Monthly Archives: December 2007

30 December 2007

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Yes, well, it’s been a bit busy. Can’t think why: must be the time of year. The picture is a clue: Dot with two lovely grandchildren enjoying Christmas in Bedfordshire. Oliver making light of his broken wrist and Amy making light of anything that moves.

Drove down on Christmas Eve. Traffic heavy, but no hold-ups, and we were there for lunch. Oliver had his arm set in the afternoon, and we amused Amy. She also amused us. Christmas Day and Boxing Day were a cornucopia of delights of different kinds: delicious food, exciting presents – a really lovely time. I got several books and a camera, plus an electronic sudoku from Dot. When I ordered the camera, I neglected to get a memory card, so was restricted to only six pictures before I had to download them to Dot’s computer. Why don’t they tell you need a memory card? I eventually got a 1G card from Comet on Friday, when I was back in Norwich and had been to chiropractor. Good news there – I am back to a monthly visit. Dot and I also had our hair cut at Reepham. I had none off the top but warned Linda I might have to come in for an emergency appointment… While Dot was having hers done I went to Aylsham to deliver the Potters’ presents from D & V, and had a cup of tea and a chat with Kevin. Lisa and Matthew were out shopping. At least, Lisa was shopping: I suppose Matthew might have had his eye on something. He’s nearly three.

Then Dot and I went to Waitrose’s in Eaton, had a sandwich and a drink and then did the shopping for the evening, when Phil and Joy came round for a meal, bringing Andrew, who had been with them all day. I forgot to mention that on the 27th I had picked him up from Coventry and brought him back to Beds for lunch and to see the children. He got on well with them, though it’s quite a while since he saw them.

Yesterday we went into the city and did some shopping. The duck from Waitrose was superb on the Friday, and the lamb was equally good yesterday. The longshore cod off the market rounded off three excellent meals, so not a bad week really, gastronomically speaking! We bought some cheese to take to Nottingham and one or two other things.

This morning I preached at St Augustine’s on the subject of Jesus wanting to hold us and sustain us instead of judge us, as many people seem to think. DA was leading for the first time, and the atmosphere was terrific as usual.

This afternoon we took Andrew out to Rosie’s to deliver a present from Bedfordshire and had a cup of tea and some cake. R was in good spirits, as was A. Very pleasant hour and a half. Must take grandchildren out there next year.

A couple of irritations on the financial front. Got an e-mail from British Gas to say our electricity bill was overdue, though my bank statement showed we’d paid it more than a fortnight ago. Then I tried to renew car insurance on Dot’s car, to be told by Zurich that the insurance on it had lapsed a year ago – despite my having a certificate in front of me showing we were insured up to Jan 2, 2008. The call centre could offer nothing except repeating that we weren’t on their computer, so I told them I’d take my business elsewhere, and I have done so.

Pretty annoying, as both companies had been very good up to that point. Must be something in the air.

Tomorrow we head for Coventry and then Nottingham, where we’re spending the new year. R says it will snow on Thursday, but we should be back by then. Grey and a bit soggy today.

23 December 2007

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Oliver again, who has just broken his wrist in a fall at a friend’s house. We are travelling down to see them all tomorrow and spend Christmas and Boxing Day there. He will not be able to play with the Christmas present we brought him for a while, but we hope to make sure he has a lot of fun anyway. Amy will have to be persuaded to be gentle with him!

Today the temperature has hovered around freezing, and there has been quite thick fog around most of the day. I hope it lifts by tomorrow morning. On Friday the north Norfolk run went very well, except that we ate more than we should, starting off badly at Rosie’s with two mince pies and a beef pasty (me) and 1+1 (Dot). Later we had a salad lunch at Sheila’s, including a pork pie, but I resisted sweet. Also featuring were the cemetery at North Walsham, a present drop-off at Paston and a visit to J & F. All this was done in the MX5 while my car was getting a service, during which they took a seat out to find one of Dot’s earrings.

Yesterday was fairly quiet: I ventured out to pick up a parcel from the sorting office, but the rest of the day was spent catching up and writing most of my column. Today we went to church in the morning and dropped in at Phil and Joy’s for a present exchange. Dot has injured her neck wrapping presents, which should make playing with the grandchildren interesting.

I’ve got a bit further with the family tree following Friday’s tour and will get back to it after the festive season.

20 December 2007

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This a view from under the Humber Bridge on Hessle foreshore, taken about a month ago. I went to Hull again yesterday to assess some young journalists – stayed the night at an excellent Premier Inn with an equally good Brewer’s Fayre restaurant adjoining (chicken and leek pie). And a view of this bridge in the distance. Spent most of the evening on Tuesday catching up with newspapers and magazines I’d been meaning to read, when apparently I should have been watching Spurs beat Manchester City in the Carling Cup. It’s so hard to keep up with what’s going on.

