Bit of a nasty few minutes when I rang to get the results of my blood test. They have a new computer system, which is apparently confusing. The receptionist told me it was all normal, and the PSA was 3.1. This is normal enough in a person with a properly functioning prostate, but not at all normal in someone who hasn’t got one – like me, for example. After being stunned for a while, I was urged by my wife to call back, which I did and got the other receptionist – a more experienced one who checked with a nurse and told me it was actually 0.1. So that was Dot’s prayer answered straight away. That is normal for someone like me, and while I am still not well and on more antibiotics, it appears the cancer is not staging a comeback.
Not sure what is actually wrong. I felt pretty ill on Sunday and Monday and went to the doctor’s on Monday morning. He couldn’t find anything wrong, the blood is obviously OK, and yet I have this very tight and heavy feeling round my abdomen and feel tired and scratchy. Ah well, it’s probably a virus. I dragged Dot to the doctor with me, as she still gets dizziness. The doctor was reassuring and gave her some different pills. So we carry on functioning, but not on full power. Tonight the Tuesday Group comes round for a pre-Christmas meal, just about all the cards are sent and the presents wrapped.
I had to cancel my dentist’s appointment on Monday, and I am now awaiting a call back to fix a new one. Sam and Ellie came round yesterday with a card, and happily I had one ready for them. Ellie is now five, and a pretty bright little thing. The weather has been blustery, but not blustery enough to blow our rubbish away overnight. More storms are promised, however.
My mother in untypical pose on our Lea Francis on holiday in Devon, not long before my father died
My mother was born 100 years ago today, in Eaton village, just outside Norwich. She remembered seeing “the first car go up Eaton hill” and lived through huge changes – most significant of which for her was the early death of her husband at the age of 42, leaving her with three small boys to bring up. It triggered her move back from Coventry to Norwich (I preceded her by six weeks, staying with our former neighbours in Brian Avenue so that I could start school in the city).
Her father was a gardener. She was a teacher and lived to the age of 82. She was a very dutiful mother but in a way never got over her husband’s death. At home she was always there, and I appreciate most of all her decision not to oppose my going to London to live and work, though it would have been easy to put moral pressure on me to stay. I never asked her why.
Sadly she didn’t live to see her great-grandchildren, but she would have loved them as much as we all do. Dot and I went to Caddington on Wednesday – a beautifully sunny drive – to watch Oliver perform in his school concert (he led out the boys’ choir), to help put up the Christmas decorations and to have supper with David while they went to karate. Amy’s reading is coming on really well. We drove back quite late: I’m sure there’s something wrong with the car headlights, but I don’t know what. Today Dot has taken my car to Bradwell (near Yarmouth) for interviewing, so I hope she’s not too late back.
She spent Saturday in London with Anne, and thankfully a poor weather outlook turned out to be quite wrong. They went to the Degas exhibition at the Royal Academy, had lunch at Fortnum and Mason’s and then did a little shopping before catching the 21.30 train back. They got very cheap tickets – so cheap that they travelled first class, as befits first-class women.
The next evening we went to the Seagull again and I read half a dozen poems, as well as presenting a brown envelope that I hope contained a cheque to Lynn Mummery, the winner of the Two Valleys poetry competition, which I had judged. I was pleased to discover that she was quite a new writer, and I encouraged her to come to the next Seagull extravaganza in a couple of months’ time. We shall see.
The gas man cameth on Tuesday to service our central heating. He was a chatty guy who left his torch behind, but before that he checked all our radiators, fixed a couple of the valves that had broken and revealed how I could get the radiators in the living room warmer by shutting off a valve in the bedroom. You learn something new every day. He also replaced a pump in the airing cupboard which I believed had a sticking valve. I now suspect he may have replaced the wrong one, but hey, what can you do?
Off to the surgery in a minute to get my blood tested following a visit to the doctor last week. I’ve just finished seven days of antibiotics and was feeling quite good till I stopped taking them. Oddly, though, I think this may be a coincidence. I hope the blood will reveal something significant (but something that can be easily put right).
