All posts by Tim Lenton

17 October 2008

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An atmospheric picture from the Paston weekend: clash of centuries? Second right is Martin Laurance, whose terrific images went with a couple of my poems in the Paston book. Tonight Dot and I went to Rupert Mallin’s big show, Pleasurance, at the Art Factory for the Private View, and Martin was there. He has given me one of his full-size prints, which I will have framed. Annette and Mike were also there. I bought one of Rupert’s small pictures and one of his mother’s. Also there was a former lecturer from City College, Roger Whittaker, who I worked with in the past. He and Dot spent some time putting the educational world to rights. They seem to be pretty much on an identical wavelength.

Earlier today went to see Mr Sethia and took a catheter, which he admitted didn’t actually have a hole in it and functioned as a pipe-cleaner, which was what I had maintained previously. Also discovered that I had probably been putting it in too far and irritating the bladder. I had actually asked the nurse if I could put it in too far, and she said no. He wouldn’t give me antibiotics for what I thought was a urine infection and said it might be just a minor inflammation. Personally I would have gone for the worst case scenario, but that’s probably because (or why) I’m not a doctor. So I am left unmedicated over the weekend, hoping that he’s right. My next date with him is in March, so he must think I’m doing OK.

Yesterday Dot and I took Andrew back to Coventry after I’d taken him to Winterton in the morning. The previous day had been very wet, so we couldn’t do much other than buy him some clothes. Winterton was very pleasant, but with a chilly wind. I had a quick brush with some near-quicksand, but nothing too frightening. The journey back saw Dot at the wheel, and we stopped for a drink and dessert at Thrapston, then tried for a Little Chef on the Coventry bypass, only to find it was closed. We went by a very circuitous route to avoid rush-hour traffic and eventually ended up at TGI Friday’s, where Andrew and I had very nice steaks. Dropped him off just after seven and returned by my special route avoiding the M6-A14 junction, but tried a short cut too many and ended up driving round the lanes of Northamptonshire in the dark. Still, nice lanes, and eventually we located the A14, which turned out to be where it always was. And as it was evening, it wasn’t plagued by lorry drivers with one brain cell pulling out and taking ten minutes to overtake each other.

15 October 2008

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Pictured are Keith and Mary, who spent a few hours with us during a visit from Canada (see earlier post). They are pictured at Dot’s Aunt Ethel’s house, a temporary centre of reminiscing and nostalgia.

Good news on the diabetes front: I don’t have it. The blood test was clear, as I discovered after hanging on for several minutes while my important call was in a queue (I quote). So nothing to stop me from being really fit, and I do feel much better in myself, though the technical side is not quite as it should be. But it will be soon. Yesterday Phil took me in his Mercedes to pick up Andrew, and apart from dozing off for about 20 minutes on the way back, I had no problems. That wasn’t a problem either, of course, though it would have been if I’d been driving.

Most of Andrew’s clothes have mysteriously disappeared, together with his holdall. The staff at The Langleys say he throws them away, which is quite possible. His shoes had a big hole in them and most of his remaining clothes were defective in some way, so I’ve spent most of a very rainy day re-equipping him. His coat has gone to the cleaners, and I bought him over £300 worth of new clothes, including a jacket, shirts, pants, socks, pyjamas, slippers, shoes, trousers and a belt. Add on a new bag, an electric razor and two toothbrushes, and his account has taken a bit of a whack. But of course that’s what it’s for. I wanted to buy him some more shoes, but he was reluctant, so we put it off. A review may be necessary at Christmas.

We also drove up to the cemetery, but it was raining too much to do anything. The grave is still there. Last night Dot went to a Tuesday Group meeting at Vicky’s while I showed Andrew a selection of our photographs, suddenly realising how useful the Front Row feature on my Mac was for this. Oh, I should have mentioned: I have a new Flip. It seems to work OK. I must give it a thorough test, but what shall I video? Maybe something at the weekend.

