My article for the Diocesan Magazine is now done and dusted, and I think, approved, though I got into some confusion with the editor this morning about ear syringing. It turned out to be an unrelated query. Interestingly, the only person who wanted to change what I wrote about them was Liz, who asked me to alter the bit about her “work for Palestinians” into “work for Palestinians and Israelis”, which rather removed the controversial element. I decided to keep her quotes in, though.

Found myself in a meeting at Blofield Rectory last Thursday, having been invited by Barbara Pilch. Also there were Matt, Rob, the Rector and both the PIlches, and we discussed how Footprints and Blofield could help each other. Will be looking at my leaflet again to alter it to fit Footprints style, and am also involved in wording a display board inside the church, underneath the Edward Paston monument.

The meeting happened after Linda cut our hair (postponed for two days).

The next day Dot and I went to see Jessie, and I cancelled a projected visit to Halesworth poets because things had got a bit late for it to work (we hadn’t finished our evening meal in time). Instead I watched Norwich City play Birmingham on NOW TV while Dot went to see it in person. It was pretty cold: I walked there with her and ran into electrician Luke on the way back. We had a brief discussion about him fixing our kitchen lights, and as a result I feel confident that it will happen. Of course it would have happened anyway, but now it might be sooner. Norwich won 3-1 – all the goals coming in the first 20 minutes or so. The second half was pretty boring, actually.

On Sunday our son departed for three weeks in Canada, arriving at an exciting -20C. It wasn’t quite that cold here, but we have been scraping windows and feeling the chill. I led the service, and in the evening we went to the Seagull, where I did a new song, Passing Through, and an old one, The Rolling Hills of Pakefield, both with Dot on violin. Kaaren read a poem about Dot, which rather embarrassed her, but it was quite a compliment, because she loves Dot’s violin playing. I also read three poems – Climber, Epiphany and I will not write a poem. The last is about Jessie, who we went to see again yesterday, on her 86th birthday. Still frail, but clinging on.

Before visiting Jessie I went to see Dr Hampsheir, who explained the advantages of a lesser-strength statin in a non-pressing way. Turns out that if I took it, my cholesterol would reduce and I would have a 23% chance of dying in the next ten years, instead of 30%, as I have now. I’m thinking about it, but not much.

After returning from North Walsham I walked up to Boots to have my eyes tested. The optometrist was pretty thorough, and it seems I’m Ok. He suggested I could get some slightly improved lenses if I wanted to, and today I met Dot out of Presto (where she was lunching with Sue Eagle and Pam) and went and chose some frames, with help from Amy, an assistant who was as lovely as her name suggests, although not quite as stunning as my granddaughter.

After that I got some petrol, then drove Dot up to the Julian Hospital to see Maryta, where she managed to gain entrance at the third attempt. Maryta was not too bad. While they talked I was walking round the cemetery and making an amazing discovery: that it was not a separate cemetery but the back of the Earlham Crematorium. You would have to know the road set-up and the size of it all to understand why this was not obvious, but I felt sadly diminished, because my sense of direction is usually one of my strong points, and this had never occurred to me.