Monthly Archives: April 2013

Nostalgia and a good buffet

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Banner outside Paston Great Barn, affixed by Rob and myself

Started the week by playing two chess games in a day: the first one, in the afternoon, I played at Andy Pandian’s flat and managed to win. Then in the evening I played Yosif Antonov at the club and drew after not being able to make anything of an advantage. Now I have 3/5 in the club tournament, and three games with white to go. Even if I win them all, I may not win the tournament, because Chris has 4½/6. And I probably won’t win them all.

So I was pretty tired after that, and the week didn’t get any easier. On Tuesday I went to the Archant annual meeting, which was quite entertaining. Spent some time chatting to the Look East business editor, Richard Bond, who I know very well from my EDP days. Also several others, including Mike Almond, Ivor Harvey and Doug Bird, who introduced me to director Mike Walsh. Chatted to him for a while, and he expressed an interest in what Dot is doing, so I’ve sent him her website address (at his request). The meeting was rather more exciting than usual, with some rather pointed and challenging questions.

Good buffet as usual, but staff too keen to take away my wine when I put it on the table. Left with James Goffin, a former trainee made good, and on the way back to the UEA to catch the bus ran into Peter Jeffery, a face from so far in the past that I almost didn’t recognise him: he was an EDP sub way back in the 70s. Warm day. I did a couple of things in the city and got so hot I ended up with hay fever: not a common thing nowadays. Still, I managed to get to the Archers for our Tuesday Group.

On Wednesday I went with Phil to St Michael’s Hospital,Warwick, to see Andrew, who was not in a good state. Made little sense at first and clearly thought we’d come to take him away. We left to get him some clothes and his diary from The Langleys. When we got back he was a little more lucid, but not much. Also his missing clothes had reappeared from the laundry, so he now has more than he needs. We weren’t allowed to take him out.

Phil and I drove home via Northampton and had a meal at the Thrapston Little Chef. I had an Olympic Breakfast that was beautifully cooked. Surprised but grateful.

Pretty tired after all that and again didn’t sleep well. had to be awake and up by 9.30 the next day for the man from Sonata to service our alarm, which needed a new battery. I knew the feeling. Later had another session with Sharon, which was less painful than last time. Today I had a bit of pain, but it has gone now. During the last couple of days I’ve managed to write a sermon for Sunday and pick the hymns.

This afternoon I drove out to Paston to help set up the church for the open day tomorrow. Sunny in the main, but quite a bit cooler. Dot met several colleagues for lunch in the Waffle House and got home after I did, getting ambushed by a shower on the last stretch.

Not stringing her along

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Jack Earl at 100. One of the others is his eldest daughter, Loveday.

Dropped Dot at Elm Hill on Thursday morning, where she met a violin man (sounds like the beginning of a folk song) who told her her violin was worth quite a lot of money and he would certainly bring it up to scratch for her. Meanwhile, he has lent her one that is unusable, so this morning at church she switched back to her electric violin, which worked well. Later in the day our piano tuner, Joe Logan, vouched for the guy, so that’s OK. He was not stringing her along.

Between violin and piano I called in at Dragon Hall to tidy up some loose ends concerning the Dragon Hall day next month. Sarah Power is very upbeat and bouncy, so I was feeling quite encouraged by the time I left. Dot and I went to Park Farm for lunch, which was even more relaxing: long time since we’d done that. In the evening Dot went to Little Plumstead, where she’s a governor, and my Find-a-Friend iPhone tracking device played up to such an extent that I got quite worried. It had her in the middle of a field for a long time. She assured me she wasn’t, and as she was still apparently in the middle of the same field after she’d been home for a while, I totally believe her.

On Friday, while Dot was at a Nafpht conference losing her glasses and the weather was getting more springlike, I created  an account on Twitter for Margaret Paston and then spent a couple of hours wondering around taking pictures of Paston sites for my talk in a couple of weeks’ time. In the evening we went to the Hostry for the launch of a new edition of a Robert Llewellyn book on Julian. Liz French was there, as were Nicholas and Heather and of course Tim Mace. Nice refreshments; interesting event.