Have just booked a visit from the gas man – thought I’d better get the central heating fixed before Christmas, although it’s more or less OK at the moment. Speaking of faulty systems, I went to the doctor’s yesterday, and he gave me a relatively thorough going over but couldn’t come to any conclusions about various intermittent symptoms. So I’m in for a blood test next week – on what would have been my mother’s 100th birthday. Doesn’t time fly?
In other news, the weather has been quite dry by day, and mild, but windy at times. Neither Dot nor I has been 100%, but we’ve been out and about, and have bought most of our Christmas presents, except for close family. Last night we went to a special evening at the Living Rooms, just this side of Poringland, which sells ethically sourced furniture and smaller items. Nice atmosphere, mince pies, and we bought a few things too.
Raced up to the Castle on Tuesday to hear a lunchtime talk from Anna on some of the pictures in the Family in Art exhibition. Really good. Afterwards we had lunch at M&S, and while Dot went to a schools events at the Cathedral, I bought our Christmas cards from the charity shop. Thought I’d made ample provision in cash, but after buying stamps too, I had to go to the cash machine to complete the transaction!
On Wednesday – a lovely sunny day – I drove out to North Walsham to deliver a cheque to Rob Knee as part of the Another Country payment and to discuss future ideas for the Paston Heritage Society. Quite a fruitful discussion: we felt that maybe the full exhibition had had its day and the church project was a bit of a dead duck. We’re going to suggest pulling out of the church project – partly to see the reaction of the PCC – and concentrate on smaller events, producing cards, maybe a leaflet on the Pastons in Norwich and look at the possibility of using St Peter Hungate as a Paston centre in the city. We’ll also be looking at opportunities to use readings and maybe more wide-ranging ideas (songs? monologues?) to sell the book. I’ve suggested the latter to the other poets, who seem keen.
Afterwards I called in at Jessie’s for a cup of tea and a biscuit. She seemed well. We talked about her retirement from the Blind Association (?), where she has been a helper for many years. Coincidentally, at the PCC that evening curate John Easton announced that he was stepping down after 40-45 years, and he and Jean will be taking a back seat. They are both over 70. Bit of a shock, that. At the same time, Nicholas is keen on starting an alternative type of evening service, which sounds interesting.
Feeling very cold for some reason: maybe I’m going downhill. The house is reasonably warm, despite malfunctioning central heating: last night I had to kick the pump because it wouldn’t go off, and this morning I had to kick it again because it wouldn’t come on. Think I’d better get it fixed.
Central heating, ironically, was the reason we didn’t visit the Coomes over the weekend: their boiler packed up, which meant they had no heating and no hot water. So we stayed at home and instead we all gathered at the Three Horseshoes, Spellbrook, just outside Bishop’s Stortford, yesterday and had a long Sunday lunch – long because it took them 2 hours 20 minutes to serve two courses. Happily that didn’t matter at all, because it gave us time to talk, and we all went round Phil and Jane’s afterwards for tea/coffee. David was also able to join us, so it was a happy gathering: nine of us. The repartee was, needless to say, dazzling.
On Thursday Dot had recovered enough from her virus-related vertigo to travel to Baldock and stay at Joan’s – it took her three hours because an accident blocked the road at Elveden. The following day she did an inspection at Duxford while I caught up with much work. Granted an extra day on Saturday, as it were, I did the church accounts.
Dave, Julia and Dot exit the Bridge Inn at Acle to continue the last part of our walk.
The Paston week at Dragon Hall came to a very misty end on Sunday. I had to preach at St Luke’s in the morning, and that went very well: I don’t think I’ve ever had so many appreciative comments. I spoke on the parable of the talents and gave a very different view from the normal one – that it was really about the behaviour of very rich people, a talent being worth probably well over £100,000. The final servant came out as being the hero.
I got to Dragon Hall just in time to lead the 1pm walk, which had the biggest number of the four in attendance: we started with seven, but dropped three (mother and two children) at the top of Mountergate while the father continued with us. In contrast to Saturday, I then had a woman who was very knowledgeable about the history of Norwich, but thankfully I avoided any drastic mistakes. We weren’t able to get into St Andrew’s Hall again – and sadly not St Peter Hungate either, because my phone for some reason decided to drop O2 and I couldn’t ring the woman who was supposed to let us in. However, that was the only glitsch, and David helped me restore the phone in the evening.
