I had a phone call at about 10 o’clock from Hannah, who said that all the house purchases had gone through.  The van was nearly loaded and as soon as the actual money had been transferred, everyone could pick up their new keys and move in.

I was walking round the village with Hay and Rupert at the time.  Hay had finally recovered from his illness and ate a big second breakfast of bacon and milk.  Well, he drank the milk.  After we’d walked the dog, we picked food for the tortoises and then I asked Hay what he would like to do next.  He wanted to make cakes, so we had to go shopping for some butter.  Then we made the cakes, went for a meeting at school (it was over lunchtime, so Dilly took Hay for a walk) and then we came back and iced and decorated the cakes.  At some point, we cuddled up on the sofa and read books and then Hay watched a Winnie The Pooh film until his mother arrived.  And then we all ate cake.

Sam and Hannah’s new house is lovely.  I remember when the estate was built, sometime in the 1960s I should think.  They are right opposite a little run of shops, which will be very convenient.  The house is a generously-sized, detached four bedroom house with good parking space for at least four cars, which is rather more than you get with similar new houses.  The kitchen is at the front of the house, which seemed unusual until I realised that it faces north east, so will get morning sun, whilst the sitting room at the back faces south west and will be lovely in the afternoon and evening.  Rupert ran around exploring happily – the back garden is completely fenced in, so he will be safe out there and have no chance to get out.  It’s two minutes in the car from the school where Hannah teaches, so probably 5 minutes by bike, convenient for the Yagnub road for Sam, a couple of miles from the beach in one direction and Oulton Broad in the other.  It cost considerably less than £200,000, which just shows that Lowestoft prices are in the doldrums.  It would cost far more here.

I arrived home about 8 o’clock, having spent most of the drive wondering what to have for dinner.  Roses and Lawrence invited me to share their fish and chips last night, so I didn’t want a takeaway two nights running, and I had eggs for lunch.  I didn’t have much else, apart from random vegetables, so invented a curry.  It turned out rather well – shallot, garlic, ginger, carrot, fennel, aubergine, red pepper, peas, with cumin seeds and ground cumin, ground coriander seeds, turmeric, onion seeds, black mustard seeds, cayenne pepper, garam masala – oh, and tomato.  And I nipped down to the kitchen garden for some fresh coriander to finish with.  Oh, and potato.  Vegan, now I come to think of it, very virtuous.

I went out to lunch with friends yesterday.  There were five of us at my table and the conversation turned to football – Norwich City is in the play-offs and their big match is at Wembley on Monday.  I was the youngest there by some way, the others are all in their seventies or eighties, so it seemed rather impressive that three are keen followers of the football and two will be cheering the team on at Wembley.