Monthly Archives: January 2014

Straightening out

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Very soggy indeed outside: the whole month has been pretty wet, and I suspect our forthcoming weekend at Buxton may feature some quite muddy walking. Still, you never know.

I’ve been straightening out the office, which is quite satisfying. I am still treasurer of the church, but I’m not sure how long that will go on. Howard is trying to open a new account, as far as I know. He preached on the financial situation on Sunday and did it quite well, though I always feel uneasy about that sort of thing.

I’ve been in touch with Andrew’s care worker, Elaine, who seemed quite surprised about his funding situation. Apparently no-one had told her; so I’m not sure what the finance department of Coventry City Council is up to. She is now trying to get some sense out of them. Best of luck to her.

Ethel, her friend John and Dot's new top feature in the cake-cutting
Ethel, her friend John and Dot’s new top feature in the cake-cutting

It poured with rain for Ethel’s 90th birthday party on Sunday. It took place at her care home in Welborne and was attended by the usual suspects: Angela, Rodney, Vicki and Graham; Roger and Rosie; Tally’s daughter-in-law Ann and her son Rob, who is a carpenter. I remember this because she told me several times. Dot had arranged for Marion to make a sponge cake – beautiful as always – and a fruit cake appeared from elsewhere. A jolly time was had by all.

The Paston exhibition has come to an end after three months. Dot managed to get Anne there on the last day, but the story goes on. Yesterday Rob and I visited the UEA for a talk with Dr Karen Smyth about her new project on the Pastons, which will start small and get a a lot of input from us but eventually build up to a digital heritage monster that could attract as much as £1 million in grant or research money.

The good news is that the work we do for it in the initial stages (and possibly later on as well) will be paid for; so maybe all that voluntary work we’ve done over the years will eventually reap its reward. Other than the reward implicit in doing it, of course.

Following that meeting, Caroline joined us for a Chronicle meeting and lunch – prepared by Dot despite the fact that the school she’s governor of is in the midst of Ofsted. She left later to be interviewed by the inspector. We had a good meeting: I sang my song, and Caroline read her poems, and we planned a way forward. I am going to work on a structure for the new performance (based on Oxnead), and Rob is going to try to get the owners of the Hall interested enough to host it.

We have managed to visit the cinema three Mondays in a row, which is amazingly consistent for us. Following Hobbit 2 and Gravity, we went to see American Hustle, which was excellent in many ways, but still not quite as good as the other two. The fact that it’s based on a true story possibly made it a little less neat than it might have been. As Tom Clancy says, the difference between fact and fiction is that fiction has to make sense.

Tuesday Group was at the Archers this week, and I had a carload, taking Judy, Ian and Harriet through pouring rain (Dot was preparing for Ofsted). We are considering dropping TG for a while and inviting different people round as part of a new church project. But we want to keep seeing David and Bridget and Vicky, who no longer attend St Augustine’s, so we’ll probably invite them too. Anyway, we’re still thinking about it.

My tanka book with Joy McCall has just been published, and I’m picking up some copies later. It’s on Amazon, but with the disturbing note that it’s not available, and they don’t know when it will be. I hope someone sorts that out. Not me, obviously.

Problems with paperwork

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A rare picture of my cousin Adrian, now sadly dead, at 67 Brian Avenue with Dot, Mum and an early version of David
A rare picture of my cousin Adrian, now sadly dead, at 67 Brian Avenue with Dot, Mum and an early version of David

After reaching the summit of the travel insurance mountain, I collapsed on the church account ridge. After attempting to complete the first form yesterday – only to find it was mainly irrelevant and unanswerable – I felt blood rushing around my brain and decided to resign as treasurer. I sent an e-mail to Nicholas and Howard. I also wrote a letter to NatWest, heavily critical of their approach to getting new customers.

Later in the day I got an e-mail from Howard, asking to come round and talk to me at teatime. He eventually arrived about an hour late, after being held up in a traffic jam, and we discussed his holiday in Burma, plus a little bit about the problems I’d had with banks. It turns out he’s had similar problems, but he offered to go to TSB, where he knew someone, and see if anything could be done more simply.

