Category Archives: Uncategorized

Much coming and going

11 December 2010UncategorizedTim Lenton

chapel — A glimpse into the past – and the future. The 13C St James's Chapel in Suffolk. See next post!

A great deal of coming and going this week, much of it involving cars. Poet Caroline left hers with us while she travelled to London on Tuesday. At the same time Colin was putting boards down in our loft, so his lorry was in need of a space during the day, and in the evening there was Tuesday group. Dot and I both needed to use our cars, so we couldn’t just shut them in the garage-stroke-driveway. So quite a bit of fun was had popping them in and out. Happily the cold weather was in the process of abating, which meant there was little possibility of skidding into walls in the process.

Dot had a very busy Wednesday, with a school visit, a talk with the diocesan director of education and a music rehearsal. I meanwhile was driving down to Caddington for a rendezvous with Julia at David’s house, where we had lunch before driving to Beechwood Park for a Christmas concert for “senior citizens”. Oliver’s class did a mime of a typical school day, which included him scoring a goal and celebrating. Others, more traditionally, sang and played instruments. It all finished much earlier than expected, and there were mountains of refreshments to follow – and we still had time to join David and meet Amy out of her classroom, much to her excitement (plus a certain amount of confusion at mismatched grandparents). I looked after her at home for a while after Julia left, and while David collected Oliver an hour later. Julia actually arrived home after I did because of huge hold-ups on the M1. I left at 5.20pm, amid rush-hour traffic, and got home at 8pm.

The next day I was en route to Caddington again, this time with Dot. After a good journey we arrived early and had to wait at the Harvester for Julia and Dave (and David) to arrive. Had the usual Harvester meal (very helpful waitress) and then Dot and Dave went off to see Amy perform as a traveller in her class’s Nativity. Only room for two: this was the grandparents’ event. Apparently she did very well. All four grandparents then played with Amy (in the sense that she told us what to do: Amy heaven) while David collected Oliver again. Dave and Julia left, but we stayed for soup. We left as they had a bath, and again the journey was good. Mucky roads, though. I played some games of chess with Oliver: he is really coming on very well.

Yesterday it was considerably milder, and I went for a longish walk after moving bookcases (and books) around in a dramatic reorganisation. Funny how boarding the loft has this sort of effect. Delivered a couple of cards and was then invited in for a cup of tea by Dorothy Rayner. Good to catch up with her. Dot picked me up from The Cedars as I delivered my last card. Bit unnecessary, as I could have got a bus, but she had been doing school inspection preparation all day and wanted to get out.

Missing the private views

6 December 2010Uncategorizedart, curry, kibble, loft, savigny, skirtingTim Lenton

loftboards — Loft boards unloaded from the lorry and waiting to be fitted

Friday was bitterly cold, so we gave a miss to two open studio private views: Annette’s at Diss, and Rupert and Martin’s at their new home above Fitt Signs in St Augustine’s. We hardly stirred, in fact, but we did make it to Fitt Signs on Sunday after Morning Worship (it’s about 100 yards from the church) and found the dynamic duo in good form: spent some time talking to them and so gave the other two studios in the building a miss. Bought a few small things. St Augustine’s has at last, after many months, reopened to traffic, which is pretty exciting. To be more accurate, not at all pretty and only mildly exciting, but it doesn’t take much… Still lots of work going on in the vicinity, and I’ve no doubt there will be for many, many months.

On Saturday we had been invited to the Kibbles’ for evening meal: had a very good time, with the conversation registering a high number of words per kilo. Rod is pretty intellectual in a nice way and tells a good story: Val knew several people I used to know in my youth at Surrey Chapel, as well as several others (different ones) that Dot still knows in the educational world: so plenty of fuel there.

Our main meal on Sunday was taken care of too: one of our regular visits with Heather, Simon and Sam to the Ali Tandoori for curry, after a brief foray into the King’s Head, where we ran into artist Martin Laurance again and Dot claimed to be stalking him, to the apparent consternation – or was it bemusement? – of the two women he was with. Good meal and even better service at the Ali, where the staff treat Heather – and therefore the rest of us – like one of the family. Excellent conversation again, but I got acid reflux afterwards. Interestingly, it was exactly the same meal and the same result as last weekend. Must be very sensitive to something in it. Pity.

