Monthly Archives: March 2015

Wanderers in the Cathedral

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I still have a bit of a cough, but am feeling considerably better most of the time. The meal a week ago at the Sugar Beat in Swainsthorpe with Julia and Allan was first class, and in a very pleasant setting. So nice, in fact, that we considered booking it for the visit of David and Kristine, but by the time I got round to it (worrying a bit about possible cancellations), there was no room at the inn.

Instead we were lucky to be able to book at the Norfolk Mead in Coltishall for Saturday night, and this turned out to be excellent. Again, the setting was superb, and the food was very good indeed, though I didn’t like their interpretation of an “Eaton” Mess. The service was also near-perfect and worth the extra expense. The place is now under new management and attracting a much bigger clientele than it used to.

Our weekend with the Coomes was beset by bad weather, but we managed to get up to the Cathedral on the Saturday afternoon, where we saw the very moving sculpture installation  currently in residence, as pictured above. They are Ana Maria Pacheco’s Shadows of the Wanderer. Sculpture is not normally my thing, but this was sensational.

We lingered in the Cathedral out of the cold wind, listening to a rehearsal of St John’s Passion and visiting the shop, when we happened upon Mick and Gill Stedman, who must be around 80 but seemed very sprightly. We arranged for them to stay with us in September.

On the Sunday David and Kristine came to church with us as usual, where by some mishandling of the rota, I was down to preach. I managed to get through without David heckling, though Adrian did interrupt to ask who Ruth was. Actually it all went pretty well, and we returned home for one of Dot’s special salads with blueberries and chicken. Some furious squalls of rain and wind during the afternoon, but by the time they left things were improving, and their journey home went pretty well.

Yesterday I remembered just in time to go to the Requiem Mass for Alan Atherton at St George’s Church on Sprowston Road. Huge turnout. I entered with Mike Pollitt and sat with the Limmers, but many others from Archant were there. Afterwards I had quite a chat with Gerald Nunn, then with others from the former copy-taking pool, the ex-librarians – Frances, a couple of Pats and a couple of others whose names I’ve forgotten. Also there were Eric from the stone; Patrick, a Mercury sub; plus Ann Crane, Bob Easter and Johnny Hustler, who surprisingly gave one of the eulogies.

Just before I left Philip arrived to park his car while he went over to the station and bought a ticket for his upcoming visit to Sam’s (actually for the journey back, because he will be travelling down with Sam). On Friday I had given Joy a lift to the dentist’s and back, shortly before Linda came round to cut our hair. What a social whirl 🙂

Dot has been quite busy. Yesterday she spent most of the day at Barbara’s preparing for upcoming events, including the university one at the end of next month. Click here. On Thursday she was at the Cathedral for a very good head teachers’ conference.

From Lithuania with love

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Spent the week making a gradual recovery from my head infection. Haven’t quite got there yet, but will be giving it a good test in an hour, when we go for lunch with the Higbees at the  Sugar Beat in Swainsthorpe. Still feel very clogged up and am prone to the occasional coughing fit.

I did, however, make it to church on Sunday, when Eleanor baptised a little Lithuanian girl called Gabriele. Her family were all in white, and a few had come over from Lithuania specially. We had a lunch afterwards, and I had a chat with those who could speak English, especially the slightly older daughter (5-6), who goes to Catton Grove school and can speak English, Lithuanian and Russian. Following the lunch (and the Lithuanians’ departure) Dot, Phil and I did a bit of a rehearsal which included my new song, Julian Blues. We were joined for a while on piano by Carrie.

Saw Carrie again last evening (5.30pm), when I attended Golden Dog Lane for a Carrie support group meeting. Only four of us (Carrie, Howard, Debbie H + me), but we had a good talk, and the cake tasted excellent. Dot had been at Mildenhall much of the day doing an RE quality mark assessment; so she had her evening meal while I was out, and I did my own after I walked back.

Braving our unhealthy atmosphere

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David and Chrissy outside Number 22

Our optimism was ill-founded. I was feeling so ill by Saturday evening that I couldn’t join David, Chrissy and Dot for dinner at The Dining Rooms. Dot herself had been bad but was improving a bit by then and was able to have a good time with them. I managed Sunday lunch at home with them before taking to my bed again.

All very disappointing, but it was lovely to see them both happy despite the unhealthy atmosphere (David himself wasn’t too well, having caught something off the children), and it was great that they could come.

On the Friday I had had to cancel my intended visit to the launch of Godfrey Sayers’ book in Holt, and on Sunday I didn’t make church, of course. On the Monday I missed the PCC, as did Howard, who also had some kind of virus. There’s a lot of it about. Dot heroically attended as St Augustine’s sole representative.

This was a full-blown case of the kind of upper respiratory tract infection that I used to get routinely when I was younger – debilitating in the sense that you can’t do anything involving your head for more than a minute or two: talking to people, reading, watching TV and so on. I haven’t had it like this for years, I don’t think, and hoped I’d grown out of it, as I seem to have more or less grown out of hay fever.

Dot wasn’t feeling at all well either for some days: she gets a lot of catarrh and sneezing, but not quite the acute facial discomfort, I don’t think. Perhaps she’s just more resilient, or more determined. But I don’t think so, obviously.

She was out in the city yesterday, and has been to have lunch with Carrie today. I managed to get up to the Rosary, where there was brief bit of weak sunshine, but I still feel very tired and clogged up. The hounds of spring are on winter’s traces, but let it pass. (You have to be a big James Thurber fan to get that one. Unless you happen to click here.)

