Things were strangely calm last Thursday morning. It was still coldish, but warm enough for a walk. I went up to the Rosary, out the back and along to Gas Hill, which I descended after a brief excursion down St Matthew’s Terrace and St Leonard’s Terrace. I then walked home along Riverside Road and found Dot, who had been cleaning up the garden ready for Saturday, chatting to Mark. Surprised he was up and around, but he seemed OK. Finished my chess article and sent it off, then David FaceTimed to say Jannie Comes was seriously ill and on a ventilator. She had had a fall and a stroke. I rang Kristine to let her know and e-mailed Anne C, who rang me back. Spent some time replying to people who had e-mailed me after receiving a fake message when my Hotmail account was hacked. 

It all happened on Friday, which dawned grey and dull, with quite a bit of rain despite the forecast. Dot walked over to Boots in morning, and we got a surprise phone call, wanting us to fix our second jabs for the next day. After establishing that this would be in the morning and not interfere with our grandchildren’s visit, we graciously accepted. I rang Vicky to let her know, and we agreed that any reaction to the jab was unlikely to happen until 24 hours later.

I walked up to post a letter and then round to Morrisons’s, where I got some cash out for the children. Then it was announced that the Duke of Edinburgh had died at the age of 99. TV schedules were trashed, which was fair enough up to a point, but then veered into the wildly excessive. BBC1 and BBC2 were broadcasting the same thing at the same time, over and over again. I quite liked Prince Philip, but this rapidly got too much. It also totally overshadowed the new that Jennie C had died, which I didn’t discover till the next day, when Kristine rang us.

Before that, however, we had risen early on Saturday and driven up to Lionwood for our jabs. All went amazingly smoothly. Our appointment was for 9.10, but we arrived there at about 8.50 and went straight in for jabs. We were home by 9.20. It was a good day – dry, partly sunny and slightly less cold, with no wind. Kristine rang as were preparing for the children. We lit the cheminiere but decided it as too smokey for Oliver, so put it out again.

I texted David about Jennie as the grandchildren were arriving, just before 1pm. It was just about OK to eat in garden – it wouldn’t have been the day before or the day after – and we opened Christmas parcels with David on FT. Gave Oliver and Amy, who were quite perky, £50 each as well. Vicky was also in good form. Afterwards we all walked up to the Rosary, which was very pleasant. Vicky hadn’t been there before. Walked home and had a drink before they left at around 4pm. We then watched the second half of the Norwich game against Derby, which they won 1-0. After supper we watched a couple of things and both went to sleep during a play. Felt pretty awful when I woke, with a very fuzzy head. Went to bed early and had a pretty mediocre night. 

Woke early yet again on Sunday, feeling very tired. Dot too; so we decided not to go to church – after much indecisiveness on my part. Felt quite down. Showery, unpleasant day, often hailing fiercely. Had bath and sent off prayers to Phil and Howard for use in service. Felt a bit fluey, though not excessively. Carrie suggested singing national anthem outside at church – happily this was not taken up. She also suggested a Latin service at a medieval fair in autumn. Not convinced. Phone call from Debbie about updating Meditation website.  Apparently she, Howard and Martin (Smith) had had a Zoom meeting about it, which is interesting as I’m the only person who updates it.   

Had a deep night’s sleep.  Yesterday we had blue sky most of the day. It was chilly but not too bad, and I walked with  Dot to post sympathy card to Phil Coomes, then to Rosary for a shortish walk while Dot went home feeling very tired. Nobody in cemetery – wrote website piece about it. Found some writing training stuff and sent it to Anne C at her request. She seemed very happy with it.

In the afternoon Dot went to Verena for a massage. We watched Line of Duty, which was very good as always, though I’m not sure how they can spin it out for another three episodes. Too many people are getting killed or sacked. We then rewatched the play we had fallen asleep in – Sitting – and discovered it was really excellent: a three-hander written by Katherine Parkinson (who was also in it) and very cleverly staged and directed using Zoom, or some such. Brilliant idea and superb acting.