Meant to post this a couple of days ago, but the weekend turned out to be pretty busy, though not as busy as David’s. He’s been clearing out his house in preparation for putting it on the market: we had a FaceTime chat with him last night.
On Saturday we went to Jessie’s. She seemed bit improved, if anything, but the weather was not good; so there was no visit to the summerhouse. In fact the last few days have been rainy and windy: this morning is sunny, but still a little chilly. After getting lunch for Jessie we went to Sainsbury’s and then on to the cemetery, where we had another look for the grave of Dot’s grandmother Susannah, but we couldn’t find it. Dot put a new flower container on Doreen’s grave. She had sent away for it from Amazon, and it fit perfectly, which pleased her no end.
In the evening we watched Norwich playing away to QPR on Now TV (£7.99), and they won 1-0 after dominating the game. Satisfying.
Yesterday we went to church for Communion with Sarah and Anna (lectio divina), and after lunch decided to visit Lucy. Sad to say that Naomi has a dog, albeit a very small one. Good chocolate biscuits, though Lucy is still unhappy about the whole Paston thing and likes to talk about it.
Going backwards in time we come to last Tuesday, when we had our hair cut, then went up to church to meet Jim, the guy from Professional Music Technology who was going to look at our sound system. Unfortunately he was tied up; so we got rid of some loft stuff at the tip and Age Concern and then returned. Jim, who is a sound engineer, was extremely helpful with advice. We bought a new cable off him: he said a loop system would probably cost about £2000; so we decided not to pursue it at the moment. Really nice guy. Looked like a biker.
In the evening we had Cake and Compline at ours, but only the Archers and Judy came. Vicky didn’t have the date in her diary, and Claire was doing something in the garden… As it happened we saw Vicky yesterday: she came to church with the children and with her mum, Helen, which was nice. We also have a couple of new members of the congregation: Marjorie, an old lady in a wheelchair, and her daughter-in-law Sharon.
Last Thursday I road-tested a hearing aid by taking it up to the T-Junction and having a cup of tea with Dot. The background noise was louder and so was my own voice, but it didn’t seem to make much difference to my hearing Dot. Rachel at Boots thought it wasn’t making enough difference; so we agreed to have another test next year. She wasn’t at all pushy – happily, since the cheapest hearing aid came in at £500.
Later we went with Anne and Philip to Ivy’s and had an excellent meal. The desserts in particular were outstanding, and the service was really good. But because we hadn’t been able to get a booking earlier than 8.45pm (I think that’s the reason) I had a very bad night, with some acid reflux, which I hadn’t had for ages.
We had another meal out on Friday at the rather earlier time of 7pm. This time it was at Neville and Mary Thrower’s off Christchurch Road. They also invited Adrian and Jane O’dell. Mary is in the orchestra with Dot, and Neville, Adrian and I were at school together. Lovely evening. The roast fig starter was especially good, and so was the conversation. Dot bought a couple of bracelets off Jane, who makes them.
Earlier in the day Paul came round for a coffee and stayed for lunch. He seems a bit down but has completed the move into his flat successfully. We later heard (from him) that he had entertained both his children over the weekend, and that this had gone well.
This morning Dot is at Brooke school, and I have just received an order from Jarrolds for five more Paston books, which I will take up later today. I also have some Parish Pump stuff to write and quite a number of e-mails to catch up on. So that’s all right.
I have completed three Apple Photobooks – one for our Golden Wedding celebration at Dereham, one for Canada, and one for Kristine of pictures I had of David Coomes. I sent that to her last week, and she seemed pleased with it. The Canada one is still on order.