The next day we had our hair cut early, and I popped over to Dragon Hall to see if I could help with the get-out, but the Berrys and Diana were almost finished by the time I got there.
Julia and Dave arrived at lunchtime, and after some food we went for a riverside walk to look at the new bridge – which sadly wasn’t yet open. However, we walked up to Fye Bridge and then back down the other bank. In the evening we saw How the Other Half Loves by Alan Ayckbourn at the Maddermarket, and it was brilliantly done. The actors were superb and the direction spot-on. Since there were two different things happening on stage constantly, it all had to be timed to perfection, and it was. It’s no exaggeration to say the expertise was dazzling.
Tuesday was Dot’s birthday, and so we spent most of it shopping – at least she and Julia did, after an initial joint swathe through M&S. Then we had a light lunch (scone), and Dave and I departed for the Castle Museum, where we saw (among other things) an excellent exhibition on the family as portrayed in art. Anne joined us for an evening celebration meal at the Last Wine Bar, which was pretty good.
The weather brightened up yesterday for our walk. We started at Acle and walked across the fields to Upton, then back through the marshes and along the river bank to the Bridge Inn, which is apparently owned by Marco Pierre White. We had a very light bar lunch, but the service was impressive. We then walked a bit further along the river and then cut back into Acle and to the car – the car in this case being Dave’s because at the outset my car had failed to start. As I write, I am awaiting the Mazda Europe Assistance man to diagnose and hopefully fix the fault.
In the evening we went to Prezzos, then watched Frozen Planet, during which Julia and I took it in turns to fall asleep. Dave and Julia left after breakfast this morning.
Diane Jackman Lee reads her poem out at the end of the poetry-art workshop at Dragon Hall. Completed work on board.
My talk at St Luke’s on our relationship with Creation went well after a slow start: the group of 8-10 were eventually persuaded to be responsive, and actually got very enthusiastic about my paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer from the Aramaic, which made a good ending. Came away feeling quite pleased after not knowing quite what to expect.
Other things that turned out well: Roger came round to deliver a birthday present for Dot, and I had a brief chat with him about the dodgy radiators. As a result tried a couple of things that didn’t work but then had a determined go at bleeding them (I had tried before without success). After quite a bit of spillage one worked; the other didn’t. Not to be thwarted, I then had a go at removing and refixing the valve cover that adjusts the heat and managed to get it back on properly. Result: two working radiators, and I’ve now cancelled the engineer’s visit.
And I was relieved to find only two people on the Paston walk this morning – a couple of western Australians who knew nothing at all about the Pastons and not much about Norwich. So it was easy for me, and even St Peter Hungate opened for our visit as promised. Not sure about the Paston Week as a whole: attendance has been sparse and the organisation a little inaccurate at times. I expected far more to be on Rob’s walk, which started two hours after mine today, but he only had one person!
Yesterday before helping the re-enactors to set up at Dragon Hall I managed about 90 minutes in the city, paying in cheques, booking theatre tickets and dropping in a poetry book for Keiron in the hope of getting a little publicity. I also managed to buy a birthday card and something else for Dot. After the Dragon Hall set up I met Dot at the supermarket to stock up for the Evetts’ visit next week.
This afternoon I arrived home to find Phyllis Seaman visiting with a birthday card. Afterwards (and after Norwich lost 1-2 to Arsenal) Dot and I had a game of table tennis and then cleared the garage so that we could get Dot’s car in next week. So a few toys made the return journey to the loft.
A productive day today. Finished off the talk on Creation that I’m giving at St Luke’s tonight, plus an outline of the sermon I’m giving on Sunday. Also laminated the walk sheets for Saturday and completed a Gift Aid form, which I was suddenly able to access via Firefox, having failed for weeks on Safari. I’ve also suggested some hymns for Sunday, read the meter and rang British Gas to fix an appointment for them to look at our two dodgy radiators. And it’s still only 4.37pm! Of course I did have to give Lucy’s talk at Dragon Hall a miss, but I have heard it before.
