Monthly Archives: February 2007

27 February 2007

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Picture by our waitress at Tommy Bahama’s yesterday in Naples, where I outraged Barb by ordering a cheeseburger instead of something cultured. However, I did have a Cosmo martini, and Dot had a Coconut Cloud (speciality of the house, with their own rum); so that was all right. Using the phrase “all right” rather loosely.

Afterwards Barb and Dot went shopping, and Roger and I visited about six galleries. Some really excellent pictures, especially in the Galerie du Soleil, where they were showing pictures from Naples, Italy, in some kind of exchange deal. Stunning portraits.

Journey to and from Naples was afflicted by heavy traffic. On the way there, through Fort Myers Beach – a kind of sub-tropical Great Yarmouth – it was foggy, depriving us of what we were assured were splendid views. Naples itself was very refined, or upscale, as they say over here.

Today we had breakfast at the Lighthouse cafe again, then went to see the actual lighthouse, which is not much aesthetically, but nicely placed opposite an osprey’s nest. And round the corner is the pier where quite a large number of people were fishing. Surprisingly peaceful, despite the usual suspects – pelicans – putting in an appearance. Saw dolphins again.

On the way back we called at the video shop, and while we were inside, there was a thunderstorm. Back on Captiva it was dry. Dot and I went to the post office, then Starbuck’s, then bought one or two cards and other items at the Bubble Room emporium. Barb and Roger saw manatees at the dock, but by the time Dot and I arrived, they had mysteriously disappeared. The manatees, that is.

Meanwhile a new fridge was installed. We had a delicatessen supper on the deck, then played bridge, followed by a film – Calendar Girls.

25 February 2007

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Enjoying a fairly quiet Sunday, if a day that starts with a seven and a half mile walk can be described as quiet. We processed along the strip of beach from Sunset Captiva, where we’re staying, to the bridge on to Sanibel, the neighbouring island. In fact, since the hurricane a couple of years ago, the islands are joined, and the short bridge between them has nothing but sand underneath. Apparently there are plans to dredge it again.

The beach is nothing special – just a strip of off-sand-coloured sand about fifty yards wide: sea on one side, expensive homes on the other. Lots of shells. Lots of birds – western sandpipers darting in and out of the sea, pelicans diving for fish offshore, the occasional osprey and many, many others. You can occasionally see dolphins leaping out of the sea. It’s not crowded, but there are quite a few shell-seekers. In the easy-access spots (not many), there is a sudden blooming of chairs and umbrellas.

On the way back – the tempertaure is around 80F, but there is a cooling breeze – we called in at the Chapel by the Sea, which has a little graveyard in the shade of palms and other trees.

Yesterday was also reasonably quiet. We went to the video store and then to Andrea’s again, because it had a wine-tasting. And butter and ice-cream tasting. We bought over 100 dollars’ worth of exotic food, which we’ve been eating ever since.

Afterwards the girls read on the beach. Roger did some painting, and I walked over to the dock and took some pictures, mainly of pelicans and a heron. Idyllic spot. I’ve read one book already – John Grishom’s The Broker. Pretty good, but not great. Much of it was taken up with the main character learning Italian, and it tailed off a bit.

The picture is by Dot, taken at the north of the island.

23 February 2007

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This is Dot and Barb sitting on the dock of the bay during our orientation walk. Otis Redding, eat your heart out. (A Roger Murray picture)

Last night we stayed in and watched a couple of movies in the company of some gigantic desserts from the Bubble Room. The desserts didn’t stay around long – well, mine did, but then I was never much for dessert. We saw Woody Allen’s Scoop, and The Devil Wears Prada, both of which were good value.

Today we went to the Lighthouse for breakfast again and called in at a delcatessen called Andrea’s. Just looking, apparently. Back to the house for a webchat with Caddington and then a kayak ride out in the bay. Beautiful calm day, stunning views and manageable exertion. Dot and Barb have now gone down to the beach, but Roger and I decided to take advantage of the house. Cool.

I didn’t get the commission for the Norfolk poem, but they liked my stuff and might use some of it.

22 February 2007

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Excellent example of time distortion. Here is a Roger Murray picture of something that didn’t happen till tomorrow. Dot and me in a kayak in Pine Island Sound east of Captiva. Now, back to today…

We are now on Captiva Island, Florida, which turned out to be bigger and much more built up than I anticipated. Lovely weather. We arrived at about 10pm on Tuesday (3am Norwich time) after fairly straightforward journey.