Journey up was pretty straightforward, via the A47, Peterborough and the A1. On the way back I decided on the shortest route, over the bridge and down the A15, but at Lincoln I got fed up with the funereal progress behind crawling HGVs and veered off back to Newark and the A1. The trip was still about 12 miles shorter, but half an hour longer, not helped by a hold-up near Stamford. Because only two of the journalists were available to be assessed, I got home at teatime and spent too much time watching TV, when I should have gone out for a brisk walk. But the weather is still very cold, the air is damp, and it’s not inviting. As I write this in my study, the house is mysteriously chilly – partly because two of the radiators are half-cold. This is something I shall have to get sorted in the new year.

At the end of last week we had a couple of good evenings with friends – the first with the Greens, who are the perfect hosts, and the second at home to four other friends who we know far less well. On Sunday my drama-cum-carol service was extremely well received; a new song I wrote was even clapped! The barely rehearsed actor-readers were all pretty good, the music went well and the atmosphere was warm. It was followed by a superb meal cooked by Vicky and Jared – the sort of Christmas fare you might expect to have been cooked for three or four people rather than a roomful. Delicious.

I played in the Christmas chess event on Monday while Dot went to a leaving do for Marion at Alburgh. Wrong choice by me: I scored only 3.5 out of 8, and the leaving-do was a lot of fun, apparently. Dot gave a speech which was much appreciated. She gave it to me before she went, and I have to say it was excellent. Well, I don’t have to, but I will.

Before I went to Hull I called in at Prospect House to internally verify a portfolio for Bernadette and chatted to a couple of people, including J, who is much improved and working part-time. Tonight we are off to close friends Salmon Fillet for nibbles, and tomorrow we will be doing the North Walsham run.

13 December 2007

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And continuing the theme, here is my cousin Pat at her surprise 60th birthday party. Especially surprising as she’s not 60 yet: I do know when her birthday is, but I can’t reveal it in case everyone who reads this sends her a present. I mean, what would she do with two presents?

Yesterday InPrint did a poetry reading at The Minories (firstsite) in Colchester, and the four poets departed from Norwich – with friend Julie – on the 4pm train, picking up artist Annette at Diss. The walk from the station at Colchester took about 40 minutes and included quite a steep hill, which was invigorating, especially as the weather was literally freezing. The Minories was very welcoming, and there were refreshments, including mince pies. The reading itself was fun , all of us reading five or six poems in all to an audience of about a dozen – which is pretty good, and 12 more than none at all.

After posing for pictures at the end we made our way to the station – Rupert going on ahead because he had to make a connection at Norwich. We thought this was being a bit too careful, but as it turned out, it was merely prudent. Caroline and I, walking briskly, joined him with five minutes or so to spare, but the other three, who started off just behind us, dropped back so much that they went the wrong way – which was not easy, as it was a straight road. After a phone call they got back on track, but we still thought they hadn’t made it. But they jumped on by the skin of their teeth (unfortunately no photo) and in a packed train we managed to get quite close to each other.

A pleasant excursion: we munched mince pies from a goodie bag and got back to Norwich about 9pm.

Today was still cold. I managed to catch up with quite a bit of stuff – the poetry leaflet didn’t make it – and picked up the pictures I’d bought from Bally. Wrote some more Christmas cards and ordered my Christmas present – a camera – from Amazon, after discovering I would get triple Nectar points, whatever they are. Took a Christmas present up to Menita and Regis and picked up six bottles of wine they’d brought from France for us. Fortunately I had enough cash with me, because I’d forgotten about it. Dot left for Newmarket, where she’s doing a church school inspection tomorrow, about 3.30, and I wrote most of my page for the EDP. Tomorrow I need to finish it and make sure all is ready for Sunday’s carol service.

11 December 2007

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This is my cousin once removed: Catherine – daughter of my cousin Patricia, who is Paul’s daughter. We met her at Pat’s 60th birthday party on Saturday, held at Mersham Road Elim Church in the heart of South London. I think it was South Norwood, but everything merges into each other down there. We got there thanks to some thorough planning by me – a number of print-out maps featured – and some excellent navigation by Dot. So excellent, in fact, that we were three-quarters of an hour earlier than we thought we had to be there (5pm), and over an hour and a half before the guest of honour arrived (5.45pm). But as we met Catherine at an early stage – and we were given a cup of tea by helpers – this was not a problem. Catherine had her two daughters, Abby and Ruby, with her, and later I also met her two brothers. So a good day for catching up on family matters. A delightful party with plenty of hot food and some cake and cabaret.

Afterwards we drove to the Hendersons in Eltham, about half an hour away: some more excellent navigation by Dot got us there precisely at 9pm, when we had predicted we would arrive. Maryta was so astonished that she woke up. Stayed overnight and had a great time: superb lunch on Sunday. The weather throughout the weekend was awful – rain and wind, and pretty cold, as it has been for some time. Today there is some improvement, and we are promised a dry spell, albeit a short one. It is still very cold.

