So now I’m 71. I guess it was inevitable – or at least, there was only one alternative, as there so often is (grammatical joke). I would like to say I had a very pleasant birthday yesterday, and in fact I did.  My wife made every effort to look after me and succeeded. It culminated first in the excitement of having my hair cut, and then attendance at a Julian meeting at the Greens which was unashamedly hijacked by my birthday celebrations (thanks to Dot and Anna), some lovely food and even champagne. Wonderful evening.

Nevertheless she is spending today with another man – in the case Paul Henderson, who is accompanying her to the DSSO bash at Diocesan House. I am working my way down my Reminders list. Very slowly. So far I have got my pills from the chemist.

In other news, we went to London on Saturday to see the Coomes, leaving Norwich in pouring rain which apparently lingered for Norwich but turned into quite a pleasant, dry day in London. Had a lovely lunch in Leyton. David was not much different to the naked eye but is apparently deteriorating. Still, we had a good talk and solved most of the world’s problems.

On Monday I led the service in the presence of the vicar, which sounds nerve-wracking but was in fact fine. Eleanor gave a really good talk. The rest of the day we spent largely in front of the TV, watching various sporting events. France shot themselves in the foot in the Euro 2016 final by not breaking sweat until Portugal scored, by when it was too late. The reluctance to risk anything is spoiling most international football nowadays. On the plus side, Murray and Hamilton won.

On Monday I went to Bruce Robinson’s funeral at St Faith’s. A very simple service was followed by refreshments at the Marsham Arms which included all the usual suspects except Martin Throssell, who had apparently been unable to find his way there by following my directions. Had quite a chat with Cynthia and others.

On the way home, however, I got a puncture, limped into Horsford and called the emergency people after trying unsuccessfully to use the gunge kit in the boot to reinflate the tyre. Both the emergency man and the garage said this was awful stuff and should never be used, which sort of makes you wonder why they supply it. Apparently they don’t supply a spare tyre because it affects the mpg, but I would happily sacrifice a little mpg for a spare tyre. I suspect most drivers would.

The emergency man was very quick and transported the car and me to my own garage (about three miles away). As I was due to have it serviced tomorrow anyway, I left it there, and it is still there (I hope). I walked up the road and caught a bus. Later I went with Dot to pick up some pills for Phil and Joy, who both have UTIs, then dropped off a misaddressed card reader to the new church treasurer, then delivered the pills and three bags of laundry to P & J. It’s all go.

Cringleford turned out to be slightly more interesting than expected. After leaving Dot at the school I walked down a track to Colney Lane and then beyond, down Water Lane, which turned out to lead only to private properties. So I returned to Colney Lane, where I was hailed by a man who wanted (at first) to talk about his daughter, who had been slightly injured in a car crash. It then turned out that he recognised my name from Surrey Chapel, and he talked a great deal about allied matters, such as the Second Coming and healing. His name (I checked with Phil today) was Ted Holland, and he has a bit of a reputation. With Phil, anyway.

After being talked to for about 20 minutes I completed a circular walk back to the school, and Dot soon emerged. In the evening we went with Neville and Mary Thrower to Prezzo’s and then had coffee at ours. Neville seemed to have a bad cold, which made both of us a bit nervous.

I attended the Archant coffee morning on my own on Tuesday – Dot was overwhelmed with work. Bit of a low turnout: Robin and  Shelagh were on holiday, Paul and Maryta weren’t there, and Brian and Tricia turned up late. Still, talked to Eric and Hazel and Jenni Downing. Afterwards I returned my borrowed umbrella to the bank and on the spur of the moment got my glasses tightened, as well as stocking up on First Defence, which is an anti-viral spray.

In the afternoon there was a lengthy Paston Footprints Steering Meeting, which Karen forgot, but we forged on anyway. A much shorter trustees’ meeting followed. Penny was out of bed but with her injured ankle raised. She seemed quite bright.

