Still quite warm in Norfolk: a long time now since we’ve had rain. So we’ve been making use of our garden to entertain people. Last night our neighbours Des and Chris came over for supper, preceded by drinks outside.

Much of the food (though not all of it) had been surplus to requirements on Tuesday, when we celebrated our golden wedding again – this time with friends from church. We decided to order a selection of party food from Morrisons, which didn’t turn out quite as anticipated, as they sent it to Northampton by mistake.

The staff at our local Morrisons couldn’t have been more apologetic, rushing round to get as many of the items as they could off the shelves there, and substituting what they couldn’t. Most of the substitute items came free, and Dot also got a bottle of Prosecco and a bunch of flowers. Result: complete lack of admiration for Morrisons’ organisation of party food orders, but loads of admiration for their staff in Norwich who, to be fair, must have had the authority to deal with us as they did – which does say something about the company.

Anyway, we had more than enough food and a really nice evening, ending with a Lindisfarne compline, slightly adapted by me. Almost all the congregation attended.

In between these two evening extravaganzas I went by train to Coventry to see Andrew. The journey went well, and I was able to get the 1830 out of Liverpool Street to Norwich because the 1900 was cancelled. I had an off-peak ticket, but was able to use the 1830 because it was substituting for the 1900. Happily I had arrived at Liverpool Street before 6pm so was in a position to take advantage.

Andrew was quite chirpy  at first: we had a long talk in his room and then went for a walk into the city (not too far). After a while he decided he wanted an ice-cream and got quite het up when we couldn’t find a shop that sold them. He also seemed pretty exhausted; so we walked home in short stages, sitting down to rest several times. He got over it once we were back at Minster Lodge and I had managed after much fiddling around to get his DVD to work. (Paddington 2)

David has been in Canada since Monday and will be there for six weeks. Amy is on her way home from a school trip to Germany as I write, and she and Oliver will be off to Ireland tomorrow.

Last Sunday, after another experimental Communion, I walked up to Kett’s Heights in the heat to watch a performance by Crude Apache of Turning of the Tide, which is a new play about the wherrymen. Dot was too tired to make it, but it was really good (as they always are). Happily they will be putting on an expanded version at Dragon Hall next year. They made good use of the space and walked through the audience, which was fairly thin – possibly because the afternoon also featured the men’s singles final at Wimbledon and the World Cup Final.

I watched the latter on my return. It was quite a good match, though a little unfair on Croatia, who probably played better for most of the match but lost 4-2. The penalty given against them was heavily disputed by all the pundits, but I actually thought it was a penalty. So I find myself in the minority yet again.

Have had several e-mails from my cousin Ann in Liverpool, who has not been well since the death of her husband. She wanted some pictures I’d taken when she was in Norfolk, and I sent them off to her. They were taken in 2008 and 2014.