I should have mentioned that Phil popped round last Friday afternoon for a cup of tea, despite my virus warning. He declined a lift home.

Checking on the corbels

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Phil’s birthday, and winter has come back in. Very cold wind today as I walked up to the sorting office, only to discover they were tarmac-ing the drive. Very nice woman said it would all be done in half an hour. Dot is in the garden, despite being under the weather since having a facial: she believes it affected her sinuses. Lot of sneezing. I am in more or less the same state but didn’t have a facial, so don’t know what to blame. We are both optimistic for a quick recovery.

It being Phil’s birthday means that it’s the anniversary of both my parents’ deaths – my mother yesterday and my father tomorrow. And it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday; so more than one reason to take some flowers up to the Rosary. I shall do that. Oh yes I will.

Last Saturday we had a “light” supper at the Hendersons’. This consisted of a starter, a roast and a sweet; so we should be grateful it wasn’t a heavy supper. Very pleasant evening, especially as Norwich City had won again.

On Sunday I preached at St Luke’s, with Karen Wimhurst leading and Steve F on sound. Interesting. The sermon went quite well, and afterwards I popped down to St Aug’s for another cup of tea. In the afternoon I walked up to St Peter Hungate to check the corbels. Glad to report they were there, and might well have represented John and Margaret.

The reason for this bizarre behaviour was that I was assisting Rob Knee on Wednesday with guiding two groups of Cromer historians round some of the Paston sites, and I wanted to make sure I knew where everything was.  In the event it turned out that the corbels were the least of my worries: when my group of 18 reached St Peter Hungate I couldn’t open the door, and broke the handle (in a minor sort of way) in the attempt. We continued unabashed to St Andrew’s Hall, where there was a school choirs event; so of course we couldn’t go in. So far, so bad.

From there it improved. When we got back to St Peter Hungate, Rob had opened it (and repaired the handle). Some of my group were very slow; so we were behind schedule, and when we bumped into Rob’s group again opposite the Cathedral, some of mine defected and headed for the refectory. By the time my group got there (having covered everything), there was little time for the promised snack before the bus left.

Happily I was not on the bus; so I could finish my delicious egg and cress sandwich (paid for by the historians, who also gave me £30). As I was relaxing I was asked to give a quick repeat tour to a couple of ladies who had been waiting in the wrong place and so missed the whole thing. So I went round again, really enjoying it this time, because talking to two people is much easier than talking to 18. They were very grateful.

Not much action the rest of the week. I have put more Paston letters into modern English and edited an article by Lucy on John Fenn & Co. And I’m keeping up with the Lent tanka, as well as stringing along with Joy. Oh, and updating websites.

Which reminds me, yesterday I called on Phil and Joy with Phil’s presents. They were both quite perky, though tired. Joy has taken to painting in a studio upstairs. Earlier in the day (or was it the day before?) I had bought Phil a couple of books and a bottle of wine.

Vicar surprises us

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Three-handed chess set – a gift from Karen

It’s a sunny, warmer day, and Dot has just been out in the garden (with a little help from me), tidying up. Norwich City are already on the radio, and she is in the kitchen.

The air has been gradually losing its chill over the past week, but last Sunday, when we went to the Seagull at Lowestoft after I had both led and preached in the morning, it was still pretty cold, with a chill wind. Phil was unable to come with us; so Dot and I played a couple of Julian songs in the first half, and I did “I Want to Catch Fire” on my own later. This is a song I wrote many years ago, but I have only just worked out how to sing (and play) it. It seemed to go all right.

On Monday it was still very cold; so Dot and I decided not to walk to the Greens’ for the DCC. We had a longish meeting, with a rather relaxed discussion at the end. The new vicar turned out to be not the one we had anticipated, but everyone seemed happy about him. His name is David Austin, and he is a big devotee of Facebook: he has been posting a great deal this week, not all of it uninteresting.

Next morning I walked up to Archant in murky weather for the monthly coffee morning: Su Lee was in attendance, as was Bob Easter, with news that Alan Atherton was extremely ill and not likely to last long. It was rather a subdued gathering after that, but a new chairman, Eric, was elected (can’t remember his surname: he was a print room supervisor), Alan having stood down.

On Wednesday Dot and I managed to get to the cinema, with two free seats (accumulated points) to see The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which we enjoyed tremendously. Intelligent script, good direction and beautiful, relaxed acting. We were smiling all the way through and for some time afterwards.

Thursday was quite busy. We went out to North Walsham to put flowers on the graves (it was Doreen’s birthday) and then called in on Jessie for a cup of tea and biscuits: she seemed in very good form. We had to get back in time to let in Naomi, who came for the night so that she could get to a course at UEA the next morning. Having let her in, we abandoned her and walked to the Greens for an evening meal with them and Vicky and Helen Ward, who was staying for a few days. Typical Green hospitality left us replete and walking back home just before midnight.

The next day everyone except Dot went to UEA. Slight exaggeration – Naomi left early for her course, and  I followed not long after (by bus) for a meeting at the Registry with other Paston trustees and Dr Karen Smyth, who gave me a three-handed chess set. We also spent a long time talking about the Heritage Lottery Fund bid, and continued the discussion after a lunch in Vista (the top cafe). I had fish and chips, which was excellent. Naomi joined us at her own expense and went back to Mundesley with her mother..

I returned home by bus and spent quite a long time catching up with paperwork. Dot arrived home from lunch with Anne shortly after I arrived, and after a bit more work we spent much of the evening watching TV. After the fish and chips, not much supper necessary.

Still managing to keep up with Lent tanka. Just.