Bit of a technology disaster day on Wednesday: paper jammed in Dot’s printer, and although we seemed to have freed it, the LCD dIsplay wouldn’t change. In the end – after many frustrations – Dot rang Rymans (it was still in warranty) and they took it back and gave her a new printer at a much reduced price. I also took delivery of a new improved BT hub, but I daren’t use it in case it messes up David’s system. So it awaits his suggestions, probably when they come up to see us. On the plus side, our long-awaited chair (ordered in January) at last arrived and seems to be fine, or “quite good” as Dot wrote on the delivery sheet, since it had a couple of marks which she has managed to remove. It now sits upstairs, and is very comfortable.

The chair arrived while I was at Blofield, having given Lucy and Karen a lift to the church there for a meeting about Blofield joining us in the Footprints project. The meeting included Barbara and David Pilch (I was at school with David), the rector and the churchwarden. Afterwards I took Karen back to the station to catch a bus, and then delivered Lucy to North Walsham station, where her car was parked.

Today has been overcast but warm. I went to Morrisons, partly on behalf of my brother, then after lunch took the food round to him and picked up some washing. I also got some cash for him. Dot has been in and out and is at present at a “celebration” evening at the school where she is a governor. She is not enjoying it.

Still a lot of rain about, considering it’s the middle of summer. Not all that warm, either. Rain featured quite strongly in Amy’s school speech day, to which we were invited together with the other grandparents, plus David and Vicky of course. To get there fairly early in the morning we had to stay overnight, so travelled down on Friday and bought some fish and chips for supper.

This would be our last visit to Beechwood Park, and it was memorable. The speech day in a massive tent included an excellent address from the headmaster and a good motivational speech from Paul Gustard, the defence coach of the England rugby team and formerly of Saracens, where he brought a couple of wolves and a snake to training. Happily he only brought mirrors to Beechwood. (“The person in the glass is the one you have to look in the eye.”)

Afterwards we had a picnic on the playing fields – a magnificent spread prepared by Vicky and interrupted only slightly by a couple of heavy downpours. Fortunately we had umbrellas, which enabled us to deflect the water on to our neighbours. Oliver also came to this, but he departed to a party before we went on a tour of the classrooms, led by Amy, during which I was able to tell her English teacher how good I thought she was at writing. Happily, her teacher concurred. The tour ended with cake and tea back in the tent. Dot and I returned to Caddington with David, and left soon for a quick journey home (Dot driving). Amy and the Evetts went with Vicky to Aylesbury.

Yesterday was Eleanor’s birthday celebration at church. Before that I preached and was just about able to cope with interruptions from an old guy who has started coming occasionally. He sees himself as central to everything that happens, which is a bit sad and annoying at the same time. I talked about the liturgy, and why it was as it is. Got a lot of positive feedback, some of which may have been a sympathy vote.

After the lunch (provided by Eleanor) Dot and I went to the cemetery at North Walsham and from there to Jessie’s – briefly, as she was being visited by Roger and Debbie, who were staying for an evening meal. Later Iceland were 4-0 down at half time to France and eventually lost 5-2. This is the same Iceland who beat England 2-1. Meanwhile, some time last week, Wales beat Belgium in a brilliant match to get through to the semi-finals. Other sporting events: Djokovic was knocked out of Wimbledon, Hamilton won the Austrian grand prix, despite an attempt by Rosberg to push him off the track; and Cavendish won the first stage of the Tour de France, which gave him the yellow jersey (apparently the only jersey he was lacking). Oh, and England did quite well at cricket against Sri Lanka.

Earlier in the week we had cake and compline at our house (Tuesday) and I drove Dot to an orchestra party at Stoke Holy Cross to celebrate their concert (Wednesday). On Thursday I had another visit from Lily and Linda, and we walked up the Rosary, where I showed them lots of graves of people they knew, and they told me about various Surrey “scandals” that I knew nothing about. Afterwards we had tea back at the house. In the evening we had drinks and nibbles at the Hendersons, again to celebrate the concert; this turned out to be a little uncomfortable. We shouldn’t have mentioned the war.

