The weather has settled down a bit: it’s been cold but mostly calm and sometimes sunny over the last four or five days. As a result I’ve put together a whole week in which I’ve walked over 4000 steps a day. This may not seem much, but it’s quite satisfying as it appears to mean I’m recovering from my illness.
It did rain in the evening last Thursday, but by then I’d walked my 4000 steps, and we had chili con carne in the way I’ve always done it. I have to say it tasted very good, possibly because it’s a long time since we’ve had it. But there’s not all that much fat in it; so why not? We’ve been watching The Crown, which seems to get worse as it approaches the present. There’s been a lot of criticism in the media: I’ve never been a fan of Prince Charles, but I’m sure he can’t have been so consistently bad. Gillian Anderson sort of had Mrs Thatcher’s voice, but she was the wrong shape (head and body), making her look a bit top heavy and weaker than she was. Prince Philip and Princess Margaret came off best, perhaps, and Princess Diana looked the part. Got the impression that the writer, Peter Morgan, didn’t really like anyone involved, which is not helpful for a writer.
On Friday we drove up to Sainsbury’s to get some soup and one or two other things, then I walked quite a way back along Yarmouth Road, noticing a track to the river that I hadn’t been aware of before. I returned to it the following day and discovered a whole world I didn’t know existed. Reached the river and could have got on to the marsh if the path was a bit drier. For a fuller description, see my website. In the afternoon Phil came round with presents for Dot and stayed for a cup of tea. He walked both ways; so can’t be too bad.
It was cold again on Saturday, when I did the Thorpe walk. I Had just left when the Archers came round with birthday presents. Dot spoke to them outside and got pretty cold. Received letter from the NHS urging us to book a flu vaccine and scan ourselves into a digital hub to save them the expense of sending out letters. Needless to say, Dot rang about the vaccine and was told there wasn’t any. I tried to scan into the hub, and the system was down. No wonder the NHS is at risk of being overwhelmed.
This was a good day in other ways. Norwich beat Middlesbrough 1-0 away to go top of the table, and Spurs beat Manchester City 2-0 to go top of the Premier League. We bought a day from NOW TV to watch Norwich, but then discovered it wasn’t on; so we watched the Spurs match instead. Very high quality stuff from both teams.
Earlier Anne had come round with presents and stayed for a couple of hours. I tried to stay well clear of her. An extremely large poinsettia was delivered from Julia and Dave, and we rang them and had a chat.
Sunday was Dot’s 75th birthday! She received quite a lot of presents, considering the lockdown, and spent some time organising her new Fitbit, which isn’t a Fitbit but something very similar. Despite present-opening and fizzy wine, we got to the 10am Zoom joint service just in time. It was led by Richard Turk and featured a sermon by the Archdeacon. It was her visitation Sunday, but of course she couldn’t do all the admin things she should have done. Lucky her.
After lunch we went for a walk at Fairhaven, which was very enjoyable. South Walsham Broad was beautiful in the sun. They had a one-way system in operation, but surprisingly there weren’t many people there. At the end Dot had a takeaway Chelsea Bun, which she pronounced the best she’d ever had. Also hot chocolate. I drove, and we got home in time for a FaceTime with Oliver and David. It was snowing in Canada. I cooked a special Lasagne that we’d bought at Sainsbury’s, and Dot had sticky toffee pudding. We watched The Apartment – a classic film.
Yesterday I spoke at some length to Phil Kerrison on the phone while he was walking his dog on Earlham Park. He seemed a bit down; so I’m glad I rang. Then Minster Lodge rang me to talk about David’s care plan. He seems to be doing pretty well. I’ve finished selecting a number of poems as candidates for a new book, but may have to thin them down further. I’ve only looked at the last ten years. In the afternoon we walked up to the Rosary, which was very pleasant, and in the evening we watched The Nice Guys, an excellent, witty film that would have been near-perfect without the offensive swearing.
This morning the window cleaner came and asked for possible audio material; so I’m sending him a link to Veronica Mary Rolf, which I hope he finds interesting!