But it couldn’t compete with Saturday’s event, which was a party celebrating Jack Earl’s 100th birthday. We arrived at Sea Marge Hotel, Overstrand, in bright sunshine quite early and helped with the balloons, as well as getting tea and coffee. Jack looked unsurprisingly frail, but was relatively fit and clear-headed. He gave a short speech in reply to his son John and survived the photographs. We spoke  to Nicola and Andy among others (Edna Jones, who lives at the Great Hospital, plus the owners of the home where Jack lives, plus various Earl relations).

Jonathan left early to go to the football match – a critical encounter with Reading. We left just before 3pm, and Dot managed to reach Carrow Road in time for the second half. Just as well. It was 0-0 at half-time, but her arrival sparked two quick goals and City eventually edged out 2-1 ahead. Are they safe? Who knows?

After church this morning Dot and I drove out to Mangreen to see if we could find her glasses, but without any success. Had a brief chat with William and Naomi, then came home for lunch. I sat in the garden and read some material that had backed up; so it must have been quite warm. Got chilly later, though.

Singing at the Seagull again

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Dot at Strumpshaw Fen with her new short haircut.

Feeling a bit down; not sure why. Went to the UEA with Rob this morning on Paston business. The UEA half of the conversation (or two-thirds, to be precise) were very keen to create new projects for which they might get additional funding, which was quite exciting, though I may have to juggle creatively to accommodate one of them into Dragon Hall and the NRO.

Then to Paston in the afternoon for a trustees meeting, which was equally full of potential life-consuming items. After supper, went out for a walk while Dot was at orchestra rehearsal and returned too tired to get to grips with the many things that demanded my attention; so watched two or three Bob Dylan videos. Not satisfactory at all, especially with another busy day tomorrow. And my teeth hurt.

The weekend was quite busy too. On Saturday, after a delightful walk at Strumpshaw Fen and then listening to Norwich City getting cheated out of a win against Arsenal by incompetent refereeing, we went to Cafe Rouge for a meal with Angela and Rodney, primarily to discuss Aunt E. Nice meal, though, and A & R came back for coffee afterwards. I invited them, not reflecting carefully enough on the state of the house, as Dot pointed out.

On Sunday I led the service, and in the evening Dot and I went to the Seagull Theatre at Lowestoft and played four of my songs for the assembled thronglet. We had to manage without our lead guitarist, but it seemed to go OK. We sang my new song, Woman at the Window, inspired by a Dali painting, and then Man in the Mask, Sunset Woman and The Band Played On.

While we were there Dot unexpectedly arranged with Ian to visit the theatre again the following evening for a concert by Brian Houston: she was doing P4C at Gorleston in the afternoon, then had a meal at Ian’s and went on to the Seagull.

Meanwhile I was playing chess, trying to catch up with my tournament games. I managed a draw against Chris Tuffin after getting an advantage and being on the brink of losing. Hard work. But hey, at least spring has arrived.

On the minus side, Andrew has been admitted into hospital at Warwick (no beds in Coventry). The manager at The Langleys was concerned that he was not safe following his drugs regime change instigated by a new doctor. He was apparently so affected by drugs that he might have walked into the road. So we now wait to see where they might place him on a more permanent basis.

End of a Scottish era: the cottage is sold

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The wee house at Ballater: our home from home for more than 20 years

End of an era. The wee house at Ballater has been sold – back to the council from whom it was originally bought. One can only hope they now do something constructive with the whole site. Today we received a parcel from Ella with a memento: a small column with a Farquharson crest on it. It will be really strange being somewhere else in Ballater. It’s like losing a home: we had become so familiar with it.

Meanwhile, Dot was sitting in the garden during a momentary burst of sunshine and slight heat yesterday  when a Wildlife vehicle backed into our wall. No damage this time, but it heightens our suspicions that the fallen section mentioned earlier was indeed provoked by a collision. Maybe the cutting back of the hedge makes it easier for the rear of vehicles to reach the wall. Unexpected consequence. No word from NWT yet.

It seems a long time ago now, but David and the children left last Thursday after a really nice few days, and our ex-best man Fred arrived around 7pm the same day, staying the night so that we could all go the CNS Old Boys’ event at Dragon Hall the next morning. The latter was sunny but still pretty chilly, but it all went well. Dot immediately met someone she knew: Mary Thrower, who plays clarinet in the same orchestra as her. She is the wife of former classmate Neville, who I never knew all that well.

