[written Aug 20]
Our plane left late on Tuesday; so we went for a walk and then packed, following which Roger and Barbara took us for a drive over the Caledon hills – first to Hockley Village (where I barely got out of the car because I was feeling temporarily a bit under the weather), then to Violet Hill, by which time I had recovered. It was very warm. We got out and looked in the local shop, Granny Taught Us How, which was delightful and a bit like something you might find in Blakeney.
We left for the airport around 6pm and eventually met up with David, Chrissy and the kids in the departure lounge. We followed Oliver (and David) in getting our baggage labels and then dropping off the bags (we had checked in online earlier, obtaining neighbouring seats by comparing notes on Facetime). Then, after a bit of reluctance from Amy, the four of us went through Security (all of us except Amy being stopped for checks), waved goodbye and headed for gate C32.
There we ordered some food and drink at the iPhone café, and all went smoothly and more or less on time. Gatwick was much quicker than Toronto, and Dot managed to leave her glasses on the plane this time. However, Oliver and Amy had no problems, and their mother was waiting in the Arrivals hall. After we found the right phone, our lift arrived, and we were taken back to the hotel and our car.
We still had to get home, of course. On the advice of our shuttle bus driver we stopped at a nearby pub for focciato bread and tea and coffee, then headed out through some ludicrously slow speed limits which made driving much harder, especially if you were already very tired, which I was. No real hold-ups, though, and I just made it to the M11 Services without going to sleep (though it was a close thing). Here we took a quick nap before continuing, and eventually arrived home without further incident by about 5pm.
Here, however, we discovered that our fridge-freezer was off and had been for a few days. The trip switch had been triggered, possibly by a thunderstorm. So we spent an hour or two clearing it out and putting spoiled food in the food caddy. Just what you need…
The last few days have been a bit hazy. I haven’t been getting enough sleep, except for Friday night, when we both woke up around 11am. The next night I got about two hours, and this morning I woke at 6am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Head is buzzy and I feel very heavy, which bodes well for my chess match tonight. Not.
Thursday was mainly taken up by buying Dot a new iPhone 8 from O2 (and cover from Apple), plus ordering a new pair of glasses. Then at 6pm I went up to Jarrolds for a book launch featuring Keith Skipper, Chris Fisher, Bill Woodcock and one or two others. The book was published by Adrian Bell, and he, KS and CF gave very good speeches. An Archant old boys’ photo was taken afterwards, and I had a chat with Adrian Bell’s wife, who I hadn’t met before. (Adrian, aka Mousehold Press, published a couple of my tanka collaborations with Joy; he is also a chess player.) The book, incidentally, was Harbert’s News from Dumpton, a collection of Norfolk dialect articles by former EDP London editor Maurice Woods.
On Friday we grabbed a moment to go round Des and Chris’s and thank them for looking after our plants, but I can’t remember much else. Must have been to the shop at some point. We also heard that Jessie was in hospital. Roger came round and told us she’d had a fall, and as a result of the subsequent scan it had been discovered that she had some cancer spots in her brain, and the prognosis was not good. We went up to see her at the N&N, and she was mostly cheerful and looked well enough, though this was clearly deceptive. She is having radiotherapy as well as steroids this week.
On Saturday Dot went into the city to see Anne, but returned in time to listen to Norwich City losing 2-1, thus completing an opening three games of =1, -2. Oh, joy.
On Sunday we crawled to church for a contemplative communion, and I sang one of my songs (I lift my eyes to you); afterwards David Cannon asked for a copy of my song book! Quite a good attendance, but Howard was painting Anandi’s boat. Afterwards went to see Phil and thank him for part in plant-watering, and we stayed for a couple of hours. In the evening we watched the rest of Picnic at Hanging Rock, which was mysterious.