Monthly Archives: April 2015

Going for ride after a fall

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Dot looking lovely in the garden
Dot looking lovely in the garden

Winter is reluctant to let us go; still a chilly wind today, though it was very pleasant (as it often is) at the top of the Rosary when  I called in on the way back from fetching my pills from the chemist.

This was my second visit to the Rosary in less than  a week: on Thursday I walked up there and fell over while greeting a woman who was looking for her aunt’s grave. Did some damage to my hand and wrist, as well as spraining my ankle. Bruising has spread in strange ways: bits that were bruised to start with now aren’t, while bits that weren’t (inner wrist and outside of thumb) are now badly discoloured. Still quite painful if I get it in the wrong position, but on the plus side (for me) I can still play the guitar and (for the woman I was greeting) I found the grave she was looking for. She was very concerned about me and gave me her bottle of water.

Dot is up at the UEA today giving her presentation as party of a UEA/Schools philosophy conference. She has been very nervous about it. Later I shall be going to St Luke’s for the parish agm and dinner.

After falling over last Thursday I went with Dot to the Paston annual meeting, at which the sandwiches were very good; so as there were only 13 of us, we took some home. All the usual suspects except Lucy, who has shingles. Fred has shingles too, and we’re going on holiday with him in about ten days. Lots of it about. Well, two lots so far. The annual meeting was fine, though the room got rather cold later on. Nice view of the sea.

Big surprise on Friday, when Linda didn’t change the time of our hair appointment. In the evening we went with the Robinsons to the Red Lion at Eaton to celebrate Philip’s birthday. He thinks it’s the best food in Norwich, but it’s not really in Norwich, and I’m not sure about the quality either. Nevertheless it was very good. I confined myself to fish on the assumption (probably correct) that I wouldn’t be able to cut much with my injured hand. Spreading butter was not easy either. Afterwards they came back here for coffee, and I think I went to sleep. Must have been the stress. No-one seemed to mind.

On Saturday, as Norwich City FC threw away their chance of automatic promotion by getting a man sent off and drawing 1-1 with Rotherham, Dot spent most of the day at Acle – rehearsing in the afternoon and performing in the church in the evening with Sillars Orchestra. Obviously I attended the latter, which was very good indeed, especially the second half. I sat with Graham, who we’re going on holiday with, and Neville, who thought the second half should have been first. I definitely didn’t. Refreshments at half time too!

Another busy day on Sunday when, after I preached in the morning and notching up a hat-trick of Sunday sermons, Phil came round in the afternoon to rehearse and eat, before all three of us went the Seagull Theatre and performed three songs. I think Dot was flaked out, but she performed heroically, and it was well received. I also read a poem, and Kaaren filled me in on what was required for the Suffolk Poetry Festival (five minutes).

Yesterday, despite the chilly wind, Dot and I went for a 35-minute walk round the riverside path and, after lunch and a rest, called in at Morrisons for £100 worth of food, plus a new kettle. Then we watched quite a lot of TV.

Problems with access

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Maddison and Darcy Beales on a visit to Aspland Road last week.
Maddison and Darcy Beales on a visit to Aspland Road last week.

After a warm day yesterday (albeit with a slightly chilly breeze), today turned cooler again under a grey sky. Certain people say this is the hottest April on record, but I don’t know where they’re standing.

On Sunday I was preaching again, standing in for the rota person, who was hard-pressed. I was also leading the service (as per rota), and before that chairing the DCC agm in the absence of a vicar and the churchwarden, who is in Sri Lanka. The vicar-elect is in Marrakesh, but that’s another story. The DCC was pretty straightforward and no-one queried why Ian was standing down. No election was necessary, because all the gaps were filled, with Judy and Eleanor being new DCC members.

Afterwards we had a Far Cry rehearsal, which went fairly well.

On Monday I was up at the Forum by just after 10am for a PHS trustees’ meeting with Karen about the new bid (Discovering Paston Footprints). Went well up to a point, then degenerated into chaos as usual. Lucy has shingles, though this wasn’t known (even by her) until after the meeting.

A new private website has been created to get all the bid material together. I spent ages trying to access it and failing until it occurred to me this evening that my two websites (this one and back2sq1) are not WordPress.com sites but just built on WordPress software. Rang David to confirm this, and then I was able to reach the Paston/UEA site by pretending to create a new WordPress.com site. At least, I think that’s what I did.

Later on Monday Dot and I went to Morrisons, who were woefully understaffed on the tills, and in the evening to the cinema, which had a similar problem: tickets could be purchased only at the ice cream or popcorn counters. Wonderful. We saw The Water Diviner, which was very good,  though quite gruesome in the war scenes (Gallipoli). Russell Crowe and Olga Kurylenko were excellent, as was Dylan Georgiades as Olga’s young son. Thought he must be Turkish (or Greek), but he’s actually Australian. Yilmaz Erdogan (a Kurd) was also good as the Turkish Major Hasam.

