I am writing this while Dot is being massaged by Verena. I’ve just been “done” – my arm, neck and back are now much looser. Verena is good for morale. Earlier today we picked up our new car and said goodbye to the Mazda MX5. Very pleased with our Mazda 3 Sport, though we haven’t worked out the navigation console yet. Very cold day, incidentally, but at least it’s not raining.
Busy weekend, centring on Blofield. Dot has had either a bad cold or an allergic reaction to the painting of our kitchen cupboards and drawers, and so I drove to Blofield on my own to see Hexachordia demonstrate their range of medieval musical instruments in entertaining fashion and to demonstrate my Paston alliegiance. Rob, Peter and Matt were all there, but weren’t going to be there for the concert the following day; so Rob asked me to introduce it. However it turned out that David Pilch was preparing to do it; so that was OK.
In fact Dot was better yesterday; so she came to the concert. We arrived early enough to put out the banners, but someone had already done it. When Barbara and I tried to hoist the other banner, it broke. Ironically, if we had waited for Dot she would have been able to do it, as it was similar to her P4C one. The concert was pretty good: I took some pictures for the group (three of them, and all multi-talented). Afterwards we had medieval pudding and pies, which were all right.
Before Blofield on Saturday I went on a Shardlake group walk with Paul Dickson, starting at the Maids Head. Again the weather was fine, and not so cold. This was intended as a birthday present for Dot, but she wasn’t well enough to go. I enjoyed it, though it was quite tiring. Paul was excellent, and I chatted with a crazy woman from Kenninghall on a mobile scooter. Crazy in the nicest way.
Dot probably made a mistake (health-wise) by attending a DCC meeting at Elwira’s on Friday night. She had been busy all day and it was probably too much. The meeting was OK – interestingly the attendance at the DCC was exactly the same as at Morning Worship on Sunday. Not the same people, of course. Maximum and minimum.
Barry was his usual self all week, doing an excellent job on the kitchen cupboards and providing music too. But it was hard avoiding all the sticky paint. Bit tense. Linda cut our hair on Friday and did it in Amy’s room, doing the washing in the kitchen while Barry’s back was turned.
On Thursday evening I was introducing our Paston session at Gresham village hall – after spending a disproportionate time finding it. Very dark, North Norfolk. I eventually asked a man with a dog, which shows you how desperate I was. Even then I drove past the village hall, thinking it was a house, and never saw the church. However, I got there in time.
The introduction went quite well, and the response was good. Peter’s wife Brenda was there, and if he didn’t have a contact with almost everyone, she did.
Last Wednesday – the only other dry day in the week – was Paul’s funeral. Phil came round here, and we drove upon his car together, arriving so early that they wouldn’t let us in. This proved just as well, because it was colder inside the Rosary chapel than out. About 25 people there, of whom I knew a fair number. Dot was not well enough to come. We walked up to the grave and got there well before the hearse. Afterwards we drove in Phil’s car to the wake at The Cottage on Thunder Lane, which was very pleasant. Spoke to Pat, Stephen and Mark and their spouses, plus a woman who used to clean for us but didn’t know I was related to Paul; the man who led the service, Richard Sadler, and his wife; Elizabeth Wurr; and Ada Wurr – widow of David.
One other thing – on Thursday Phil Gazley came round and we talked some more about his Community Support Teams project.