13 October 2008

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Just completed a really busy week and an even busier weekend. During it all the weather brightened up and became quite summery, with blue skies and a real warmth in the sun. This made the Paston Project exhibition at St Margaret’s Church really enjoyable: even inside the church (colder than outside) was not at all unpleasant. I refrained from medieval dress, because I am not really a medieval sort of person, but quite a few people did indulge. Details will appear soon on the InPrint website, but pictured are four key players – Ruth, head of catering and great bun-maker; Neil, heir to the throne of the Paston Heritage Society; Brigette, a true medieval star; and Lucy, chairperson of the Society, who brought the whole thing into being.

I was there on Thursday to help set up. The saga of the van stuck in the mud not once but twice appears on the InPrint site, together with exciting pictures of people carrying things. Then again Friday evening for the Private View, which went very well indeed and included Siri-Susanna’s fascinating film of the making of the book, plus a poetry reading. I was there just about all day Saturday, which included two other poetry readings. Lisa gave me a lift up to Knapton (so that I could give her easy directions home) and I walked back across the fields, disturbing a muntjac deer that was lying in the grass and made off at high speed across a dry ploughed field. I think it was a muntjac, though it was quite substantial in its hind quarters. In the evening we had another Latin Compline, to which Dot came with sandwiches and Judith turned up from Bacton. Jack Earl was in good voice, and it was another interesting experience though, as Judith said, there were too many technical matters demanding concentration (Latin pronunciation, plainsong tunes) for it to function well as any kind of worship. Still, words have power, don’t they?

On Sunday – after I had led the morning worship at St Augustine’s, and preached an emergency sermon when the designated preacher failed to show up – I went over to Paston again around 3pm, when the EDP in the shape of Adrian Judd was taking pictures, and a reporter was in attendance (not one I knew). Stayed for about an hour then returned to Norwich for a break before Dot and I returned to Paston for an evening concert by Horses Brawl, exponents of medieval music. They did 18 songs, including an antiphon discovered in Paston Church in 1920 which almost certainly hadn’t been heard since the time of the Pastons. Again, a fascinating experience, though I’m not sure how deeply I could get into medieval music: I suspect it’s more fascinating for its exponents than for an audience, though one or two songs had some amazing rhythms.

During the weekend the £850 hand-made book was on show, and Annette did a really good job of explaining it to small groups, turning the pages and talking about each one. Astonishingly, two people ordered a copy, which will keep Annette busy printing for a while. All in all, a great experience and one that commanded two page-threes in the EDP, on the Friday and the Monday.

Plenty of other things happened last week. We had our shower room refurbished, and it now looks quite sophisticated and even bigger! Dot is thrilled with it. We also had lunch at Dunston Hall on Tuesday with Mary and Keith Chapman, who we stayed with at Kingston in Canada on our first visit in 1991. They are friends of Dot’s Aunt Ethel, and we took them to visit her afterwards. On the Friday I had a blood test to see if I have diabetes: I shall be very surprised if I have. I think the doctor is trying to cover everything after my brush with prostate cancer.

I have just been to the dentist to have a hole plugged, and the anaesthetic is beginning to wear off. I also called in at Langleys and Waterstones to buy some stuff for Amy, whose fourth birthday is next Monday. We will be travelling down to Caddington at the weekend to see them all, but before that – tomorrow, in fact – Andrew is coming to stay for a couple of days. Phil and I are going to fetch him. Meanwhile, Colin is in the garden, breaking up the cement at each side of the house in order to relay it properly. He has also power-washed the path and patio, which look like new. Dot is in the city meeting Carrie.

6 October 2008

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The three wise men of Chamonix – aka two members of our tour group with the tour manager (left), in one of the main shopping streets of Chamonix. Seems long, long ago. Quite wintry here now, though today at least it’s dry. The shower room transformation is in progress: Dot was in the city for about three hours – partly with Carrie, partly buying me a long-arm stapler to facilitate my publishing activities. I now have 20 leaflets of Paston Poems ready to go, and this morning I printed out 20 A4 leaflets for the exhibition, giviing artists’ and poets’ notes.