Yesterday Dot went to see Dr Dar, who said she was diabetic (blood count) but had no symptoms. She is going to be monitored at the moment and will probably have to have a pill to correct what appears to be a problem with the pancreas. Later we went to Poringland, where Dot had a violin practice with Janet Smith from the orchestra and I went for a long walk with her husband Graham, who has a train set in his back garden. They are coming to the South of France with us.

In the evening Vicky, Bridget and Judy came round for tea cakes and compline. David is in a bit of a bad way with his swallowing problem and had to be taken to A&E a couple of nights ago. This may turn out well because he now has to see a doctor and get it sorted out.

Today was the Archant agm, held this time at the Forum, where the buffet was not quite so good. However the new CEO, John Henry, gave a very good presentation and reacted well afterwards when Dot pointed out that the EDP had too many mistakes in it. During the meeting itself Maryta asked about demographics and was misunderstood. She also asked for a job, and this was understood. Robin was there, but not Brian, and apparently Bruce is in a bad way with a lung infection (possibly pleurisy).

Dot had to leave early in the buffet to go to Hopton for a school Ofsted feedback, but I hung around until the bitter end and had two glasses of white wine, which wasn’t bad.

Meandering through the marsh

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Andrew at Brandon Marsh nature reserve
Andrew at Brandon Marsh nature reserve

Managed to fit in a visit to Coventry this week, travelling out late on Tuesday and staying the night at the Premier Inn at the junction of Leamington Road and Kenpas Highway, where I had stayed before. Very welcoming place, the only downside being the lack of a bathroom. As last time, I bought sandwiches from the M&S shop in the petrol station opposite for the evening, but enjoyed a lovely breakfast at the hotel, where I was the only diner just after 9am.

Arrived at Andrew’s not long after 10am, and we walked through Coventry to the Transport Museum. It was warm and quite crowded in the city, though the museum was fairly empty. Not the most exciting museum I’ve been in, but as it was free you couldn’t complain. Andrew bought a book about old buses in the shop afterwards, and we got him some handkerchiefs in Primark (formerly Owen Owen).

Back at the car, Andrew decided he wanted the toilet, so we popped back into the house before heading for Brandon Marsh nature reserve, which I had discovered online. Not easy to get to past the still ongoing mega-roadworks at Baginton, but appealing in a kind of amateurish way. It has clearly not been around too long and is growing into something that may be exceptional in due course.

We had sandwiches and a drink in the cafe before venturing on to the paths that meandered through young woodland and past a number of lakes, taking in some reedbeds, hides and the edge of a golf course. It was very warm, and Andrew was too tired to take the whole place in, but we had a very pleasant walk, with frequent stops to try out the benches. Got some quite nice photographs.

After driving back to Minster Lodge, Andrew decided he’s quite like to see our old homes, and so we drove to Beanfield Avenue and The Chesils. Back at Minster Lodge, we had a cup of tea and coffee in the lounge before I left for home at 4.30pm. Getting out of Coventry and thought the junction of the A14 and M6 took a lot of time, but from there the journey was fairly straightforward. I stopped at Cambridge Services for some fruit and chocolate and got home around 8.15pm. Dot was at orchestra practice.

The previous day (Monday) I had been out in North Norfolk again, attending a meeting of the Paston Trustees at Mundesley and then dropping in on Jessie, where Dot had spent the whole afternoon. Before that the two of us had had a lovely lunch at the Knees’.

Thursday and yesterday were fairly quiet days. The warmth had been successfully quashed by a chilly wind, but I did venture out to the Rosary on my father’s birthday, leaving some bluebells from our garden on his grave.  I eventually got into contact with the right guy at the Bicycle Shop cafe and established that Phil’s amplifier would be OK, and 5-6pm would be good for rehearsal on May 4. Feeling rather less worried about it now.

Norwich City ended their winning run in front of 27,000 at Carrow Road last night – a number that included Dot. We had walked down together. Their 0-1 defeat to fellow aspirants Middlesbrough means that automatic promotion becomes much less likely, but there are still the play-offs!

Wrote a couple of poems in Coventry and another one on my return; so my rather barren period seems to have ended.

Losing track of time

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Dot, Sue and Fred on the beach near Beeston
Dot, Sue and Fred on the beach near Beeston

An exceptionally busy week goes by, and the busyness continues. This afternoon I head for Mundesley for a Paston trustees’ meeting, and tomorrow I drive to Coventry to visit Andrew. Fortunately my health continues to improve. But back to the past…

Tuesday last week saw another Archant coffee morning, this one with the addition of Maryta, plus Brian Caldecott and Tricia. Clearly an EDP subs’ takeover is in the offing. Good to see Brian, who looked well although he isn’t (he has rheumatoid arthritis).

Saw Maryta again the next day, when the Hendersons took us on a North Norfolk trip, starting with a longish dog walk at Felbrigg Hall, where we saw frogs mating and enjoyed a light lunch, continuing at Beacon Hill (Roman Camp), where they lost the dog – sadly not permanently; it returned to Dot and me while they were off down the ravine looking for it – and on to Blakeney, where we had a shorter walk and then an excellent afternoon tea at the Blakeney Hotel, overlooking the marshes. Discovered to our surprise that the Hendersons had not been to Blakeney before: that’s what comes of living south of Norwich. Weather fine, with a chilly wind.

