All posts by Tim Lenton

8 September 2008

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This is the bowl that Allan Higbee made for us for our ruby wedding anniversary. We also received a lovely orchid from Hazel Savigny, some roses from the Coomes, a lovely bottle of Benedictine in a spectacular tin from Dave and Julia, three bottles of wine and three bottles of champagne, among other things. If this is what happens when you say “no presents”, I wonder what might have happened if we hadn’t. People are very kind.

Have had a lot of frustration in the last few days with my broadband connection, which comes and goes at random. When it’s on, it’s often very slow, and will drift in and out constantly. It was off all day Saturday. I haven’t got anywhere with BT yet, but I discovered from Martin, who lives opposite, that he and others nearby have been having similar problems. I am writing this blog on TextEdit and will paste it in when I can catch the connection. It seems to be on at the moment, but… anyway, it won’t matter after Wednesday, when the Large Hadron Collider experiment in Switzerland will probably create a black hole that will destroy the world, or at least disrupt our holiday on Swiss railways later this month. I’m looking on the pessimistic side, of course. Alternatively, it may reveal new secrets about the universe.

Our hedge has had its annual clipping, together with much else in the garden. Let Colin loose with a pair of clippers, and nothing is safe. Result: the house seems much lighter and the garden has that “just had a haircut” feel, which is actually good. Colin is coming again next month to do some more work, Large Hadron Collider permitting.

On Friday, while Dot visited her aunt in Hethersett, I went to a chess simultaneous display at St John’s Cathedral, which was supposed to be given by Owen Hindle, but he had to go to Scotland because of family illness, and David LeMoir took on 32 people instead – in aid of John Charman, a leading light in Norfolk chess and editor of En Passant. I arrived at about 7.15pm and stayed for just over two hours, by which time he’d beaten two people. I could see it lasting long into the night, so I came home. Nice to see some familiar faces, though. Back into the new season tonight, when I play Chris Tuffin in the club knockout competition. He’s a hard man to beat.

I’m getting nearer to completing a book I’m putting together for Oliver’s birthday, combining my first Little story with some photographs, most of which are in place. I have to take a few more, but the weather is not good. It’s grey again today, with occasional light drizzle, which is not good photography weather. Hope the sun might break through this afternoon.

Nicholas preached a good sermon on prayer yesterday, and we stayed for church lunch. In the evening we also went to the Ambient Wonder review meeting, when “wine and nibbles” turned out to be a full-scale buffet. Pity we’d just had a normal-sized tea…

4 September 2008

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It’s official: we can get 13 people round our kitchen table. Twelve in the picture (after our ruby anniversary) and me slotting in on the left. From left going round: Jane, Philip, Jennie, Julia, Amy, Alistair, Lydia, Oliver, Dot, Dave, Vicky, David.

Major excitement in that our brown bin (garden rubbish) was emptied today. I suggested ringing up the council to tell them, but Dot demurred. She has been ringing up regularly to tell them it has not been emptied, so it seemed only fair.

More problems with the computer internet connection, so I rang BT, who tested the line. Unsurprisingly, it was OK. In the end the guy suggested trying it with the Ethernet connection, but I said I had, and that didn’t work either. So then he suggested changing the filter on the phone line. So I did that. I also removed the laminator from near the hub (it was switched off) and removed everything else from the electricity socket (time machine, scanner) and suddenly it worked, and has been doing so ever since. I have no idea what’s going on.

It rained extremely hard this afternoon, and has been unpleasantly overcast. This evening, though, is much brighter (at the moment). Dot has gone off to a governors’ meeting at Gillingham. Earlier we tried out my new guitar pick-up, which worked very well on a couple of songs. My stomach is still not right, so I have resorted to a high dosage of acidophilus, and have been OK for a few hours.

This morning the Higbees brought us a wooden bowl that Allan had made: very beautiful. They looked at our photos and stayed for coffee.

3 September 2008

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The big event is now over, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. The weather stayed good for all but the last couple of minutes of our ruby wedding celebration on Sunday, so people were able to spill out on to the terraces at Dunston Hall Hotel, and the children could let themselves go a bit. They deserved it after staying the course really well for the food and speeches. Amy laughed a lot during my speech, which gave me the opportunity to ad lib, and Oliver was on his best behaviour as always. David gave a lovely speech which was very moving, and I think everyone had a good time. At least, anyone who didn’t kept very quiet about it.

