The gas engineer come today and enjoyed himself so much he stayed for over two hours. Not only that, he’s coming back on Tuesday, because he’s not sure that everything is right yet. There was a problem with one of the valves, and now he thinks there may be a blockage somewhere. Nice bloke. Hopefully he’ll sort it out.

We also got a letter from the hospital with a date to discuss my scan. September 18!!! On the plus side, it could mean there’s nothing seriously wrong, but on the minus side, I still don’t know what the problem is and so can’t really adjust my diet appropriately, and don’t know if I need to adjust it at all.

I rang the surgery this afternoon, but they hadn’t got the results yet. They suggested ringing back in a week. Fortunately, I’m not in pain at the moment.

So the diary is filling up. Next Friday we should be able to get our hair cut, barring a Covid-19 spike in Thorpe Hamlet, and on the 20th Oliver and Amy are planning to visit us, which is certainly something to look forward to.

Yesterday Anne came round in the morning, and she and Dot went up into the city . Dot bought some fruit from the market. It was verging on chilly, but in the afternoon Dot and I went up to Roger’s and had tea in the garden with him and Debbie, which was very pleasant. Even chillier today, though.

This morning I sorted out the liturgy for Sunday. We had another Cake and Compline on Tuesday, which went OK, though David (“screenitis”) and Claire (exhausted after annual leave, plus toothache) didn’t make it. Last night I had my first “proper” meal for several weeks – white fish, potatoes and asparagus.

The young blackbirds are getting to know us and are as familiar as their parents now.