David’s 48th birthday today! We have just had a four-way FaceTime with him and Oliver and Amy. Everyone seems on good form. Our books got to him, but the children’s present hasn’t arrived yet. Here in England it’s a beautiful warm and sunny day, and Dot is painting the second gate. She painted the one by the bins yesterday.

It’s been quite a busy week, as lockdown weeks go. On Wednesday I drove to Leiston for my COVID-19 test. It was the nearest testing station to Norwich, you will not be surprised to hear. In the end Dot didn’t come with me, which I think was the right decision. Let me say right away that the results were negative, but I didn’t find that out till Friday.

The only problem on the way to Leiston was that the A146 was shut; so I had to cut through Yelverton to the Poringland-Brooke road; from there it was pretty much plain sailing. I arrived 20 minutes early, but the Army – for it was they – didn’t worry about that. I got waved straight into the Leisure Centre car park, where they tried to speak to me through a closed window but eventually resorted to showing me a number that I had to phone. That worked well. I was phoning someone about a metre away. Obviously I was in the car, and he wasn’t.

I had to do my own test, which involved unpacking the gear (which was thrown into the car through the side window) and the instructions, which were even more complicated. I had to swab my throat without touching any other part of my mouth, and then put the same swab up one of my nostrils. That was the easy bit. I then had to detach a couple of bar codes from a sheet and put one of them on a small tube, into which I then inserted the swab, breaking off the end and screwing on the lid. I then had to put the tube into one bag, put another bar code on that, then put that bag into another bag, drive round and throw it into a large sack. I then drove home.

Or I could have driven home. I was temptingly near Aldeburgh and other beaches, but I thought it wouldn’t be fair on Dot if I went to the sea; so instead I went to Leiston Abbey, which I could see from the road and which I expected to be closed. But it wasn’t, and there was just one car in the car park. So I parked and walked round the ruins, taking a few photos. It was quite chilly, but dry.

Something really bizarre happened on the journey home. I took the back route from Halesworth because I was behind three slow highway maintenance lorries. It’s a road I know very well, but it was surprisingly busy. Not far from St Cross I decided to put my satnav on, just to see how it directed me. This only involved pressing one knob, because it was all set up. Immediately afterwards I noticed a road going off to the right that I didn’t recognise, but I carried straight on and the road became unexpectedly narrow. I passed two groups of walkers and a Royal Mail van. I was driving very slowly because it was so narrow, and I quickly found myself entering Homersfield, which should have been about four miles away. I drove into the village, which I sort of recognised and found myself exiting close to the A143. It didn’t make any sense.

Anyway, I then drove home by the road through Alburgh, which I know extremely well, and the satnav kept telling me to go a different way, which is stupid but normal. I got home in very good time.

The following day things reverted to normal-for-lockdown. It was a bit chilly, but after Dot did some violin practice we walked up to the Cathedral, and at 8pm we had the usual applause for the NHS. It was Dot’s father’s birthday.

On Friday I got my test results, which were as expected. We walked up to the Cathedral again, and Dot spent a long time sorting through some old letters, bringing back memories. I did some Paston letters and put together some old photos for David, with extended captions. At 6pm we had wine in the street (VE Day + 7) – a long chat with an even bigger group of neighbours. I spent a great deal of time talking to Michael (No 16).

Saturday was a bit warmer, but not much, and after feeling pretty lifeless all day I managed to gather enough energy to walk to Cow Tower with Dot. Had a long chat with Amy on FaceTime, but didn’t do much else. I was a bit dodgy yesterday too, taking Paracetamol for the first time since lockdown – felt queasy and totally stuffed up. Feel better today, although I’m still quite stuffed up.

On Sunday we attempted to join the St Luke’s service on Zoom, but there was some major issue, and it wasn’t working properly. I did manage to access it later; so heard part of the sermon! Our own service in the evening went pretty well: I led it, and it was attended by Marlene from St Luke’s and Heather Vesey from Aspen, Colorado. Also by Sarah the vicar, though she remained sound only. Anna did a sermon which was bit long and obscure for my taste, but I’m sure everyone else enjoyed it.

Dot and I have been listening to a series of podcasts on Julian of Norwich by an American woman with three names: Veronica Mary Rolf. Surprisingly for someone with three names, they’re very good.

