Monthly Archives: October 2008

17 October 2008

Uncategorized, , ,

An atmospheric picture from the Paston weekend: clash of centuries? Second right is Martin Laurance, whose terrific images went with a couple of my poems in the Paston book. Tonight Dot and I went to Rupert Mallin’s big show, Pleasurance, at the Art Factory for the Private View, and Martin was there. He has given me one of his full-size prints, which I will have framed. Annette and Mike were also there. I bought one of Rupert’s small pictures and one of his mother’s. Also there was a former lecturer from City College, Roger Whittaker, who I worked with in the past. He and Dot spent some time putting the educational world to rights. They seem to be pretty much on an identical wavelength.

Earlier today went to see Mr Sethia and took a catheter, which he admitted didn’t actually have a hole in it and functioned as a pipe-cleaner, which was what I had maintained previously. Also discovered that I had probably been putting it in too far and irritating the bladder. I had actually asked the nurse if I could put it in too far, and she said no. He wouldn’t give me antibiotics for what I thought was a urine infection and said it might be just a minor inflammation. Personally I would have gone for the worst case scenario, but that’s probably because (or why) I’m not a doctor. So I am left unmedicated over the weekend, hoping that he’s right. My next date with him is in March, so he must think I’m doing OK.

Yesterday Dot and I took Andrew back to Coventry after I’d taken him to Winterton in the morning. The previous day had been very wet, so we couldn’t do much other than buy him some clothes. Winterton was very pleasant, but with a chilly wind. I had a quick brush with some near-quicksand, but nothing too frightening. The journey back saw Dot at the wheel, and we stopped for a drink and dessert at Thrapston, then tried for a Little Chef on the Coventry bypass, only to find it was closed. We went by a very circuitous route to avoid rush-hour traffic and eventually ended up at TGI Friday’s, where Andrew and I had very nice steaks. Dropped him off just after seven and returned by my special route avoiding the M6-A14 junction, but tried a short cut too many and ended up driving round the lanes of Northamptonshire in the dark. Still, nice lanes, and eventually we located the A14, which turned out to be where it always was. And as it was evening, it wasn’t plagued by lorry drivers with one brain cell pulling out and taking ten minutes to overtake each other.

15 October 2008

Uncategorized

Pictured are Keith and Mary, who spent a few hours with us during a visit from Canada (see earlier post). They are pictured at Dot’s Aunt Ethel’s house, a temporary centre of reminiscing and nostalgia.

Good news on the diabetes front: I don’t have it. The blood test was clear, as I discovered after hanging on for several minutes while my important call was in a queue (I quote). So nothing to stop me from being really fit, and I do feel much better in myself, though the technical side is not quite as it should be. But it will be soon. Yesterday Phil took me in his Mercedes to pick up Andrew, and apart from dozing off for about 20 minutes on the way back, I had no problems. That wasn’t a problem either, of course, though it would have been if I’d been driving.

Most of Andrew’s clothes have mysteriously disappeared, together with his holdall. The staff at The Langleys say he throws them away, which is quite possible. His shoes had a big hole in them and most of his remaining clothes were defective in some way, so I’ve spent most of a very rainy day re-equipping him. His coat has gone to the cleaners, and I bought him over £300 worth of new clothes, including a jacket, shirts, pants, socks, pyjamas, slippers, shoes, trousers and a belt. Add on a new bag, an electric razor and two toothbrushes, and his account has taken a bit of a whack. But of course that’s what it’s for. I wanted to buy him some more shoes, but he was reluctant, so we put it off. A review may be necessary at Christmas.

We also drove up to the cemetery, but it was raining too much to do anything. The grave is still there. Last night Dot went to a Tuesday Group meeting at Vicky’s while I showed Andrew a selection of our photographs, suddenly realising how useful the Front Row feature on my Mac was for this. Oh, I should have mentioned: I have a new Flip. It seems to work OK. I must give it a thorough test, but what shall I video? Maybe something at the weekend.

13 October 2008

Uncategorized

Just completed a really busy week and an even busier weekend. During it all the weather brightened up and became quite summery, with blue skies and a real warmth in the sun. This made the Paston Project exhibition at St Margaret’s Church really enjoyable: even inside the church (colder than outside) was not at all unpleasant. I refrained from medieval dress, because I am not really a medieval sort of person, but quite a few people did indulge. Details will appear soon on the InPrint website, but pictured are four key players – Ruth, head of catering and great bun-maker; Neil, heir to the throne of the Paston Heritage Society; Brigette, a true medieval star; and Lucy, chairperson of the Society, who brought the whole thing into being.

