Monthly Archives: March 2013

Bit of manipulation

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Andrew wrapped up against the cold at Ranworth

It isn’t getting any warmer. It snowed briefly this morning, but the main factor throughout the week has been the biting east wind, which as my friend Sandra would say is a lazy wind, because it can’t be bothered to go round you – it goes right through you. Despite this, life goes on: I guess you’d get used to living with it eventually. As another friend, Kevin, said, it’s not bad weather, it’s the wrong clothes. Not sure that’s entirely right (puts on extra jumper).

On Monday another Paston trustees’ meeting at Dayspring. I went a bit early to chat to an afflicted Lucy, but not sure I helped much. The meeting went well, and I agreed to help at the Paston Day at the end of April, organising some Chronicle stuff, or as we prefer to put it, reading out some poems and letters.

Drove to Coventry to fetch Andrew on Wednesday. Phil is having a bad time at the moment, so he couldn’t assist. No real problem in the driving, and A was much better than expected. On the Thursday we braved the wind and cold and went to Ranworth: had a sandwich or two at the staithe and then walked to the revamped wildlife centre on the edge of the Broad. Pretty much on our own there, which was quite nice in a way. Good views; but the staff had spent the morning unpacking and weren’t really in full flow. I wanted to buy a map, but no-one knew how much it cost. In the end I said I’d leave it and come back next week (which we might do, with the grandchildren).

Andrew and I then climbed Ranworth Church tower and found ourselves on top with a family of four: grandparents and two young children. We took each other’s photographs, but didn’t hang around long. Earlier I had walked over to the Riverside shops with Andrew and bought him two pairs of new shoes as well as some other items of clothing. On the way back from Ranworth we called at the Rosary, which he didn’t recognise for some time as we were approaching it from the wrong direction.

On Good Friday we walked up to the Castle Museum and spent a couple of hours looking round, starting with the wildlife section and proceeding to the basement by way of the keep. After lunch at home Phil walked down to see him. Andrew and I left for Coventry at about 3.303pm and stopped for a meal at Thrapston Little Chef before reaching The Langleys just after 6.30pm.

Unusually he wanted me to help him unpack and sort himself out; so I didn’t start for home till well after 7pm. But despite being delayed by alleged animals on the road near Newmarket (the police stopped traffic and were searching along the edges) it was a really easy ride back , and I was home by about 9.45pm.

I have omitted to mention that while Andrew was in Norwich I had my first session with Sharon Gibbons at the Oasis, when she got a life history and did some manipulation of my shoulder, which is quite painful at times. Not sure what caused it: she suggests a problem with a complex of muscles in that area. Sounded convincing, and the manipulation felt good.

The whole appointment took longer than I anticipated (over an hour) and I was late back for our meal, which made Dot late for her visit to Carrie. Oh well. (Fleetwood Mac again).

Today we enjoyed an extensive bit of shopping at the supermarket, and I checked one of my car tyres again that I thought might have a slow puncture. It probably has, but it’s very, very slow. Now anticipating the artival of David and the children late this afternoon. According to our tracking device, they have arrived safely at the Co0omes’ house in Bishop’s Stortford for lunch.

Dot has a new job as an RE Quality Mark assessor. It remains to be seen how much more time this will take, but it shows how highly thought of she is. Not surprisingly.

Exploding oven and torpedoed rehearsal

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Unusual use of aeroplane at County Hall. Or maybe things are not quite as they seem…

Spring has not yet put in an appearance, despite the equinox. The air remains chill, and there is further risk of snow at the weekend. On the plus side, there is some blue sky today.

The quiz went quite well last Saturday. Our group of six came 5th out of 11, which is respectable enough not to be embarrassing, and everyone contributed. It was also fun, and the fish and chips was not too bad. The wine helped. Cold walk home, though.

I led the service on Sunday, and Margaret preached. I used a very old hymn called It is well with my soul, which I introduced by listing all the problems the composer had gone through. The hymn made quite an impact, as it had done on my poet friend Joy, who sent it to me. Funny how these old hymns still work.

The PCC meeting on Monday attracted the usual high attendance from  St Augustine’s (Dot and me) and brought a discussion on whether the church should state where it stood on controversial issues such as women bishops and gays, or indeed gay women bishops. Interesting arguments on both sides (of whether we should state where we stand), but no final decision reached.

Have almost finished the Dragon Hall leaflet; now need to get to grips with the one about the Pastons in Norwich, but I’ve been strangely lacking in energy. I’ve made an appointment with a sports injury specialist recommended by my doctor – not because I have a sports injury, but because my arm is getting worse rather than better, and there’s a chance she might be able to find out what’s wrong.

During preparations for Tuesday Group our bottom oven exploded. Happily and strangely, this had no adverse effect on the top oven, and we were able to transfer the jacket potatoes. Today a man came to repair the oven, which he did remarkably quickly and for a modest £77 – replacing an element and some other piece of gubbins which governed the display panel.

Other items which have taken up my time include stopping a couple of cheques that went missing en route to The Langleys. I have now arranged to pay Andrew’s fees by bank transfer. I have also confirmed that Fred will be joining us on April 5 for the CNSOB reunion at Dragon Hall and Yellows, which is nice. He’s the only one I know other than superficially.

Dot is spending a lot of time practising her violin to get ready for a concert by the Sillars Orchestra at the end of April. Meanwhile our band rehearsal scheduled for Sunday has been torpedoed because one member will be in Bristol. Oh well (Fleetwood Mac).

The women, not the drugs

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Dot in the grounds of the UEA during a recent walk. Can’t explain the sun.

