First of two visits to Treadwells on August 2, just after I bought a new baseball cap – top quality, of course, from Beauchapeau on Queen Street. The meal at Treadwells was excellent, especially the starter, which was very thin strips of duck breast with goat’s cheese and water cress. Jewish couple at next table queried it (they thought it might be ham), but it was actually both duck and delicious.

The meal was followed by a play at the King George III Theatre – Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl. Totally brilliant in every way.

On our final day in Niagara on the Lake, we did a little tourist shopping and then walked down Queen Street to where it hit Lake Ontario, and then back down a parallel street. Had a light lunch at Treadwells (mussels in my case), then saw two more short plays at the George III – both by Shaw. Well acted, but not a patch on Stage Kiss. Admittedly I was dozing off a bit after 6oz of wine. There was a dash of rain while we were in the theatre, but it had cleared up by the time we walked back to the car (still at the hotel) and drove to the Ravine Winery, where I had a burger (pretty good) followed by Blueberry Tea cocktail, which is basically a mixture of amaretto, Grand Marnier and tea. New to me and superb.

From there we drove home quite quickly and watched some more of W1A.

Very warm next day (Saturday), and the children arrived early afternoon. Excellent buffet around teatime. David brought me birthday presents (an owl coaster spotted by Oliver, a Chinese sci-fi novel and a book on why Canada is so wonderful). Later Dot and I had a drawing game with Amy, and then watched some more W1A. We are now halfway through the last series.

Today is August 5, and by the time I got out of bed, the Paston Mannington event was more or less over, the children had done two walks, and Dot was off to the farm with everyone else of a female persuasion. I had a bath and read quite a lot more of the Icelandic saga. Later I took a dip in the pool after everyone else came out, and David checked Dot’s phone details, marking it as lost on the Apple site and noting that no-one had used it on O2.

I have now written seven poems plus two tanka, which is quite pleasing. For me, anyway.

Golden wedding meal at Adamo’s winery: Roger, Chrissy, David, Barbara and Dot

We went to the Greens – insanely or not – and had a very interesting evening with Greek orthodox priest Brendan Pelphrey and his wife Sharon, plus Carrie. Lovely meal and good conversation. Carrie gave us  lift home afterwards.

On the Wednesday we drove to our hotel near Gatwick, and for some reason missed it at first, but found it easily enough when we went back. Quite a pleasant hotel: we had an evening meal there despite reading bad reviews online, and it was fine. Good breakfast in the morning and caught the hotel shuttle to the airport. We were the only people on the shuttle.

We went through all the airport procedures easily enough, had a drink at Starbucks and bought an improved adaptor while walking through to our gate. The trip went pretty well – watched a couple of films – but on leaving the plane Dot must have left her phone behind, because despite many efforts we have been unable to locate it since. She fell over on the way to customs, but we don’t think she dropped it there, though it’s possible.

Baggage reclaim took a couple of hours because of “extreme weather conditions” (rain), and it was at this point that Dot discovered she didn’t have her phone and reported it to Air Transat. No luck, so we eventually emerged into the rush hour with the thousands of others, to be greeted  by huge crowds including Roger and Barbara. Back at Palgrave Circle, we had nibbles outside. Very nice too.

A surprisingly good sleep followed, and in no time at all it was our actual Golden Wedding Anniversary. It was a pleasantly warm day. Dot and I walked to the mailbox in case the airline had sent her phone, but no luck of course. I gave my first lot of completely wrong directions when  a driver asked where Palgrave was (to be followed a couple of days later by the second when a guy in a truck asked me the way to Highway 50, which someone had apparently moved).

Later we drove to Adamo’s winery, about half an hour away, and had a really nice meal with David and Chrissy, who had driven much further. Great to see them. The winery experience included a singer (a blonde with a guitar) and a really nice rosé which Dot and I shared. The cost of it all was shared by David and Roger, which was nice. We swapped cars, so that D & C had a seven-seater to convey all the children home from the airport on Tuesday. Meanwhile in Norfolk it was apparently raining. Quite hard.