Saturday was quite interesting. I was due to speak at a Christian Writers’ meeting at Lowestoft at 2pm – so I thought. I had a call at 11.10am telling me the meeting started then and went on till 2pm, including lunch. This had never been vouchsafed to me, but I offered to go immediately, which I did, arriving at high noon. I gave my talk to four people, then we had a quite nice lunch and chat. I arrived home around 5pm after dropping off Catherine Mapes at her home in York Street and then getting stuck unexpectedly in city traffic.

Another lunch out on Sunday – at church this time – followed by an afternoon catching up on television. It was too wet to do anything else. Ambient Wonder in the evening, with some interesting global input from Anna and Howard following their round-half-the-world trip. Sweet tea and something spicy in pastry featured strongly. All strangely effective.

3 October 2008

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Yes, it’s the Matterhorn, on a beautiful day last week. This week by contrast has seen a lot of rain and very blustery weather, and today it’s quite cold. I still feel as if I’m catching up, but really it’s because I’ve had extra stuff to do for our Paston project: I’m now producing a leaflet with artists’ and poets’ notes on it, as well as putting together some copies of my own Paston poems, which needed some tidying up.

We had quite a crowd round for our regular meal on Tuesday: much more of this and we might have to start rethinking the format, which may or may not be a good thing. And that was without three of our regulars. Dot had her first meeting at Diocesan House on Wednesday, sorting out her new job, and it went pretty well. Yesterday was busy: I had a dental check-up in the morning followed by lunch with Keiron at 18 Bedford Street. Excellent meal and a good chat: Rowan is expecting her first child on October 25. In the evening Dot came home early from a governors’ meeting at Gillingham so that we could go to Cinema City with Menita and Regis: the film started about 9pm. A superb French film: Il y a longtemps que je t’aime. Out just too late to get drinks, but we had a good chat afterwards: they used to live in Mulhouse, where we stayed on holiday.

Today Dot has been clearing out the shower room in preparation for its refurbishment next week.

30 September 2008

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Back from Switzerland yesterday after an amazing week. The picture was in fact taken in Italy – at Tirano, our furthest point south, after crossing the Bernina Pass on a one-day excursion. Just time for a truly average pizza, then back again. The people with Dot are Glenda and Peter, with whom we spent a lot of our time. They live near Chelmsford. We had a really good time together.

We spent the first Saturday night at a Travelodge in King’s Cross, which was not bad. We travelled there by taxi, and the driver very helpfully found the right place for us instead of the one I would probably have ended up at. Walked down to St Pancras, had a glass of champagne in the famous bar, and then a meal at an Italian restaurant. Very early start the next day, though once we had reached St Pancras at 6.45 and handed in our Eurostar tickets, we had to hang around till about 9 before boarding. The train left at 9.20. Clocks forward an hour for the Continent. At Paris we walked form the Gare du Nord to the Gare d’Est, where we had a snack, as did a large number of very tame sparrows. The tour manager was Paul Irving, a former geography teacher froom Newcastle but without a Geordie accent. He proved to be first-class, going out of his way to be helpful. At Paris he guarded our suitcases while we got snacks, and he did this on other occasions too. We got to know Glenda and Peter from Essex, and we struck up a friendship with them through the holiday: we had most of our meals together, and the four of us went to Zermatt on our own one-day excursion later. From Paris by TGV to Mulhouse: not terribly exciting scenery, but an impressive train, more comfortable than Eurostar. Got into Mulhouse at tea time and had a very good meal in the hotel; had some trouble with my usual problem, but used a second catheter to solve it, and after that the holiday was trouble-free in that as in all other areas.

On the Monday we set the alarm an hour too late but still made both breakfast and the local train to Basel. A dull and chilly start quickly warmed and brightened up as we travelled from Basel to Chur on a double-decker train, arriving early afternoon. After booking into a delightful room in the Drei Koenige Hotel in the old town, we strolled round and had a wonderful cake each at a cafe. Then walked up the mountainside for a view of the town. Evening meal at the hotel – Rostli – and an early night followed.