This morning Dot had her “diabetes” eye test at the doctor’s. I drove her because of a risk of blurred vision. I shall be driving her to a school visit at Cringleford this afternoon for the same reason.

The world has changed. To everyone’s surprise we woke up on Friday to find the country had voted by a majority of about 4% to leave the European Union (not Europe, as many misrepresented it). Even more surprising was the wave of hate emanating from some who voted to Remain – accusing those who voted to leave of everything from xenophobia and being Little Englanders to being gullible lovers of Farage and Boris, and much else. Although I could fully understand the deep concern being felt at the uncertainty, I didn’t feel there was much excuse for a great deal of what was written, and the complete failure to grasp what motivated people. It turned out to be Goodies and Baddies, and that was it.

Happily not everyone was so simplistic in their thinking, and it was encouraging to find attempts to unify and bring people together. Love is stronger than hate, or even fear.

On the Friday evening, at a more local level, we played host to a discussion between our vicar, David, Carrie and ourselves. David seemed anxious to explore where we were coming from and root out any possibility of heresy. He didn’t actually say that, but there was a kind of undercurrent, though I have to say that we agreed on a great deal too. He is a man who goes very much by the rules, and what you have to have in Anglican church services, whereas our previous vicar was quite the opposite. Difficult.

On Saturday morning we had our first Paston Heritage Society Footprints project volunteers’ meeting. There were about 15 of us in a building with a straw roof. The UEA, being a small organisation with few resources, was unable to supply us with hot drinks, so I assisted one of Karen’s friends – Holly, who came from Chicago, stayed at UEA for a while and is now at Brunel University doing advanced theatre studies – in fetching TV and coffee from the Sports Park, which is quite a stroll.

The whole event went very well, though, and several volunteers came up with good ideas. I hastened back to make sure I could drop Dot off at the rehearsal for that evening’s mammoth concert in St Stephen’s Church. It was Sillars’ 90th anniversary, and the programme included some Proms-type music at the end. It had to be explained that this had been planned long in advance and was nothing to do with the referendum result. The concert was in fact excellent, and packed the church out.

Better still, David was able to come up for it, and we watched football in the afternoon before I cooked sausage, egg and chips for us all. The Archers and Hendersons were present at the concert, and Maryta insisted on standing up during one of the patriotic songs when no-one else did, which was a bit embarrassing, mainly for Paul. Several other friends present, mainly from the orchestra (of course) but also Adrian O’dell and his wife, and Margaret Wheels from the Bramerton Group, who I was surprised to see was still alive.

Afterwards David left quickly to drive back to Caddington, and Dot and I declined an offer of champagne chez Henderson because it would have meant a long walk with all Dot’s equipment, and a late night before a tiring day on Sunday.

We had to pack the car before church on Sunday, because immediately afterwards we headed for Aldeburgh, where we were attending a concert with the Greens at 2.30. We got there in good time, but it was raining heavily, and we waited in the car for a break, which duly came. We met Anna in the foyer, and she was with Penny Sydenham, who we had stayed at Iona with. The concert was hugely long and didn’t finish till about 6pm, including an interval of about 20 minutes. It was just piano, consisting mostly of Bartok’s Mikrokosmos (part two) played by a variety of people, some of them quite young.

Much of it was really good, but it was a bit of a marathon. Halfway through it rained so heavily that the noise on the roof must have affected the soloist, though not visibly. By the end however we were able to walk to the car and then drive to the nearby Abbey Farm, where the Greens and Penny were staying. Nice place, but we had to sleep on sofa beds. That was after we walked to the nearby pub for a really nice meal. Unfortunately during the night I got acid reflux and had to sleep on the chair for about three hours. This wasn’t quite as bad as it sounds.

