Wednesday was dry and fairly cold. The head of Brooke school rang while Dot was in the shower, asking her to come to see him a bit later than planned, which she did. I did quite a bit of work during the day, including our charity giving and putting together a Christmas card list, deciding which to send online, and which to stay traditional. Also put rota in diary and online, prompting Anna to e-mail and change three Green dates, which was really helpful. Watched a bit of Poland v Argentina and some University Challenge and Grand Designs. Earlier Dot practised violin and did a report on Brooke. While she was at orchestra in the evening I walked up to post office to post cheques and put some more books in the little library. Managed 5000 steps a day during November.
Thursday was chilly but quite pleasant: dry with some sun. It was the day of Phyllis’s funeral. Dropped Dot off at church and had trouble finding a parking spot – eventually found somewhere on Oak Street. Dot was playing violin during the service with Anna (Martin Wyatt on organ). I gave a tribute, Anna read from Psalms and Sophie gave an excellent account of her friendship with Phyllis. Graham did the service very well. Sylvia Ford, Phyllis’s niece and Davids’ former primary head teacher, came with her daughter. About 35 in all.
Afterwards took Howard and Anna up to the cemetery – off the ring road – for burial. Phil brought Sophie, Matt came by bike, and both he and Sylvia arrived too late. Afterwards drove back for refreshments at the hall and spent some time talking to Nikki about her feeling inferior. Tried to encourage her: she is really lovely and quite talented. After lunch watched a bit of football and chose a Compline for the evening. We walked to Cake and Compline, which was at Eleanor’s and very enjoyable. Excellent mince pies from Bridget, who had come and cleaned our house while we were out – Dot had forgotten to leave a note.
Friday was very grey, with some rain. Sorted out a few Christmas cards and wrote to Oliver. Window cleaner came, but it just seemed like more rain. In the afternoon Dot went to Alpington School while I went to Revelations, but their selection of Christmas cards was nowhere near as good as usual. Bought some anyway. Later met Dot at Morrisons and bought considerable food. I put it away while she did her school report. No meet in street because of bad weather and absence of D’Souzas. Watched new Aberdeen police series – not brilliant but ok.
Dry and chilly on Saturday. Drove to Mulbarton for brunch with the Gazleys, American style. Very nice. From there drove to Coventry, stopping at Cambridge Services for sandwiches etc to eat later. Also had croissant and cup of tea. Bought Andrew a photography magazine with some great pictures in it. Arrived at Baginton just after 5pm after going astray because of roadworks and finding ourselves on the A46 instead of the A45. Very nice room, and excellent bath, but BBC1 on TV packed up half way through Argentina v Australia. Watched the rest on iPad, but after Argentina went 2-0 up switched to watching programme about Scotland on BBC 2. Final result 2-1. Went down to bar for glass of wine each, which was very pleasant. Bad night for both of us.
Sunday was overcast but mainly dry or with very light drizzle. Had good breakfast at the Old Mill, then drove to see Andrew. He is having real trouble standing up straight but says he is not in pain. Responses very slow and he is forgetting more. We left him with a video playing after Dot managed to find the connection.
Then on to pick up Oliver: again had problems finding our way – this time went down wrong road, and Oliver came and found us. We drove back to the Old Mill using a new route and had a really nice lunch together – roasts. I found it hard to eat it all after the big breakfast! Afterwards walked round the back, then drove back to Oliver’s house, where we had a look round: looks comfortable and well situated.
Drove home, stopping at Cambridge Services for a toilet break, and for some reason I took the wrong turn at Barton Mills, and in trying to retrieve the situation found myself in a MacDonalds drive-through queue from which I couldn’t extricate myself without waiting for quite a while. Drove on and stopped for petrol at Thetford; got home around 6.30pm. Watched England beat Senegal 3-0. Mixture of very boring play with exciting attacks – mainly the former. Watched the first episode of Slow Horses, which I think we’d seen before.