Thursday was chilly, with showers. After lunch we drove up to vote, then I walked back via the Rosary. Later Bridget came to clean and gave us some fish cakes she had bought, which were excellent. Must have a word with her – she charges too little and then uses part of her proceeds to buy us food. Very sweet. We finished off watching the excellent Ted Lasso and The Blue Dahlia, an oldish film that was quite good, though I have doubts about Alan Ladd’s acting. Veronica Lake was much more restrained and therefore better. She also looked good. Dot rang Judy, who is better after a bad stomach day, and did some Paston editing, among other things.
Friday was a very strange day. Martin Wyatt came round early to check the songs he is transcribing. He didn’t need to change much. Then we drove to Taverham for lunch in Janet and Derek’s garden. She cooked a lovely salmon dish, and the weather was just about warm enough, but it started to rain after dessert; so we went inside for tea and coffee. Derek reminds me of Basil Fawlty: we get on well.
Watched the end of The Bandwagon, which contains a truly stunning dance sequence by Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. I don’t like musicals or men dancing, but I love Fred Astaire, who is synonymous with both. He is unique. We went into the street for a drink with Des, Chris, Mark, Jonathan, Freddie, Phoebe and Sabrina – a new woman in Number 3. Afterwards we watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which turned out to be pretty good. Then watched Alan Partridge, who is still almost funny.
Saturday was a miserable day – grey and with constant rain till evening. Caught up with some Paston editing and ordered some books for David, with whom we had a long FaceTime conversation, quite a bit of it on politics. Norwich drew 2-2 with Barnsley away and received the trophy on the pitch afterwards. Later we watched an interesting programme about Emmylou Harris and then a short Old Grey Whistle concert by her and The Hot Band, dating back many years. EH was beautiful when young, and, strangely, is even more striking now. Afterwards we watched most of MOTD, in which Spurs lost 3-1 after a wrong offside decision was given against Kane. This clearly took the heart out of them.
During all the rain and general unpleasantness, Phil and Joy made a successful move from 36 Anchor Street, where they have lived for 40 years, to Eckling Grange at Dereham. They got a lot of help from Surrey Chapel, and when Dot contacted Joy, she seemed quite happy.
Yesterday was a big contrast as far as the weather was concerned – much brighter and almost warm, though windy. Finished scanning some corrected Paston pages and sent them to Peter before church, where I was leading. Howard preached – he worries about strange things… After lunch I caught up with office stuff, then Dot and I walked to the Rosary, where we encountered a few drops of rain.
Watched a couple more episodes of The Killing, plus the Spanish Grand Prix, won by Hamilton. In between I Zoomed into Suffolk Poetry Festival for readings by Nicola Warwick and George Szirtes. I nearly dozed off during the former, which was totally lacking in spark or originality, but GS was brilliant. We got to bed late after watching some of MOTD2.