Not raining, for a change. Dot has just been into the city, and I have posted a cheque to the Mint at last: it has been hanging around for an opportune moment to go to the post office. Only £2.50 for postage and packing, but still… I got a gentle e-mail reminder this morning. Our Naked Wines box has arrived with one wrong bottle – most unusual. I was very pleased that the delivery man remembered I had broken my arm and didn’t try to hand the box to me. You get a good class of delivery man round here.

David, Oliver and Amy went back home on Sunday before we left for church. Oliver was driving. He seems confident. We had a good talk on Saturday when we walked back from the city together, leaving the others in Jarrolds. Earlier we had all walked up to Goldsmith Street (near Old Palace Road) to see the architecturally prize-winning houses. The weather (rain, of course) didn’t do them any favours, but I still liked the look of them. Unfortunately they’re surrounded by really average flats. In the evening we played board games with Amy and Oliver, and there was quite a lot of table tennis, though not including me.

I cooked some salmon in the evening, with a little help from Amy on her special method (fried, with honey). Most of us had emerged from our beds at 9am to watch the Rugby World Cup Final, in which England lost to South Africa by not playing very well. Poor comparison with the semi-final, which was one of the best games I’ve seen. I know the result was very good for South Africa, and I wouldn’t want to take that away, but it was also a victory for very boring rugby. In a survey of commentators in my newspaper, none of the best matches included South Africa and nearly all the worst ones did. Good defence may be pleasing to the managers, but it’s not interesting. Brute Force 1 – Skilful running and passing 0. A couple of rule changes might solve it. Make the rolling maul illegal, for instance: it’s simply a form of legalised obstruction that you can’t prevent without giving away a penalty. Ridiculous.

Preached on Zacchaeus on Sunday – you’d never have found him in a rolling maul, although he did climb trees. Got some nice comments afterwards.

Yesterday we went to Archant Pensioners, when I found myself ensconced with David Wakefield and Bill Woodcock, which turned out to be convivial. Bill had done a dissertation at Harling on coypu, and Keith Skipper is trying to publish it. I suggested this could work with pictures and inserted jokes, because coypu are inherently funny, as is Keith. Bill wasn’t so sure.

Afterwards we drove to Swaffham for a very pleasant lunch with the HIgbees (Dot had parked in John Lewis). Used Apple Maps to find their house, and it worked well. Afterwards I drove home – not a great experience, as it was getting dark, pouring with rain, and there was heavy traffic on the southern bypass, occasionally at a standstill. (It was rush hour.) I turned off on the A140 and drove through the city via Hall Road. Not exactly lightning fast, but I think it was probably the best choice. My arm ached a bit afterwards, but no real problems.