The picture was taken by Pete Stokes, who supplied us with 122 on disc within two days – a brilliant and very kind gesture. Most of Dot’s college friends were there, and we had 62 guests in all, only three unable to come at the last moment.

We had a full house for supper afterwards: David and his family, Philip Coomes and his, together with his mother, and Dave and Julia. I was feeling totally shattered and barely held it together, especially as a stomach upset I had picked up the day before resurfaced. Happily it was absent for most of the celebrations. Dave and Julia stayed the night, and it would have been nice to go for a walk the next morning, but I was in no fit state, so they went into the city with Dot. Later I managed to join them for lunch in the bar at Dunston Hall, where they had left their car overnight, and they then departed for home.

Tuesday seemed very quiet, and my stomach was still dodgy. It poured with rain nearly all day. It was Joy’s birthday, and Dot took her present round as I was feeling bad. My general unease was not helped by the fact that the computer’s internet connection keeps dropping out, and I spent some time on the phone with David trying to sort it out – but to no avail, largely because I don’t have any of the passwords I need. I tried various different connections, but nothing had any effect. Now it varies between no connection and full on. Interestingly, it seems to improve as son as I try to do something, then fades out when I don’t. Totally baffling. One minute it’s like greased lightning, then it crawls. I hate this intermittent stuff. Later on things improved generally, and we had three of our friends round for a cowboy pie. I had had a brief sleep around 6pm when I felt very shaky. A bad day ended well.

Today Dot and I went shopping, and it turned out to be one of those days when everything flowed. First we bought just the jacket I wanted, then found a suitcase that was just right, as well as a small hand-luggage bag on a stall in Brigg Street. Then got a couple of presents for Oliver before shooting up to pick up my guitar pick-up that Dot had ordered some time ago. After that we had lunch at Cafe Rouge (my stomach is improving, though by no means perfect) and got some Swiss currency at the post office before walking home. Dot has done a little gardening to fill our brown bin up and is now relaxing in front of the TV.

30 August 2008

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This is the other Amy, daughter of the other Vicky, our friend at church. The picture was taken at Mangreen Hall nearly three weeks ago. Now we’re on the brink of the big event at Dunston Hall – our ruby wedding anniversary celebration tomorrow. Yesterday and today have been warm, and it should be warm tomorrow, but thunderstorms are forecast. Well, at least it will give us an atmosphere. I think we’re almost ready.

Yesterday Dot and I went into the city and had lunch at Caffe Italia before buying some chocolates as prizes for tomorrow’s quiz. Then I went home, via the Cathedral, and Dot stayed in the city for a while. I then returned the courtesy car and retrieved ours – without dents – from the Rackheath garage where it had been languishing for a couple of weeks. Got it home without incident, just in time to let Dot in.

Today Dot went to Park Farm, and I paid in some cheques and visited the Cathedral again. I have now finished my prostate account – or at least brought it up to date. Nearly 12,000 words, and 30 pages of A4. Dot has started to read it.

28 August 2008

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End of the road – at Happisburgh, where the cliffs are gradually eating into the land. I called in there a couple of days ago, after dropping some stuff off at Lucy’s and buying sausage and chips from the shop at Bacton and eating it in the car on Walcott seafront. I’d meant to eat it outside, but the place was crawling with little black flies. I drove on to Happisburgh to have a look at the erosion, and found that the village seemed to have given up – at least the part of it close to the cliffs. The houses were unpainted and falling apart, disused caravans and sheds lined the two roads, and there was an air of abandonment. Not surprising, I guess, but a little disappointing. What it needed was one of those eccentric Englishmen who would be painting the Titanic as it started to sink. Not enough defiance of the inevitable nowadays.

Today, after having our hair cut – and accepting an estimate for dramatic refurbishments to our shower room – we went to the hospital again, and saw Mr Sethia, my consultant. Discovered that the catheters I had been using were not what I thought they were. I was under the impression that they were solid things like pipe-cleaners. He revealed that they had a hole down the middle which was used to reveal whether or not you had reached the bladder (I leave the rest to your imagination: possibly not enough). I also found I should be using them every day for at least a couple of months, and not as suggested by the nurse. Just in time! I fixed an appointment to see him in the middle of October to see how things are going. As a precaution, I have also arranged an appointment with my own doctor for September 11 – principally to ask for antibiotics to take on holiday in case… well, it’s the best place for them.

