It’s been quite warm over the last few days. On Sunday I had to lead the service after Carrie found she’d double-booked herself and needed to be at the Cathedral. (We’ve all been there.) Howard, making a rare visit, preached on end-of-life revival, in a manner of speaking. Very good, anyway. In the afternoon Dot and I decided to drive to Bacton to see Lucy’s Open Studio, but she wasn’t there; so we had a nice time talking to her colleague, Jo Arnold, whose house it was. Bought one of her small sculptures for £30.
Afterwards we parked near the beach and walked along the top towards Walcott. It was high tide, with waves splashing over the prom. Later we called at Happisburgh and went to the loo, but couldn’t go for a walk there as we had no coins for the parking meter.
On Monday afternoon we decided on the spur of the moment to buy me some new clothes. Our quest started badly at Jarrolds but ended successfully at M&S, where I ended up with a new suit and a jacket. We then went to Skechers in the mall, and I bought two pairs of shoes. Dot bought one (pair, not shoe). We were served by an excellent assistant, who made me want to buy the whole store, but I resisted.
On Tuesday morning I had my tooth out. I’m glad it’s gone: it had been irritating me more and more for several months, possibly years. It had a great chunk of gold on the top of it; so I am now worth slightly less. Still, I have the tooth. No bad after-effects, but I didn’t feel up to going to a talk on the dead sea scrolls, which I had pencilled in for the evening.
Yesterday we took the MX5 in for a service and MOT, and I was pleasantly surprised when it emerged unscathed, but with new windscreen wipers. It was due to be collected at 5pm, but we left it overnight and picked it up just after 11 this morning. Last night, while Dot was at orchestra, I went to the launch of three poetry pamphlets at Anteros, at which the only person I knew was Hilary Mellon, the compere. The poetry was pretty ordinary, and I told Hilary afterwards that hers was far better. So is mine, actually. Obviously I wouldn’t say that to just anybody.
This afternoon I popped into the city to buy some Communion wafers, because the ones at church had gone missing. I lingered by the Cathedral green so as not to exert myself too much (because of the tooth extraction) and resisted the temptation to buy an ice cream. Dot and I are on a 5:2 diet, which means we don’t eat much on two days out of five. I have lost a bit of weight…