Tuesday was an amazing day on the Bernina Express. The weather was not promising, and by Pontresina it had started snowing. But this gave us some fantastic views, contrasted with when we came back, when the sun shone brightly and a lot of the snow had melted. Finished off the day with a meal at a Greek restaurant. The following day was bright and warm for the journey on the Glacier Express across the Gotthard pass to Sierre, passing close by the cable car to Bettmeralp, where we spent a fortnight in 1971. From Sierre we transferred by coach to Crans Montana – the Mont Paisible Hotel, which was very impressive. Sadly we didn’t get a room with a view, but it was still excellent, and the restaurant was first-class.

Every day was good, but the next two were absolutely stunning. On the Thursday we went by coach to Chamonix (because there were engineering works on the railway), and from Chamonix up by cable car to the summit of the Aiguille du Midi at 3842 metres (12,605 feet), comfortably higher than anywhere I’ve been on land before. (Even our hotel was higher than Ben Nevis!) The views from the summit were absolutely brilliant, and we took the lift to the very top. Dot felt a bit dizzy with the altitude, and so did I for a moment, but we were surprisingly OK generally. On the way down I managed to get a picture from the cable car of a Brocken spectre (shadow of cable car projected on to cloud and sourrounded by a halo-rainbow) which just about put the icing on the cake. Back in Chamonix we had a meal and then looked round the town, buying one or two things. At the hotel we made the mistake of ordering Chateaubriand for two, and after finishing a first plate we received another! A little bit de trop.

Friday was even brighter and just as warm. Glenda, Peter and the two of us took on a trip to Zermatt on our own. No-one else was interested, despite urging by Paul. We left just before 10 and took the funicular to Sierre, where we got a train for Visp, changing there for Zermatt. Lovely rail journey to Zermatt followed by something even better – a cog railway ride up to Gornergrat, which was over 10,000 feet. On this we had a “wow” moment even more striking than seeing Mont Blanc from Chamonix. We had been trying to make out which of many mountains might be the Matterhorn when we rounded a curve, and there it was – massive, clear and totally unmistakeable: a truly remarkable mountain and looking quite unclimbable. At Gornergrat we had cheese fondu and beer and would have liked more time, because the view was fantastic. But we had to catch the connections back to our hotel – all carefully worked out for us by Paul. And it went like clockwork. The walk from the funicular was hard going, but we made it in good spirits and even manage a reasonable meal – taking care to avoid anything excessive like Chateaubriand.

Very early start homewards on the Saturday, with the coach leaving the hotel at 7.35am and taking us to Sierre. Connection to Brig, from where we got a tilty train to Basel, which was very, very quick. I suspect it also left us feeling a bit ill, but maybe we were just exhausted. We got to Mulhouse just after lunchtime and walked into the town, deciding to have lunch at the the Auberge du Vieux Mulhouse, which we discovered later has quite an enviable reputation. I had some nice duck, but Glenda got something which claimed to be rabbit but was largely uneatable. Afterwards we had a drink with some other Treyn people in the main square and then looked at an interesting exhibition – The Word in Art – in the big church there. A choir and orchestra were practising for a performance later, and Glenda and Peter went back for it, but Dot and I were feeling totally whacked out. My head was going round, and we both had a bath and lay down for a while. Had a light evening meal in the hotel with Glenda and Peter, then another early night.

The final Sunday was again bright and warm, only getting very cloudy and threatening rain as we approached Norwich. We left Mulhouse at 8.28 on the TGV and were through Paris like a breeze, the Eurostar arriving at St Pancras at 2.40. We shared a taxi with Glenda and Peter and parted from them on the concourse at Liverpool Street, catching the 15.30 to Norwich – which, needless to say, was late leaving (though it arrived on time). We arrived home just after 5.30pm.