Also I’ve been on Paston/Dragon Hall business for the last couple of days, running an art/poetry workshop with Annette. Most of the poetry part was on Tuesday, and we had only two people taking part – one of whom had done it before at Oxburgh (but liked it so much she wanted to do it again), and the other was on the Dragon Hall staff. I think they would have cancelled it, but because of an administrative error they had booked Diane Lee (née Jackman – hence the error) in twice. So it was pretty relaxed: I took them for a walk round Norwich, calling in at the Castle Museum, where my friend Anna gave them (and me) an amazing insight into a picture called The Paston Treasure. Oh, and they did write a couple of poems.Yesterday I was there for the start and finish, but left Annette to it for the rest of the day.
The Paston Week at Dragon Hall started on Monday evening unless you were one of the select group setting up the exhibition on Sunday afternoon. I was: Diana and I took control of the exhibition boards, and the result was, I have to say, pretty good – largely because Diana is a primary school teacher and is very good at practical stuff like setting up displays. However, I was very supportive…
The private view on Monday was a huge success: guest of honour was Sir Henry Paston-Bedingfeld from Oxburgh Hall, and I introduced the new poetry book. The five of us read a couple of poems each, and I snuck an extra small one – Magic – in at the end. The audience was very appreciative, and Sarah from Dragon Hall did a great job organising refreshments and indeed everything else. Lucy didn’t make it, unfortunately, because she was pretty tired out after “appearing” on radio with Sarah earlier in the day.
Earlier in the day too I had paid another visit to St Augustine’s Hall, this time to help Tony install a light. Pretty straightforward, this time, though I had to wait while he went and bought one. Fortunately the weather this week has been good, though cooler.
The other major event in the past few days was of course the concert by Adam Cohen at the UEA. Dot recovered enough to go (she is still not 100%), but it was annoying to have to stand in a queue for a quarter of an hour after the time the concert was supposed to have started, especially as we’d bought tickets in advance. On the plus side, Adam came out and had a brief chat while we waited.
The LCR was set out in cafe style – informal – and the whole event was quite intimate, with AC laughing so much at one point that he was unable to sing one song (Like a man). He was backed by Mai Bloomfield on guitar and cello (not both at once) and a multi-instrumental guy. The sound wasn’t brilliant, but he came over well and sang just about all the songs on his latest album as well as his father’s So Long, Marianne. Mai Bloomfield did an opening set that was sweet but not extraordinary.
I think they were both a bit bemused at the quietness of the audience. They wouldn’t have been if they were sitting where I was, with a guy behind talking incessantly all the way through. Good, though. Very glad I went: I bought the CD afterwards. Whoops. Just remembered to remove it from my wish list on Amazon.
Site of one of the Pastons' Norwich houses – in Elm Hill
Taking “busy” to a new level. Next week will be full of Paston-related events, and I have made the mistake of agreeing to lead a group at St Luke’s on Thursday and do the sermon there on the following Sunday. As I have also had to prepare a walk round Norwich taking in all of the Paston sites, and a poetry workshop for Tuesday, you might guess that I am up to my eyes in research. I’m also trying to keep the Paston website up-to-date, which will become even more demanding next week.
After being lured into all sorts of fascinating byways while researching the Pastons in Norwich, I eventually had to get my head down today and produce a plan for the walk with historical details as accurate as I can manage them. I found a few errors in the odd printed source, which was quite satisfying, until I realised there were probably far more errors in what I had written. Still, there are no Pastons around now to challenge me, though there will probably be some local historians prepared to have a go.
Having more or less completed that by lunchtime, I spent the afternoon finishing the Thursday talk on our relationship with creation. There is an almost infinite amount of material available for this, of course, so the challenge was to reduce it to something practicable. Not sure I’ve achieved it – yet. At the end of the afternoon I felt I had to leave the house, so I went for a walk up to King Street to check a new fact I’d discovered. It was pretty chilly, but the fact was spot on.
All this has not been made easier by the fact that Dot has been quite unwell since Monday. She stayed in bed most of Tuesday, so I had to look after the Tuesday Group. Since then she’s been dragging herself to various places and coughing and spluttering around when she’s at home. I can do without catching it, but I hate to see her in that state. I’ve not been feeling well myself, but I don’t think it’s the same thing: I’ve been feeling a bit virusy. Is that a word?
