ham baguette. The time passed quite quickly, and after check-in – using my mobile phone’s bar-coded e-mail – and the usual confusion of Security we eventually arrived at Costa, where we stuck for quite a while. The flight was a little late, but nothing to speak of, and the flight to Norfolk quite enjoyable. I had been a bit worried about finding a taxi (based on my last experience there) but it turned out to be very easy, though considerably more expensive than the journey to the airport ten days earlier.
The next day I made it to the dentist, who replaced my filling without much ado, though warning that if it went again I might have to have it crowned. I then wandered down to H Samuel to get a new watch battery, but they couldn’t get the back off my watch. I decided against sending it away for £30 because I’m thinking of getting a new one, with a dial I can read in dim light – possibly solar-powered, which seems sensible. Later we popped in to see Des and Chris to thank them for looking after our plants and give them a bottle of wine.
After taking the MX5 in for its service yesterday, Dot and I travelled down to London to see Kristine and David. We had an enjoyable couple of hours with them, but it was clear that David is deteriorating: he has had to sell his car and is not able to move far without difficulty. The next step, he says, is a wheelchair, which will raise problems about the possibility of moving from the flat. However, Kristine is not really in a fit state to do that, even if they could find somewhere. Her operation was successful in that it got rid of the cancer, but the restructuring didn’t go as planned, and remains to be completed. She may also have to have more precautionary radiotherapy and hormone treatment, which she does not really want. Despite all that she looked quite good, though she was obviously tired.
It took us some time to get through Leytonstone in rush hour, but after that the journey home was straightforward, largely because we arrived after a big Carrow Road concert by Take That had started, and so missed its attendant traffic.
Today we picked up the MX5 and discussed the possibility of getting a Mazda 3: I had discovered that my current deal doesn’t run out until February next year, but that doesn’t seem to be an insuperable problem. I an awaiting details from Dean of a possible deal, but we will have to have a test drive first. It could be quite expensive. Dot meanwhile has been to Fleggburgh where she saw some collective worship in advance of the school’s SIAMS inspection next week, and was boosted when the head said that most of what they’d achieved had been inspired by what Dot had done. Not surprised, obviously. She’s a star.