We spent Monday catching up. I played chess against Yarmouth in the evening and drew with Kevin Shaw on Board 4 in a not-very-interesting game. Today has been rain all the way, with more catching up. Tim Mace, our house-sitter, called in to return the key on his way to London!

20 September 2008

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We’ve stumbled into some lovely weather. Yesterday Dot and I sat in the garden for a while, and this robin came and kept us company. We have two or three mirrors in the garden, and it seemed mystified by the appearance on an extra robin in odd places. Very loud song. We also walked to Morrisons to buy a few things and stopped at one of the bars on the way back through Riverside for a glass of wine and Smirnoff Ice. Sat and watched the river and felt quite continental. Dot has checked the weather for Switzerland, and it looks good. Should also be good for Oliver’s party with his friends today: hope he’s feeling OK – he had a sore throat yesterday.

I had a really bad night: only about three hours’ sleep, and it’s not likely to be much better tonight. As a result I feel quite hazy; I started on antibiotics this morning after no improvement in the usual area. Tim M has been round to pick up the key: he’s staying here while we’re away. Also Menita and her children called but didn’t stop – apparently Alex wanted to look at where they used to live (opposite).

I’ve sent out the Paston Private View invitations and caught up with just about everything I had to do. The Flip people say they’re sending me a replacement, which will no doubt arrive while I’m away, so I hope it doesn’t go astray.

Ian Bullock came round on Thursday night and stayed for about three hours. Had a good conversation about our days at the EDP: he left a couple of years ago to go freelance, and he and his wife have had a number of health problems. Good to see him.

We shall be leaving for London in a couple of hours – staying at the King’s Cross Travelodge tonight. Hope it’s even more wonderful than it sounds. Dot is keen to get a glass of champagne at the long bar in St Pancras station this evening.

18 September 2008

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Oliver demonstrates his tree-climbing prowess on Dunstable Downs. Lovely day again today: we went out to lunch at Park Farm – excellent fish and chips – and then called in on A Ethel to deliver a scanned photo of her parents. Stayed for about an hour, then continued to Bally to deliver prints from Lucy (delivered to us by Simeon earlier). She wasn’t there, but we saw Rupert and Martin Laurance – then came upon Annette walking down Hall Road on our way home. We turned round and gave her a lift. Now we’re home. Ex-colleague Ian Bullock is coming round later. I think I have another urine infection and am about to start on the antibiotics, which is a bit of a drag.

I got a replacement Flip delivered on Tuesday, but that doesn’t work either, which is also a bit of a drag.

Yesterday Lisa came round early to pick up some leaflets for the Paston exhibition, and I’ve been putting together an illustrated note to go out with my invitations to the Private View. We also had our hair cut yesterday, so we’re all ready for the holiday… The organisers rang us up this morning to say we needed to be at St Pancras before 7am on Sunday because of the ongoing repair work in the Tunnel. If it goes on being that relaxing, it will clearly be a holiday to remember.

On the plus side, I have filed my tax return online, though not without putting in the wrong figures the first time and having to file an amendment.

16 September 2008

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Oliver and Amy on the slopes of Dunstable Downs, where we all went kite-flying last Saturday afternoon. It was a warm day with intermittent wind, and we managed to get both kites up high at one point. There was a lot of glider activity from the field below the downs, so plenty of entertainment all round. In the evening we looked after the children while David and Vicky celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary with Philip and Jane (20th) at Bishop’s Stortford. Oliver had plenty of presents and was consumed by his Nintendo DS, for which we got him an extra game.

On the Sunday afternoon we went to Stockwood Park, two miles away, which is now even better since the creation of a Discovery section: lots of play areas and gardens. We all had an ice cream, and I watched a mother patiently teaching her son how to play chess on the open air board while Vicky took a conference call from work and the others explored their surroundings. Afterwards we all had a look round the motor museum, which is also very interesting. And no charge for any of this (except the ice cream). Even the weather was excellent again. We stayed at Caddington till the children had gone to bed, then had a cup of tea and left just after nine, getting home just after 11pm. Dot drove both ways.

