Clash between god-daughter’s wedding and Italian holiday appears to be resolved. I have made myself unpopular in Canada by pushing the holiday forward a week. Barbara has changed the villa dates, and I have e-mailed the hotel in Venice. Awaiting a reply, but should be OK. Have also just paid off the roof work, which is a relief. Glad that’s over.

Much has happened since I last posted. I had lunch with Lucy last Friday and conveyed Naomi to the station afterwards, for her onward journey back to Durham University. Lucy seems quite a bit better. Over the weekend I played in the Norfolk Chess Championship. I’d forgotten how tiring that is, and I’m still suffering from the after-effects. I played some good games, but only won one. As the people I lost to were all stronger than me, my grading wasn’t affected much. The tournament was in the Tithe Barn at Horstead – which would be a perfect venue if it had a couple more toilets. Handy for the chip shop, and tea and biscuits were free. Good atmosphere throughout: Norfolk chess players are pretty pleasant people – none more so than the winner, Mike Harris. He won on tie-break from Caius Turner, who I lost to in Round Two. I had lost to his father, Terry Turner, in Round One: used to play against him when I was at school. Took a bye in the fourth round so that I could go to church: happily it was also church lunch.

Dave and Julia have been with us since Monday, returning home after lunch today. The weather turned out to be much better than forecast,and we dodged what rain there was. Walked in the city on Monday afternoon and went to Caffe Uno for dinner. Yesterday we went to Yarmouth and the marvellous Time and Tide museum, followed by a snack in the Silver Darlings cafe, a walk on the seafront and a drive to Caister, where Julia apparently spent time in a caravan when she was a child. The seafront there now is bleak and unappealing, possibly the least appealing in Norfolk, though Happisburgh runs it close. Signs of dereliction everywhere, with walls and stone falling apart. People appeared to be living in the caravan park, but otherwise it was pretty empty. On the plus side, the car parking was free. Today we walked on Mousehold Heath, autumnal and soggy after overnight rain, and had lunch at Frankie and Benny’s after inspecting the new footbridge over the Wensum. Extensive research by Dot and Julia (they asked a workman) established that it was a swing bridge.