This morning he rang to say that he thought they could sort it out. Apparently he had opened the account in the first place and was able to discuss the whole thing on a different basis. I should have got him involved earlier.

To celebrate, I managed to complete the Gift Aid claim form which, in an act of  monumental stupidity, the tax people provide only in a download format that will not open on a Mac.  I mean, what’s wrong with Excel? I can only conclude that financial people go out of their way to drive you insane.

So I had to download additional software. My first attempt wouldn’t open either because it didn’t have the right certificate and I needed a later version (chance would be a fine thing). So I ended up with something called Libre, which did work. Then the form was so unclear that I had three attempts at filling it in before it accepted what I’d entered.

I haven’t decided yet whether to go through with my resignation as treasurer. I would certainly like to. The St Luke’s treasurer, who is new, is down with pneumonia, so the year-end accounts should be interesting.

Yesterday I also missed my second funeral in the space of a week when a slight hiccup occurred in Dot’s invitation to Richard to come round  for lunch. When I told her that the funeral (for John Care) was at 1pm she texted Richard to tell him to come earlier, but although he received it, he didn’t read it; and so turned up at 12. Judging that the living were more important than the dead (a tricky call) we had lunch and a long discussion with Richard, and I wrote an apologetic letter to Jonathan.

I did however manage to get to Surrey Chapel this afternoon for a thanksgiving service for John Tillett, the church organist and the man who helped us get football started at Surrey by finding us a pitch at Eaton Park. Also a lovely man – one of those people who was kind and generous to everyone. The church was packed, and I met Phil outside and sat with him. I said hello to a few people, but I knew very few really, and I left Phil chatting in the end.

Dot is now at a governors’ meeting. We missed supper, because she got heavily involved with a North Walsham history page on Facebook and started recognising people she knew. It got a bit out of control after that.

Blocked in

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Dot on a hill in Wales, probably the Berwyns
Dot on a hill in Wales, probably the Berwyns

One weighty item out of the way: we now have travel insurance for April. After several false starts, someone rung me who not only spoke recognisable English, but actually made sense. We completed the whole thing on the phone in less than a quarter of an hour. Changing the church account is still uncompleted. I have a lot of forms on the kitchen table.

On Friday we woke up to find a Mini Cooper parked across our driveway. As our car was parked in the drive, and there was no way to squeeze it out, we were stuck. After waiting a while, I rang the police, who suggested helpfully I should go round to neighbouring businesses (it had a business permit). After doing this and knocking up the neighbours too, I rang the police back with the registration number, and they eventually contacted the driver’s mother, who had lent her daughter the permit. The daughter was in London, and the mother had no car key.

All this had taken 2-3 hours, so I didn’t get to Joy’s mother’s funeral at Dereham. As there were 300 people there, this was not a tragedy. But we also had to pick up Dot’s pills and  Andrew’s jacket (from the cleaners) and visit Go Outdoors to get me a new jacket. We managed all this because Bob next door came home after lunch and moved his car down a bit, so that I could manoeuvre our car out.

The mother, who came round and knocked at the door, was apologetic but not convincing. Next day we found the coping stone on our wall removed and broken on the pavement. Was this a coincidence?

We had a lovely evening on the Friday with the Higbees, and then on Saturday went down to London to stay with the Coomes at Leyton, which turned out to be an action-packed couple of days.

After  lunch we travelled by taxi and Dockland Light Railway to Greenwich, where we visited the Turner & The Sea exhibition in the National Maritime Museum. This was scintillating: I love Turner’s work, especially the later pictures, and am not sure there’s anyone to compare with him. From there we returned briefly home before travelling by taxi and tube to Covent Garden and an extremely pleasant French restaurant.

Back at Leyton we saw Norwich win against Hull. The following day we went to a Roman Catholic Mass somewhere near Bond Street, followed by a visit to a nearby bookshop and clothes shop, where Dot bought a top. Then by tube to Stratford and the Westfield Centre, which was horrifically crowded with Sunday shoppers but contained an oasis of calm masquerading as a Lebanese restaurant. We had lunch there and then returned to Leyton for tea before setting off home – a quick and easy journey. The weather had been fine throughout.