The next morning we were away after breakfast, leaving around 9.30am and enjoying a rather circuitous drive home, taking in Metfield and Harleston. In the afternoon I called round to see Phil, with the intention of taking his car for a drive. Sadly, its battery was flat; so instead we had a chat and I took some laundry away. Phil seems to be making good progress: he walked in the garden and on the pavement, using crutches.

In the evening England lost 2-1 to Iceland, which has a population the size of Leicester. They played really badly. I mean really, really badly.  This time we really were out of Europe.

Still not much of a summer: today is warm enough, but gloomy and with a fair bit of light rain here and there, heavier this evening, including a thunderstorm. Our four days at Blakeney were very mixed.

We arrived first on Saturday and partook of the usual afternoon tea in the Blakeney Hotel first-floor lounge when the others arrived. On Sunday the outlook was quite good, and so it turned out. We walked to Morston in the morning, got the bus back and became involved in the first of a proliferation of craft fairs before having lunch in the Ship near the Quay at Blakeney. I wasn’t really hungry.

After lunch we drove to Heydon, where there was an Open Gardens day. I thought that just seeing Heydon might be interesting enough, but I had reckoned without the traffic, which was immense. We got in a long queue, almost abandoned the whole thing, then parked by the side of the road nearly a mile away and walked back into the village.

The refreshments were quite unable to cope (long queues) so we kept walking, looked at some classic cars and then paid to see the gardens at Heydon Hall, which turned out to be worth seeing. Then the long walk back… Very good for us, no doubt.

On Monday the forecast was bad, and so the weather proved. Dot drove us in pouring rain to Sandringham, which the Evetts had wanted to see. Happily it eased off a bit once we got there, and we had a cup of tea before proceeding over to the gardens and to the hall, where we had the good fortune to coincide with an excellent and knowledgeable guide. Julia got very worried about a picture of two elephants fighting because she was sure “elephants didn’t do that”.

We then proceeded to lunch in the Stables Cafe and a walk round the museum, where Julia got worried again, because of the absence of the Duke of Edinburgh from two key pictures where he was “not even listed among the absentees”. Some interesting stuff in the museum, particularly old royal vehicles and an account of the disappearance of the Norfolk regiment  at Gallipoli (advanced too far, got cut off and massacred; typical British army shambles).

We then walked down to the lake and eventually sheltered in a small summerhouse called Queen Alexandra’s Nest while the rain absolutely tipped down for about half an hour. I took a video of it, then as it eased off we raced back across the lawns, avoiding the geese (“ducks” – D Evetts) and popped into the church before bypassing the giant squirrel and having a final cup of tea. Oh, somewhere around here I bought a shirt, and we visited the gift shop. I drove home, checking the tidal situation at Stiffkey on the way.

Tuesday, on the other hand, was dry and quite warm. We walked to Wiveton Hall by the path opposite the hotel and had a drink. Dave booked for lunch the following day, outside, which proved a tad optimistic. We the drove to the Anchor Inn at Morston for lunch (very good) and thence to Stiffkey, where I left the car in the marsh car park (cf yesterday’s check) before walking to Wells – just over three miles by the North Norfolk Coast Path.

There we had a pancake on the Albatros – very nice too – and attempted to catch the Coasthopper bus back. It turned out, despite guidance from a local and a clear indication to the contrary, that we were waiting in the wrong place, but the bus driver kindly took us to the right place, where we caught a bus that appeared to be going the wrong way but actually dropped us in the right place at Stiffkey, where we picked up the car.

On Wednesday, after booking out, Dot and I walked out into the marsh opposite the hotel, and needless to day it soon began to rain, though not too heavily. We made our way back, popped into the book fair and then drove to Wiveton Hall, where we discovered the Evetts had managed to get us transferred inside. I had a gigantic sandwich which was quite difficult to eat (a) because my breakfast had not yet been digested and (b) because my broken teeth were giving me trouble. I broke them in the cafe at Sandringham and had rung the dentist from there. Amazing coincidence that both should break at the same time – or at least on the same day.