The following day (Saturday) was quiet, though I did have a cooked breakfast. Later I walked to the mailbox again (second misdirection), and we had charcuterie, though not at the mailbox. Later we watched a couple of films – Mercury Rising, which I thought was really good, and Miss Sloane, which was less so, though it had its points. We then started watching W1A. We have not finished it yet. Three series.

Sunday was almost entirely dry despite forecasts, but a little cooler. Lyn and Jim came for a a rather spectacular lunch, the details of which now elude me. Jim is a really nice bloke – very upbeat despite having cancer badly in his sinuses and then his arm.

The next day (30th) was pleasantly warm, and we went for a long walk around Island Lake – about six miles plus. The heat made this tiring towards the end, and my legs and feet were having trouble moving at any speed. Fortunately Dot stayed with me as the others forged ahead. Happily we went straight home afterwards, stopping only to buy fruit at a farm shop. I don’t think I could have managed the suggested walk in Orangeville.

August dawned still warm and brought with it the start of an action-filled few days. The children arrived in Canada on the 1st while the four of us at Cedar Mills drove into Toronto (well, as far as York) fairly  late on for a meal at the Cheesecake Factory, which wasn’t bad. The wine was very good. Following this we walked to the cinema for a showing of Mission Impossible: Fallout, which was of course totally impossible but extremely entertaining. Meal and viewing took place in a huge mall which vastly increased our number of steps walked.

Yesterday we drove to Niagara on the Lake, where it was warm but windy. We are staying at the Harbour House Hotel, which is very pleasant in many ways, but has a very loud air-conditioning system, which kept me awake last night. We walked into town and had a drink at Starbucks, then strolled back by the shore of the lake, with the USA a short distance away on the other side (New York state). Later I walked down to the end of our road by the water and took some pictures of baby geese.

At around 5pm we drove to the Two Sisters winery, where we had a first class meal (I had steak and vegetables with croquette, all just right) and excellent wine. Service was very slow, however, and we had to rush to the Shaw theatre, where we saw the musical Grand Hotel, which was set in Berlin in the 1920s and had definite echoes of Brecht-Weill. Extremely well done indeed. We had very good (and very expensive) seats.

It is now late afternoon and I am typing this in the hotel, hoping that Dot will return soon. I can’t contact her, of course. We did a winery tour this morning in the company of some people of a Chinese persuasion and led by Corey, who was excellent in a very enthusiastic way. Barbara was also enthusiastic. We bought her some wine.

Yes, it’s still warm: in fact it’s getting warmer. Yesterday it was almost painful walking up into the city to go with Dot to get some Canadian currency from M&S: she had been to Jarrold’s for some nail work. Everything seems very hectic at the moment. The Hendersons came round in the afternoon, and in the evening I played my annual chess game in the club knockout tournament. That’s usually it, but unexpectedly I won; so I have to play another game when I get back from Canada.

This morning Linda is cutting our hair, and then we will go out and buy another suitcase for Dot: the ones she has appear to be either too big (for the airline) or too small (for her). Then we will pack, and this evening, insanely, we are going round the Greens’ for a meal.

Last Friday I dithered between going to Halesworth for a poetry evening and going to Martin and Sam’s for a cocktail evening for the two churches. I decided on the latter, which was probably right. I only had one cocktail, because I had to drive Dot home. She had arrived late because she’d had a busy day. The Smiths have a cocktail bar in their garden, which was quite entertaining. Spent a long time talking to the Eastons, and the vicar was there too.

Continuing the social whirl, on Saturday we took Judy to Vicky Myers’ house-warming in Costessey. This was quite pleasant, although we didn’t know most of the people, who were at least a generation below us, with small children. Buffet eaten in the garden, mainly. Nice house but up a sort of private track with limited parking. Helen Street was there with Florence and Mabel, but she appears to have discarded her latest husband, who was a nice bloke, and probably still is.

Kristine came on Sunday morning, and was met off the train by Dot while I was preparing to the lead the service. The two of them arrived at church just in time, and Dot even played violin! The vicar was in attendance to see how we did things and definitely not checking up on us. Oh no! Actually she seems very nice and also seemed to enjoy herself. Howard preached, and we had two cakes afterwards : birthday cake by Anna for Phil and golden wedding cake from us.