Don’t think I’ve mentioned that we now have a VHS player/recorder: a Christmas present from Dot and me to ourselves. Have played bits of one or two old tapes – one of them a film I took when I borrowed Derek’s camcorder and filmed extensively on our first visit to Scotland, plus a bit on our return, featuring several relatives and our son! More excitement: the skirting board man (who Dot taught, if you remember) came on Saturday and fitted out the living room – an excellent job, as far as I can see, and very reasonable. Then today Colin came and put some boards down in the loft: he’s finishing off tomorrow. Another guy who’s very thorough and, as a big plus, didn’t fall through the ceiling.

Dot and I popped into the city around lunchtime to do a bit of shopping and exchange a sweater, and we somehow ended up in Jarrold cafeteria. Don’t know how that happened. Had a scone. Am rather concerned because I’ve started putting on weight again; so I shall be watching what I eat for the next couple of weeks, before succumbing to Christmas. Well, you can’t watch what you eat over Christmas.

It’s still very cold, with a sprinkling of snow overnight and a lingering mist today. But much easier to walk around in that it was last Saturday, when the temperature was actually higher. Thass a mystery, as we say in Norfolk. On the way home from the curry restaurant on Sunday we thought we saw smoke and flames coming from the Cathedral, but it was just mist lit up by the floodlights. I hope.

Biting wind, hidden snow

2 December 2010Uncategorizedcold, pizza, snowTim Lenton

Jo Stone

Strange week so far. Unusually cold weather, partly because of a sharp east wind over the last couple of days. Not so much snow as expected, but plenty in other parts of the country. Haven’t been out much; Dot has been driving my car to various appointments. I took her to get her blood tested on Tuesday, and driving was fairly straightforward, though side roads were slidey with slush.

Today she went to the shops at Longwater and came back with armfuls of presents, though not the table coverings she went for (on order). I was meanwhile meeting Sue Moore and Jo Stone at Pizza Express in the Forum: as one of them came from near King’s Lynn and the other from Sheringham, I was surprised they made it, but we had a good chat about times past and present. On emerging just after 3pm I was so frozen by the biting wind that I didn’t call in at the shops as planned, but hastened home. Even indoors it was hard to warm up.

Out into the snow and ice

29 November 2010Uncategorizedcoomes, londonTim Lenton

coomesepping — In the wilds of Epping Forest, with Kristine and David Coomes and Dot on a bridge over a stream

We were a bit hesitant about travelling to London to visit the Coomes in their Leyton retreat. Not that we didn’t want to – indeed we had been trying to get there, past a record number of postponements on both sides, for over a year. But in Norwich there was a good covering of snow – enough to entice the police into closing the hilly and therefore slippery Rose Lane into the city. However, I had it on good authority that the snow disappeared south of Norwich and there was none in London: even better, there was no further snow forecast for Norfolk until after we were due to return. So we went, just after 10am on Saturday.

The roads were not easy as far as Attleborough, which kept our speed well down, but after that the snow disappeared and the roads were clear. Despite detailed directions from David we managed to go wrong after leaving the M11 and had to ring up to find out where we were – but it turned out that we were very close, so no real problem. On the way back the roads were clear until we reached Norwich (after a comfort stop early on the A11), and we got up our hill quite easily, though there was snow and ice on it.

Had a great weekend, which included a first-class Indian meal in South Woodford at the expense of our hosts and a cold but really good walk in Epping Forest on the Sunday morning. In between lots of interesting talk and a constant stream of tempting food and drink. As usual I succumbed to temptation and had too much of both, resulting in an acid reflux problem during the night. Still, there is no pleasure without pain. Or is there? Discuss.

This morning we have more snow, but as I write the sky is blue and we are about to go outside and rearrange the cars, putting the MX5 in the garage to keep it warm. I should mention that for some reason our Humax decided not to record one or two things over the weekend, which made us doubly thankful that we were able to watch Norwich thrash Ipswich 4-1 on television at the Coomes’.

HIgh price of levelled lights

26 November 2010Uncategorizedfurniture, paston, phoneTim Lenton

dotoldchest — Dot with the chest relocated to the garage. Quite a lot of captions rejected there.

Approaching the end of November and very wintry – apparently the earliest snow for 17 years. Not too much of it here – it barely settles and then disappears – but lots in the north (eg Scarborough) and our usual haunts in Scotland are badly hit. Still a bit uncertain how our journey to London will go tomorrow; according to the forecast, we should be all right if we can get out of Norfolk.