Other than that it’s been a quiet week. The weather forecast promised sunny days, but in fact it’s been pretty cloudy, though warm. David and family arrived back from France on Tuesday, having had a much better time than last year, and Oliver and Amy are busy choosing what they’ll wear for our party on Sunday. Our car is still in the garage, but we’ve been promised it tomorrow afternoon. Dot tells me she is on schedule with her preparations for the weekend, and I’ve written my speech, though I will probably make some changes. I usually do. Thunderstorms are forecast. No, really! I have made strides with writing an account of my medical experiences of the last three months and am approaching the end of July! And I’ve entered a very short story in the Fish competition. It’s called The Threat.

Oh, I should have mentioned that today is my parents’ wedding anniversary. I think they were married in 1937, which would have made it their 71st. They would have been 96 and 95. Strange to think that my father died over half a century ago.

23 August 2008

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Flashback to Brancaster Beach, with a Dot on it, at the end of last month. This week has been fairly quiet, and I’ve spent most of it at home. However, we have been without our main car, which has been in for repair, and have a courtesy car – a Kia – instead. It has mostly been standing out in the road, but we have been short distances in it – for instance we loaded it up with musical instruments and the odd amplifier on Wednesday to visit Phil Kerrison and have a rehearsal (later discovered his daughter Emily got 10 GCSEs this week – 5As and 5Bs – which strikes me as a bit excessive). Very enjoyable afternoon – we finished off doing Irish jigs, with Dot on electric violin.

Until Tuesday evening I had been feeling rather down about my condition, but after some prayers that evening with our Tuesday Group I unaccountably (!) felt much brighter on Wednesday, and this has persisted. I was supposed to have a phone conversation with the consultant on Friday, but that didn’t happen. Instead I’m seeing him next Thursday. Self-catheterisation is going OK, but my abdomen still feels decidedly odd. Probably nothing to worry about, though. I’ve decided to be very positive!

On Thursday Dot went to Park Farm and met Anne there for lunch; meanwhile I had a lunchtime visit from Sue Moore, who brought photographs of her cuddling a koala. I’m not sure about that sort of thing. She and Richard have just been to Australia (amazingly), and seemed to have an extremely cuddly time.
Today Denise and Peter called in unexpectedly with a ruby present of two rather nice looking bottles of wine, and showed us pictures of Clive’s wedding. Peter seems to be suffering quite a bit with his leg (and foot), but it was nice talking to them.

Dot went to a YFC barbecue last night, and I thought I was going to do quite a bit of work, but I didn’t. However some time during the week I did manage to put together three CDs of music – 54 songs in all – for the party. We’re planning a music quiz – fit the singer to the song! We’re now preparing to go and have a meal with June Wallace, who rang up out of the blue this morning and invited us. She lives at Beccles, so I may have to put some more petrol in the courtesy car! And I really must get down to writing my speech…

18 August 2008

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Dot with Julia and Allan Higbee, who we visited last Friday. My last night with a catheter – at least for a while. On Saturday I went back to Edgefield Ward for its removal, and after waiting the usual two hours-plus, this was done, painlessly, by an auxiliary called Wendy. And this time I performed perfectly acceptably afterwards and was allowed home. However, it came as a bit of a blow to discover that I would have to self-catheterise. It was slightly less of a blow when I discovered what this meant, and that I could do it fairly easily, but it would be nice to be free of the whole thing. However, the guys with me in the ward were in a far worse state generally, and remarkably cheerful. I felt a bit humbled really, but at the same time unjustifiably downcast. I think I was afraid of it all going wrong again. This feeling lasted overnight, but I am now more optimistic, although I do still have this odd, tight, heavy feeling in my abdomen which I would like to go away.

Went to church on Sunday and played guitar and led prayers: a good service led by Paul. Afterwards we had a quiet afternoon watching the Olympics.

Today I tried to get some extra sleep, but was unsuccessful, although I did actually stay in bed most of the morning. Again watched some Olympics, then went up to doctor’s to take note from hospital, and Dot called in at Garden Centre to get some oasis for our party next week. Afterwards I walked home from the Ketts Hill roundabout after posting some letters. Still get tired quickly. Dot is busy organising the tables for the 31st: she is doing a great job. I need to get on with writing my speech and organising the music.