After lunch I took Kristine for a walk because Dot had a stomach upset. It was pretty warm, but we went by the river and then up to the Cathedral. In the evening Dot was better and we all went to the Seagull at Lowestoft, where I did a couple of songs (one with Dot) and three poems – one of them the poem I had written for David Coomes, which Kristine found quite moving. [Woman in the Window, Didn’t Think it Would Come to This, Coming to Life, The Third Field and Passing Through]

Kristine stayed the night, and I took her to the station, where she caught the 11.30 while Dot was in the city (see first paragraph).

Still quite warm in Norfolk: a long time now since we’ve had rain. So we’ve been making use of our garden to entertain people. Last night our neighbours Des and Chris came over for supper, preceded by drinks outside.

Much of the food (though not all of it) had been surplus to requirements on Tuesday, when we celebrated our golden wedding again – this time with friends from church. We decided to order a selection of party food from Morrisons, which didn’t turn out quite as anticipated, as they sent it to Northampton by mistake.

The staff at our local Morrisons couldn’t have been more apologetic, rushing round to get as many of the items as they could off the shelves there, and substituting what they couldn’t. Most of the substitute items came free, and Dot also got a bottle of Prosecco and a bunch of flowers. Result: complete lack of admiration for Morrisons’ organisation of party food orders, but loads of admiration for their staff in Norwich who, to be fair, must have had the authority to deal with us as they did – which does say something about the company.

Anyway, we had more than enough food and a really nice evening, ending with a Lindisfarne compline, slightly adapted by me. Almost all the congregation attended.

In between these two evening extravaganzas I went by train to Coventry to see Andrew. The journey went well, and I was able to get the 1830 out of Liverpool Street to Norwich because the 1900 was cancelled. I had an off-peak ticket, but was able to use the 1830 because it was substituting for the 1900. Happily I had arrived at Liverpool Street before 6pm so was in a position to take advantage.

Andrew was quite chirpy  at first: we had a long talk in his room and then went for a walk into the city (not too far). After a while he decided he wanted an ice-cream and got quite het up when we couldn’t find a shop that sold them. He also seemed pretty exhausted; so we walked home in short stages, sitting down to rest several times. He got over it once we were back at Minster Lodge and I had managed after much fiddling around to get his DVD to work. (Paddington 2)

David has been in Canada since Monday and will be there for six weeks. Amy is on her way home from a school trip to Germany as I write, and she and Oliver will be off to Ireland tomorrow.

Last Sunday, after another experimental Communion, I walked up to Kett’s Heights in the heat to watch a performance by Crude Apache of Turning of the Tide, which is a new play about the wherrymen. Dot was too tired to make it, but it was really good (as they always are). Happily they will be putting on an expanded version at Dragon Hall next year. They made good use of the space and walked through the audience, which was fairly thin – possibly because the afternoon also featured the men’s singles final at Wimbledon and the World Cup Final.

I watched the latter on my return. It was quite a good match, though a little unfair on Croatia, who probably played better for most of the match but lost 4-2. The penalty given against them was heavily disputed by all the pundits, but I actually thought it was a penalty. So I find myself in the minority yet again.

Have had several e-mails from my cousin Ann in Liverpool, who has not been well since the death of her husband. She wanted some pictures I’d taken when she was in Norfolk, and I sent them off to her. They were taken in 2008 and 2014.

Another warm and sunny day, following a few cloudy ones. I’ve just been up to the little park because Mairead called to say they’d installed a Book Swap cabinet. Spoke to Crispin from the Library Wood Collective and said I’d supply some books, though I suspect the cabinet may be ripe for vandalising. Hope it works.

Have just about decided not to go to Hellesdon Paston event today, because I have a lot to do, and England’s World Cup third round match is on at 3pm.