Dramatic news this morning: I have been selected to have a COVID-19 test. This is as a result of filling in a Q&A regularly on a research App and reporting feeling unwell over the last two or three days. In fact I think I had a stomach upset followed by unusually bad hay fever (unusually bad for recent years, that is), but this was enough to get me qualified for the test. They’re probably using me as a control.

I have to go to Leiston in Suffolk tomorrow morning. There are no test sites in Norfolk, of course. Why would there be? Dot insists on coming with me, though she can’t be tested as she has no symptoms.

This morning we went out in the car again (we’d been to the chemist on Friday), starting with the chemist, where Dot had to pick up her prescription, and then proceeding to B&Q on the ring road where we did click-and-collect to pick up some paint Dot had ordered. She is intending to paint the gates and possibly the wall by the bins, when it gets a bit warmer. The last three days have been pretty chilly, though today is the best of the three, as the wind has dropped. The B&Q operation was impressively straightforward, possibly because Dot was the only person doing click-and-collect. We have just walked up to the sorting office to post some cards, and it wasn’t too bad. There are markedly more people about.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday last week were warm. On the Thursday we walked up by the Cathedral and in the evening did our usual clap for the NHS with the neighbours. This was followed on Friday – after a walk up the Rosary – by a glass of wine for VE Day at 6pm. All the usual suspects came out into the street with their glasses of wine, and we met a couple from further down – Matt and Angela. The latter comes from Peterhead; so we had a little chat about Aberdeenshire. All every pleasant, but not up to the standard of Carrie’s street: she has been given a busking amp by some misguided individual, and led some singing from the green at the end. We didn’t sing, but talked quite a bit, sometimes creeping a bit too close to each other but mainly not. In the end it rained (the only time for days), and we had to break it up.

On Saturday it was very warm, and we did a long walk down by the river and beyond Carrow Road, then back along the footpath by the railway. Halfway round David FaceTimed us, and Oliver and Amy joined in, which was a nice surprise. It’s quite long walk, so I was feeling pretty tired at the end of it. Nevertheless I did some more Paston stuff.

During the night I felt a bit ill – head and stomach. I think it was something I’d eaten, and I haven’t really felt right since, because I developed this sort of hay fever which got a bit out of control. Nevertheless I had a good night last night, and I think the worst is over. Sunday was a rough day generally – wet, windy and cold. We Zoomed into the St Luke’s Service in the morning, and I led the St Augustine’s one in the afternoon. It seemed to go quite well.

The hay fever was bad yesterday, making me feel very tired, and I found it difficult to muster 4000 steps inside the house. Nevertheless, I did get there. We are now well into Season 3 of The Expanse, and in odd half-hours we’re watching a rerun of Gavin and Stacey, which is very funny. Spoke to Andrew on Sunday and Phil yesterday, as well as Dave and Julia, who seem to be surviving quite well.

And so we saunter into May, with the weather warming up in a misleading sort of way, as it’s forecast to be very cold during the latter part of the coming weekend. On May Day itself, last Friday, it was mixed but not too cold. After receiving the groceries from Des I updated the Compline for Tuesday (our eight-strong group is now Zooming fortnightly), and because his battery went flat at the supermarket we decided to take the car for a run and end up with a walk at Dunston Common.

The best-laid plans. Dunston Common car park was thoughtfully taped off, and so I drove on to the lane above Caistor Roman Camp, where I often park for a walk down the lanes and across the fields. There are usually two or three cars there. On this occasion there were between 12 and 20. So much for blocking off car parks. We eased our way between walkers and back into the city, where I went for a walk in Carey’s Meadow, where there was one car in the small car park. Dot went home to take the washing in, because rain was threatening, but then joined me. It was quite pleasant – not too many people and only a few spots of rain. In the evening we watched the last two episodes of Blood, which was quite a good thriller.

Saturday was slightly warmer, with clouds but no rain. I changed the water filter, started sorting out all my Paston stuff and sent off some money to charity. We walked in the Rosary.

On Sunday the weather was pretty nondescript and uninviting; so I did my walking in the house. We had our usual Zoom service with St Luke’s and then in the evening an experimental session with St Augustine’s, featuring much news-sharing and a lectio divina from Anna. After this we watched Van der Valk, a reincarnation of an old series with good characters but a script verging on the mediocre.

Next day was warmer, and I finished Underland, a book by Robert Macfarlane that David bought me for Christmas. Clearly not a book you read quickly, but absolutely brilliant in its description of the various underground areas of the planet. Some of his exploits were remarkable: I’m quite surprised he’s still alive. And his writing is beautifully poetic.

