It’s the Thursday after Easter, and just a mite warmer than it has been the last few days. I am in the process of writing a chess article for the local magazine, En Passant, and have been looking up some games from my early days. Surprisingly, I’ve found all the ones I was looking for and am starting with the one I won the school chess championship with – a Queen sacrifice, no less. Possibly not sound, but there you are… Dot is Zooming with Barbara about her p4c pack, which I have been editing with her this week so that it can go online. Des should be bringing the groceries over shortly.
Easter Sunday was sunny and quite warm. We had Holy Communion at church – a lovely service led by Liz Cannon, with Howard speaking, or should I say conjuring – a word he uses very frequently. I played guitar and sang; I also read the lesson because Ray has eyesight problems and was nervous in case he couldn’t decipher it. We sang the last hymn outside (I played guitar), and apparently a woman from Sussex Street came over, having heard it from afar! Steve Fiske came to church at Anna’s invitation: he has been having health problems.
We (or rather Dot) gave an Easter egg to Sophie and family from The Lathes, and later to John’s kids and Phoebe and Freddie! We also sent several e-cards. After lunch we walked to the Rosary in very pleasant weather and then cleared the garage ready for the new freezer. We also watched the boat race, which was on the Great Ouse near Ely. Cambridge won both races narrowly. There were a couple of very good Easter programmes on TV. Later by contrast we watched Line of Duty, in which another policeman was killed. Not good for recruitment.
Huge change in the weather overnight. Bitterly cold on Easter Monday, with snow showers (not settling). I had a bad night and woke early. Sorted out some poems for a new book, then watched the original Death on the Nile (brilliant), Intruder (a new series), and Fawlty Towers (an old series, but still hilarious ). We FaceTimed with the whole family. Too cold for a walk; managed 3000 steps inside. Dot ordered a vacuum cleaner.
Tuesday was still cold, with bits of snow on cars and roofs. Finished Godfrey’s book, Shifting Sands, which was very good but contained a number of errors and too few maps. I offered to edit the second edition! Lots of windy snow and hail showers. Dot had a violin lesson and long chat at Anna’s. I walked 5000 steps mainly indoors, and the new freezer arrived. Saw Norwich beat Huddersfield 7-0. Watched The Syndicate serial – not bad. Cooked salmon. Chris drove Mark back from hospital after the operation on his leg. Had a brief chat with them as I was putting the bins out ( a day late because of the bank holiday).
Yesterday was still cold, but not so windy. A bit of sun, but still stayed mainly indoors and had a very low step count. Strange day: we joined in a virtual tour of Old Jerusalem, which was very good, especially towards the end. I then had a What’sApp message from Vicky Myers to say my hotmail account had been hacked and was sending people messages asking for a “favor”, which deceived one or two people, although I’m not sure what the hacker was getting out of it. I changed the password, and toyed with closing the account, but Microsoft were making it very difficult to do anything.
In the middle of all this, Dot’s new hoover was delivered, and I started sorting out chess games for the article. Took grocery list over and chatted to Chris, then John, who was planting sunflowers for his daughter. Transferred some food into new freezer. Paul rang. Watched football, then Intruder, then The Terror, which was really not very good. I’m not sure why – perhaps the unconvincing setting, perhaps the ridiculous supernormal beast, perhaps the lack of women… Don’t know why they bothered.