Another rather miserable, rainy day – not tempting us very much to go to the polling station for the city and county election, especially as our vote will have absolutely no effect on the result. But I expect we will anyway. At the moment Dot is on another long Zoom call to Barbara about p4c, and I’ve just finished a couple of hours of catching up with my e-mails, which suddenly got very demanding.
To complete last Sunday, some of which was covered in my last post, after lunch we walked up to the Rosary, narrowly avoiding the rain. We then watched a lot of TV, including first three episodes of The Killing, a Danish noir which was really very good; Formula One; the Line of Duty finale, which worked without being jaw-dropping; and MOTD 2, featuring Spurs winning 4-0 against Sheffield Utd.
Monday’s weather was unpleasant again, but we drove to Morrison’s to buy a few odd things, and I left Dot to look round Hobbycraft and the card shop, though not Boots, which was shut because it was a bank holiday. Meanwhile I re-watched a bit of Fargo, then David FaceTimed and we had a chat about Jennie’s funeral. Dot arrived home towards the end of this.
Earlier we watched a river trip down the Shannon – a consistently interesting but low-key series narrated by Bill Nighy. We also watched Whiplash, which was compelling in a not particularly good way, but it featured some excellent acting and an amazing drum solo. We then started watching Ted Lasso on the recommendation of David, and it proved to be excellent. At the time of writing we have consumed six episodes. Walked indoors up to 4000+ steps: very windy and heavy rain during the evening.
On Tuesday we drove to Coventry and met Jackie Duah, the new manager at Minster Lodge, who seemed nice, as did the other staff. Very showery day, but not too bad for driving, though there was plenty of traffic, despite the frequent MINIMISE TRAVEL signs on the gantries. The now completed stretch of the A14 north of Cambridge is brilliant, cutting down hugely on travel time and making it almost enjoyable. Dot and I shared the driving, stopping at Cambridge Services both ways. Not many people in there. On the way back I drove as far as the Memorial at Elvedon before we swapped, because Dot was drinking coffee purchased at the Services.
Andrew seemed very good – he has a new room on the ground floor because he occasionally had trouble on the stairs. Both of us had COVID tests and answered a questionnaire on Andrew’s care. We were with him for more than 90 minutes. Got home just after 6pm after filling up with petrol. Watched the final episode of The Syndicate, which was only satisfying in that the villain was in jail in France without his dog. The heroine was still an idiot.
Yesterday was showery again, and pretty nippy. We both woke early, and Martin Wyatt came round to write down three of my songs: we spent some time playing/singing them to him. Did a pile of office work, including ordering National Geographic for Andrew, at his request. After lunch I picked up some toiletries from Joy, who is decluttering for their move on Saturday. Spent some time talking to her – or listening to her, to be more accurate. Dot meanwhile walked into the city to shop and bought me three pairs of trousers.
I went for an eye test late in afternoon: the whole process took a long tIme, and I had trouble finding my way out of the Mall, because the stairs were one-way, and that was down. Obviously, I wanted to go up; I eventually emerged on Castle Meadow, which was a bit of a waste of effort. Meanwhile, I had ordered a new pair of reading glasses. Watched half of The Blue Dahlia before going to bed – both of us very tired.