Yesterday we saw Gravity at the Odeon: a remarkable film (in 3D) that left you wondering how they could possibly have made it, set as it was in a weightless environment. But although the storyline was very straightforward, the acting by George Clooney and Sandra Bullock (especially) was excellent.

On returning from London, incidentally, we found that our water tank was overflowing (through the overflow pipe) into the back garden.  I clambered around in the loft, checked with the internet and sprayed the ball valve with WD40. I also tried to bend the arm slightly, but not sure if I succeeded. The overflow has stopped, but I’m not sure if this is a permanent repair. Obviously if you’re using the water on a regular basis, the overflow is going to be minimal. Still, I’m hoping. Very cold tonight.

Great-grandmother a housemaid in London

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Dot near the summit of Snowdon in the early 70s
Dot near the summit of Snowdon in the early 70s

Have suddenly started feeling very tired for no apparent reason and have been looking up things like post-polio syndrome on the internet. Of course I’m probably just tired, but I do tend to suspect the worst. It’s one of many character flaws. My mother said I had polio (mildly) as a child, but I don’t really remember anything about it.

Walked up to the Millennium Library today for a talk on researching family history and felt shattered when I got back, despite having walked a total of only a couple of miles. Spent most of the rest of the afternoon researching family history and discovered my great-grandmother was a housemaid to noted chemist Charles Savory in Regent Street in 1861.

Of course there has been a certain amount of stress recently, which might account for the tiredness: I’m still in the midst of trying to change the church account to another bank. Went into Nationwide, and they said they didn’t do it. Went into Natwest, and they gave me a phone to speak to someone in Rotherham. I am now awaiting a letter and a phone call at home, hopefully in that order.

Still no news about Andrew’s money. Rang Minster Lodge today, extracted a promise of a ring back, but nothing happened. Meanwhile Dot and I went to Swinton to discuss travel insurance, and they said they couldn’t deal with people over 64 in the office; that had to be done by phone too. What is wrong with these people?

Then went to Currys against my better judgement to look for a new printer, but the two assistants we spoke to clearly knew absolutely nothing about printers. This reminded me why I stopped going to Currys many years ago, and we made our excuses and left. Have now realised we don’t need a new printer, because Dot’s is in the same room and perfectly OK. We have even saved quite a bit of space.

The weather has been reasonably mild (compared with the United States, for instance) but with a tendency to rain. On Sunday I was down to preach, which I did, but had to lead too as Ruth was not well. Quite enjoyed it.

On Monday Dot and I decided to go the cinema for a change (instead of just talking about it);  we found ourselves in the vicinity during the afternoon and bought tickets. We saw Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug in iMAX, and it was stunning in very way, even including a very good song by Ed Sheeran at the end. The screenwriter introduced a new elf, played by Evangeline Lilly, and she was wonderful: great action scenes too. Tolkien is brilliant on the nature of evil.

Have been transferring quite a few slides to computer, using my Christmas present. Not great quality, but what can you expect from 40-year-old slides? Some very nice ones of a young and gorgeous Dot. Not that she isn’t gorgeous now. Oh no.

Chess men found in pub

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The start of a great photographic career: Phil
The start of a great photographic career: Phil Coomes with father David, early 1970s

Beautiful sunny winter’s day today, but not so much fun in the Thames Valley, where they have “the worst floods in a decade”. It may be because I’m getting old, but a decade doesn’t seem very long to me. Still, the flood are very bad (I’ve seen the pictures), and we’re fortunate to have avoided so much of the stormy weather. The United states is bitterly cold, with creeping ice (I’ve seen the video).

Dot is up at the surgery with the nurse, looking at the results of her blood test, and is intending to walk home. I’m standing by to pick her up in case of sudden rain or sudden tiredness. My own car us in the garage, having at last had its air conditioning fixed (I hope). This morning, after dropping it off, I walked to the chemist’s in Heartsease to pick my pills up – a distance of well over four miles. While at Heartsease waiting for the bus home I ran into Diane Bowman and Philip Mason, which just goes to show.