16 August 2008

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Lucy Care, Caroline Gilfillan and Lisa D’Onofrio at Thursday’s Bally meeting to discuss various aspects of the Paston Book – running order, finance, exhibitions and so on. Annette was also there. More pictures on the InPrint website. The meeting lasted two hours and got a number of things sorted out, though some were left vague as usual.

I wasn’t feeling particularly well and eventually decided to go to the doctor’s with another urine infection. I was prescribed antibiotics by Dr Macris, who I hadn’t met before. To be fair, he probably hadn’t met me before either.

Yesterday Dot spent a long time in the city, with Carrie, who she met for lunch. I walked up to the newsagent’s and the sorting office (twice) – the second time to send off my Flip camcorder, which hasn’t been connecting to my computer properly. I had an e-mail exchange with the support team, who eventually told me to send it back to Windsor for repair or replacement. In late afternoon we called in at Dunston Hall to pay for our ruby celebration, then went on to Newton Flotman, where we had a Greek meal with the Higbees. Very enjoyable: Allan revealed that he had made some lovely wooden bowls, and he offered to make us one if we supplied the wood. Back home by just after 10pm.

In an hour’s time I will be at the hospital to have my catheter removed, which will be a relief. I’m a little bit tense of course, but hope that all will go well and I’ll be back home this evening.

13 August 2008

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Another picture from Sunday – this one is of our friends Bridget and David Archer, members of our Tuesday Group and just two of many who didn’t come last night, when we almost had an all-time low of three until Claire turned up late. Vicky was the other one, and the four of us had a very pleasant evening.

Earlier Dot and I had been out to Paston to deliver some acetates for Lucy. Jack was there, looking quite chirpy at 95, and so was Naomi, plus Lucy’s sister, niece, niece’s husband and great-nephew. So obviously we had a cup of tea and passed a pleasant half hour before departing for North Walsham to drop in on Jessie for another cup of tea. She had fallen over on some uneven pavement and had a few cuts, but seemed more or less OK. I instructed her not to do it again.

On the way home we saw evidence of the downpour that had swept across a narrow band of Norfolk in the morning and kept us in bed (well, it doesn’t take a downpour to keep us in bed, but it’s a good excuse). By afternoon it was was reasonably pleasant, but the showers have continued into today, and the forecast is not too wonderful.

According to my Norfolk Almanac of Disasters, nothing really bad has ever happened here on August 13, and this record continued today, as far as I know. Dot went down to Suffolk just in case, but mainly to meet Barbara, with whom she is working on Thinking Skills for Children. I got quite a lot done in her absence, including fetching a prescription, giving a bit of money away and reading an interesting essay on Kafka by Zadie Smith (in the Telegraph Review section). Have been in contact with Flip technical help about my new camcorder, which won’t connect properly to the computer, and it looks as if I’ll be getting a new one. This evening I’ve printed out all the Paston poems on quality paper so that they can be put up on exhibition. Dot continues on her mammoth task of sorting out all our photographs.

I’ve also entered five poems (mainly from the hospital series) in the Aesthetica Competition.

11 August 2008

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After torrential rain on Saturday, we had a warm day on Sunday for our church day out at Mangreen Hall, just outside Norwich. I’d been feeling quite down the day before and woke up feeling distinctly dodgy, but in the end decided to go and immediately felt better. It turned out to be a really good day – relaxing and invigorating – and the company was excellent, as well as the setting. The picture shows Dot playing violin (electric) with Matthew, and the two of them accompanied me singing one of my old songs that I’d updated slightly for the occasion. A good selection of bring-and-share food at lunchtime, and lovely grounds, including a stone circle, to relax in. Took quite a few pictures. The day ended at 5pm, but we spent quite a time chatting to various people before leaving. Home just after 6pm, and it started to rain about five minutes later. Watched Olympics round-up – first UK gold medal from Nicole Cooke in the cycling road race, who proved to be so hyper that she was completely uninterviewable.

Today has been much quieter. Martin Laurance came round to pick up a CD with one of my Paston poems on it for transfer to an A3 acetate. He later came back with the acetate, which I’ll deliver to Lucy tomorrow. I’ve also put together four A4 sheets of Mangreen pictures which look pretty good, I have to say. Well, I don’t have to, but I will.