On Sunday evening we had a call from another family member who I had never met – Bev, who is Howard’s daughter, so another cousin once removed. I thought it was second cousin, but apparently, a second cousin is the child of your parent’s cousin. So Catherine and Bev are David’s second cousins. Glad we’ve cleared that up.

Bev was calling from South Africa: she’s coming to England in January and wants to meet some relatives, so I’ve invited her to stay with us. But it sounds as if she might be trying to cover the whole country in about a week, so I don’t think she’ll be with us long. I’ve given her directions from Gatwick…

I have now won my last two chess games, the latter one against quite a strong player, so things are looking up. I don’t know how long it will last. What with writing Christmas cards and various other things (I was trying to put together a few poems to sell tomorrow – see next blog – but I don’t think that’s going to happen), I hardly seem to have time to do anything. It must be an illusion. We’re busy every evening till Sunday and most of the days too. Yesterday I went to the chiropractor; today Dot and I had lunch at Park Farm. Not doing enough walking because it’s so unpleasant out.

I almost forgot – on the way down to London we stopped for lunch at Swynford Paddocks Hotel, just outside Newmarket at a place called Six Mile Bottom (ho, ho). Very pleasant toasted sandwiches and curly chips with garlic dip. I shouldn’t, but I did. And I’ve still lost over half a stone in the last three weeks. SPH was very big on Brigadier Gerard, a famous racehorse, so I expect that’s where he came from. The Paddocks, not the hotel. Presumably. We also checked on the hotel Dot is staying at later this week when she does her school inspection at Newmarket. Looks very acceptable.

6 December 2007

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Grandson Oliver goes round his home crazy golf course at breakneck speed. Meanwhile I got through a chess game at breakneck speed, agreeing an early draw in a sterile position against Fakenham on Monday. My grading is plunging, and I’m due to play for the A team tomorrow as a stand-in.

Oliver’s other grandparents have been with us during the last three days, and we’ve had a great time despite some really dismal weather, which seems set to continue. On Tuesday we took them to the Bally Art Factory studios, and to my surprise they bought three of Annette’s pictures, plus one from another artist as a bonus. We then had lunch at the Assembly House, which was good but slow, and followed it up with a walk round Norwich. Unhappily the continental fair had packed up early because of wind and rain in the morning, but by afternoon it was quite pleasant. We bought some cheese on the market, plus one or two other things.

In the evening we went to the Theatre Royal to see Comedy of Errors: a truly excellent performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The new theatre is mostly impressive, but I don’t like the long rows in the Circle, with no centre aisle. You won’t catch me in the middle of one of them.

This morning the Evetts departed after breakfast, and Dot and I went up to the church hall to unpack some furniture for the upstairs room, which Heather C had brought in a van. We also unpacked a Christmas tree and installed it in the corner, with some help from Liz and support from Rosemary. Looks pretty good.

I checked on my blood test results, and discovered my PSA level was up quite a bit, which is disappointing. Now 12.7, which is equivalent to about double that, because I’m taking a drug to reduce the size of my prostate. Rang the hospital, and Mr Sethia’s secretary said he would be in touch. My symptoms are no worse – better most of the time – but I wasn’t feeling particularly well when I had my blood taken. Whether this is relevant is another matter.

Dot is just off to Gillingham School where she is a governor. She has just heard that they are having an Ofsted inspection next week. On the Atlantic chart, a series of lows are lining up against us.

2 December 2007

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J & A came to a meal on Saturday night, and conversation turned to mutual friends, one of whom we knew many, many years ago when we helped to run a youth group. This picture shows, not the mutual friend, but me and our son David. No prizes for guessing who is who. Three of the others are vicars’ sons and one is a bishop’s son. Talk about exalted company. The connection? This is part of a much bigger picture containing the mutual friend. I hope you’re following this.

On Friday Dot and I had our hair cut and did some Christmas shopping at Reepham. A friend said she had never found anything worth going to Reepham for, but I like it a lot. Some lovely little alleys, an unusual centre and this rather neat shop in the old station that sells all sorts of strange things. Some good walks in the area too.

On Saturday we went to Rupert Mallin’s retrospective exhibition of his parents’ work: Tom and Muriel. Some really good stuff going relatively cheap, as well as some expensive works – one of which went for £2500 while we were there. Sales seemed to be going well generally. We bought a rather nice picture of Suffolk, plus a couple of woodcuts and two small drawings – oh, and a copy of Tom’s novel dedicated to Muriel which may be a first American edition.

Today we went to Communion and then to North Walsham in the afternoon – visiting Dot’s aunt and the cemetery, though not in that order. Quite windy, but not cold for the time of year.