Sarah rang (she is very good at getting in touch with her “flock”), and Dot and I had a 20-minute chat with her. Dot has just discovered how to use both telephone receivers at once, which means we can have three-way chats. Obviously, because we can, we do. I did a bit more of the Paston stuff but didn’t actually finish it till Tuesday morning. Later Dot and I walked up Bishopgate and back, and in the evening watched Killing Eve, followed by The Sense of an Ending, which was a very good film about how we tell ourselves stories about what our life was like, when in fact…

Yesterday a beautiful package of cheese arrived from Neal’s Yard, ordered by David from Canada. We’ve already had some of the Cheddar, which is superb. You can actually just sit and eat it without accompaniment, and there’s not many cheeses you can say that about. Did a bit of Paston work again, starting with some editing and ending up with writing a page on Captain Robert Paston, who was shipwrecked off Nova Scotia in 1711. Fascinated? Here’s the link. We also walked up to the Rosary again, though we were both feeling tired.

At the end of the day I got a surprise e-mail from Canada (via Joy McCall) about one of my poems – Alien, which I wrote back in 2008 or 2009. Apparently this Canadian teacher has been using it to discuss poetry with her classes and wanted to know more about it. She was surprised not to find it on the Internet or discussed in learned journals. I like this woman. So this morning I wrote her an e-mail back telling her what it was really about and saying a few other things about poetry. I also sent her another poem, White Wolf, which she will probably hate. Quite exciting.

Alien

There is an alien in the garden
huge and shiny
lying there, behind the hedge

He is not dead:
we see him from the window
breathing in and out
under the wind and rain

We have seen inside him too:
he has been crying:
his stomach is wet and tastes
like another planet

We have swum there:
he has swallowed us whole
but we escaped
three times into the storm

The alien watches:
he is waiting for us
to come back

Another month passes with no sign of the lockdown ending – and now the weather has broken. The last two days have been wet and chilly, and today rain is due within the hour. As a result I haven’t walked anywhere outside over the last couple of days, but have been pretty assiduous inside the house. I think that’s legal. Despite that I have completed more steps this month than I have on any month since our accident last August.

I didn’t really keep up with the note-taking; so again I am vague about what happened on which day. We “attended” the Zoom service at St Luke’s on Sunday, and now there is talk of having our own St Augustine’s event – largely because Carrie is getting very restless. The Greens are not keen on having a service because they don’t think Zoom is suitable for it. The word “integrity” was used, but I’m not sure why. As I result, I think we’re having some sort of experimental event at 6pm on Sunday.

Earth Day and St George’s Day have passed us by. Dot has been doing a lot of work in the garage, which looks much neater. She is also tackling her mother’s stuff, which is taking her a long time, as it would. We spent quite lot of Tuesday watching six episodes of a Nordic drama called Twin, which surprisingly worked although none of it could possibly have happened unless the police were determined to come to the wrong conclusions and children didn’t notice their father was suddenly a different person. Good scenery.

Quite interesting, though I guess predictable, that phone calls become longer and longer as visits cease. Spent a long time talking to Paul the other day while Dot was on FaceTime with Amy. Paul and Maryta are still going to St Benet’s Abbey, though a police car followed them in the other day. To Paul’s disappointment/relief (he wasn’t sure which), the police car then drove off without asking them what they were doing.

Had a long chat with Mark while Dot was putting some plants in the front garden (plants obtained by Des and Chris). It turns out that he has had COVID-19 and is just about getting over it. He almost certainly got it on his trip to Aberdeen and was laid out for four or five days and has been pretty exhausted since. He is just over 50. He rang 111 but didn’t go to hospital, though they said he definitely had it. Bit uneasy having it so close to us!

Today I have completed writing the minutes for the Paston Society annual meeting. Tricky, because it didn’t happen, obviously, but someone told Rob we could do it by e-mail; so we did. Would have thought we could have done the meeting by Zoom, but there you are. Bit of a challenge, but I had the chairman’s and treasurer’s report and one person’s response…

I’m about to write a shopping list for Des and have taken over our shopping bags. I have a bit of a headache. Adrian sent us a really good poem by Max Boyce about the current situation. It’s here.

I did take some notes this week, but my big achievement was to complete the labelling and editing of the Holy Land pictures (and some taken since that). This was a huge job, and I am not good at huge jobs. Lots of little ones are much better. Still, I felt great on Wednesday, when I completed it.