Anyway, after finishing lunch and seeing the TV star owner, his son, his mother and probably his daughter, we drove back to Norwich in time to go up to the dentist and get both teeth fixed – one filling replaced and the other refilled (I had lost the broken bit, presumably swallowed). After all this I was shattered and didn’t do much else for the rest of the day.

Today, by way of recuperation, we had a Paston Footprints meeting at North Walsham. I was a bit late but managed to take down the minutes, which I’ve now written up. After lunch, Dot and I went to vote in the historic EU referendum and then did a bit of shopping at Morrison’s.  Dot was at a governors’ meeting tonight; so I cooked the meal, and we’ve watched a bit of TV.

Phil appears to have made exceptional progress following his operation and is now at home. The only problem appears to be that he has occasionally lost consciousness, but he thinks this is a temporary phenomenon. Joy is a bit more worried, but when I visited for about an hour today he seemed surprisingly well.

Earlier in the week I had seen him in hospital, when there was a chance he would go into rehab, but this proved to be not an option: he was making too much progress. Birgit and Joe were reluctant to have him at that stage, but now that he is fairly independent he seems to have decided not to go to Mattishall anyway. What a difference a couple of days make.

On Tuesday I had an appointment at the dentist because I’d broken a tooth last weekend. In the end I had a rather large replacement of a filling, which cost £144 and took some time. I went up to see Phil at the N&N, arriving just before 6pm and thus obtaining a parking slot easily. We chatted until Birgit arrived; I then rushed back home, just in time to be picked up by Judy for our monthly Julian meeting at Howard’s, which went very well as always, despite the fact that the first hour went by without Julian being mentioned.

On Wednesday I decided I ought to reconnoitre a few walking possibilities for the Blakeney area. I started out near Felbrigg, where I looked at a short cut, which appeared to be viable. On the way back to the car, though, I took a wrong turn and almost collided with an electric fence. That would have been a shock. As it was I just got very sore eyes from hay fever. This was the one day this week when it didn’t rain heavily.

I then proceeded to Beacon Hill, where I suspect there had been quite a lot of building going on since the walks book was published, and I failed to find the route at all, though I descended into West Runton and climbed back out again. I decided this was a non-starter for the Evetts and proceeded to Cley, where I had a cup of tea and apple crumble cake.

I then checked out Morston, where I found a kiosk dispensing tea and coffee at a key point, and then Stiffkey, which had a coffee-selling pub. I also found a beautiful spot there which opened up on to the marshes, and wrote  a poem as a result. Chatted briefly to a dog-walking woman, which I know you will find it difficult to believe.

When I got home I was too tired, and the risk of heavy rain was too great, for me to go to a PV for the Lasse Press, but I compensated today by going to en exhibition featuring my friend Rupert Malliin and a couple of women artists – Annie Brundrit and Sally Hirst. It was at Studio 20 on Wensum Street, and I walked there after Dot dropped me at the bank on Whitefriars to pay in some cheques.

Yesterday it rained extremely hard, which was annoying as I had to walk to the TSB to meet the new church treasurer at 3pm. Doubly annoyingly, this was in the middle of the England-Wales football match. The rain started on my way there, and I was pretty wet by the time I arrived. Happily and to my great suprise the bank was allowing people to borrow umbrellas; so by the time I got home I was soaked instead of drowned. It was really very heavy rain.

Later I called in to see Phil briefly while Dot was cooking the meal. It had stopped raining by then. The Evetts e-mailed to say they wanted to go to Sandringham. I hadn’t checked that.

Summer is taking a break again, though to be fair the temperature is staying fairly high. Pleasantly warm, anyway – just a bit too much wetness. Norwich got quite a lot of rain over the weekend: happily we were in Clare, Suffolk, staying at the Augustinian Priory, and the rain there consisted of a few scattered light showers.

