Two big events this week: the Prime Minister resigned and our guest bedroom has been redecorated. Not sure which is more chaotic. Strangely the redecoration of one room seems to affect the whole house. Similarly the resignation…all right, you get the idea. Actually there were three big events: today Amy is 18!! Rather puts the other events in the shade, now I think about it.
So, back to last Saturday, which marked three days out of four without a bath! Quite clean, though. David FTd us following Norwich City’s 2-1 loss to Watford, which we watched on NOW TV, after I had spent about half an hour setting it up. Went through long process and was then told I needed the app! Aargh. It’s as if they don’t want you to use it. Still, was just in time for kick-off. Watched it on my iPad.
Earlier went to see Paul and Holly, who was up for her mum’s birthday. Maryta still pretty bad, scarcely saying a word to her daughter. Paul looked very tired. Even the dog is in a bad way, its legs very weak. Renewed our membership of Scottish National Trust – £87. Dot spent a long time preparing the guest room for Barry to paint it, and I helped in a small way, as well as keeping the kitchen tidy and improving my study. Rang appliance repair guy twice but had no reply. Still, managed to cook a pizza in the upper oven. Took some old clothes up to St Luke’s to assist those in need, and had a chat with John Easton.
Sunday was fairly mild; dry till evening. Felt quite under the weather in the morning: not sure why. Better later. Drove to church and led service. Carrie came late because she had been Ill and Al was also in a bad way. Afterwards Dot went with Anna and Sophie and Graham to see Phyllis, who is very frail. I took Ray and Chris home and waited for Dot in Thomas Tawell car park. Went for walk with Dot after lunch – brief encounters with Sarah and then Bob and Mary. Started watching Wisting – a new Norwegian noir. Also saw an hour of Nicola Benedetti playing various pieces – stunning talent and a really nice person too. Went to bed early to read.
Monday was drizzly to start with, but later quite warm and sunny. Dot got up early to greet Barry, who arrived at 8 to paint the guest bedroom. He’s done quite a lot. Later Andrew Brierton rang and then came to fix the cooker, but we couldn’t reproduce the fault. He did however show us how to fix the filter on the hood and the easy way to replace the bulbs. We are now testing the cooker on and off to see if it’s OK. It is so far.
I went up to church and we were able to have a Bible study, with Leanne, Alison and Stacey. Lots of other people around too, including Darsha. After Barry had gone Dot and I went to Homebase to buy cooker bulbs and to Dunelm to get curtain rod, then to Morrisons to buy food. Later did dome reading; also watched MOTD2 and two of the Four Quartets performed by Ralph Fiennes; followed by a film, The Running Man, which had some good points – specifically Lee Remick – but was weak in script and photography, though fairly entertaining.
On Tuesday I spent too much time trying to make my Facebook account work properly on my Desktop. Gave up in the end. It’s fine on my iPad and phone. Quite a pleasant day weather-wise. Barry is still painting. I gave Stacey (church) a lift to Hughes on Hall Road to buy a fridge-freezer. In the end she paid about £320 for one she hadn’t seen because it was in the carton. Hmm. Dropped her off at Steve’s, who had taken an autism test and done “badly”. Not sure what that means.
Caught up on stuff again, then went to see Norwich City lose 0-1 to Luton. This was definitely “badly”. City had a man sent off and didn’t seem to have any energy or much idea what they were doing. Luton weren’t particularly good either, but they scored. We should have scored twice. Took Des because Jonathan was at the theatre. Watching Ralph Fiennes recite (by heart) the third of Four Quartets. Interesting.
Wednesday was quite pleasant, dry and mild. Barry with us from 8am again. Spent some time helping him to get the curtain pole on straight. He also painted the downstairs loo. Total for three days: £350. Dot got the guest bedroom looking really nice, and I spent ages putting the books back in the bookcase, but in some sort of order. Quite pleased with the result.
Started writing sermon, but didn’t get far. Bridget came and did some cleaning. Still lots of stuff all over the house, waiting to be put away. Dot went to orchestra with Janet in the evening, and it went very well. I took some more clothes to St Luke’s and tried to give them some books, but they weren’t interested. Afterwards walked over to station and got some cash out – mainly to get my steps up. Read some of Imagine Heaven, and when Dot got home we watched the penultimate episode of Doc Martin. Sadly Spurs lost 2-0 to Man Utd.
Today it rained most of the day, often quite hard, but it wasn’t too cold. Dot went to buy boxes to pack up redundant stuff. Helped clear up in morning, but by lunchtime was exhausted, partly because I had a bad night last night. And of course there’s a lot of dust about, largely as a result of the Prime Minister resigning…