I was there on Thursday to help set up. The saga of the van stuck in the mud not once but twice appears on the InPrint site, together with exciting pictures of people carrying things. Then again Friday evening for the Private View, which went very well indeed and included Siri-Susanna’s fascinating film of the making of the book, plus a poetry reading. I was there just about all day Saturday, which included two other poetry readings. Lisa gave me a lift up to Knapton (so that I could give her easy directions home) and I walked back across the fields, disturbing a muntjac deer that was lying in the grass and made off at high speed across a dry ploughed field. I think it was a muntjac, though it was quite substantial in its hind quarters. In the evening we had another Latin Compline, to which Dot came with sandwiches and Judith turned up from Bacton. Jack Earl was in good voice, and it was another interesting experience though, as Judith said, there were too many technical matters demanding concentration (Latin pronunciation, plainsong tunes) for it to function well as any kind of worship. Still, words have power, don’t they?

On Sunday – after I had led the morning worship at St Augustine’s, and preached an emergency sermon when the designated preacher failed to show up – I went over to Paston again around 3pm, when the EDP in the shape of Adrian Judd was taking pictures, and a reporter was in attendance (not one I knew). Stayed for about an hour then returned to Norwich for a break before Dot and I returned to Paston for an evening concert by Horses Brawl, exponents of medieval music. They did 18 songs, including an antiphon discovered in Paston Church in 1920 which almost certainly hadn’t been heard since the time of the Pastons. Again, a fascinating experience, though I’m not sure how deeply I could get into medieval music: I suspect it’s more fascinating for its exponents than for an audience, though one or two songs had some amazing rhythms.

During the weekend the £850 hand-made book was on show, and Annette did a really good job of explaining it to small groups, turning the pages and talking about each one. Astonishingly, two people ordered a copy, which will keep Annette busy printing for a while. All in all, a great experience and one that commanded two page-threes in the EDP, on the Friday and the Monday.

Plenty of other things happened last week. We had our shower room refurbished, and it now looks quite sophisticated and even bigger! Dot is thrilled with it. We also had lunch at Dunston Hall on Tuesday with Mary and Keith Chapman, who we stayed with at Kingston in Canada on our first visit in 1991. They are friends of Dot’s Aunt Ethel, and we took them to visit her afterwards. On the Friday I had a blood test to see if I have diabetes: I shall be very surprised if I have. I think the doctor is trying to cover everything after my brush with prostate cancer.

I have just been to the dentist to have a hole plugged, and the anaesthetic is beginning to wear off. I also called in at Langleys and Waterstones to buy some stuff for Amy, whose fourth birthday is next Monday. We will be travelling down to Caddington at the weekend to see them all, but before that – tomorrow, in fact – Andrew is coming to stay for a couple of days. Phil and I are going to fetch him. Meanwhile, Colin is in the garden, breaking up the cement at each side of the house in order to relay it properly. He has also power-washed the path and patio, which look like new. Dot is in the city meeting Carrie.

6 October 2008

Uncategorized, ,

The three wise men of Chamonix – aka two members of our tour group with the tour manager (left), in one of the main shopping streets of Chamonix. Seems long, long ago. Quite wintry here now, though today at least it’s dry. The shower room transformation is in progress: Dot was in the city for about three hours – partly with Carrie, partly buying me a long-arm stapler to facilitate my publishing activities. I now have 20 leaflets of Paston Poems ready to go, and this morning I printed out 20 A4 leaflets for the exhibition, giviing artists’ and poets’ notes.

Saturday was quite interesting. I was due to speak at a Christian Writers’ meeting at Lowestoft at 2pm – so I thought. I had a call at 11.10am telling me the meeting started then and went on till 2pm, including lunch. This had never been vouchsafed to me, but I offered to go immediately, which I did, arriving at high noon. I gave my talk to four people, then we had a quite nice lunch and chat. I arrived home around 5pm after dropping off Catherine Mapes at her home in York Street and then getting stuck unexpectedly in city traffic.

Another lunch out on Sunday – at church this time – followed by an afternoon catching up on television. It was too wet to do anything else. Ambient Wonder in the evening, with some interesting global input from Anna and Howard following their round-half-the-world trip. Sweet tea and something spicy in pastry featured strongly. All strangely effective.

3 October 2008

Uncategorized, ,

Yes, it’s the Matterhorn, on a beautiful day last week. This week by contrast has seen a lot of rain and very blustery weather, and today it’s quite cold. I still feel as if I’m catching up, but really it’s because I’ve had extra stuff to do for our Paston project: I’m now producing a leaflet with artists’ and poets’ notes on it, as well as putting together some copies of my own Paston poems, which needed some tidying up.

We had quite a crowd round for our regular meal on Tuesday: much more of this and we might have to start rethinking the format, which may or may not be a good thing. And that was without three of our regulars. Dot had her first meeting at Diocesan House on Wednesday, sorting out her new job, and it went pretty well. Yesterday was busy: I had a dental check-up in the morning followed by lunch with Keiron at 18 Bedford Street. Excellent meal and a good chat: Rowan is expecting her first child on October 25. In the evening Dot came home early from a governors’ meeting at Gillingham so that we could go to Cinema City with Menita and Regis: the film started about 9pm. A superb French film: Il y a longtemps que je t’aime. Out just too late to get drinks, but we had a good chat afterwards: they used to live in Mulhouse, where we stayed on holiday.

Today Dot has been clearing out the shower room in preparation for its refurbishment next week.