Yesterday we had a meeting of the Paston trustees at Mundesley. I chaired it in the absence of Rob, and there was lengthy discussion on the accounts, with Lucy and Peter failing to find common ground until I realised that the critical issue was not VAT, but Lucy’s failure to count one of the invoices, which she had received by e-mail but not been able to open (and therefore ignored).

The rest was straightforward, but afterwards Lucy told me that John Care had just died, and Naomi was in a mental hospital in London, having had a kind of nervous breakdown. She (Lucy) also has a chest infection. Life is never straightforward for her.

The previous day, while Dot was at Park Farm, I walked to the Ruchcutters for a meeting with Joy, publisher Adrian and printer Nick Gorvin about the tanka book. Very pleasant time, quite a bit of which was spent talking about chess, since three of us coincidentally were chess players. Had a Caesar salad and chips (!), then walked home after dallying for a while by the river with Joy. In the evening Dot had a particularly good orchestra session.

On Tuesday, before pea soup with the Tuesday Group, Rob called in to discuss the agenda for the Paston meeting and stayed for tea and biscuits.

Sunday and Monday were rather strange for me, because Dot had a P4C session at Stowmarket starting early on the Monday; so she stayed at Barbara’s overnight. As usual, I had loads of time to get things done and failed to do so. I did go out for a walk on the Monday, though. The P4C was as always very well received. Dot is a bit of a star, really.

Narrow quiz win for Mrs Robinson

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My mother sitting in the sun outside our flat in Fernleigh Road - with Dot in the background. Early 70s.
My mother sitting in the sun outside our flat in Fernleigh Road – with Dot in the background. Early 70s.

Since the dawning of the New Year and its attendant rain and wind, we have combined two major events with a lot of lying around, watching television and trying to catch up on sleep. The return journey to Coventry with Andrew worked well: a bit slow on the way there, but very quick and easy on the way back.

New Year’s Eve was spent in the company of the Robinsons, and very congenial it was too. Dot cooked a delicious moussaka, with perfect pea soup as a starter, and in between courses I gave them  a quiz that I had prepared earlier: 42 questions on 1964 (50 years ago) and 2014, with a few pictures of famous people thrown in. Philip may have still been suffering from the prostate biopsy he had the day before (or possibly the resultant alcohol ban) but he came in third, with Anne beating Dot by half a point. Pretty much a perfect result, you could say. Nothing suspicious there.

They stayed until well after 1am – the three of us imbibing much champagne and prossecco, and Philip enjoying his antibiotics – with some not very good music courtesy of Jools Holland in the background at first. While saying goodbye, we encountered our neighbours – Mary, Bob and Felix – returning in evening clothes from a night out at some Carrow Road function. Dot, being very merry, invited them in for a drink and nibbles, and it was 3am before we went to bed.

Meanwhile Chrissy had arrived at David’s for  a quiet New Year’s Eve, and on Thursday (the 2nd) Dot and I went down to join them for a day with the Coomes family. We arrived just after 1pm, and Oliver and Amy some time later, delivered by Dave and Julia. Thereafter the four children busied themselves with computer games (mainly the mysterious Minecraft), partly in the  company of Grace from down the road – a delightful girl who seems happy to go along with whatever Amy decides to do. Which is a good plan, it has to be said.

Chrissy and David cooked a very filling lasagne, preceded by rather inviting nibbles, and it was altogether a really nice day. The Coomes left just before us at around 8.30pm, and the journey home was very easy.

Yesterday saw some very wet and windy weather, including some hail, but Dot managed to walk to Morrisons during a break in the wetness. I have done very little walking in the last few days. Inertia is closing in. Still, I have written one and a half poems and have read half a book.  I also threw a shampoo bottle left-handed into the bin from the bath, which is why I wrote the poem. There are storms and floods in the West Country but Chrissy has reached the freezing fields of home safely.