Dot and I took Judy on the Friday afternoon; Bridget and David arrived for the Mass on Saturday at 10am, and Claire just failed to meet the same target on the Sunday, though she had lunch with us. Clare and that part of Suffolk are very beautiful, and there is an air of peacefulness surrounding the Priory, which dates from the 13th century. Residents when we were there were three ageing Friars – David, Aidan and one other – plus a sister, Eileen, and Mary, whose function was uncertain. There were elements of Father Ted about it, but only now and then.

We ate with the residents, and shared in the washing up. We were all able to go to morning prayer, evening prayer and Mass, and in fact I only missed Mass on the Saturday because I’d had a very bad night. Everyone was very friendly, and the food was excellent. The rooms were comfortable too. The walk into town was delightful, and there was a good viewpoint from the castle.

Dot and I went for a longer walk in the surrounding countryside, but missed the “official” track because the book was out of date, and the paths had multiplied. Still, it was very much worth doing. We also visited a couple of antique shops, one of which had a cafe, plus the tiny museum and a kind of fair celebrating the Queen’s Birthday on the Sunday afternoon.

On the Sunday we arrived back at the Priory to pick up our cars for the journey home and found we couldn’t get in to any of the buildings to go to the toilet. This created a slight panic in certain quarters, and Dot and Jude did a new tour of the town trying to find a loo that was open. Happily, they did. In the end.

Earlier we spent some time discussing the Augustinian Rule, but we also caught a glimpse of the Euro 2016 football, because there was an unexpected TV in one of the communal rooms. Two other visitors, Charles (from Sudbury by bike) and Jonathan, had birthdays over the weekend, and a cake appeared at one of the meals.

On Sunday we went for Mass in the main church, and it was a big affair – a first communion for five children. Beautiful building and a nice atmosphere. We left Clare about 4.30pm and got home about 6pm.

I thought I had got rid of the treasurer’s job, but today I got a list of questions from Ollie, most of which he could have answered from reading the files. I had to ring up the bank to get a form to change the signatory on the account, and needless to say they couldn’t do it without my answering questions that I no longer had the answers to. Exactly the sort of thing I was trying to avoid by resigning.

Meanwhile Phil has been languishing in hospital, recovering from his spine operation, and only improving slowly. However, Joy says today he is now making substantial progress and has been out of bed. She hopes he will be home at the weekend. When I say “home” I mean Mattishall, where he and Joy will be staying while he recovers. Birgit and Joe have a downstairs annexe on their new house.

While I was in Clare I got a Facetime call from Daisy and was able to talk to Andrew. He did not seem all that impressed and seems to expect me to visiting him every other weekend.

Earlier last week there was the usual Archant pensioners’ coffee morning, which Dot didn’t get to because she was on her way to a meeting that had been cancelled – e-mail failure at Diocesan House.  Later we had the usual haircuts, and the Hendersons came round for nibbles.

Summer appears to have arrived – sort of. It’s been sunny since Saturday, and on Saturday itself it was pleasantly warm. Since then there has been a chilly north-east wind, but it’s lovely in the sun and out of the wind.

Dot is in Dudley, but as the last few days have been packed with incident, I’d better start at the beginning. David and the children came on Thursday, arriving for a late lunch and just after a couple of Colin’s guys had departed after doing some painting. Following this I had to abandon them to take Joy up to see Phil, who is in hospital following his spine operation. Parking was a real challenge at the hospital, and I ended up on double yellow lines, but escaped penalty. Phil was in a lot of pain, but I understand there’s been some slight improvement.

After returning Joy home (and moving Phil’s car from the car park at the top of the road down to his house – an interesting automatic experience) I had a few games of table tennis with Oliver and then we all went to Prezzo’s for an evening meal. Bob and Mary were there too, but in a different part of the building.

