Last Sunday (10th) was damp and cold. In the evening we drove to Lowestoft for Seagull poetry. Ian seemed a bit less than 100%. Quite a number there, including Lynne (bought her new book), Kaaren, Elizabeth, Ivor, Peter, Joan and her friend Bridget plus some others. Read five poems – Soil and Sea, Strathyre Honeymoon, Looking for Narnia, The Space Between and Underground – and had a look at refurbished theatre seats. Ian seemed quite down about church – diminishing congregations. Tortuous drive home behind people who thought 45-50 in 60 limit was perfectly reasonable.
Monday was a bit overcast; not too cold. In the morning I drove to Dereham to drop off card, present and wine for Phil, who had just returned from doctor’s after blood test. Quite an easy drive, and a good conversation. Back for lunch. Dot went to Riverside shops in the afternoon and bought two pairs of shoes (one later returned) as well as some food. I had a look at my sermon for Sunday, but didn’t get far. Later watched some football, a programme about Henry VIII, and the last two episodes of Prisoner (Danish), which was pretty dark. Dot getting a bit of vertigo today, but has e-mailed doctor. Spoke to roofer next door, who said it would take another couple of days. Mary apologised for noise, but there hasn’t really been any.
Tuesday was drab and damp, but fairly mild. Wrote quite a bit of my sermon for Sunday and looked at hymns. Dot lunched with Sue Eagle and Sandra in Swainsthorpe. In the evening Cake and Compline, with the Archers, Judy, Eleanor and Vicky. Claire was absent with a cold, and Phil was on his way to Provence for a holiday. Dot and I both felt under the weather – she with minor cold symptoms and me with tiredness and headache: possible recurrence of UTI or effect of blood thinners. Took paracetamol and was ok for C and C.
Wednesday was dry and quite mild but dull. Bad day for both of us, healthwise. Dot had quite a bad cold and cancelled orchestra. I felt pretty lousy, but managed Bible study. However I decided against Halesworth poetry. Requested antibiotics for what I thought was a UTI, and had to go to surgery to provide a urine sample. Was expecting a call back in the afternoon, but nothing happened. As usual felt better in the evening, and we watched Howard’s End, a very good film. Too tired to do anything useful in the afternoon.
Bit of sun on Thursday, and pretty mild. Kidney stones clinic rang over an hour late, but we had a short conversation, and he reassured me that my stones were very small, and there was no need to do anything except drink three litres of water a day(!) and have a day without meat or fish a week. I tried to find out what caused the original bleeding, but he said it might have been caused by the self-catheterisation, which would have been tricky as I hadn’t self-catheterised for years. He basically didn’t know. However, he said they were sure there wasn’t anything serious in the kidney. Didn’t feel as reassured as I might.
Later went to see Mike Read, who returned the chess articles he had borrowed. He has annotated a few of my games to go in En Passant! We also agreed to go out to see Owen and Kathy Hindle in April. When I got home I rang the surgery, who had no information on my urine sample and suggested I ring tomorrow afternoon. Finished my sermon and chose hymns. In the evening watched two-hour documentary on missing Malaysia flight. All very suspicious. Dot has not been particularly well but insists she’s getting better. I’m not too bad.