Highlight of the week undoubtedly was my birthday on Thursday, when Dot took me out to lunch without telling me where we were going. It turned out to be the Blakeney Hotel, and the lunch was delicious. I had a ribeye steak, followed by an exotic fruit plate with tuille, which was terrific – almost as terrific as the large glass of claret I had with it. Afterwards we walked to Morston and back, which was no small achievement, ending with tea in the upstairs lounge at the hotel.

Really love the whole area around Blakeney.

Just got back in time for the licensing and installation of our new vicar, the Rev Sarah Quantrill, who seems really nice. Dot played violin, but I stood down from guitar duties, partly because I had to present the vicar with a Bible (in conjunction with John Easton). Rather thrown by John getting the words wrong, but I think we got away with it, because I didn’t mention the war. Rather jolly nibble-fest afterwards.

Yesterday, after Dot got good news about her knee from the nurse, we popped over to North Walsham to see Jessie, who seemed a little frailer than usual but still made a good cup of tea. Afterwards Dot and I called at Sainsbury’s before going to the cemetery, then driving home via Wroxham, which was full. Neither of us have got into Wimbledon this year (too much worship of the tennis gods), but I caught the end of the longest singles match in the history of the universe (well, Wimbledon), when Kevin Anderson beat John Isner 26-24 in the final set.

Going back a bit, I preached at the service last Sunday, mentioning David’s funeral and “there’s a crack in everything”. Full congregation of about 20, including two visitors. New vicar came for coffee before the service, but didn’t stay. Afterwards we went up to St Luke’s for a rehearsal for her installation. Not really happy with playing guitar for various reasons.

On Monday we had a long overdue meeting of the Footprints Steering Committee, held at the Maids Head, where I failed to take the opportunity to find out what happened in Aylsham, when Past Alive were supposedly left stranded. Other than that the meeting went quite well, though I wasn’t feeling too good, for some reason. Had recovered by the evening, when Dot and I went with Angela and Rodney to Coast to Coast, an American restaurant on Riverside, which turned out to be surprisingly good. I had a rump steak which was beautifully presented and also tasted excellent.

The weather is still very warm, and it was particularly warm on Wednesday, when Dot and I travelled to Leyton for David Coomes’ funeral. David (Lenton!) also came: we met at the cemetery.

The Requiem Mass was a little strange, but the highlight was three Leonard Cohen songs played instead of hymns: You want it darker, Anthem and If it be your will. Couldn’t have been more appropriate. The chapel was full and included such broadcasting “names” as Michael Buerk, Michael Portillo and David Starkey. No wonder the priest looked nervous. All three wives were there, but the first two were not mentioned in the eulogy. I thought Anne might have been hurt by this, but amazingly she wasn’t. Not sure what Jennie thought.

This was followed by a hot, dusty and longish walk to the burial plot, where I chatted with Kristine’s family and Jane’s, and then a longer walk to a pub on Leyton High Street for the wake, which was attended by a large number of people. I saw David Starkey talking to Jane, which must have been interesting. I spent some time talking to Deborah, a friend of Kristine’s who had never actually met David but had got to know Kristine through cancer treatment. Also had a long chat with Kristine herself.

Some very nice food and wine, and we left just after 3pm to catch the 3.30pm from Liverpool Street. Unfortunately I forgot the funeral sheets and newspapers and had to go back for them, which resulted in our catching the train with roughly ten seconds to spare. We had come down on the 8.30 from Norwich, which got us to the cemetery via the Central line in good time. David got there in good time too, despite a train cancellation.

The previous day I attended the Archant coffee morning. Dot was at a school, as was Paul (not the same school), but the rest of the usual suspects were present, including Maryta. Afterwards I had my glasses tightened. Later still Dot and I had our hair cut, and in the evening we watched England beat Colombia on penalties in the World Cup, which just goes to show.

On Thursday I attended a meeting of the trustees and re-enactors of the Paston Heritage Society. This promised to be quite fraught, as Lucy had had to be dissuaded from coming, and two or three of the re-enactors were quite angry at the way she’d been treated (or allegedly treated) by the UEA and the Footprints project manager. I had fielded long calls from Ruth, Diana and Lucy herself.

