Norwich City against Manchester City went pretty well, much to everyone’s surprise. We won 3-2, and so Dot, who decided to go at the last minute after encouragement from David, was over the moon. So was Oliver. The rest of us were pretty happy too: David and children arrived at the front door at more or less the same time as Dot got home.
We ordered takeaway from Nando’s and had a good evening, with Oliver and Amy both showing their expertise on the piano. The next day David dropped me off at church, where I was preaching, and picked me up afterwards. He had bought us some food for lunch and some extras for the next few days. They left just after 4pm because Oliver had a party at 7.30pm. Lovely to see them.
Monday was a frustrating day. My arm was pretty painful, and I decided to ring the Plaster Room at the hospital to get them to have a look at it, or to give me some advice. I rang most of the day with no reply and by 4pm was so annoyed that I decided to go up there. Happily we arrived just before the Plaster Room shut and found there had been two people on all day, when there should have been five. Nevertheless they agreed to have a look and cut a window in my plaster. Nothing appeared to be wrong, or even suspicious. I immediately felt better.
Most of the week after that merged into one. The TV wasn’t working properly despite two visits from Ryan, and I wanted to buy a new computer for Dot, as hers was so slow. Eventually we found ourselves in the Apple store and after discussion agreed on a new Air laptop (gold), leaving it overnight for all her stuff to be transferred and her old one to be wiped.
At least, that’s what I thought. We were told the process would take up to 72 hours but we got a call the next day to say it was ready. When we got there, we found we had to wait for the old one to be wiped and an operating system to be installed. Both waits seemed interminable. The first day I had to pretend to fall asleep; the second I wandered round in what I hoped was an annoying fashion. But we eventually got sorted, and both computers seem to be working OK.
We followed up the second visit by going to John Lewis and buying a new BT box. Back home, I set it up, and for one brief moment everything seemed to be fine. Then it said we had no internet connection, and the BT player wouldn’t work. I considered attempting suicide, but I guessed that wouldn’t work; so I pulled the plug of the router out of the mains, and after a while I put it back. Now it all works. At the moment, anyway.
Somewhere in the middle of all this we called Green Flag, because the MX5 battery was flat. They started it easily enough, but we had to stand over it while the engine ran for about an hour. After that Dot took it for a drive, after discovering she could get in the car. That must have been Wednesday. On Thursday I discovered I could get in the car, but I could’t drive it, of course. We went up to the garage to discuss the future, but the garage had some kind of event on, and there was no room to park.
Last night Dot gave me a lift to Anteros, where the private view of Joy McCall’s new book was taking place. Quite pleasant: she was collaborating with another poet at death’s door and an artist who seemed reasonably healthy. Also present: her husband Andy, publisher Adrian Bell, printer Nick Gorvin, Trevor Nuthall (writer and local historian) and for some reason James Goffin. Linda Street’s son Jack read Joy’s poems.
It’s been reasonably warm. Today the man came to put up new blinds in the kitchen. They look nice, but Dot has trouble reaching the cord on the big window. This afternoon Paul arrived simultaneously with Harriet, but Dot managed to get rid of Harriet by asking her to come another time, and we had a long talk with Paul. Afterwards we went to the cinema on the spur of the moment and watched Downton Abbey, which was really enjoyable nearly all the time.
I have managed to establish that the insurance company has paid for the car, but I suspect there is practically nothing left over. The holiday insurance are unlikely to pay out at all because I should have rung them at the time, and anyway I don’t really fit their criteria.