It’s been sunny all week, and gradually getting warmer. There was a cold wind on Sunday, when Dot and I walked by the river for a bit in the afternoon. In the morning the Zoom service from St Luke’s went pretty well. The next day it was a little warmer, and Dot cleaned the lounge while I was working on the pictures. Afterwards we walked up to the Rosary, and in the evening we watched the end of Sunderland ‘Til I Die – a shorter season, after which I suspect they may have given up. Interesting, though.

There was still a chill in the air on Tuesday. Dot and I drove to Mousehold and went for a walk, discovering the new cycle/foot path from Britannia Road down towards the Julian Bridge. I responded to an e-mail from Denise in the Orkneys and then we had a Zoom cake and compline. Dot baked a very nice sponge, and David Archer offered to take over the organising of the Zoom element, as he is a tech expert. As a result it went badly wrong, because he sent out the wrong invitation. Heroically I saved the day by finding the right link, which had appeared on my iCal. After that it went quite well, though I am going to have to make changes to the next Compline, because saying things together just doesn’t work.

On Wednesday I did some editing on the Gresham page on thisispaston.co.uk before we both walked up to the Rosary again. This time we met a guy who was doing some work there – a real cheerful Norfolk guy despite a terrible experience with his son, who was infected with meningitis at birth and has to be cared for all the time – probably because of a hospital error. It was good to talk to him (at a safe distance).

Later on we watched the end of Season 2 of The Expanse, and I tidied up my filling cabinet, re-doing about half a dozen files and making sure none of them were falling apart or unlabelled. (Some were to start with.)

Yesterday was very warm. I did some more on Gresham and then helped Dot with tidying up the garage. We put away the table tennis table and got most of the loose stuff into piles ready to go (to the tip, charity shops, or returned to Hello Fresh), though of course we can’t actually get rid of anything yet. Can you imagine the queues at the tips when they reopen?

Later we walked up into the Cathedral Close for a change: it was teatime but there were surprisingly few people about. I’ve noticed more cars on the roads, though. I made a fruit salad and wrote a bit of Parish Pump stuff, which I finished this morning. We watched an old film, The Spy who Came in from the Cold, which was surprisingly lacking in emotional impact, though good in other ways. David FaceTimed us, as he does frequently, which is great.

This morning – sunny again – Des delivered our groceries. I had got up early, but he delayed, thinking we might still be in bed! All was well, though: both Dot and I were available and dressed when he arrived. Apparently far fewer people at Morrisons today. Dot is now in the garage again, and we are planning to go up to the Rosary again later. Oh, we have placed an order with the Cley Smokehouse. It should arrive on Tuesday.

I realise I should be making meticulous notes about what is happening each day, so that I end up with a historic document. However, this has not been the case, and the days continue to merge into each other, this becoming the new normal. Dot, however, has been taking notes, and I draw on them partly for this blog.

Today it’s raining and quite cool, but apparently this is a minor blip in the mainly warm weather we’ve been having. We did have a couple of much cooler days, but they were simply nearer the seasonal average. We have been able to do our exercise walk in the Rosary most days: it really is a beautiful place, and because dogs are not allowed, peaceful too.

We’ve been watching a few films, but surprisingly are still busy in other areas. We really enjoyed Fisherman’s Friends, but were not particularly enamoured of Hustlers. We are continuing with The Expanse, but got lured into Masterchef finals week and always watch Vera. We have also just started watching the second season of Sunderland ‘Til I Die, which is really well done.

On Monday we had a Zoom get-together with Howard, Anna, Janet and Derek, and that was quite enjoyable. It came with wine. Paul also rang: he is hanging on, but Debbie is about to take a break; so that may cause difficulties with Maryta.

Mark came over and told us he was travelling to Mobile, Alabama, for his company (he is in oil and gas construction, I think). He left us with the key to his hire car, which would be collected the next day. He then left for Norwich Airport. He was flying to Aberdeen, then Schiphol, then Atlanta, from where he would drive to Mobile.

The hire company turned up for the car key, but two days later we noticed Mark’s own car was in front of the house and his windows were open. While we were chatting with Des (and keeping our distance) he emerged and said he had got as far as Aberdeen, where he was told by his company that the Amsterdam flight was cancelled, and he had to go to Heathrow (by train). He was just south of Edinburgh when he heard again from his company, saying the whole trip was off. So he left the train at Peterborough and came home. He said it was very odd being with other people, and he had felt very nervous at the airport and in the train.

