The massage (neck and shoulders) seemed to go well, but following it my cold did develop, and I had a couple of really bad days, though not in the usual way, mainly – but not entirely – a bad cough, which still hasn’t quite gone away. I was told by Luke this morning, after he arrived at 8.30am unexpectedly to finish off our kitchen lights, that massage can reduce the efficiency of your immune system temporarily; so maybe that’s what happened.

It was bad enough for me to cancel a meeting at the NRO on Thursday morning, but then seemed to improve a bit, and I was well enough to go round the Hendersons’ on Saturday afternoon for tea with Paul and Holly. It then got worse again, and I had a bad night before staying at home on Sunday. I then missed the PCC meeting on Monday. It’s an ill wind…

Meanwhile Dot has been going strong, braving some really cold, windy and often wet weather which shows little sign of abating. Yesterday she met William Armstrong, the former city coroner – not to plan for my demise but to help him set up a City College reunion. They attended the college together: there were two other women there who remembered Dot in a lot more detail than she remembered them. They also remembered her being met out of college by some CNS boys who were “all in love with her”. Sort of rings a bell.

In the evening yesterday I drove Dot round to Phil’s so that she could deliver his presents without presenting him with a handful of germs, which might have happened if I’d delivered them. Meanwhile I have been DBS-checked so that I can become an authorised worship assistant. So far I have been an unauthorised one. Bit nervous about sending off my passport, driving licence and birth certificate in the same envelope, but happily they all came back this morning, intact.