Bank Holiday Monday was a very good day. Mainly sunny and quite warm. Wrote up my blog and sent quotes to Oliver and Amy, then we left for Snape. Quite a good run via Alburgh and Halesworth, and we timed our arrival at Two Magpies, Darsham, just right to get a table for lunch, despite a huge influx of people. A waitress told me to sit down and gave me a menu! Had an amazing full English, and Dot had a superb ham, pesto, tomatoes and fig on sourdough bread. Also bought a couple of huge croissants which we ate later (evening meal!).
Arrived at Snape, parked and read our books for a while to allow food to digest! Then went and looked in shops; bought some soap, an oven glove and oil, among other things. Admired much else. Then got an ice cream, and Dot had a cup of tea. Went back to car for a bit, then decided to go for a river trip down the Alde to Iken. Beautiful weather, high tide. Four other passengers in boat. Woman in charge was good with info.
Back in time for drink in Plough and Sail before concert by United Strings of Europe. Very talented group – 8 violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos and a double bass. All pretty young. Five pieces, two longest by Strauss and Schoenberg. Britten Studio not full, but audience very enthusiastic. Very hot – had ice cream and water during interval. Four from boat in audience. Left just before 9.30pm and home by 10.30. Came via Beccles. Watched a bit of MOD2 before going to bed. Noticed when driving that my eyes aren’t opening wide enough. Wonder what that’s a symptom of.
Tuesday – Weather very similar. Drove Dot to violin lesson with Anna, which ran over, apparently. Meanwhile I went home, had lunch and then drove Mike Read to Cromer to visit Owen and Kathy Hindle. Took the direct route and arrived a little early. Owen was worried about his pills and eventually went by taxi to pick them up (they should have been delivered).
Mike and I chatted to Kathy, who speaks very softly and is often hard for me to hear. We discussed eyes and ears, persuading her to get an eye test for reading glasses. I also tried to help with her keyboard learning programme, but her iPod needed charging; so we didn’t get very far. Stayed quite a long time and I arrived home at 5.15pm. Had smoked and peppered mackerel, which doesn’t need cooking. Watched start of new “thriller”, Sherwood, which wasn’t very uplifting, and a documentary about midges. FaceTimed with David, who seems well. Oliver is headed for Athens.
Wednesday – Pleasantly warm and dry again. Edited my Snape pix, some of which are quite good, and Dot and I drove to church, getting there surprisingly early. Steven not there for Bible study, but Rachel joined us; so an all-female cast except for me. Went reasonably well. Afterwards had lunch, and Dot went to shops while I cleared up generally. Met John in street: he’s just returned from Greece, where it was pretty hot – we said Oliver was on his way out there. Had quite a long chat. Late in afternoon dropped Dot at podiatrist – all well afoot – then drove up to cemetery and tried to find my grandparents’ grave, but failed. Had good walk though – saw two deer. Picked up Dot and drove home through city. In evening watched two episodes of Kafka on More 4, recommended by Jonathan. Really good: very unusual.
Thursday – Still pleasantly warm and dry. Drove up to New Image car body shop off Thorn Lane and arranged for car to be done – cost over £1000. Wonderful. Tried to ring Cousin Barbara to arrange visit, but no answer. However, got call from Sheila re Thelma’s funeral, and am going to meet celebrant at hers on Sep 6 to put a service together. Got half of big ladder out, and with Dot’s help tore most of the creeper off the back wall. Quite satisfying. Brown bin full. Bridget came to clean and told me I should not use a ladder, but I felt very secure up there. Watched episodes 3&4 of Kafka. He was a very odd fellow. Great writer, though.
Friday – Weather remained much the same: very pleasant. At long last extracted the old tractor from the narrow pathway at the side of the house and managed to get it into the car, together with some assorted rubbish that had accumulated there, such as a broken table and a heavy can of what might once have been paint. Drove up to the tip on my own, and amazingly it was not at all busy. I extracted the tractor etc and deposited it all in the appropriate bin. Glad to have done it: I had been meaning to do it for such a long time, and it was much easier than I thought it would be. How often that happens.
Before that I’d managed to grab a couple more bits of creeper from the bedroom window. Dot has been preparing her talk for Bridget, and today she did a run-through for me. It seemed pretty good. Put a new bit on Diderot. Tried to ring Barbara again, but no answer. Went out for street meet: Des, Chris, Sarah, John, Tara, Jonathan. Fish and chips. Pix from those not present again: Mary and Mark. Watched cricket, then another episode of Kafka. Have read quite a lot of The Secret Hours by Mick Herron. Excellent writing. New series of his Slow Horses starts next week.
Saturday 31st August – Still pleasant enough, but much cloudier and slightly cooler. Dry, though. Walked up into the city quite early and bought some clipboards for Dot’s talk, plus some chocolate for Joy’s birthday, then Victoria plums and blackberries from the market. Then while Dot listened to Norwich beating Coventry 1-0, I watched the last bit of Kafka, which I had missed last night when I went to sleep. Nothing unusual there. Really good series, though. After lunch we drove out to Dereham to deliver Joy’s birthday presents, most of which I had got from her wish list on Amazon. They were preparing to go for a meal at Joe and Birgit’s. Apparently Joe is not feeling too upbeat at the moment. Drove home and had chilli con carne. Watched cricket: superman Joe Root was the star. England winning easily again.
Extremely active week, all in all. Oliver appears to be getting around in Athens.