On Tuesday we sorted out all the cards that we had accumulated over the years, and Dot did a careful file of all those we wanted to keep. Various items were delivered, including coffee, water filters and bathroom cleaner. David FaceTimed us: he seems well. He keeps in close touch, which is great.

The next day Dot cleaned the windowsills, and wrote to Phyllis. We posted the card on our daily walk. I went on my own on Thursday while Dot painted the cloakroom/downstairs toilet, and I posted a card to Christine, my cousin’s wife, which I should have done ages ago. I also found out that as well as a daughter he had a son, Matthew, who has ME. I sort of knew this, but couldn’t track anything down to confirm it. Earlier Des and Chris brought our shopping – quite a lot of it this time. We and the rest of the street clapped the NHS workers at 8pm (remembered at last minute) and then watched Compline in bed, which in my opinion is the right time for Compline, unless you go to sleep in the middle of it.

Obviously I have been doing various work in the middle of all this, some of it on Paston stuff. For instance I have checked the Personnel mini-biogs on the website and done a few corrections, some of them factual. I am getting to be quite an authority on Captain Robert Paston, who was shipwrecked off Nova Scotia in 1711 – the male line of the Pastons went down with him. I am also editing and captioning the Holy Land pictures, which is a bit of a slog. The photobook that I did arrived this week and looks quite good.

I have also restrung my guitar, only to find that this brought home how soft my fingertips are. I need to get back into practice. I did this yesterday, while Dot was clearing out the shed and painting a stool. I also made a fruit salad, but we fitted in another Rosary walk. I rang up Ray and Chris to see how Chris got on with her radiotherapy over the last couple of weeks. It seemed it went as well as could be expected. Complex but necessary procedure for actually getting into the hospital.

Bob Dylan has released another song – I Contain Multitudes, which is good, though not quite as good as Murder Most Foul. Great that he’s still producing more than worthwhile stuff at his age. I will now progress with picture editing and (possibly) a Holy Land poetry and pictures book. I have got in touch by e-mail with Matt, who apparently I was supposed to ring under the church “buddy” system, but this had not filtered through to me.

It’s getting harder and harder to separate one day from another. Lockdown is still in operation, and Boris has just left hospital for Chequers – his second home. Dot and I are still feeling Ok and have just had a long FaceTime chat with David and Chrissy. It remains very warm here, though there is a thunderstorm warning for late afternoon or evening. There is a good chance it may never happen, but as a precaution Dot and I went for a walk to the Rosary immediately after lunch. Came back quite tired.

I finally got the shredder to work and have shredded quite a lot of paper; so that’s quite satisfying. The slide viewer arrived and was smaller than I thought it would be, but it works perfectly well. Dot has finished front and back garden, and they look really good. We are still visited frequently by our male and female blackbirds, Jet and Speckles (Don’t ask). I have also completed a photobook of our Holy Land trip, but I only ordered one as it would be pretty meaningless to anyone else. Also it cost about £25, once you included postage.

On Maundy Thursday there was a Zoom service led by the Bishop, for people who are ministers of one kind or another to renew their promises. As the lowest kind of minister (an authorised worship assistant) I was invited, and it was quite moving. Dot came in towards the end (she had been speaking to Bridget), but fortunately I was muted. There was another service on Good Friday led by Sam and Martin: we missed it as it happened, but picked it up later on.

There was another Zoom service this morning – Easter Sunday – from St Luke’s, with about 50 people attending. Pretty good. The Maundy Thursday one had about 360, but that was diocese-wide. On Maundy Thursday we also took part in the 8pm street applause for NHS workers. It was Mary’s birthday; so we clapped her too.

We had a four-way FaceTime with David, Oliver and Amy one day, and that worked quite well. Everyone seems to be surviving with no trouble, though I guess Oliver would like to be driving around. So would I, come to that.

I have finished reading the book Dot read that referred to our pilgrimage. It’s called Jesus, and is written by a Jesuit. It brought back a lot of memories of the different sites, and though I didn’t go to the Jerusalem sites, I read about them at Easter; so it was quite special. I am now reading a book about diving for treasure in eastern Canada. There’s a Paston connection, but I haven’t got to it yet.