During the meeting, however, it became clearer what had happened – Lucy just couldn’t deal with the requirements of the project manager, and there was a big personality clash resulting in her resigning and almost simultaneously being asked to depart (from the project). The re-enactors were reassured that Lucy was still part of the PHS and they and she could work on projects not formally part of Footprints. We’ll see how that goes.

In the last couple of days my proud walking record had fallen by the wayside. I completed 37 days of walking over 5000 steps a day, and in the last couple of days have walked far fewer than 5000 in total, partly because my knee was feeling a bit odd, but mainly because I was very tired. Still am, actually. I keep waking up just after 6am for no apparent reason.

Am writing this at shortly after 5am, because I can’t sleep. So much going on recently, and now Dot’s computer has run out of memory; so she can’t use it. I’ve been trying to work out how to solve the problem, but we may have to go to the Apple store later. This after another hectic weekend, and a busy couple of days coming up.

On Thursday last week I went up to Hungate to see a performance by Paston students of their self-written, self-produced take on the early Paston Letters. Rob and Penny were there, as was Matt. It was really very well done, with plenty of song and dance, and not too long. Pitifully small audience, though.

On Saturday we eventually found Barningham Hall, which is not in Barningham but Matlaske. Following verbal directions from Rob, we went straight to the right entrance, but it was unmarked and looked so unlikely that we rejected it, but we eventually came back, and gave it a shot. Needless to say, it was right.

The Hall, owned by the Courtaulds, is the only Paston house still standing in its original form. It was built by Edward in 1612. We were there for a Musical Celebration by the Cantilena Choir in the nearby Barningham Winter church, to mark its restoration. Beforehand we had drinks and nibbles in the “sun” outside the hall, but although the front of the hall was bright and warm, the side where we gathered was in shade and quite breezy. Still, a nice experience. Rob, Penny and and Peter were there. We sat in the gallery in the church.

The next day we went to church and then in the afternoon to North Walsham, where Dot’s “aunt” Sheila was celebrating her 90th birthday with a rather nice afternoon tea at the Roman Catholic church hall. Obviously we knew very few people there except Sheila herself and her daughters Teresa (who organised it) and Bridget, but we had a good time. Even the singsong at the end wasn’t too bad, and included The Fields of Athenry. 

We left a bit early to drive to Blakeney, where we picked up a shirt I had left at the hotel and had an ice cream. Then we returned to North Walsham for an evening concert at the church, where we were VIP guests (again with Rob, Penny and Peter). This was a Paston-themed concert by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, who I have to say were absolutely brilliant. It featured a new pocket oratorio (Agnes) by a Norfolk composer, Sarah Rodgers. Soprano Julia Doyle was accompanied by the church choir, and that was really good too. Plenty of Handel, a bit of Mozart and Purcell, and some other music. I have rarely enjoyed a concert more.

Yesterday the Mazda 3 went in for a service (no problem), and Dot took me into town to buy a couple of pairs of trousers. Bus both ways, because it was pretty hot, and my knee was giving me a bit of trouble. No idea what’s caused it. In the evening we had a PCC meeting, preceded by meeting our new vicar, Sarah Quantrill, who seems very pleasant. The meeting itself was well chaired by Sue Pittam-Smith but largely concerned such tedious matters as safeguarding , solar panels and parish shares. I guess that’s what PCCs are all about.

Pause for breath. Have just arrived home from Blakeney, and Dot is about to leave for Brooke school, where she is sitting in on Ofsted feedback. Earlier we had lunch at Cookie’s, which was preceded by a short walk down to Salthouse beach, in the course of which we stumbled upon a geocache. As you do.

On the coast it’s a bit cooler than it has been but the previous two days were  especially warm, and I had to have suncream applied before we went for two longish walks – from Holkham to Wells (Monday) and from Burnham Overy Staithe out to the distant beach (Tuesday). On Monday we had lunch at the rather upmarket Beach Café, then walked round town for a bit before getting the Coasthopper back to Holkham. On Tuesday we drove to Burnham Deepdale for lunch, having had early coffee/tea at The Hero. Excellent Deepdale sandwich, but very sore eyes, presumably because of pollen.