Adrian O’dell, the organiser of all this reunion stuff, gave us a tour of the Hall that was surprisingly informative, and we then had a talk from Peter Bussey on the Large Hadron Collider, where he has worked. He did well with a difficult subject, but it left our brains a little fuzzy. Then on to Yellows for a meal that was described later as “not quite Premier League”. But the company was good. As well as Fred, we spoke to (the Rev) Graham Drake, and others including Barnard, Chadwick and Cowell from the L stream.

We spent the rest of the day recovering from the food (amount rather than quality), but on Saturday we were out again – first at Winterton, looking unsuccessfully for an earring that Dot had lost earlier in the week, and later at the Kibbles’, where the conversation is even more filling than the food. The next two or three days were spent catching up with things that had been set aside while the grandchildren were here and exciting things were happening: I caught up with some Chronicle stuff and sent a potential blog to B J Epstein at the UEA. I was quite pleased with it, but I haven’t heard back.

Yesterday I struggled to get out of Norwich for a Chronicle meeting at Kay’s. Big hold-ups on the inner ring road and on the Aylsham road; so I diverted on to the Reepham Road and approached Wood Dalling from behind, as it were. Happily I was able to find Kay’s rather remote cottage without much trouble. We spent much of the meeting discussing the potential recording of a CD, and we did trial recordings of small sections that worked well in the end, after David (Kay’s husband) struggled to make the machine work properly. And he’s an expert. Why is sound technology so difficult?

We also talked about out plans for the year and allocated a few tasks. I am producing a script for Dragon Hall and printing some letters for reading at Paston Church at the open day in a couple of weeks’ time. We also fixed a date for rehearsal, which is good.

Now I am about to have my hair cut by Linda, then my shoulder massaged by Sharon. One of my better days.

Touch of deja vu, this time with children

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Chilly trio atop Ranworth church tower

Certain amount of déjà vu this week. It’s just as cold, but thankfully remaining dry. And again I found myself at Ranworth and the Castle Museum in Norwich (though not simultaneously). This time in the company of David, Oliver and Amy, who are staying with us for a few days.

We went to Ranworth on Easter Monday, and I managed to fulfil my promise by buying the map I had looked at with Andrew. This time it was priced! We spent some time at the visitor centre and then had something to eat at the church tea rooms. We caught the second shift coming on duty, and they kept telling us they had no idea where anything was, or indeed if it was at all, which suggests a certain failure in organisation. However, they were very friendly, and the tea was good.

Afterwards we climbed the tower – a steep process made even more difficult by the need to pass some people coming down. The children took this in their stride and made the summit easily. Needless to say the wind was blasting across, but the view was even clearer than last week.

On Tuesday we took the children to Winterton while their father did some work, and we had a good time as usual in the dunes while becoming increasingly aware of our advancing years. I fell over almost immediately while executing a body swerve, and then wrenched my arm while tagging Amy (or, looking at it from her point of view, not tagging Amy). Meanwhile Dot also fell over, though not so dramatically, and we discovered later that she had lost one of her earrings.

Earlier we had had baguettes and rolls in the cafe, which was packed – possibly because it had featured in a national newspaper recently as a top food spot. We always knew that, of course, but we had previously benefited from the fact that it doesn’t look it at all. Quite unprepossessing and lacking in style, but hey, the food is great, and so is the tea. Afterwards we drove to North Walsham and had even better tea with Jessie, followed by a visit to the cemetery.

Yesterday we took in the Castle Museum with Oliver and Amy and half the population of Norwich – presumably because it was still so cold outside that the beach was out of the question. Some interesting items for the children to tackle, and games to play, but the battlements were out of order and the dungeon trips full. We ended with some tea and cake and a trip to the shop before meeting Daddy in M&S and buying Oliver some trousers.

Then Dot, Oliver and I took the bus home while Amy, after some indecision, stayed with her Dad for further shopping. They arrived home just in time to join us for a meal at Prezzos and chocolate dessert at home. Meanwhile part of our rear containing wall has fallen down into the Wildlife Trust car park, but it was not hit by a vehicle. Oh no. Actually it may well not have been. We await a conversation with the NWT people.

On Easter Sunday we couldn’t persuade any of our guests to join us at church, which was a pity, because it was a nice service, led by Geoff, and quite well attended. It also featured some chocolate eggs at the end.