Weather has taken a turn for the worse over the last week, with quite a bit of rain and not much heat. But there have been brighter intervals. It started in darkness, when Tenebrae (get it?) put on a choral concert at the Cathedral on Monday as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. Beautifully done, but a bit like prog-rock in that the precision and excellent technique come at the expense of being not very interesting. Very few words were audible, and it all sounded a bit the same. I felt it could have done with a film in front of it.
On Tuesday we were expecting the gas man to come and service our boiler and radiators, but it turned out to be a woman – Lucy from Yorkshire, who combined being shy with being talkative – no mean feat. Gave her a cup of tea and had a chat. She admired our old boiler, as most gas persons do.
Dot was in the city at the time. Later we went out to North Walsham to take Rob’s projector back and put some flowers in the cemetery ( it was Dot’s father’s birthday). Later still we walked up to the church hall with four bottles of wine for a birthday party for Carrie, Judy, Sophie and Martin Wyatt. They are not quadruplets, but were all born around the same time. Anna organised it, and it went remarkably well considering that Carrie, Judy and Sophie are the people who usually organise parties. Martin and Matt (Williams) both brought their wives, who we did not know. Vicky came, and the Archers would have come, but they were too late leaving Cambridge. Chris Denton also came, and Dot and I spent quite a bit of time talking to her: she didn’t know many other people, but it was also the anniversary (roughly) of her mother’s death and – coincidentally – her mother’s funeral. Her mother was Anne Travis, who had been our longest-serving member.
On Friday we went round to see Maryta and Joe – her son – who had come to keep an eye on her while Paul is in Israel with Holly. Maryta was her usual self but Joe was amazingly laid back. We were allowed three-quarters of an hour before Maryta decided they ought to take the dog for a walk.
We were back in good time to have our hair cut by Linda (a rearranged appointment), and later still I drove to Halesworth for a poetry reading at the Swan. I left Norwich early – fortunately, as the road was closed again and I had to negotiate an alternative route. Quite a good evening – about 18 people there – and I read my poem about birdwatching in Costa Rica, which was based on an excursion by one of the other poets, who maybe fortunately wasn’t there! Drove home on the main road, which I normally avoid because of the ludicrous speed limit. No, I mean really ludicrous. At Halesworth it was dry, but by the time I got home, it was very wet again.
Saturday was the highlight of the week, because we celebrated another birthday – David’s – by driving to Caddington, having a delicious lunch prepared by Amy and then (after champagne) all going to Spice, the Indian restaurant. In between we saw the first half of the Cup Final, which Manchester City won 6-0, and played an ingenious geographical game invented by Amy. Oliver is about a third of the way through his GCSEs, but showing no signs of tension. Dot drove down and I drove back, arriving just after 11pm. The house in Caddington looked terrific. The garden has been done, and the oven cleaned. We brought DavId’s training bicycle home, left it in the car overnight and put it in the garage this morning, after church.
I had preached at church on love , and although I didn’t feel as confident as I sometimes do, everyone seemed to like it. I even read one of my poems at the beginning of it. The rest of the day we have, one way or another, been preparing to go to Nottingham tomorrow. We cleaned the car inside and out. Still spots of rain, but the forecast is much better.