The weather is still warm, but a drop in temperature is forecast after midweek. So summer may be nearly over. Still, we have been making the most of it. Last Tuesday, for instance, we had a lovely lunch with Sue and Roger Eagle in their exquisite garden at Hempnall. Very enjoyable, and I relaxed a little with the diet. Don’t know if that affected why happened later in the week.
Anyway we had good news: our dishwasher was in and ready to be delivered, and we had a date for an engineer to look at our defective hob. In the evening we resorted to a Zoom compline because the new Rule of Six prevented eight of us getting together in Vicky’s garden as we did last time.
On Wednesday we had a lie-in and listened to the latest episode of Ms Rolf on Mother Julian. Dot went to the shops in the afternoon and got three picture frames which she spent the rest of the day filling with three pictures: they look very good. There was a slightly cooler wind, but this had abated somewhat by the next day, when we travelled to Felbrigg Hall to meet Dave and Julia. We arrived almost exactly on time, but needless to say D&V got there first (and were let in even though they were early – booking because of COVID).
We had a drink and then went for a walk round the walled garden, followed by lunch (I had soup). There was a certain amount of queuing for that. Afterwards we went for another short walk till about 3.30pm. I didn’t feel i could walk any further; so we left them heading south over the fields and drove to North Walsham, where we visited Sainsburys and the cemetery. In the evening we watched an exciting game of ODI cricket in which Australia narrowly beat England from an almost impossible position. Then David FaceTimed us as we were getting into bed. He looked more relaxed than he has recently.
On Friday Anne came round and while she was here Gary the electrician arrived with his bill, which I paid immediately as I had the Barclays website open. It was probably the quickest he has ever been paid by anyone. Dot and Anne then went off for a walk and lunch in the city, and while they were gone I had a horrendous pain in my stomach – so bad that I almost rang her. Glad I didn’t, because it eased off after a bit, though it left me exhausted, and I was lying on the bed when she got back. I now think it was another stone, because since then (until this evening) my urine was orange again, and I was feeling distinctly below par. However, I am now OK, I think. Until the next one.
The next day was warm, and the dishwasher arrived. The men from Hughes wouldn’t remove our facia boards; so I had to demonstrate my DIY expertise by removing them myself. They were then able to install the machine, and as I write it is washing its second lot of dishes. After they left we watched NCFC play Preston NE at Carrow Road. This was on TV, of course, though there were 1000 fans present. Actually it was on computer, but I managed to transfer it on to TV for the second half, much to Dot’s delight.
Meanwhile there was drama at the Tour de France when the man everyone expected to win was overtaken on the last stage – a time trial, which he was supposed to be good at. I would mention the names of the two men involved, but they’re both Slovenian, and I can’t remember them.
Today we went to church and made a bit of a mess of the last hymn. It was all a bit of a disaster because I had to go home for my glasses, and both Phil and Dot need me there to feel secure. I know – ridiculous. Anyway, the first two songs were more or less OK. Afterwards we decided to give our surplus guitar to one of Carrie’s needy groups.
This afternoon I cut a bit if ivy and trimmed a couple of shoots at the top of the hedge. Andrew rang up, but for some reason FaceTime wouldn’t work, though we could hear each other. He sounded perky but mainly incoherent. In the evening we watched an excellent drama about serial killer Dennis Nilsen, followed by a documentary on the same subject.