On Thursday Dot had a violin lesson with a friend from the orchestra and completely lost track of time, so that I had to ring her and remind her to come home and see Sam, Lucy and Elliott, who had dropped in during a short visit to Norwich. Elliott very smiley and crawly; Sam less so.

On Friday we were off to the north coast again, this time to visit Fred and Sue at Beeston Regis. We visited Cookie’s at Malthouse and the called at the Cley Wildlife centre, which has been much improved, despite being pretty good to start with. Our neighbours the Norfolk Wildlife Trust can’t be short of money. From the centre the marshes looked much more open; most of the trees had disappeared following the tidal surge.

On the way back to Beeston we stopped at Sheringham, where I had a delicious gooseberry ice cream and we watched a girl called Karen lovingly construct a message in stone on the beach to her boyfriend Len (we’re making several assumptions here). Back at Beeston we took a stroll along the beach, where I managed to lose the eyepiece to my binoculars. Again, a lovely dry day, but with a chilly wind in the evening. It even rained on our way home, but that was probably very localised.

On Saturday Dot spent most of the day (if not all of it) preparing for the visit of Chronicle and spouses (Rob, Penny, James, Ann) for an evening meal. This was supposed to include a discussion about the progress were were making on the next Chronicle project, but we had such an interesting discussion on other matters (some theological) that we never got to that. I will raise it today when I see Rob for lunch.

Yesterday I preached a bit, and Eleanor led a Holy Communion in her lovely understated way. Vicky came, as did Ruth and Steve, so we had four children in the congregation. We have discovered that the new vicar is gay, or if not exactly gay, unnecessarily happy. In the afternoon Richard came round with the delightful Maddy and Darcy, and we had an Easter egg hunt followed by other excitement and a certain amount of food. Norwich scored a last-minute goal to beat Bolton, which meant Dot was pretty happy too.

A series of tanka I wrote for Lent has been accepted for inclusion in the spring edition of the Atlas Poetica, published in America. Surprised and delighted.

Walking with the Romans

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Amy, oliver, Paul, David and Dot at Caistor St Edmund, hunting for fragments of pottery
Amy, Oliver, Paul, David and Dot at Caistor St Edmund, hunting for fragments of pottery

Unusual follow-up to one of Dot’s meetings, in that it led to the exposure of someone putting in false expenses – who claimed to be there, but wasn’t. Despite his prolonged and protested innocence, it was eventually proved that he was lying in his teeth. As a result he was “embarrassed”. Can’t say who it was, or where the meeting.

On Tuesday last week we had a compline and hot cross bun at Judy’s in the company of the Archers. A nice evening, except that the cool temperature (18C) led to my suffering a bit of a relapse. In fact I’m still not right, and nor is Dot. We both have a bit of a cough, have few reserves of strength and (in my case) tend to shiver and (in Dot’s) get too hot. Still, we have managed to carry on, because mostly it’s not too bad. Very irritating, though, as it affects our sleeping too.

Despite that we had a great time with the grandchildren and with David. We picked Oliver and Amy up at lunchtime on Wednesday and got the bonus of a very nice potato and leak soup from David. Good journey home and a rather late night after watching some of The Ark on TV.

The next day we visited Gressenhall. The weather was unexpectedly good – sunny and not too cold – and we were outside most of the time, taking pictures and making videos in the wood, and going for a lovely walk by the river and an exceedingly boring tractor ride. The cafe was pretty good, and there were some interesting old things to be seen, like a schoolroom and a shop. Also saw a horse ploughing in the distance. Drive home was rather convoluted after I avoided going through Dereham (probably unnecessarily). Saw the rest of The Ark. Pretty good.

On Good Friday Dot was helping some people from church with some singing on the Haymarket. After David arrived in late morning, Oliver and I went to meet her, and we all went to the museum to gather material for a project for Amy.  Built bridges and arches and played old games.

The Hendersons invited us to walk with them at Caistor St Edmund on Saturday, and we just made it before they gave us up (10.35). Pleasant walk, encompassing the new bridge and field across the Tas. Paul very good at teaching Oliver and Amy Roman things. He has a real gift. Afterwards we had lunch (pizza and salad) at theirs. Later we had a roast meal at home.

On Sunday, despite feeling pretty awful when I got up, I went to church to play music and do the prayers for the Easter Communion. By the time I got there I wasn’t too bad. Adrian arrived and accompanied me on his acoustic bass, and Howard joined in on the piano for the final traditional Easter hymn (Christ the Lord is risen today). Howard took the service, and Eleanor preached. All very lovely;  I found myself last to leave, which was not what I had intended at all.

David and the children left in late afternoon after a second shot at Amy’s new game, which involved setting up shops and telling stories and making money. She is quite a girl.

Today I took some flowers up to the Rosary while Dot went to watch Norwich City beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 and moved to second in the Championship. I think we’re safe from relegation now.