Autumn has truly set in. it’s raining again today , and has rained just about every day since my last post. There is also a chill in the air. Last night we missed our wine-in-the-street event again. Des tried to persuade us to come out, but it was not only grey and chilly, it was also spotting with rain. Added to that I had a stomach upset earlier in the day – probably not gall bladder-related, but unpleasant – and was feeling fragile.
The upset came at lunchtime, while we were entertaining Julia and Allen Higbee. Dot did a pie with filo pastry, which was actually very nice; I don’t think it was the food that caused the problem. Other than my time upstairs, we had a good time together from 11.30 till just after 3pm.
We also binged a bit on screen-watching after they went. Two hours on a good documentary on Lawrence of Arabia, the same again on the film Cop Land, which was quite good, and another two on Vera.
We should be having our hair cut about now, but Linda postponed till Monday, which was quite a good thing, as Norwich City are playing at 12.30 – live on TV of course, because of Covid – and this afternoon at 3pm is the Zoom awards ceremony of the Crabbe Poetry Award, in which I was highly commended and have to read a poem – Young Birds.
Last Monday we had our Compline, which has reverted to Zoom because of the new restrictions (Rule of Six). I was hosting and managed to make it work after a couple of problems. Vicky had triple-booked herself, so it was a bit shorter than usual.
On Tuesday it rained most of the day. Dot had her pre-session chat with Verena on FaceTime to avoid too much interaction (!), but when she actually went to see her on Thursday it still lasted an hour (£42). I did quite a lot of work on one of the more obscure Paston “letters” – a legal document about the dispute between Sir William and Walter Aslak: 2300 words, which I completed on Wednesday. During Tuesday and Wednesday we also watched Honour, an excellent true-life drama about the killing of a Muslim girl and Enola Holmes, a Netflix film about Sherlock Holmes’ sister, which was also pretty well done.
Wednesday’s weather was a little better, but the rain returned in the evening. We went to Hobbycraft in the car and bought a carefully selected DIY frame for Roger’s picture, which we’d had professionally framed but didn’t like the result. We managed to put it together and have hung it on the stairs. The next day I hung a picture that Julia and Dave had bought us, which we also framed. It’s in the kitchen and looks pretty good.
Dot spent much of Thursday preparing for Friday’s lunch, but she did see Verena in the afternoon. I got the bus into the city and picked up the DVD of our Super 8 films (19 of them) dating back to the 1980s. I watched them while Dot was with Verena, and we both watched them again when she got back. Less than an hour in all, and some of poor quality, but definitely worth the £210 spent on getting them done. We now need to go through them and make notes about what is on them. Some of the locations are a bit obscure. As well as a continuous film (with soundtrack), they are also split up[ into 19 separate chapters, which could be useful.
In the evening we watched Bridge of Spies, an excellent film which seemed familiar in places, but I certainly don’t remember the opening sequences. David FaceTimed us later in the evening, and we had a good talk as usual.