Yesterday while we were sitting in the garden I wrote a couple of poems. I was particularly pleased with one of them, which I called Easter Saturday and which alluded to the current situation in an oblique way. I decided to put it on Facebook, and it got some nice comments. I had already put up Gethsemane the day before, and this morning I made it three in a row by posting Easter Sky, another older one. I may be overdoing it.

And so it goes on. April Fool’s Day was notable for an absence of the usual jokes, possibly because real life was so absurd anyway. I was convinced for a minute that the third obituary in the Daily Telegraph was an April Fool, but then I read the other two and decided perhaps they all were – or none of them. Most coronavirus pronouncements are in much the same mould. Now PM Boris is in hospital and, it has to be said, not looking too good. But then…

I have finished clearing out the study, and it looks refreshingly neat. Sadly my paper-shredding machine is failing to work again for no apparent reason; so I have a pile of paper to cut up, burn or expose to a virus of some kind. We managed to get the slide projector to work and looked at my mother’s slides of the Holy Land. It’s amazing how different the place looked a mere 30-40 years ago. Far fewer buildings.

The smaller slide viewer, which is much better for a quick look, has given up the ghost, mainly because the batteries corroded and messed up everything else. I have sent off for a new one, which is only about £20. I can’t make the gizmo that transfers slides to my computer work, apparently because it’s now unsupported (too few bits, or something. Ho, hum.) Also can’t get the Super 8 film projector to work, but have located a shop in Norwich that can transfer my films to CD; so will give them a try eventually – whenever that is.

I keep on working on Paston site material. My latest achievement (a pretty small one) was to write sub-headings for some of the Paston Places articles. I am still modernising some of the letters, but to be honest it’s a bit of a burden, because the Middle English is often obscure. If it was just a case of making normal English more readable, it would be quite enjoyable. Peter obviously really loves the obscurities, because he keeps coming up with more and more obscure things to do.

I have written the Norwich Paston walk in leaflet form, but this can’t really be taken any further while we’re in isolation. I’ve also produced a liturgy for St Augustine’s Way, and Howard has just produced a reply to it, which I will have to have a look at. Meanwhile Dave Evetts wrote to ask for help with his family tree investigations, but I don’t think I was much help.

We’ve been in the house mostly, but last Friday we drove up to the chemist’s in the afternoon to pick up my prescription. We then called at the petrol station to fill the car up, which may not have been essential but didn’t expose anyone else, and I was careful to spray and wash my hands after handling the pump. (Paid with credit card at pump.) Earlier in the day the D’Souzas had got some groceries for us from Morrisons.

Saturday was very warm, and we decided to go for a walk for our exercise. We found the Rosary open and walked round it, encountering hardly anyone, and staying clear of them. It was actually very pleasant. On Sunday we joined in the St Luke’s service using Zoom. Surprisingly, it worked, especially when people muted themselves so that we could concentrate on Sarah, and sing the songs without sounding awful.

Cooler today, but still quite pleasant after early rain.

With one day much the same as another, it is hard to remember what happened when, or even if it happened at all. The weather is still sunny, but there is a distinct chill in the air. We have hardly been out of the house in the last few days.

This morning, though I went to the doctor’s – not because I’m ill, but because I had a blood test, which happens about once a year, partly to check on the medicine I’m taking, I think. I checked that this was going ahead, after receiving a text reminding me of it and then another one asking if I wanted to cancel. On the phone they said I could come, but it was up to me. So I went.

The streets were quiet. There was a queue of 12-15 people outside Aldi on Plumstead Road, purely because of the distancing, which meant a limit on the numbers who could be inside at once, I guess. At the doctor’s surgery I had to wait outside for a receptionist, who appeared in heavily protractive clothing and took my temperature, which was normal. Actually, taking it was not normal, but it was at a normal level. After asking what I wanted she directed me to the usual waiting area for blood tests. I was the only one there, though I was ten minutes early.

After less than five minutes the familiar blood tester came out and invited me in. She had a mask on, but I knew it was her. The procedure was normal, and I left by the same door. The distance between me and someone who happened to be coming in was possibly not two metres, but he looked healthy, and we didn’t touch. I drove home by a slightly circuitous route, which is probably illegal, but I saw that Budgens was open and had no queue.

On arriving home I saw Chris opposite, which reminded me to send a text saying we had their bag, and I was going to drop it off to them. As I did so Des came to the door and offered to do another shop for us towards the end of the week. I accepted gratefully. We still have plenty of food, but it’s the everyday stuff like bread that gets a bit tricky. Still, we can’t grumble. We have it easy compared to very many people.