The next day was still perversely autumnal, but Dot and I took the children to Wroxham Barns, where Dot got four holes-in-one at mini-golf, but Oliver won. I came last. After ice creams we proceeded to Fairhaven, where we had lunch and a walk in the gardens, which looked beautiful, with lots of colourful flowers. We returned in time for a meal before they set off for home.

After they’d gone and I was clearing up, I fell down the steps in the garden backwards and hit my head on the ground at the bottom, but not hard. The only real injury was to my right ankle, and that’s grazed and bruised rather than twisted. I can walk on it with no trouble. Very fortunate – I blame Colin for not instilling the rail.

Saturday was still cool at the outset, but improved dramatically during the morning, as we set up our bookstall at the church garden party. I say bookstall – Dot thought she could get rid of lots of stuff, such as clothes and shoes and jewellery and, to be fair, she did manage to sell some. We didn’t do too badly, and it was a lovely community event, with an art exhibition / competition judged by Martin Mitchell and a very good singer-guitarist called Roger. Judy and Jenny got a bit carried away with singing and dancing, I’m happy to say. We even got a bit sunburnt.

While I was manning the stall I got a call from the hospital to say they couldn’t reach Joy, and Phil was asking for her because he was in so much pain. She wasn’t able to go in the afternoon, but her neighbour gave her a lift up in the evening. Apparently the pain was partly down to the Parkinson’s. A couple of scans showed that the surgery had gone well; so hopefully the pain will ease off soon.

Fred and Sue Riches arrived in the evening, just after we’d had a meal. They had been at an event at Lowestoft and were simply staying the night before going to another one (Barry Brown’s 75th) at Dovercourt the next day. Nevertheless, Dot gave them some salad, and we had a good talk, partly about our church and my sermon, which I gave the following day. Fred and Sue had left after breakfast.

Dot left before 3pm for Dudley, where she is doing some P4C training today with Barbara. Apparently she had a good journey. I have no car, because when I took the MX5 in on Friday (accompanied by Oliver, and after unloading stuff for the garden party from the other car beforehand) it failed its MOT. It’s now unroadworthy and has to be repaired before I can use it, which I’m told is likely to be Wednesday.

On a more optimistic note, I have booked the Glen Lui hotel at Ballater for four nights on our way back from the Outer Hebrides. I’m also trying to book a hotel at Lochinver for a couple of nights, but am awaiting a response.

First day of June, and it could be winter. Cold and windy, with occasional rain. A couple of nights ago we had about a month’s worth of rain which, coming hard from the north and battering against the windows, kept me awake.

Today we travelled to North Walsham to take Jessie out to lunch at the Banningham Crown. Nice place, but I would be happy with half the quantities. Maybe the steak and kidney pudding was a mistake. Still, a pleasant excursion, followed by a pleasant surprise when I dropped Dot off at the Kett’s Hill roundabout and proceeded to the surgery, where I was told by the nurse that my blood pressure was down to 130/80, and now I have only my cholesterol to worry about. Obviously if I worried about it, my blood pressure might rise; so I won’t.

On arriving home we had a visit from Roger (son of Jessie) who dropped us off some information about our very own conservation area and its history. Interesting.

Earlier in the day Philip had the scheduled operation on his spine, and it appears to have gone well. I shall probably take Joy to see him tomorrow.

Yesterday Dot visited the same nurse as I did and got excellent news on her progress. Everything was first class – so good that the nurse couldn’t believe she was the right patient. Meanwhile I was entertaining Lily (Osborne) and Linda, who I used to walk home from church when I was in my late teens. They were both in fine form and liked the house. Talked at length over the old times and all that has happened since. They promised to return.

We had a surprisingly agreeable DCC meeting on Monday. Perhaps the most agreeable aspect of it was my dumping of six years of church accounts. Still no handover of current files though: the prospective treasurer is in the United States, which I regard as going a bit far. Hope to see him next week.

