It’s Friday, January 12, and pretty cold. Had a bad night, but after a bath drove to my new chemist’s and obtained the prescription I’d ordered – just like that. Over lunch, we finished watching the dramatic reconstruction of Mr Bates v the Post Office, which was really well done and made everyone who watched it very angry: it was about senior executives refusing to accept that there was a flaw in their computer system and deciding to prosecute sub- postmasters for non-existent thefts. The top PO executive, sadly, was also ordained.
Not feeling great these last few days, but I expect everything will turn out OK. Back last Sunday the two of us finished the cottage pie, watched a bit of FA Cup football (Arsenal 0 Liverpool 2) and then drove to Lowestoft for a Seagull session. Went very well: Sue bought a copy of my Let’s Do It Anyway book. Read three poems from it and three others: War Zone, House on the Hill, Christmas tanka, Let’s do it anyway, Quiet Life and Dinosaur in the Cloisters. Kaaren and Lynne said very nice things about my poems. First night in new room: theatre is being refurbished. Ian in good form.
Monday was very cold. Some snow/rain. Gas man came about 10am and fixed a valve in the airing cupboard. I drove up to the old chemist and picked up pills which must have been there a while. Also Dot’s prescription, more surprisingly. When I got back we went to Morrisons. Later Dot went up to the city on a bus to pick up hair colouring and buy a cake. I chose hymns and sorted out compline for later, then had a bath. Felt a bit peculiar. Wrote a poem. Cake and compline in the evening: all present except Judy, whose sister had a stroke or heart attack following an operation in Exeter. Judy went down by train. Prayed for her, obviously. Watched Call the Midwife but went to sleep for some of it.
Tuesday was again cold but dry. Should have put garden waste bin out, but it’s usually the same day as the blue bin, and that’s tomorrow. Everything changes for Christmas, but in my opinion it’s a ploy by the council to avoid collecting so many bins. We both spent much of the day clearing up the house, and I eventually managed to get the TV working properly – but only after Dot stumbled on a new/old BT box under the sofa. This worked ok, but of course all recent recordings had gone. On the plus side there was an old series of recordings of W1A which were very, very funny. Also watched Silent Witness and Vera – both excellent. They were streamed, though. Claire called in at lunchtime to pick up her diary which she’d left behind last night. Had bit of a chat. Judy’s sister in Exeter is in a bad way and probably won’t live.
Wednesday dawned extremely cold, but dry. Dot and I drove up to church, and I led Bible study, after a delay while I looked for hymn words file. Couldn’t find it. Sadly the one person who would know – Jude – was in Exeter with her dying sister; so I couldn’t really ring her. Dot stayed for centring prayer and Taizé, plus cafe. In the evening Dot went to orchestra, and I went to Halesworth and read three poems – Sixty years, Make peace not furniture and Behind the Tombstones. Met Peter Willis, former head of Hickling School, who had been inspected by Dot. Watched a few more episodes of W1 A from 2017(?) Very funny. Have a sore eye for some reason.
Thursday was again dry and mainly sunny at first, butbdamp later. Had an early bath so that I could take Dot to meet Russell Stowe and purchase her violin bow. He had been locked out of Anteros and was standing in the street! She bought the one she wanted and was soon home. Watched last W1A of final series on Apple TV, and the original Red Dwarf! Later saw the first three episodes of Mr Bates v the Post Office – brilliant but appalling, even worse than I already knew.
Earlier Bridget came and cleaned the house: I felt quite virusey but took paracetamol and was able to drive us and the D’Sousas to the Town House for a cheap carvery. Just in time to get last bit of beef. Others stuck with gammon. Tasted quite good. Des had nagging cough: hope it’s the tail end of something rather than anything infectious. Could see from window as I went to bed that Mark has returned – his car is outside.