Enjoyed our lunch on Tuesday with Lucy and her friends, which showed signs of going on into the evening, but we had to go to the supermarket and then Tuesday Group at the Archers; so we left around 4pm. No time to call in at the garage, but we did that the next day after a visit to the tip to deposit some failed electrical items. Discovered a new automatic light leveller would cost £340: the service guy at the garage was as shocked as we were, and he’s booked the car in next week to see if some other method can be found of fixing it. Meanwhile, of course, no problem with it. We’ll see what happens on the way back from London on Sunday, after our much-postponed visit to the Coomes’.

We went to see 100-year-old Phyllis on same day and shared Communion with her, her daughter Janet, Nicholas and Elvira, in her little flat at Doughty’s Hospital while it poured with rain outside. Later, with exquisite timing, had our hair cut. Yesterday I went into the city and tried to get some sense out of the O2 shop regarding switching my old mobile phone data to my new one, including the number. Had three attempts and wasn’t happy with what they said, so I’ve decided to use the number that came with the iPhone. Now have to let everyone know, but as the people who actually ring me on my mobile can be counted on the toes of one foot, this shouldn’t be too arduous. For anyone who’s interested, the new number is 07543 804041.

Today our new unit for the hi-fi was delivered, and Dot has spent much of the day, with some help from me, rearranging and tidying up the house. The living room certainly looks good. Discovered loads of David’s old school and college stuff (including a monitor) in the old chest which is now relocated in the garage.

The long good birthday

23 November 2010Uncategorizedaerial, birthday, dot, furnitureTim Lenton

dotatdesk — An iPhone picture of birthday girl Dot at her desk

I was expecting some editing work to do this morning, but it hasn’t arrived, so instead I’m bringing my blog up to date. Winter is fast approaching, with snow forecast for the end of the week. We are about to venture into a no doubt chilly North Norfolk for lunch with Lucy and a couple of her friends who want to know about Ambient Wonder. We are not experts on AW, but will do our best!

The past few days have centred on Dot’s birthday, which “began” last Friday (see previous post). In the evening we went to the Norfolk Mead at Coltishall with Anne and Philip. Excellent meal and ambience, though a trifle on the pricey side. Still, well worth it. My car lights started playing up again on the way there, and I guess I’m going to have to call in at the garage later today. The auto-levelling system isn’t working properly. Sometimes it’s OK; sometimes it isn’t. Just what you want: an intermittent fault that won’t be happening when we reach the engineers.

In view of the slight risk of dodgy lights, we took Dot’s MX5 to Caddington for the weekend and had good journeys each way. Lovely birthday meals both days: Amy had made some buns, and Oliver had bought Dot some chocolate. David gave her a Kindle, which she is already much absorbed in. On Saturday afternoon the Coomes family came over; it was good to see them again. The children all get on very well. We returned home when David left to take the children to Aylesbury – just after 3pm on the Sunday.

Monday was Dot’s actual birthday. In addition to the bracelet, I bought her the book of the radio series, A History of the World in 100 Objects , a sizeable tome which she seemed very pleased with. It weighs several hundred Kindles. To celebrate her birthday further, we bought some more furniture from Gary’s Pine – this time an oak unit to hold our record player and a small table to hold a plant. From St Giles Street we hurtled to the Ruschcutters for a lovely lunch, made even better by the free birthday bottle of wine. From there things quietened down a bit, though the aerial man arrived just after 2pm to fix the connection to out bedroom TV. Will probably have him back in the new year to sort out a switch to bedroom digital!

On a technical note, Dot was overwhelmed by the number of birthday wishes she received via Facebook. Impressive.

Changes in the living room

19 November 2010Uncategorizedbracelet, radiators, tvTim Lenton

jillcann — Jill Cann (left), mother of the skirting board man. You never know when these pictures are going to come in useful.

Dot’s birthday is on the horizon, and for reasons too obvious to mention, she had her present three days early – and wore it to Dipples open day champagne-and-canape-fest at lunchtime. It’s a rather nice bracelet. She will be wearing it again tonight as we dine at the Norfolk Mead with the Robinsons. It’s seemed a long day, partly because much of it has been spent shifting furniture around following the arrival of our new TV unit, which looks very good. It was especially satisfying that I managed all the wire reconnections without anything not working. Yet.

The living room now looks rather nice, as Phil acknowledged when he dropped a package off for Dot earlier. A little more shifting around (though not much) when the skirting board man arrived to look at what needed to be done to fix the base of the walls following the removal of the skirting heating. He turned out to be a former pupil of Dot’s and the son of one of the Tuckswood teaching assistants, Jill Cann.

