At the end of Friday, David FaceTimed us to say he now had a bank account and a credit card, helpfully called Infinity. Good news, but followed in the next few days by bad. There is a new variant of Covid called Omicron, which almost no-one can pronounce. This means of course that we must cave in and start introducing new restrictions, because eventually someone might die of it. Or be tested positive for it and die of something completely different, which is of course the same thing.
As if in sympathy, the weekend came up with some really bad weather, especially in the north, where there was loads of snow. In Yorkshire people were trapped in a pub for three days, which must have been awful, especially as they had a band with them. Saturday in Norfolk was very unpleasant – cold, windy and loads of rain from early afternoon. We went for tea and mince pie with Paul Henderson in the morning, and I accompanied Dot to the football in the afternoon, dodging most of the rain. Norwich drew 0-0 with Wolves and should have won. They played well, especially Brandon Williams. Pukki missed two or three fairly easy chances.
Sunday was another unpleasant day with lots of rain, and snow in other parts of the country. We had a small amount early on, but nothing lying. Preached and did prayers at church, where Carrie insisted on having the door open. Very cold. I delayed sermon so that people could put their coats on. Several people liked what I said. Later we finished off watching Showtrial, which was very well done. Unusually, had an evening Advent meditation service at 6pm led by Graham. Played guitar: Phil came but was unable to play, possibly because of Parkinson’s, possibly lack of practice during his illness. Anna and Dot played violin. It was a joint service, but only 14 came, unsurprisingly. I read one of my poems (Compline, temporarily renamed Advent). Heather Cracknell was there: she is now coming regularly. Also the Eastons. Pouring with rain afterwards. Later in the evening I slipped on the bottom stair and landed on my heel. Got a very strange hot sensation in my head and couldn’t balance for a few moments. Haven’t experienced anything like it before.
Monday was sunny, but very cold to start with. The heating failed again, though I had turned down the thermostat rather than turning the heating off. Took the car up to be serviced and did a reasonably long walk while it was being done. All good, except that we need a new offside mirror. Did a lot of work on the computer in the afternoon, especially on Paston material and editing pictures. Had a late evening bath after watching the final episode of The Outlaws, a brilliant series.
Yesterday was dull, but much warmer. Showers. Busy morning: Linda came round to do our hair, then Rob and Peter called in for a PHS meeting. This was just ending when the gas man arrived to fix our boiler. It now seems to work properly. In the afternoon I did a Covid test (ridiculously complicated) and an associated survey. Also wrote to Mike Read, thanking him for sending me one of his chess annotations. Then I wrote up the PHS minutes, after walking up to the post office. Edited pictures and paid a £4000 Barclaycard bill (£3000 of it for boiler). Later watched Newcastle v Norwich on Amazon Prime. Newcastle had a man sent off after nine minutes, but we were losing 1-0 till Pukki scored in the 79th minute. We didn’t create very much. Watched several episodes of Friends to lighten the mood. Still, Norwich are now in double figures and third from bottom. Will it last?
Today is pretty miserable: grey and wet. I took Dot up for her violin lesson with Anna just before 10am, and arrived back as Naked Wines delivered our box that should have come yesterday. Between showers I walked up to meet Dot around 11.30am, after the Hello Fresh box had arrived. Had a bath, and later Bridget arrived to do the cleaning. She is still here as I write, at 2pm, and it’s raining.