We had arrived at Blakeney quite late on Sunday, after my preaching at church and then watching England beating Panama 6-1. Should have been more, but they lost interest in the second half, and so did we. Hamilton won the French grand prix and England completed a one-day whitewash against Australia, but we missed all that.

Back to the biggest day of a very big week, which was the celebration of our Golden Wedding on Saturday at Angela and Rodney’s house. The weather was perfect – sunny and warm but not too hot, and so were the surroundings. The guests were also delightful: David, Oliver and Amy; Denise and Peter; Anne and Philip (on crutches because of a recent fall on holiday); Fred and Sue; Jessie, Roger and Debbie; Dave and Julia; Alan and Rosemary; Donna and Andy; Phil and Joy; plus Vicki and Chris Ellis off and on.

We had a great time, and I think everyone enjoyed it. Admittedly it was over a month early (our wedding anniversary is July 27), but we will be in Canada then. I gave a short speech, and Fred a much more interesting one, borrowing from Gilbert and Sullivan. Having forgotten to tell everyone not to bring gifts, we also received some nice presents.

Fred was also in fine G&S form the previous day, which was a CNS Reunion event, starting at the Louis Marchesi for a very good lunch and continuing at St Mary at Palace Plain for a fascinating talk by Geoff Tudor, who has been living in Japan for 40 years, followed by Fred’s account of his life, which included a number of G&S extracts with assistance from other old boys and Bev McInnes, who is Sue’s cousin and a colleague of Dot (violin) at Sillars. In this case she sang and played piano, though most of the latter was done by Andrew Barnell. Would like to have heard more G&S: most songs were cut short.

Thursday was big day too, because at 7.45am my old friend David Coomes died. I received the news while walking with Dot and the Evetts from Bakery and towards the Wiveton Fruit Farm and cafe. By the time I had finished talking to a very distraught Kristine, the others (blissfully unaware) had entered the cafe and were about to order lunch.

After lunch we continued to Cley and looked at the house Dot had booked for October, when David and the children will be coming up for part of half term. We now know that they will also be going to Canada next month and will be coming back with us while David stays on. He will also be arriving earlier than them: they will travel on their own, having been delivered to Gatwick by their mother.

After all this, we arrived back in Norwich in time for me to go to a book launch at NRO, where I chatted with the publisher; the director of NRO, who I know reasonably well; and Joseph Mason, who writes a blog about Norfolk and Suffolk which I often read and sometimes comment on. As a boy, he lived near my grandmother at Poringland. His wife Molly is friendly with the wife of one of the photographers at the EDP in times past – Dennis Whitehead.

Popped up to Hungate on Saturday to meet the Knees and deliver some copies of the Paston Footprints books for sale there while the exhibition is on. Hardly anyone there, but volunteer Brendan said there had been quite a few: the exhibition is open every Saturday and Sunday.

Had a cup of tea with the Knees afterwards, and another one with the Hendersons in the afternoon. We sat in the garden: neither of them seemed very well – Paul is on antibiotics for a chest infection, and Maryta appeared to have a cold, which was rather worrying. Dot baked a cake, because she knew they were coming.

On Sunday we had an experimental  Communion with Liz C and Liz D. Dot and I sang one of my songs during the actual Communion (Hear my cry), and I got some nice reaction from Liz C and Jenny, who hadn’t heard it before.  Chris and Ray weren’t there, although Chris seems to be recovering very well from her major operation in London last weekend.

In the evening we went to St Luke’s for a performance by the Oriole Singers and St Gregory’s Orchestra of a Schubert Mass and a cantata called The Road to Emmaus by local composer Peter Cresswell, who was present. Audience not as big as for his Christmas work, but actually this was much better: some good tunes and good soloists. Vicky was on flute.

More culture on Monday, which we spent at Snape and Aldeburgh, starting with lunch at the Crown Inn, Snape, with Howard, Anna and Penny, and continuing with a remarkable performance by Michael Barenboim on violin at Aldeburgh church. We had unreserved seats, but a really good view from the side aisle. Two Bach pieces and Bartok excellent: two modern pieces rather less so, unless you were fascinated by violin technique.

