Another unpleasant day, like yesterday as far as the weather is concerned. Heavily overcast and almost continuous rain, as well as being very cold. Hardly went outside at all yesterday, except to take our grocery list to Des and move the bin into the drive. I haven’t even taken it round to its usual spot at the side of the house. Snow is forecast but doesn’t look very likely, though there’s a lot elsewhere in the country. I also managed to lose to my grandson at chess. Blundered a piece at the end, but he played very well and was winning anyway.
Yesterday I managed only 3000 steps, but am determined to do better today. I did over 1000 before breakfast. Yesterday I did some Paston editing and have been asked to look at some other letters. Also made a start on putting a poetry book together; I received one from Joy McCall – a short series of ryuka that I read in about five minutes. I’m going for something a bit more substantial, but keep wondering whether I should go for something online.
I’m reading several books, particularly two I got for Christmas – one is nature writing from Scotland (from David), where I have found out a great deal about wasps, and the other is a book by Clive James about poetry (from Joy). Don’t agree with everything he says, but it’s beautifully written and is full of knowledge. Yesterday we watched Some like it Hot, which was brilliant, and a bit of Goldfinger, breaking off to view Spurs drawing 1-1 with Fulham on Amazon Prime. I think they took next-day delivery too far. Also saw the end of The Pembrokeshire Murders, a dramatised version of the hunt for a serial killer. Very well done. Adrian was very keen we should watch it, possibly because it’s both good and Welsh.
Last Friday Dot and I walked together to the post office, which was surprisingly empty, and posted parcels to Oliver and Amy. We then walked over the Julian bridge. It was very cold and foggy. Later we watched Mr Holmes, an excellent film where I learned more about wasps, but even more about bees. Then Wonder Woman, which has some overtly Christian elements, though that’s not why we watched it.
On Saturday Norwich beat Coventry 2-0 in the FA Cup, and I started the second chess game with Oliver – the one I lost today. Again it was very cold, but sunny. I went for a longish walk with Dot to the Rosary, then down Rosary Road and back along Riverside. We watched an American series called a teacher – ten 30-minute episodes – which was a bit predictable but had a good ending.
We stayed in bed late on Sunday. It was cold again (well, it’s January), but not quite as bad as it was. Excellent Songs of Praise from Stirling, and I went for a short walk after lunch, up to Bishop Bridge and then towards the Cathedral and back through The Close. As I’d done steps earlier, this brought me to over 4000. We had a Zoom service with Liz C preaching and an agape “meal” at 6pm, then watched Spiral – a French police procedural which is pretty good, but not as good as it was.
Monday was strange. Cold, with a bit of wind; so walked indoors. Cleared up leaves for brown bin and sliced up cardboard for recycling. Later we watched The Serpent, another drama based on a true-life serial killer. This is extremely well done, based mainly in the Bangkok area. There was also a PCC meeting with the Archdeacon, mainly to discuss what would happen to our parish after the current interregnum. Even Dot got bored with it, and she’s good at meetings. Fortunately God is more exciting than the Church of England.
It rained overnight, and Tuesday was – you guessed it – very cold, though sunny later. We had our passports approved after submitting them online and having the photos we took ourselves rejected. We then went to the Photo Booth in the station and did them there at a cost of £6 each. I had to buy a bottle of wine in the Co-op to get change – everything (except photo booths) takes cards now. Quite a tricky process and, now I think about it, probably a bit risky, virus-wise, though I don’t think many people are getting passports renewed at the moment. Later I walked to Bishop Bridge and back along the riverside path. On the way out saw Margaret ad Michael Matthews, both of who have Bromptons.
Later Amy and Oliver FaceTimed to say they had got their parcels. We watched them open them. Glad we sent them. Later we watched Bean – The Movie and The Truman Show, the latter on the recommendation of Amy. It was indeed very good.
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