Annette came round yesterday to deliver leaflets and invitations for the Paston Private View. She stayed for tea, and we discussed the arrangements for exhibiting in the church, which seemed at best obscure. We sent a joint e-mail to Lucy, who replied later with quite detailed plans, so that seems to be all right. I’ve finished off my poems leaflet and have sent some notes on the origins of the poems to Lucy: I’m not sure what she’s going to do with them.

In the evening I played chess against Colin Payne and lost convincingly, never getting a halfway decent position. He is someone I have normally beaten in the past, so I could be going down the tubes. But we’ll see.

I now have 14 friends on Facebook, including, astonishingly, Monica Estruch from Spain, who we haven’t been in contact with for many, many years. We stayed in her family’s house on Menorca in the 90s, after her brother had stayed with us in York.

Barbara is here at the moment, working on Philosophy 4 Children with Dot. They now have a domain name registered, thanks to David, and I think are well on the way to a website. From what I can hear in the distance, I think they have been consulting with David today. Dot has produced a nice draft for an introductory leaflet.

12 September 2008

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As I mentioned last time, I’ve been putting together a birthday present for Oliver that consists of my story Little and the new year game illustrated by a variety of photographs, most of which I took specially. There is a red bus in it that is not the tour bus for Norwich, but it’s the only red bus I could find. Several other pictures are similarly approximations, but I’m pleased with them generally. Hope he likes it.

Won my first chess game of the season on Monday. Got a good advantage out of the opening, then gradually frittered it away until I was probably losing, but by that time he was down to about 30 seconds, and I won on time.

Dot has a new job: she’s a DSSO, which is a diocesan schools support officer: it’s for 28 days a year, and she has more than 20 schools to visit on a kind of pastoral basis. There are four DSSOs altogether, and I guess you could say she was headhunted for it, which is pretty good. Her career has been pretty much a huge success, unlike some people’s I could mention. Today she heard that she got an “outstanding” in the distance learning task she did for her other job as a church schools inspector. She’s quite a star, and I shall bask in her reflected glory. I do quite a good bask.

This week she’s also put some work in on the third string to her bow, which is her Philosophy for Children project in partnership with Barbara. She went down to Suffolk to see Barbara on Tuesday, and on Wednesday she had a meeting of the Norfolk Association of First and Primary Head Teachers (Nafphte), so it’s been a busy week for her. I feel positively inert in comparison, but I did join her earlier on Wednesday in meeting her Aunt Jessie at Wroxham and visiting her husband, who is in a home there. We then went on to Wroxham Barns, intending to eat there, but were put off by a coachload of scavengers and went instead to Divine, a new restaurant at North Walsham, where we had an excellent meal.

In the evening of the same day we both went to the DCC meeting at Horsford, giving Howard G a lift. Howard joined us from the Cambridge train, and the next morning was flying from Norwich to Manchester and back. He’s just returned from a trip taking in Denmark, Finland, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekhistan, China, Tibet and Nepal. Howard makes Usain Bolt look as though he’s standing still.

Went to see Dr Hampsheir yesterday for some precautionary antibiotics for our trip to Switzerland. I’m still catheterising daily, and I didn’t want to be stuck halfway through the holiday with an infection. He was very helpful, and I got the impression he would have prescribed me just about anything.

Yesterday was Oliver’s sixth birthday – we chatted to him on the Web – and today is David and Vicky’s tenth wedding anniversary. We’re going down to stay with them tomorrow and Sunday. After a couple of nice days it’s turned wet and overcast again, so Dot and I went to see The Duchess at the cinema this afternoon: it would have carried more conviction if someone could have made Keira Knightley’s hair look less like a misshapen ball of wool, but it wasn’t bad. Some interesting locations, among which I’m sure were North Norfolk, in the Salthouse area, but I could be mistaken.

I’ve put a bit of commentary on my website, but I’m getting to the point where there’s not much more to say on the subjects of speed and climate change. Some bandwagons are impossible to divert. I have however introduced a LATER slot on the home page! How innovative is that…