Saturday July 5th – Still warm but a little windy and cloudy, especially in the evening. Changed the bedclothes with Dot – not one of my favourite jobs. After lunch drove to Cromer for Dot’s concert. Dropped her off at church and parked in usual place. £4.50. Back at church assisted Neville in preparing programmes and tickets; then we went over road to Huckleberry’s and had tea and biscuit. Back at church for a while then walked with him part of way to his hotel. Concert was very good. Sat with Angela and Rodney. Angela had a bit of a problem with vertigo. Chatted with Catherine at interval about Florida. Eleanor and her friend were there; also Claire, surprisingly. Afterwards chatted with Vikki on way back to car park. She seemed quite happy. Drove home in quite good time and watched cricket highlights: England on brink of defeat, but you never know…
Sunday – Grey but mild with a heavy shower about midday. We were in church at the time – St Luke’s, that is. The original plan was to have a parish barbecue in the vicarage garden, but there was a forecast of thunderstorms; so this was aborted. Quite a sizeable band, but I played anyway, and so did Dot of course. Quite a good meal, nice to have a chance to talk. We gave Ray a lift home afterwards. For some reason felt very tired and lay down for a while. Did our packing for Scarborough and watched some tennis (Cameron Norrie winning), the first two stages of the Tour de France (highlights) and the last day of the Second Test against India, which India won – the right result. During the afternoon Anne came round to bring my birthday present. Two others had been delivered to Mark! Later David FaceTimed, and we had a chat. He had been on a long cycle ride.
Monday – Cooler, cloudy, windy. Some rain the evening. Walked over to station to see if the bus replacement was running and discovered it was leaving five minutes earlier than scheduled. So we put on a bit of a spurt. It actually left seven minutes early and made good progress, landing us in Peterborough in time to catch the 12.01 to York. Quite crowded: sat in reserved seats and I started writing a poem. Arrived in York at 1.30pm and relaxed a bit until boarding the Scarborough train, which was likewise crammed with reserved seats. A nice lady gave us a couple of seats which turned out not to be not reserved after all. Julia met us outside the station and we waited a while for Dave to find his way through the traffic and pick us up, taking us up to the apartment for refreshments. Spent rest of day there – bit of sleep, lovely meal and quite a bit to drink. Then watched some Wimbledon and Death in Paradise, during which both Dot and I went to sleep.
Tuesday – Cool to start with, becoming much warmer. Dry. Not a good night, sleepwise. Drove to Thornton le Dale, one of my favourite villages. Then to Cedar Barn, which wasn’t as good as usual – waitresses not very wecoming. Bought some wine for our hosts. Had Sally Lunn (a kind of teacake). Drove back to Thornton and did shortish walk round lake, then upriver and round the back: very beautiful in the sun. Into café for lunch – much better service – had sandwich and chips. Diana George from Paston was at nearby table. She and her husband on the way to Scotland. Afterwards bought some chocolate and then back to car park. Dot and I both went to sleep on drive back to Scarborough. Later Dave and I got fish and chips. Had to pay with cash. Afterwards watched an episode of McDonald & Dodds that featured Delta blues from Robert Johnson and the crossroads story. Quite well done.
Wednesday – Warm and dry. Sunny after early cloud. After another mediocre night (for me) we had breakfast and walked down into Scarborough. Stopped before reaching main town and had tea/coffee in promenade café. Then into seashore area which was highly populated with dogs and wheelchairs. Stopped at Bayview Café for lunch. Dot and I shared a ham and cheese sandwich and crisps. Dot and the other two shared a bottle of white wine, but I had a Coke. Owner (female) had really nice trousers. Afterwards Dave and I went for long walk down into the harbour, where we saw the Regal Lady, among other things. Then back to the funicular, up into town and caught the bus back to the flat. Home well before 4pm. Meanwhile Dot and Julia had gone to M&S among other things, and got back around 4.40pm. After having trouble earlier with iPhone, but it seemed to be back on an even keel. Had fruit and cup of tea and we all lay down for a while. Back in the land of consciousness we left at 6.30 to walk to the Italian restaurant, where we had a really good meal before getting a taxi back. Had some whisky and chatted about the past before going to bed.
Thursday – Very warm and dry. Bad night — cramp in leg and worried about train seats. Breakfast as usual – toast, marmalade and cheese. Dave and Julia dropped us at station and we caught the 11.54 to York. Got home just before 6pm. First part was easy, except for difficulty of finding railcard on Trainline. Quite a delay in York before catching 1333 to Peterborough. Thought we’d have to stand, but nice member of LNER team found us seats – not together, though. At Peterborough discovered the Norwich train was late, but nice café on the relevant platform, and another helpful lady found us a cold white wine. When train arrived it was pretty full, and we were split up again, but we got together again at Ely. By now very warm, even more so at Norwich. Very tired but unpacked and cooked pie and potatoes. Watched cricket, some Wimbledon and some Tour de France.