Monthly Archives: April 2007

26 April 2007

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Yes, that was a long break. I’ve been plagued by this minor virus which keeps coming and going and sapping my energy. Not that you’d notice, since my energy is pretty low anyway, even on a good day. This picture is of my lovely grand-daughter Amy, who I baby-sat on Monday while Daddy tried to work upstairs. We had a lot of fun – quite tiring fun, but fun. Both children are thriving – Oliver shows signs of being a competent horse-rider after a ride on a pony recently.

I seem to have been going to hundreds of meetings recently. If it’s not the district church council, it’s the parochial one, and if it’s not the chess club, it’s Archant. The last one scores extremely heavily because of the excellent buffet, plus the opportunity to meet old friends and acquaintances. This year saw an attendance by a number of yompers. Following this, Dot and I wandered over to the Forum to look at a terrific outdoor exhibition of photographs of various parts of the world from the air. Also a giant map of the world that you could walk on. I was so disorientated by this that I allowed Dot to persuade me to buy a new jacket from Jarrolds.

What else? My NVQ trainee Kate did really well in the London Marathon, finishing in just over four hours; and sadly our friend Joyce died of oesophagal cancer – she had been in some distress over the last week. Lovely lady: she was always upbeat and self-effacing.

Last Saturday went to a session about the Enneagram, which would have been better without the questions-cum-conversation from the usual suspects, which disrupted the structure. However, I think I’m a 5 on the personality scale (this is not a score). Of course I may not be…

The skies have been largely blue, though the temperature has been a bit erratic: yesterday was very warm, but today there’s a chilly wind – even some rain at breakfast time. On Monday when I was in Caddington it was cloudy with quite a bit of light rain, but apparently in Norwich it was fine and warm.

14 April 2007

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This is Dot with Oliver and Amy at Stockwood Park, taken last week on a lovely warm day. It’s even warmer now, and Dot and I are shortly going to Dunston Hall for a carvery meal. Some time since we’ve been out for a meal, after all the excess of Florida.

My cough is a lot better, but my throat is now just sore enough to be annoying, and I don’t feel particularly good despite a longish sleep last night. The Green Party called this morning – Rupert Read and a couple of henchwomen – and failed to convince me that their transport policy was anything short of silly. They think there’s a 50% chance of my voting for them, but in fact it’s much lower than that. There’s not much chance of my voting at all.

Dot had a bone density scan this afternoon, and came out as superwoman. Of course I knew that anyway. Well above 100 per cent, whatever that means.

I’ve finished writing my sermon on the persecuted church: not St Augustine’s – the other 200 million. I’ve just discovered that we only have four weekends free till August.

11 April 2007

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This is a drawing by my grandson Oliver, aged four and a half, of a calculator. Remarkable attention to detail. Since the last blog entry, Dot and I went down to Caddington and looked after the children for three days while their parents worked. Dot was just getting over a virus which had made her cough really badly. She was just about OK for Caddington, and I was fine, but now I’ve got it. Very unusual – during the day it’s hardly noticeable, except that it makes you very tired, but in the late evening and during the night, coughing is very severe – stemming, I think, from mucus coming down from the sinuses. No real nasal problem, though my eyes get sore in the evening. No sore throat, either. I’m not grumbling.

At Caddington we took the children to Woodside Farm on the second day: it was very cold, and we eventually repaired to the Play Barn, where the two of them occupied themselves for almost two hours in the Toddler section. The next day must have been about ten degrees warmer, and we went to Stockwood Park, where there was a lot of running around. Amazing place: some beautiful gardens and a very acceptable cafe. Amy had go to the loo two or three times, but mainly to look at herself in the full-length mirror.

The Ambient Wonder Easter event went quite well, despite my worrying about how it was actually going to work. About 40 people visited 12 Stations of the Cross, and I managed to rig up a loop on a combination of IPhoto, ITunes and Garageband – with a monologue I had written for Simon of Cyrene.

The rest of the Easter Weekend was quite quiet: I was feeling a bit rough, so Dot did the relative rounds. Incidentally, Aunt E bought Oliver a radio for Easter that was an immense hit. Yesterday Barbara V came round to brush up on philosophy plans. I did a new front page for the leaflet which went down quite well, but Microsoft Word is very hard to handle for that kind of thing. It won’t do the simple things, like divide an A4 landscape into three even columns plus margins. Or at least, it probably will, but I don’t know how to.

Today I went up to Bally to meet Bronwen and plan the positioning of our joint piece using her photos and my poem, Unable to find North. She then came back here and we selected the images we thought we’d use. She has now returned to Beccles. The weather is very warm for the time of the year, and I’ve had my hair cut. Bit traumatic – L is moving salons after about 20 years.

David has finished the InPrint website, which everyone seems really pleased with.

2 April 2007

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This picture was taken in 1950, when I was five. My father’s car is on the left, and St Andrew’s Hall is in the background. I think I have a faint memory of the event – may even have been in the car as it paraded round the city – but I can’t be sure. When the picture is blown up, there seems to be someone sitting in the passenger seat of the Vauxhall, but it’s too faint to make out.

Dot hasn’t been at all well for the last week or so, and had to stay in bed over the weekend, with an unpleasant cough and screwed-up sinuses. She’s up today, but still not really well. Nevertheless, we’re going to Caddington tomorrow to look after the grandchildren for three days: maybe they’ll be a tonic!

I’ve had a very busy few days – seemed to be overwhelmed with things to do. Spent nearly all Saturday working on stuff for Ambient Wonder, then after church yesterday I was at InPrint studios in the afternoon, making plans and influencing people. Have agreed to work on a large piece of work with Bronwen, and a collaborative poem with the other four poets (by e-mail). Am also doing stuff with Annette, who has just returned from South Africa.

On Friday Phil and I drove to Coventry to see Andrew, who is in hospital. He looked extremely gaunt, but was cheerful and very talkative. Quite confused about very recent things, though. Spoke to doctor, nurses and social worker, then called on Gareth. I think Andrew will be in hospital for a few weeks yet – they’re going to do an MRI scan to see if there’s an organic problem.

Some blue skies recently, and the odd warm today, but at the moment the wind is chilly.