Amy was due to come and see us yesterday, but she has a bad cold and couldn’t come. Sad for us, but worse for her: she is having a hard time at the moment. We put some money in her account and will send her other presents separately.
Today has been quite busy. I got up early and walked to Morrisons to buy bread for our lunch. After helping Dot to prepare I then had a bath. It was not too cold outside but seemed colder because of quite a strong wind. Dry here, but plenty of rain in the west and north. The Bowers arrived just after 12.30, and we had a really good time with them. Dot’s meal was lovely, and we had an interesting conversation on various topics. They’re planning to go back to their flat in South Africa in the new year for a few weeks.
Now Dot is at orchestra, and I’m…well, I’m writing this. So, to go back a bit…
On Saturday we hardly went out: it looked uninspiring and rather chilly. Not a good day. Had a further e-mail from Phil K , to which I replied. Fear we may not be on same wavelength, but I expect we’ll revert to not talking about it and getting on fine. Depressing feeling was not helped by City losing 7-0 at Chelsea. We watched on BT Sport. Not much happened the rest of the day. We watched a couple of episodes of Angela Black, a thriller.
Sunday was dry and not too cold; in fact quite warm in the sun later in the day. Decided to go to church in the end – persuaded by Dot. Between 30 and 40 in the congregation because it was a joint service with St Luke’s. Well over 90pc of them masked, but I wasn’t. No-one said anything. Phil didn’t come, but Adrian made a rare appearance on bass guitar, much to the consternation of Martin Wyatt! (Adrian is a bit erratic, to put it mildly.)
Graham preached in the absence of Martin Smith with a bad cold (lot of it about). Oodles of food gifts for harvest service. We took in a boxful – mainly cans from the cupboard. In the afternoon Dot and I walked round the back of Carrow Road and home along riverside path. Quiet for the rest of the day. We watched Guilt again and the rest of Ridley Road, which was excellent (it’s about fascism and antisemitism in London in the 60s). Also at some point we saw an excellent documentary on the River Clyde. Weekend beautifully wrapped up by Liverpool winning 5-0 and Spurs losing 1-0. Aargh!
Monday was not cold, but it was grey and there were showers, one of which I got caught in while walking to St Augustine’s Hall (from the car) in an attempt retrieve Dot’s lost sunglasses, which she eventually found at home. Had to borrow Stuart’s key to get into the hall. Earlier I finished my Parish Pump articles while Dot visited Anne: Philip is in hospital and not at all well. Later she went to Morrisons while I caught up with e-mails and walked up and down a lot (to increase my steps total).
Howard cycled round to get me to sign a couple of financial documents. Had a phone call from Amy early on to tell us about her cold. I forgot to listen to a talk about the Thorpe Rail Disaster, for which I had a Zoom link. Bit worried my mind is going. Watched the Grand Prix, plus quite a few other programmes, including Paris Police 1900, which is pretty good, Angela Black, which is excellent, and The Outlaws, which is also top class – a very unusual comedy by Stephen Merchant.
Tuesday was quite cold, especially in the cinema, where we went to see the latest James Bond film ion the afternoon. I wore an extra jumper and a coat and was still uncomfortably cold, and so was Dot. Other than that the film was good. Dot rearranged the utility room, and Amy FaceTimed us: she didn’t seem at all well. After watching the film we walked to Morrisons to get food for tomorrow’s visitors, then home for a light supper of a kipper and a lollipop. Watched Help, a quite harrowing drama about care homes during Covid. Only watched it because it starred Stephen Graham and Jody Colmer, and it was very good.
Dot got pinged because she’d been to a DSSO meeting attended by someone subsequently diagnosed with Covid. She is quite well, has recently had a booster jab and her lateral flow test proved negative: she was also nowhere near the guy in question during the meeting. So we carried on as usual.