The previous day our service, which I led, was succeeded by lunch and a lengthy discussion about the future of the church – or to be more accurate, one aspect of it. I am not one for long discussions with more than about four people; so I didn’t enjoy it.  Afterwards we took Ann Travis home, and then watched television.

Not a restful week, but it was never going to be. And it seems to have done the trick. Although I’m quite tired, there’s now a very good reason for it, and my teeth are all right too.

We left on Monday, on the 0957 train for Nottingham. It was noisy, there wasn’t much room, and the weather was middling. The journey went quite well, however, and Dave Evetts was waiting on the platform to greet us. He took us on the shiny new tram to Toton, and we walked to their bungalow, on which the decorator was still working – the final stages of repair following its collision with a car earlier in the year.

After lunch we went for a walk in the park near the university, preceded by a brief walk round an art gallery and another tram ride. Afterwards we took the tram back again. We ate in. The weather was quite warm.

On Tuesday things became a bit more strenuous. We drove to a point near the Hemlock Stone and went for a quite hilly walk to a garden centre, where we enjoyed lunch before walking back a different way. This included quite a stiff climb to a triangulation point. Later we took the tram again into Nottingham, and after a drink went to the cinema and watched Our Kind of  Traitor, an excellent John le Carré adaptation released this month to middling reviews.

Following this we ate at Le Bistrot Pierre: excellent French food. I had chicken and chips, though it was obviously phrased differently. Then back on the tram again…

On Wednesday it was much cooler and with some rain in the air. We drove to Southwell, where we had a drink and then visited the Minster, which was impressive – all the more so because I’d never heard of it. It contained a stunning angel window and much else, including a new stained glass window focusing on the second world war (brilliant) and an equally brilliant series of stations of the cross in what looked like lead or pewter. And – coup de grace – in the chapter house was a seat with the name Lenton on it.

Out back there was another ancient building where kings and archbishops had trod, and some picturesque ruins. We returned to the refectory for lunch, then drove to the nearby Southwell Workhouse, which was a model of its kind, and which was well served both  by helpful human guides and an excellent audio guide system. In fact if it had not turned really cold and wet, it would have been wonderful. As it was there was some element of eagerness to get to the end (much of the tour being either outdoors or open to the elements).

In the evening we took a taxi to Stableford and La Rock restaurant, which was pretty close to perfect, for a restaurant. We started with cocktails and continued with first-class food, accompanied by excellent service. Expensive, yes, but a lovely experience.

Our final day at Nottingham, which started still quite cool but got warmer, began with a shortish walk to a nearby garden centre (anyone sensing a theme here?) for a drink, followed by a light lunch and departure by tram for the station – the Evetts accompanying us to the tram terminal at Toton Lane. We arrived at the station in very good time, and the journey home was more relaxing, though without benefit of buffet.

Today we were unable to lie in, because we were scheduled to meet the CNS Class of 61 at Carrow Road for a tour and lunch. The tour, led by Bill Punton, who I had watched playing in the early 1960s, was brilliant. I had the opportunity to take the manager’s chair at a “press conference”, but the highlight was undoubtedly Bill Punton’s commentary, which was a real eye-opener as to what went on when he was playing – much of it quite violent. No substitutes; so they were patched up and played on, sometimes with broken bones. Literally.

Afterwards we had a talk from Ray Houseago, one of my classmates who was company accountant at Carrow Road for seven years. He had some surprisingly pleasant things to say about the much-reviled Robert Chase, and much else too. Some very interesting questions. Afterwards we had a lunch that could just about be described as adequate if you were in a good mood, which I was.  One of the leaders’ wives was so incensed at the lack of quality that she obtained a group refund of 50%.

Happy to say Fred was able to come and seemed quite well recovered from his illness over Christmas and beyond. Sue missed the tour and talk but came for the lunch, which was followed by a quiz, at which our table did not really shine.