Spent much of the day in North-East Norfolk. Weather absolutely appalling: incessant rain, temperature just above freezing, sky heavily overcast. I suspect thousands of people must like this sort of weather, because they all take their cars out in it. It was worth it, however. Visited my wife’s aunt Sheila (who is actually her mother’s cousin), and Sheila’s daughter Teresa, who was our bridesmaid 41 years ago. Had a good time there, featuring a sausage roll and mince pie, then moved on to Paston, where we left a present for the Cares. Doors were open as usual, but shouting evoked no response, so we assumed they were out. Later e-mail on another subject from Lucy made me think she probably wasn’t, however. Back to North Walsham, where we picked up some Philosophy stuff from the printer and moved on to Jessie’s for another pleasant hour or two, this time featuring a kind of cake. We resisted the lure of the cemetery, which would probably have felt like the Arctic tundra on a particularly bad day.
Most of yesterday went on sorting files from the second drawer of the filing cabinet. Contained quite a lot of stuff that brought back memories, which made it slow going. Still bits of it hanging around in the kitchen. Dot was busy completing her inspection report, and about 5pm we abandoned it all and went to the Rushcutters for a meal, using a 2-for-1 voucher that had been e-mailed to us. Superb chicken and mashed potato for me; lovely trout for Dot. Later we went to a PCC meeting at St Luke’s to discuss the proposed change-of-use proposal for their car park which, if it went through, would enable the council to use it for housing at some point in the future. Determined to resist this, though it could be a tricky one. The diocese would like to make some money out of it, and the council doesn’t like cars. Still, we have a clued-up lawyer in our camp, not to mention God – though his views are by no means certain on this particular issue.
On Monday I managed to lose another game of chess. After getting a good opening I found myself lagging in development when my opponent failed to fall for any of the tricks in the position. I then made a disastrous choice of move which gave him all the positional advantages. I found myself with no sensible plan and in due course fell apart.