Yesterday, to exacerbate the whole busyness thing, I had to be at the church hall most of the morning to entertain the man who came to give us a quote on a new heating system. While I was waiting, I picked up some litter, brushed some leaves and mended a ventilator guard that had come away from the wall. After rushing home I had to hasten up to Dragon Hall to listen to Lucy brief the DH volunteers on facts about the Pastons. Fascinating stuff, but it got very cold after the first hour. Lucy and Diana (who was driving her) came back for a cup of tea.
On the bright side, we have new handles for our kitchen cupboards. They were fitted on Wednesday morning, quite early, by a resourceful guy who filed them down to make them fit, and left us with a supply of tape to replace worn bits on shelf edges – after fixing most of them himself. Our new fridge is being widely admired.
Missed the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival this year, but wrote a poem over the weekend:
EXIT GRANDCHILDREN, STAGE LEFT
Empty dens in the garden,
bear on the stairs
The speed of darkness has been exceeded
and candles lie where they have fallen
under the newly cut hedge
The cars and bricks have been returned
to the garage, and the beds
remade, redirected, resolved
The prince and princess have gone,
heading for hallowe’en
and we are in winter already
But we all remember
that trick of the city night:
lights like puppets dancing
strange circles across the sky
magic, like a roundabout,
reflecting, returning
Caught glimpses of fireworks as I drove to North Walsham on Saturday to pick up some copies of Another Country, the Paston poetry book that contains five of my poems and was designed by David. In a totally unbiased sort of way I can say that it looks very good. It will be launched next Monday at the Dragon Hall private view.
North Walsham again on Sunday to see Jessie for tea and mince pies after a quickish visit to a packed Sainsburys to buy flowers for the cemetery. Not very nice weather: intermittent drizzle. Earlier I had preached at St Augustine’s and we had a bring-and-share lunch which turned out to be better than I had anticipated at the point when I realised that about 50 per cent of it was couscous. Actually the version of couscous that included meat was quite pleasant, and there were rolls and cheese, which can never be a bad thing.
On Saturday morning I paid a brief visit to the church hall for the reinstatement of the window and discovered the Rainbows in situ, which of course meant I had tracked down Cheryl, our elusive cleaner. She has promised to send me a list of people hiring the all, but I’m not holding my breath. I also noticed that our new sign contains a mis-spelling of the word “spiritual” (sprirtual, no less), which is pretty annoying, especially considering that the person who provided the PDF for the sign people is perfectly capable of spelling “spiritual”. As he is now in Palestine, I can’t hit him. Just as well, probably.
Not exactly a seamless move into autumn. We had our hair cut in preparation, and then bought a fridge, while wondering where the extra hour went. The first brown bin full of fallen leaves was left out on Monday, and now the road is covered with golden confetti. I have just taken Joy to the dentist’s – and fetched her again. Bit of an ordeal for her (the dental work, not my driving).
Dot went to London on Sunday and stayed with her colleague Barbara at David Coomes’ place in Walthamstow. Handily, this was five minutes from the school in Waltham Forest where they were doing a day’s P4C on the Monday. Kristine was absent in Kabul (some people will do anything…) but DC made them welcome. My radius has been much narrower over the past few days, the highlight being a visit to Paston to see Lucy and obtain some exhibition material that could be photographed for publicity for the Dragon Hall event. I should mention that I had to tackle a vampire on Hallowe’en, but only a small one: Phoebe, from two doors down.
Also on Monday I had to open the church hall for repairs and found myself assisting guy who was replacing a broken window, checking the starter on a light bulb and repairing some guttering. The heaters have also been serviced in my absence, and I was surprised to hear that two are broken. We knew about one of them, but the other was working very well on Sunday, so I can’t help being suspicious. Now there’s a big debate about whether we should install a better heating system.
In other news, Ian Fosten dropped in the 42 poems submitted for the Waveney and Blyth competition, from which I have to select a winner and four or five commended. Boot-on-other-foot situation. Dot has gone off for lunch in the city with Becca from NYFC, followed by a meeting with Anne, and I have a long list of things to do, largely because I’ve spent much of my time this week (a) preparing a sermon for Sunday and (b) preparing a one-day session on our relationship with Creation for a St Luke’s group. Also taking antibiotics for suspected infection in the lower abdomen area, but I think that’s on its way out. Either that or I am.