Which brings me to my cousin Eddie, who died a couple of days ago, almost certainly from coronavirus. HIs daughter Joanne said the day before that he had gone into hospital with breathing difficulties. She also has the virus, but seems to be getting better. Eddie lived in Essex/north London (Hainault) and was a nice guy. We didn’t meet often, but always got on well. Tragically neither his wife nor his daughter was allowed to visit him during his dying hours. For obvious reasons.

Meanwhile the bathroom and shower room have been completely spring-cleaned, and yesterday, while Dot went through her jewellery and various other stuff I had a real go at the study, finding various things I’d lost and others that I’d forgotten I ever had. So much stuff you don’t want to throw away, but have no real reason to keep. I have one more corner of the room to finish today or tomorrow, but the bit I’ve done looks neat. The recycling bin is getting alarmingly full.

Dot is in the garage at the moment, but while we can find lots of stuff we want to take to the tip or to charity shops, we can’t do either, because everything is shut. So the garage is full of stuff we don’t want to be there. Still…

Our family is keeping an eye on us from afar. David Facetimes us frequently from Canada, where he is more or less stranded, though he is better there than alone in his apartment, though this is not a point of view that Amy necessarily shares, because she misses him. We speak to her and Oliver quite often on FaceTime.

Nothing has happened with Zoom yet. To be honest I’m slightly nervous of it. Have written quite a few Holy Land poems and a couple of others too.

Not much happening here, except for social structures falling apart. Not even that, really, because if you walked down the street you wouldn’t notice much difference, except a kind of emptiness. But cafes, pubs and restaurants are all closed, and gatherings of any kind are frowned upon. Most schools are shut, except for the children of key workers. Freddie and Phoebe have offered to run errands for us, and Des has offered to do a supermarket shop.

We have asked P & F to get us a few things, such as bread, today , but we will be using Hello Fresh!, which should make sure we’re ok for general food for quite a bit longer. No doubt the day will come when some kind person will have to do a supermarket shop for us. Dot ordered some stuff from Milk and More yesterday, but nothing was delivered – not even the usual milk.

Yesterday, as today, was bright and sunny, though with a distinct nip in the air. We watched a Facebook Live service from St Luke’s in the morning (after listening to the Radio 4 one from the Archbishop), and then decided to go for a picnic. We were very conscious of the need to avoid other people; so we did not join the thousands (apparently) who made for the coastal top spots like Wells, but drove to Stokesby, which is quiet village on the Bure where you can park by the river and watch the ducks, swans and geese while eating your sandwiches. I went for a short walk, carefully avoiding any proximity to the odd pedestrian. I don’t see anything wrong or risky with this, but no doubt it will soon become illegal.

On the way home we stopped to say hello to Judy, who was out for a walk. Naturally we did not touch her, or even get out of the car.

Today we went up to the chemist to fetch Dot’s pills, after ringing first. I drove and Dot went in, washing her hands afterwards, without touching door handles. They had a one-way system in the shop, with carefully marked distancing areas. Dot is now in the garden.

Last Thursday I went to the dentist – again after ringing to check it was OK. Wales and Scotland have banned all appointments except for emergencies, but apparently the chief dental officer for England is conspicuous by her absence and hasn’t said anything. Ross was keen to point out how hygienic dentists’ surgeries were. My teeth were Ok, but he cleaned them anyway for a mere £108.

Meanwhile Peter and Rob are forging ahead with Paston plans to put loads of stuff online, and I’ve written four scripts for animated characters. I’ve also written modern versions of about ten Paston letters, and about the same number of poems, most of them about Holy Land experiences. I’m awaiting an e-mail from Anne Coomes requesting the usual articles for the May Parish Pump. Sadly two former colleagues from The Christian have died in the last few days – Dan “I nearly died” Wooding and Bill “Egg and chips” Spencer. Neither of those was coronavirus, as far as I know. Both cancer, I believe. Offhand I can only think of a couple of people on The Christian editorial team who are still alive.

Denise has been in touch: her two neighbours have coronavirus, and her grandson Ollie has a bad cough; so Elaine and her family have to remain isolated – in Elaine’s case, working from home.

As well as working out how Facebook Live works, I’ve signed into Skype so that Rob, Peter and I can have a meeting this afternoon. Yippee. I am also on Zoom, so that our Cake and Compline group can have a get-together. I shall be interested to see how that works.