Here we are at the start of another week, and it’s surprisingly sunny. Dot has gone out to Poringland to see Anne. They were going to go for a walk, but Dot’s knee is still giving her problems; so they’re going for lunch at Green Pastures instead. This means I’m carless of course, but I expect I shall manage!
I have made a couple of phone calls – one to order my pills and another to pay for the flooring in the shower room, which was laid on Friday. It only took 90 minutes and looks very good. At last the room is complete! I have quite a long list of things to be done, including clearing up fallen leaves: after a windy weekend, there are a lot about.
Amy’s birthday is nearly a week ago now. We spoke to her in the evening of the day, and she was pretty excited – especially about David’s present – a projector which she uses to create pictures on the wall in her room. All being well, we shall be seeing her on Wednesday.
Also on her birthday we watched Norwich City beat Birmingham, with Vrancic coming on and scoring the winning goal near the end. He performed the same trick on Saturday against Wycombe Wanderers, this time from a free kick on the edge of the area, making the score 2-1. We had scored very early on through Pukki, but then gave away a careless goal and made hard work of the rest of the game. Idah was sent off very near the end. Deserved to win, though.
On Wednesday last week Janet and Derek Bower came for lunch (12-2.30). We put the table round the other way and liked it so much we’ve left it there. Had a very pleasant time and a good meal – salmon, Brussels pate and apple crumble with sorbet. That’s three courses, not one. And not in that order.
We’ve watched a few films – The Brink’s Job, which was quite funny, Citizen Kane (not as good as I thought it would be, though I remembered about Rosebud), and Last Holiday with Alec Guinness, which was excellent, as was Rebecca (new on Netflix and with three of my favourite actresses – Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas and Keely Hawes).
On Thursday Dot went to a violin sextet which has been set up as part of the Sillars Orchestra. It was in a house in Colney Lane, and she really enjoyed it. In the evening we went to a DCC meeting at St Luke’s, which was not as much fun, mainly because we had to wear masks and sit so far apart that I couldn’t hear half of what was going on. Just as well, probably.
After the flooring was laid on Friday (they arrived early and did an excellent job), Dot went up to Homebase and bought some paint stripper and a few hooks. She’s very into hooks at the moment, and also wants to take the paint off her table in the shower room. Paul came round at 3.30pm for a chat and report on his visit to Holly and Joe in Bath. Holly has a new boyfriend called Randall, or possibly Randle. At 5pm we had wine outside with the neighbours, as the weather was unexpectedly favourable. Still had to wear coats, though. Mark is back from Alabama, where he was involved in two hurricanes. Later we had a FaceTime with David and Chrissy, who seemed quite perky.
Dot spent much of Saturday morning writing a delicate letter to Sylvia about Phyllis and her money while I attempted to change my guitar strings. Two of them broke – I think because they were old ones. I have now sent for some new ones and hope to fit them today. They arrived latish yesterday from Amazon. Had a bit of a problem with my tuner app, but I think I’ve sorted it out now.
The clocks went back on Sunday morning; so I’ve had two very bad nights. We were in good time for church: Sarah took the Communion service, and Richard Turk preached very well. Ellie made a welcome appearance, and Kim came again. Pretty full. In the afternoon Dot posted her letter and walked to the shops while I waited for the Amazon man. I was very pleased by two sporting firsts: Hamilton won the Portuguese grand prix to score the most wins ever (92 to Schumacher’s 91), and a cyclist I had only recently heard of – Tao Geoghan Hart, who somewhat surprisingly is from Hackney and has Scottish and Irish ancestry – won the Giro d’Italia, as much to his astonishment as to everyone else’s.