We were fortunate enough to have three seats between the two of us on the BA flight, which arrived at Tampa on time. The Murrays had been held up in traffic but we met successfully and drove back to Captiva through a beautiful sunset.

Yesterday we went for “breakfast” at the Lighthouse cafe on Sanibel, then enjoyed an orientation walk round our immediate area, ending up sitting on the dock opposite for an hour or so. Evening meal was at the RedfishBluefish restaurant – smallish portions but high quality. Really enjoyable.

Today we went for a six-mile walk to the northern point of the island, which is privately owned. Saw dolphins in the bay and attempted to photograph them. Temperature around 80F. Crawled into a Starbucks for iced tea and a cookie. Now Roger and I are in the house, which is on a private development called Sunset Captiva, and very quiet. Dot and Barb have gone shopping.

18 February 2007

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Last blog before leaving home en route to Florida. The Murrays are already there. This is a picture they took in Cincinnati, in the aftermath of an ice storm, but apparently the roads were good all through the States. We had pictured them being snowed in, but happily reports of 12ft drifts were exaggerated – at least where they were.

Dot is now cleaning the house, and we’re pretty much packed. I have a few odd things to do; then we shall be off to Caddington. At present the weather is dull but dry, and well above freezing. Happily my tax disc, which I had been worrying about, arrived in the post yesterday.

17 February 2007

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Almost exactly 78 years ago, my mother gave this photograph of herself to my father. She was just 17; he was almost 16. I found it in a box full of my mother’s pictures. In pencil on the back is written: “Given to DL 17(or 11).2.29”

Romantic or what? We’re now building up to our holiday in Florida. Today we need to pack and get everything ready. Dot is doing the garden. I’ve just popped down to the InPrint studios, where Annette was teaching a workshop, and checked the newly cut keys work. They do, though one is tricky.

Yesterday we went out to North Walsham, took some flowers to the cemetery and saw Jessie and Frank. The day before I drove to Halesworth to see a trainee and then had a sandwich with Dot at Park Farm. On Valentine’s Day Dot and I had lunch at Cafe Rouge, and we bought me some swimming shorts afterwards. I’ve written my page for Feb 26: hope it’s Ok, but I should be on the internet in Florida in case it isn’t.

Today is sunny and warm out of the wind.

13 February 2007

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The other snow photo, taken the other day at Caddington: Amy looks on admiringly as her brother bravely throws a snowball at their father.

Of course it’s all gone now, and we’re back to a normal winter – chilly and wet. The weekend was very busy for us. I spent all day at InPrint studios, discussing the future and getting creative with ideas for exhibitions. Fun in a cold atmosphere – that’s the temperature, not the relationships. We had several heaters in the studios but didn’t quite get rid of the chill. I went so far as to buy fish and chips, which helped a bit. Studio 2 is leaking a bit.

In the evening Dot and I went to Heather S for a meal, and the three of us had a great evening putting the world to rights. On Sunday, as well as the morning service, Dot and I had to put together an Ambient Wonder event in the evening, which I was very unsure about – possibly because we hadn’t picked the theme, and not many people were offering to add bits. But the feedback was good – to my astonishment. Over 20 people there, several for the first time.

On Monday I had another chess win, amazingly, against a good player. I was turning out as a guest for the B team and played Trevor Ansell, of Fakenham. I was black, and the end of the game was quite exciting.

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cd 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Bg5 e6 7 f4 Be7 8 Qf3 Qc7 9 0-0-0 0-0 10 Bd3 Nc6 11 Nde2 b5 12 a3 Bb7 13 g4 b4 14 ab Nxb4 15 Bxf6 Bxf6 16 g5 Bxc3 17 Nxc3 d5!
18 e5 Rfc8 19 Qe2 Qa5 20 Kb1 d4 21 Ne4 Qa2+ 22 Kc1 Qa1+ 23 Kd2 Qxb2 24 Rb1 Qa3 25 Ra1 Na2 26 Rhg1 Qa5+ 27 c3 Rxc3! 28 Nf6+ (Desperation. Nxc3 loses immediately, but Kd1 makes it a little more difficult for Black) …. Kf8 29 Nh7+ Ke7 30 Rgb1 Rc1+ 0-1 It’s mate next move.

Today it’s a little brighter, and we had three adults and three children for lunch. Very tasty.

9 February 2007

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Yes, it’s been wintry recently. Not so much in Norwich, where we’ve had a little snow which melted fairly quickly; but in much of the rest of the country there have been quite heavy falls, as can be seen from the picture of my grandson (left) with the snowman he built – possibly with a little help from his Dad and sister. This is in Bedfordshire, and much of the Midlands and West have caught it. Here in Norwich it’s been bitterly cold, but now it’s raining. Warnings of ice on the roads, but fortunately I don’t have far to go tomorrow.