Yesterday was even longer. The man who installed the radiators arrived just after 8am and was here till very late afternoon. He was extremely conscientious and careful, which is what you want form a central heating engineer. It’s fantastic to have some real heat in the living room, even though we had to get through a cold day to get it. To be honest it could have been a lot worse, and we didn’t even resort to an electric fire. It was very still and not too cold. I went our for a walk in the morning for an hour or so and sat on St James Hill (while composing a poem) without feeling in the least uncomfortable.

Engaged in leaf-clearing

16 November 2010Uncategorizedhenderson, royal engagementTim Lenton

Despite the royal engagement, we were out clearing the leaves today, and filling our brown bin to its brown brim. Meanwhile, journalists all over the world found original ideas flowing out of their brains and down the drains at an unprecedented rate of knots. TV coverage was pretty much unwatchable. Poor Kate: afloat on a sea of other people’s clichés. They should change their names and live quietly in a big house somewhere in Scotland.

At least the weather is good, solid autumn sunshine. Yesterday I walked back through the city and bought a couple of things while Dot disappeared into the Eaton area for some kind of sale. In the evening I managed a fairly tame draw at chess and came home to find Roger and Dot drinking sherry, which seemed very civilised, so I joined them. Roger had brought Dot’s birthday present from Jessie, which was something in a large box. She doesn’t know what it is, but I do. We may have arranged to do something together at Christmas, but I’m not sure.

At the weekend we visited the Hendersons at their large house somewhere in London, and had a fine time, though the weather was less impressive. I did watch a bit of school rugby with Paul, but otherwise we stayed in, ate, drank and talked. A convivial time. Travel was not too bad, though we got into a bit of congestion on the Newmarket bypass going down and at the Blackwall tunnel coming back. We’ve arranged for Dot and Barbara to stay at the Hendersons’ when they visit Dulwich College prep school for P4C in January. The dynamic duo have also got an overnight visit to Dudley set up in February. Business is booming.

Glorious autumn – for one day only

12 November 2010Uncategorizedandrew, coventry, pastonTim Lenton

aldeburghsky — Stormy sky above Aldeburgh last weekend

Decided to go to Coventry on Wednesday, because it was forecast to be the only half-decent day this week. Didn’t start out too well, but in Coventry after a good drive the sun was shining and everything was glorious autumn. Andrew was in good form, and Julia came over to The Langleys to have a chat with us while I was there (I had remembered to phone her while en route, and fortunately she was free). The house seemed in better nick, especially Andrew’s room. After Julia left, Andrew and I went to Friday’s for a steak lunch. He had a gigantic sundae intended for two. Afterwards got some petrol and checked the tyres, which were strangely very low on one side. It may be that this was the cause of a problem with the automatic levelling of the headlights, because when I was on the way home, halfway across the Fens, the levelling suddenly sorted itself out, and has been OK ever since *touches wood*.

Journey back was not good. The A14 was solid after the A1: I realised just in time and turned north up the A1 before skirting north of Huntingdon and reaching the A141. There was another hold-up at Chatteris (heavy traffic at roundabout), but I thought I was making good progress when I reached Nordelph to find that the road to Downham Market was arbitrarily shut. No advance warning. Using my vast knowledge of the area 😉 I eventually located the totally unsigned alternative route via Barroway Drove.

Weather took a nose-dive on Thursday, with high winds and rain, but I managed to get to Paston in the evening for a trustees’ meeting. Slightly nervous journey home because wind was very strong, but no problem. Earlier Dot had become trapped in the Longwater shopping complex after the southern bypass was closed by an accident and traffic was gridlocked on the exit road into Norwich. It took more than an hour to clear, but fortunately Dot spotted that she could get back on to the bypass instead of travelling into Norwich, as most drivers were doing.

Today still very windy but dry, and I walked into the city to buy Dot’s birthday present, plus a couple of books, while she took the car for a valeting by some non-English and therefore very hardworking guys off Aylsham road. Great job! She then had a meeting with head teacher friends in the city, and I went to Morrisons to restock an empty fridge. When Dot got home she was excited by a piece of furniture, so we drove up, caught its owners just before they shut up shop and bought it. It is a corner unit in oak which will hold our television and a few other things. It will be delivered next Friday. A bargain, I have to say. Well, I don’t, but I will. As I had just paid our house insurance for the year, it turned out to be an expensive day.