Afterwards Dot and I returned to Snape for a walk and a look at an exhibition of drawings of cathedrals in charcoal, with which I wasn’t particularly impressed. We sat not far from Michael Barenboim for tea in the Maltings cafe, then raced back to Norwich to catch most of the England-Tunisia World Cup game. Quite frustrating until we scored in the last few minutes.

Speaking of racing, our grandchildren did superbly well in their school races: Amy won her 800 metres, about which she had been worrying, and Oliver won his 800m and 1500m. Obvious where they get it from. 🙂

Even more culture yesterday, when we travelled to Oxnead with Judy to watch a performance of Robert Paston’s  Whirlpool of Misadventures in the hall grounds. I don’t know what I expected, but it was brilliant, starting in the main banqueting room and moving all round the grounds, including the church. Everything about it was top class: the direction and script, the acting and singing. It was put together by Holly Maples, an American, who I knew from a volunteers’ event earlier in the year. She was responsible for the script and direction, some of the acting and some excellent singing. I congratulated her afterwards, and we also had a word with some of the other actors after we’d had half a cider in the bar (orangery). All very clever – the audience were drawn into it instead of standing (or sitting) separate all the time.

So going to Jurnet’s in the evening was a bit of an anti-climax. I never really feel at ease there, but there was some good poetry from Sue Burge – a bit of local celebrity. There was also some pretty bad poetry. Hilary performed an excellent one about being in love with the sea, and I was astonished to find that almost no-one seemed to have heard of sculptor and jazz musician David Holgate (I read Never going away, which is dedicated to him). I also read Distant funeral, then walked home. Meanwhile, Dot was picking up our golden wedding cake from Marion’s.

This morning, after I dropped off Dot for an x-ray on her knee at the hospital, I drove to the chemist for a renewed prescription and dropped off a GDPR form at the printers.

It’s been quite warm over the last few days. On Sunday I had to lead the service after Carrie found she’d double-booked herself and needed to be at the Cathedral. (We’ve all been there.) Howard, making a rare visit, preached on end-of-life revival, in a manner of speaking. Very good, anyway. In the afternoon Dot and I decided to drive to Bacton to see Lucy’s Open Studio, but she wasn’t there; so we had a nice time talking to her colleague, Jo Arnold, whose house it was. Bought one of her small sculptures for £30.

Afterwards we parked near the beach and walked along the top towards Walcott. It was high tide, with waves splashing over the prom. Later we called at Happisburgh and went to the loo, but couldn’t go for a walk there as we had no coins for the parking meter.

On Monday afternoon we decided on the spur of the moment to buy me some new clothes. Our quest started badly at Jarrolds but ended successfully at M&S, where I ended up with a new suit and a jacket. We then went to Skechers in the mall, and I bought two pairs of shoes. Dot bought one (pair, not shoe). We were served by an excellent assistant, who made me want to buy the whole store, but I resisted.

On Tuesday morning I had my tooth out. I’m glad it’s gone: it had been irritating me more and more for several months, possibly years. It had a great chunk of gold on the top of it; so I am now worth slightly less. Still, I have the tooth. No bad after-effects, but I didn’t feel up to going to a talk on the dead sea scrolls, which I had pencilled in for the evening.

Yesterday we took the MX5 in for a service and MOT, and I was pleasantly surprised when it emerged unscathed, but with new windscreen wipers.  It was due to be collected at 5pm, but we left it overnight and picked it up just after 11 this morning. Last night, while Dot was at orchestra, I went to the launch of three poetry pamphlets at Anteros, at which the only person I knew was Hilary Mellon, the compere. The poetry was pretty ordinary, and I told Hilary afterwards that hers was far better. So is mine, actually. Obviously I wouldn’t say that to just anybody.

This afternoon I popped into the city to buy some Communion wafers, because the ones at church had gone missing. I lingered by the Cathedral green so as not to exert myself too much (because of the tooth extraction) and resisted the temptation to buy an ice cream. Dot and I are on a 5:2 diet, which means we don’t eat much on two days out of five. I have lost a bit of weight…