Monday Nov 25 – Bit cooler but dry and fairly still. Bad night, felt pretty tired all day. Evetts left around 11am and apparently had an uneventful journey. I spent much of day writing Parish Pump articles on Jan Breughel the Elder, T S Eliot and Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. Also went out with Dot and cleared up the leaves: too much for our bin; so borrowed Sarah’s. Light meal of fried eggs, veg and tomatoes, then watched some football, Wolf Hall and Mayflower Murders. Late on Des rang to warn us of lorry dangerously close to our car. Went out and had a chat. Impossible for guy to deliver car in NWT without hitting our wall or a car. Put our car in the drive, but he eventually gave up. Electric car on flatbed was out of charge; so couldn’t unload it and push it because it wouldn’t move out of Park. Eventually manoeuvred out and went off to a charging point. Jonathan came out to watch.
Tuesday – Lovely day, but quite chilly in the evening. Dot went to shop to buy food for Thursday, and I finished off my Parish Pump pieces with a bit on the millennium bug. After lunch we took the bus up to Boots for our glasses fitting – done by Tony or Toby, who was very pleasant. Quite like the glasses, though they don’t seem hugely different to the last ones. Dot’s are nice. She did a bit of Christmas shopping in Boots while I walked home. Had chat with Chris, who delivered Private Eye as an excuse to find out what happened with last night’s lorry – on Des’s behalf. Dot arrived not much later. I cooked duck wings in hoisin sauce and Dot went to football. Norwich beat Plymouth 6-1. Meanwhile I cleared up and caught up on e-mails and added to my steps. When Dot got back we watched University Challenge.
Wednesday – Very, very wet and dull. Judy came round as usual to watch The Chosen, and as usual I drove up to church for the Bible study – they followed. Just the three of us plus Debbie and Steven. Went quite well. Dot didn’t stay for Taizé, as she had a lot of cooking to do for the visit of the Bowers tomorrow. They are just back from Hong Kong. Nevertheless we watched Return to Paradise first: an Australian version of Death in Paradise, and in fact pretty good. I cooked a pizza, and then Dot went to orchestra. Poet Hilary got in touch: I had been thinking of going round, but will probably do so next week. She is confined to the ground floor, but she is fairly upbeat about it.
Thursday – Clear and dry. Quite cold. For some reason, felt tired most of day, and it did turn out pretty busy. Phil and Joy came round at 11 to bring Dot’s birthday present, and for tea/coffee and cake. Stayed till after 3pm, and we had a good talk, a lot of it about their family. Bridget came round about 3.45pm to clean, and I did work on The Alternative Carol Service, getting it in some kind of order. The Bowers and Vicky were delivered by Jared about 7pm and we had a really nice meal, prepared by Dot. Soup, salmon and pavlova. We also had a good talk – I got on well with Derek especially. Jared picked them up about 10pm, and we spent an hour or so clearing up. I then ran through Alt Carols for Dot. Wrote this just after midnight.
Friday – Bright, dry and very cold. Drove to North Walsham for funeral of Pam Yarham. Parked in Sainsbury’s car park, went to the service, which was good, and spoke to Jerry (Jeremy) and Andy (Andrew)., as well as a couple of other people who knew Dot. Went to the shop and bought flowers for Dot’s family, and by the time she got from there to the Chapel, she had missed the committal. Meanwhile I was parking the car in the cemetery (two-hour limit in Sainsbury’s). So we walked back and put flowers on the graves, then drove home: went the long way to avoid traffic hold-ups in North Walsham, but hit a minor one in Old Catton. Had some of last night’s soup for late lunch (delicious) and watched a programme on rail travel in Taiwan, which revealed some things about the island I didn’t know. Very high mountains, for instance. Dot started to prepare her talk about sugar next week. Went out for street meet in the evening despite cold: Des, Chris, Matt, Angela, John. Tara has pneumonia and John’s Dad has cancer of bowel and lung. Watched another episode of Return to Paradise.