Wintry weekend at Aldeburgh

9 November 2010Uncategorizedaldeburgh, chessTim Lenton

hiddendot — Dot at Hidden Cottage, our three-night base in Aldeburgh

Our weekend at Aldeburgh started badly. Just before I was due to pick up Dot from her team-building day at the King of Hearts it started raining hard, and it kept on going. Very slow journey as it got dark, and a car warning light came on – later revealed by the manual to be a problem with the auto-levelling of the lights. At the cottage we couldn’t open the key safe and had to call the owner out while we waited in the rain. The central heating was also set too low, but I managed to sort that out.

After tea (I had brought some food) we went to a reading at the Jubilee Hall which was brilliant: J O Morgan, who won the festival prize last year and has a Dylan-Thomas-like storytelling style, only Scottish; Matthew Caley, who could have made a living as a comedian if he hadn’t been such a good poet; and Don Paterson, the well-known Scot. The next day I bought a book by Caley and got him to sign it.

Back at the cottage I thought I’d lost the rest of the tickets and so after an extensive but fruitless search had my second bad night’s sleep in a row. The following morning, while we were barely conscious and the rain had stopped, Dot found them in the bottom of the cold bag. Dragged ourselves to the Jubilee Hall to hear a discussion on a poet’s toolkit chaired by Don Paterson and featuring Bill Manhire, Marie Howe and Lars Gustafsson. Again very good and quite inspiring. On the way there we had run into Caroline Gilfillan and afterwards also Kaaren Whitney, who we met at the Lowestoft reading. Had morning snack at 152, just off the High Street and bought bread. Had a late bath and returned to the fray at a lunchtime session led by John Irons on the difficulties of translating poetry: as a musician he was very concerned with getting the pulse right, but I wondered if the precision of the words wasn’t equally important. Good stuff, though.

Afterwards we queued to lunch at the Golden Galleon fish and chip shop, then bought me a couple of Fat Face sweaters before booking in for supper on Sunday at the famed Brudenell Hotel and embarking on a walk along the top of the sea wall, then inland and home (about 2 miles). Took lots of photos in bright late afternoon sunlight. Later watched F1 practice on TV and the football results: late equaliser from the Canaries.

The evening session after tea (Dot had bought food while I was in the bath) was another reading featuring John Glenday, who was excellent; Dorianne Laux, who was OK; and Bernard Kops, who was a Jewish one-off, ranging between brilliant and annoying. Caroline was also present, but we declined the opportunity of another session and walked home, watching some Battlestar Galactica before bed. Good night’s sleep at last.

Woke quite late. To Jubilee Hall again: rained as we were about to go in, happily delayed because Dot had persuaded me to buy another sweater on the way. Lecture by Don Paterson on Frost: bit esoteric but worth hearing, though DP is not a natural speaker. His God-is-not-there philosophy is a bit intrusive, unless of course you agree with him. Coffee afterwards, followed by drop-in at Peter Pears gallery for exhibition – OK, but not sparkling. Ominous grey clouds and occasional rain.

Later went for a walk to the Martello Tower and beyond: very cold and windy; even the fishermen were giving up and walking on to Orford Ness to dry out. However, the sun broke through as we returned to watch F1 from Brazil. Not quite the result we wanted. To Brudenell Hotel for evening meal: very good without being superb. Shrimps, wood pigeon, duck, brûlée and a very nice Shiraz. Watched two more episodes of Battlestar Galactica, then a bit more football before bed. Two more results we didn’t want: Liverpool winning and Arsenal losing.

Not a great night, but redeemed sleeplessness by writing a couple of poems. Next morning the wind had greatly increased: pretty much a gale, with sea hurtling in at Gunton, north of Lowestoft, where I found myself eating a sandwich in the car after dropping Dot off at Corton school. A good view of it, first from the clifftop road and then from a potholed car park at the end of the promenade with the narrowest entrance (between threatening concrete blocks) that you are likely to find anywhere. Earlier I had popped into Lowestoft, where I bought said sandwich.

Picked up Dot from the school around 1.30pm and after a quick return to the seafront drove back to Norwich. As we approached the rain started again. The house was very cold, because I’d turned the heating off in case of a repeat of the pump sticking. So we unpacked to warm ourselves up and then watched a bit of TV before I played a chess game against Terry Glover at the club. He has a jinx on me. I played a really good game and then managed to lose on time when he stirred up some slight complication which I could have avoided. When my flag fell – without my even realising it was close – I still had a won position. Naturally I had another bad night.

Time after time

I'm trying to trace a few ancestors, to check if I really exist, and if so, who is to blame.