Today I did actually get out of the house and walked back from the plumbing shop – about two and a half miles with one or two detours, including a non-stop climb of Gas Hill – always a good test of how fit I am. Quite surprising, really.

The plumbing shop visit was to pick up tap inserts to repair the bathroom sink taps, which had been broken by a visitor. For reference, I hammered the insert into the tap head, then pushed the tap head on to the shaft. The shop suggested doing it the other way round, but it proved impossible. It’s working at the moment. I don’t think they really knew, though they were very helpful – for instance in getting the old insert out of the tap head.

Saw A on the way home – her father has had a massive stroke and is in a bad way.

Dot went to Watton in the snow yesterday, but it wasn’t too bad. Vicky has been in Hull and had a tricky journey back to Nottingham, where she spent the night. David had been going to come to Norwich to discuss the website(s), but he had to look after the children yesterday, and the weather was still dodgy today. So we had a webcam session.

During the last couple of days I’ve also written my page for Monday and written a couple of poems for tomrrow, which is InPrint’s Creative Day. We’re hoping to get well on the way towards preparing a presentation for the Welborne Arts Festival. I’ve also put together an Ambient Wonder event (www.ambientwonder.org) that Dot and I are curating on Sunday. The idea is for loads of people to come up with ideas and we sort them out, but there wasn’t much input, and I’m not very good at delegating. So I had to come up with some ideas, which is bad news.

Yesterday morning, one of Dot’s head teacher colleagues came round, and the three of us put together some questions for a music quiz for the National Association of First and Primary Heads annual conference in April. Very few on Bob Dylan – unprecedented restraint.

5 February 2007

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Dot with Julia and Dave on the dunes at Horsey, shortly after our encounter with the obnoxious dune walker, who wanted to get everyone off the beach. Later immortalised at www.back2sq1.co.uk/articles/edp/342.htm. This was a new year walk on January 2.

At last won a decent game of chess tonight against Jim McAvoy. Here it is:

1 c4 f5 2 g3 Nf6 3 Bg2 e6 4 Nf3 c6 5 0-0 d5 6 d3 Bd6 7 Nc3 0-0 8 Qc2 Nbd7 9 e4 dc 10 dc Ne5 11 Rd1 Nxf3+ 12 Bxf3 Qc7 13 Qd3 Be7 14 Be3 Rd8 15 Qe2 e5 16 Rxd8+ Bxd8 17 Re1 (!) f4 18 gf ef 19 Bd4 Bh3 20 e5 Ne8 21 Bg4 (Be4 may be even better) Bxg4 22 Qxg4 Qf7 23 Re4 g5 24 e6 Qg6 25 e7 Ba5 26 Re6 1-0

4 February 2007

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For the record, this is Aspland Road during the recent spell of cold weather. Our house is on the left, with Dot’s snow-covered car in the driveway. My car is parked on the right. The road dips down to the river, and you can see the new town houses on the opposite bank.

It’s been warmer, but it’s very cold again today, and there’s a possibility of more snow this week. I was in Thetford yesterday, playing chess for Norfolk second team (Board 2) and managed to win the morning game, but lost the afternoon one. As I lost last Monday’s game and my win yesterday was the result of a blunder by my opponent, my poor run of form continues. However, Oliver is learning the moves. Perhaps he will take over.

Dot is better. I’m glad to say. We went to church this morning, and the music went very well. Quite a big congregations, and lunch to follow. I’m afraid to say we’ve spent most of the rest of the day watching TV – particularly Ireland beating Wales at rugby. Sadly, Spurs failed to trouble Manchester United.

Since my last entry, astonishingly, England have beaten Australia at cricket. I saw it, so it must be true. I have got together a few poems to enter into the Norwich Writers’ Circle competition and have also applied for a commission to produce a Norfolk poem for a Norfolk arts initiative which involves promoting the county through its arts. The commission is worth £2000, but of course a lot more well-known poets will apply. I’ve sent in three poems as examples of my being inspired by Norfolk landscapes.

Yesterday, after my chess exploits, we went for a meal with our former neighbours, Menita and Regis. They are Italian and French respectively, and there were two other people there – one Italian and one Brazilian. International, or what? A really nice evening, some great food, and I discovered that I shared an office tray with the Italian friend when I was at UEA! She is in the LIT department (as a translator) and our names both begin with L.