It’s a new year – the second day of it, in fact, and Dot has just gone off to the shops to get some candles. It’s sunny and pretty cold, which is a vast improvement on New Year’s Day, which was heavily overcast, very damp and quite a bit colder. We stayed in bed till late morning, and after lunch had another quiz with Oliver, Amy, David, Chrissy and her three children. Each of us had ten questions to ask, and we then did a Would I Lie to You session that worked really well. Lot of fun.
Back in the old year, being wise, we looked for a star. On being told by Carrie on Sunday (27th) that the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn would be visible just after sunset, we drove up to St James Hill and certainly did not form a group with Judy and Carrie or anyone else, but looked unto the fairly clear sky for some time before realising that the conjunction was probably below the horizon. Another blow for Carrie’s infallibility, but it was fun. The ideal time to see the “star” was probably the 21st or 22nd, but this was the first clear sky since then. Earlier, after a Zoom service from St Luke’s, we had played the game David gave Dot, which was fun and easy to understand, and later we had another turkey meal and watched Grease, which had some good songs and minimal story line, which is the same as most musicals except that the songs were good.
The next day Dot and I turned left and walked along the river, which was overflowing near the Friendship Bridge, then round the back of Carrow Road, where they were doing Covid testing, and home via the back lane that runs by the railway. Eleanor called as darkness fell to pick up Claire’s gift, and later we watched Evil under the Sun, a Poirot film that it turned out we’d seen quite recently. Good, though.
Tuesday was cold and damp but very still, and we got up late. Dot walked to Boots. After lunch I walked up St Faiths Lane on to Bank Plain, then back through the Close, through playing fields and on to Bishopgate, then home along river. David FaceTimed, and I put together a bit of my quiz for new year.
The next day it was sunny in the morning, and pretty cold. We drove up to the farm shop at Oaklands in Thorpe, then dropped in at Cary’s Meadow. We walked round it, but it was waterlogged in many places. Still, we got to the river and encountered a group of three anglers setting up. Clearly they must have been living together. Dropped Dot off at Rosary , and she walked home from there. Flowers on Mum and Dad’s grave still good. Later we FaceTimed Amy and David id and made preparations for the quiz. Later we saw To Catch a Thief, which was fun, and Love and Friendship, based on a Jane Austen novella, which was excellent. Went to bed quite early.
New Year’s Eve dawned icily cold, with frost on windscreens, which must have been nice for the binmen. It was sunny at first but eventually clouded over. We decided not to go out, but walked extensively indoors till I got up to my 4000 steps. Had another excellent turkey dinner with steaks bought from the farm shop and more sprouts, then watched Santa Claus: the Movie, which was all right but could have done with some editing, and started on Bridgerton on Netflix – well done, as you’d expect. We are now three episodes in. Spoke briefly to David and Amy, and then watched the traditional Jools till about 12.30am.
On New Year’s day we had breakfast in bed with the rest of the prosecco ( “awful stuff” – M Henderson), which was actually very nice. It was overcast with some sleet, but not much. Again we stayed indoors and walked around a lot.