Aylsham volunteers’ meeting
The Hendersons arrived more than half an hour early for supper on Saturday, but Dot took it remarkably well and made a lovely meal too. Maryta was worried about her lone trip to see the gorillas in Uganda, which started on Wednesday, but she has since rung to say things have sorted themselves out, which was a bit surprising.
On Sunday I led the service and Dot led the prayers, following which we decided to go for a walk in the woods – in this case Bacton Woods, which neither of us had been in before. Quite surprising, given their proximity to North Walsham. We had an enjoyable walk, marred only by the number of dogs both visible and audible. Afterwards we dropped in on Jessie.
Monday saw our rearranged visit to the Coomes – quite a good journey both ways, other than the usual but hardly surprising difficulty in reaching the North Circular in rush hour on the way back. Kristine made a lovely dark chocolate cake, and David managed to appear upbeat, given that he is now restricted to a wheelchair if he wants to move around. Kristine has a Werder Bremen duck in the bathroom; so I took a picture and put it on Twitter to encourage Norwich City’s new star, Tom Trybull, who used to be with the duck people. I don’t know if he saw it, but he had an outstanding game on Tuesday, when NCFC beat Brentford 3-1 away in the EFL Cup.
Meanwhile David’s former wife Anne is in Florida, very worried about the approach of Hurricane Maria.
On Tuesday Dot and I went to Helen’s for the initial meeting of this year’s sugar charity campaign. I seem to have got lumbered with writing a story for the EDP. I just can’t say no to such nice people. Always been my problem.
In the evening I went to Jurnet’s poetry evening, part-run by Hilary Mellon, because Rupert Mallin was in the guest spot. Very good he was too, and I read a couple of poems at the open mic spot, one of which I had only finished that afternoon (From a Distance; also Fences). There was also some folk music, and it was all rather reassuring, because it made me realise that the Seagull was actually pretty good. Meanwhile Dot was attending a church meeting on safeguarding, which she said, surprisingly, was rather good too.
Yesterday was busy. I had a lunch meeting with Joy and Adrian Bell, of Mousehold Press, during which I ate too much and felt quite ill afterwards. Still, we made some decisions about our next tanka book, Norfolk Ways. Afterwards I dashed home in time to drive to Aylsham for the PHS Volunteers’ Meeting, which attracted about ten people. Rob and Peter introduced it, and I wasn’t really needed, but I’m glad I put in an appearance.
It was Paston again this morning: I was at Mundesley by 10.45 for another Footprints meeting. We’ve had the result of our bid for over £300,000, but I can’t reveal what it is for another week or two. The HLF certainly knows how to eke things out. On the way back I got in a queue of cars from North Walsham which was struggling to reach an average of 40mph. I managed to overtake one of them, but the traffic coming out of Norwich was very heavy. I now have a blood pressure machine, but I decided that arriving home was not a good time to use it.
We have booked into at Coventry hotel for tomorrow night – calling in to see Andrew on the way to Wales. Before that I have a lot to do, including the minutes to this morning’s meeting and getting my hair cut by Linda, who forgot to come on Tuesday, probably because she’d just moved house.