Not a week that will trouble my top ten. For some reason I was feeling down at the start of it, and this was exacerbated when I got a good position in my chess game on Monday and, needing only a draw for a team win, proceeded to lose concentration completely and go under very quickly in a pawns-and-bishop ending.

The week “ended” with a visit to the doctor yesterday. My blood pressure has gone down – thanks to my daily walks – but he still thinks I need another pill, as well as some work on my arm/shoulder, which has been giving me trouble. At the moment I am resisting the additional pill (I didn’t take it this morning) but he thinks I’m taking it, which is not the best situation. He is working on statistics, which I don’t have the greatest faith in.

I also messed up Thursday, when I could have gone to see the new Archbishop at the Forum and/or the Cathedral, followed by Sam S playing with his band, The Upgrade, at the Waterfront in the evening. Both opportunities were squandered in typical fashion. Instead, I got a mysterious call from A Ethel’s number in the evening while Dot was at a governors’ meeting, and when I tried to ring back (the call ended after a couple of rings) it just rang and rang. After consulting with Angela, I went with Dot (who had just got home) to see what the problem was and found Ethel sitting on a chair in her petticoat, with the apparently broken phone in her hands and saying she hadn’t rung us. So that was fine. No, it really was.

In other news, I have managed to complete a flyer for the Dragon Hall day, barring a few minor additional bits of information. On Monday I went with Rob to the Norfolk Record Office for a progress meeting for the autumn exhibition there, and that went quite well. Lucy couldn’t go as she is in a bad way with another infection and a bad prognosis from her doctor.

My nephew Sam stayed with us for a couple of nights, but spent most of the time with his parents, of course, organising the purchase of a new laptop for Joy and a new gaming computer for Phil. It was Phil’s birthday on Tuesday: he is 61. I got him a CD he requested, some wine and a rather esoteric book about remote islands which took my fancy in Waterstones.

I’ve finished a biography of Leonard Cohen – I’m Your Man, by Sylvie Simmons – which was beautifully written and compulsive, as well as telling me various things about LC that I didn’t know. I had an idea about the number of women, but not the quantity of drugs. That’s where I went wrong.

I e-mailed the UEA lecturer who spoke to us about translation and attached my “translation” of the Lord’s Prayer from Aramaic. She asked me to do a guest blog on it, which can’t be bad.

Natural break … Just had our hair cut, and this evening we are participating in a Quiz and Chips Night as part of the Roger Mason-Liz French-George-and-Fiona team. Jude is setting the questions, so it should be interesting.

Walking in the snow and rain

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My trousers after I got back from Jan’s memorial service: splashed by a bus on Rose Lane

Winter has returned, albeit a bit later than forecast. A fair bit of snow on the ground last night, which deterred Sam from completing his journey from Birmingham, where he had been attending a Christian Writers’ Conference with Joe and Birgit. He made it as far back as Joe’s and wisely decided to stay the night there.

Earlier in the day I had walked up to Holy Trinity through a mixture of snow and rain to attend Jan Miller’s memorial service: quite an inspiring one – very well organised in a Holy Trinity sort of way. Hardly anyone there I knew, so I didn’t stay for refreshments. Even harder snow and rain on the way back, but all good for my walking programme. Today is the first day I haven’t done at least half an hour for a couple of weeks. That’s because it’s still very cold, with a mixture of snow and rain falling, though the snow that laid last night has largely vanished; so I imagine Sam will eventually make it.

He is visiting his parents, as he had been signed off work for a couple of weeks. On Thursday I took them to the doctors and left them there for about 90 minutes before being recalled to fetch them. I have to say neither of them looked particularly well.

The day before, I had another of my longer walks, dropping off some cash at Ian’s before heading into town for a cafe conversation on translation at the White Lion Cafe. Happily Adrian was there again, and the session was good too, by Dr B J Epstein of the UEA. Some interesting ideas, and practical too. I think it was aimed mainly at people considering doing translation, but that’s not really in my mind. Still it inspired an article and a poem for my website.

I’m also reading the latest biography of Leonard Cohen (I’m Your Man), which is beautifully written and easy to read, as well as revealing some unexpected details about him, such as the huge amount of drugs he took. A combination of that and the translation session inspired me to want to write more poems, though not to take more drugs.

Spring about to disintegrate

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Edingthorpe Church from the lychgate

Almost springlike today, with blue skies and a distinct rise in the temperature. Sadly, it is all forecast to disintegrate tomorrow, with rain sweeping in. It was lovely yesterday too, when I drove out to Paston in response to a call from Lucy. Afterwards I called at Edingthorpe Church, which is a beautiful spot, then walked a bit down the Weavers’ Way, from the point where the Yarmouth Road meets the North Walsham bypass. Yes, I’m keeping up my walking routine, but not losing any weight. My blood pressure just better be down…

Of course forgetting to take my pills yesterday, and then losing at chess, didn’t help. I played pretty badly against Chris Tuffin until I lost a piece, then pretty well, but it was too late. Unfortunately, he followed the same pattern but didn’t lose the piece.

Still writing tanka with Joy, though I’m a bit late with the final one in the current series. Must get down to it. On Sunday I read five poems at the Seagull, which seemed to go down well. Hope to do some songs next time, if Phil can fit it into his now busy schedule.

On Saturday we visited North Walsham, refurbishing the flowers at the cemetery and dropping off a cardigan to Sheila (she had lent it to Ethel at the funeral). We then spent most of the afternoon with Jessie, listening to Norwich lose 4-0 to Manchester Utd. The tea and cake made it worthwhile. Called in at Waitrose afterwards, and Dot got a refund on some flour – together with more flour. What nice people.