Strange situation: I am at home while Dot has gone to church (Christ Church, New Catton) for a joint service for the new benefice, of which we are part. Many people ill or not going for other reasons. Dot is helping to lead a small part of the music. I am cooking supper for when she gets back. It’s pretty cold tonight, but the rain from earlier in the day seems to have departed. Earlier spent quite a long time talking to David on FT: he has bought a ticket for Amy to go to Canada over Christmas, which she is pretty thrilled about. She has had a jab and tested negative.
We went to church this morning and I led the service, with Liz Cannon doing Godly Play, which worked very well: the parable of the mustard seed. Surprise member of the congregation: Heather Cracknell, now director of Fresh Expressions for the Church of England (or something like that). She started with us before becoming ordained many years ago and may now be coming back to us on a fairly regular basis. Her daughter Rhianna is at university in The Hague. Later Kim Bywater dropped a present off (it is Dot’s birthday tomorrow, and Anna made her a rather wonderful cake, presented at church). We persuaded Kim to stay for a cup of tea.
Last Tuesday was dry and still: a bit overcast. Went for a walk after lunch and called in at Revelations to get cards. On the way back watched a Norwich School team playing rugby. Dot went to a Jarrolds special event in the evening with Anne, and met Kim (before Anne arrived). Dot and Anne had a meal. Philip is not so good. While Dot was out, joined Jurnet poetry event and read a couple of poems: Riverside Path and Finding my Grandparents’ Grave. David FTd during break to say Amy was very keen to go to Canada at Christmas. How quickly her dreams come true! Dot back at 9.30, just as the poetry event was finishing. We watched The Outlaws, which is getting a bit serious.
Wednesday saw some sun, and it was dry, but a bit chilly. Went to Morrisons with Dot in the morning. My iPhone went dead. After advice from David, I made an appointment at Apple. Dot went to orchestra in the evening, and I accepted an offer to be part of a Covid study. We watched Shetland when Dot came home.
Thursday was cool but quite pleasant, with some sun. Most of the day was taken up with the visit of Angela and Rodney for lunch (12-5.30), but before that I went up to the Apple store to see about my phone. Problem solved fairly easily, but I don’t know why it happened. Had a bath when I got back because I was quite sweaty, then helped Dot prepare lunch. Bridget came at 3.50 to do cleaning – for the second week running, mainly washing up. Zoom Meeting with Judy and Graham, who had a bad cold or Covid – discussed Advent service. Watched Dalgleish after supper.
Friday’s weather was quite pleasant, though chilly. Went for walk in Rosary after lunch while Dot planted some things in the garden. Went out for drinks at 5.30 with Des, Chris and Mark. Wrote an by Advent poem. Watched second episode of Dalgleish and two episodes of Showtrial. Both pretty good.
Saturday’s weather was much the same. Caren and Phil Gazley came to lunch in the sense that they brought it with them, and Caren cooked it. Quite nice, especially the first course. Dot went to football, and they left shortly afterwards. Norwich beat Southampton 2-1 under our new manager, Dean Smith. Looked at hymns after tea, then watched quite a bit of TV, including Naked Gun 2 1/2, which was very funny in an extremely unsubtle way. Very late in bed after watching MOTD. Norwich were the penultimate game. David FTd to say he and Chrissy were going to see the Murrays for a meal.