Bit of a hiatus there, though not an empty one. Jessie died last Friday: we received a phone call just after we arrived in Buxton for the weekend. My iPhone died too – it lost the ability to charge, and although this was corrected by a shady guy I took it to in one of the murkier parts of Coventry, it suddenly lost all sound. I had been meaning to replace it anyway, but it happened at a bad time.
Yesterday I went to O2 after the Archant pensioners’ coffee morning and purchased an XR. Because my old phone was not backed up to the Cloud (don’t ask me why), I had to take the new one home and effect the set-up myself. This was presented as being very easy, and it would have been if I could have got the SIM card in the new phone. After trying various ways round I gave up and walked swiftly back up to O2, where I was told the SIM card was bent; they had to replace it and swap the information, which they seem to have done all right, although annoyingly my Steps app failed to transfer about 5000 steps. So yesterday I must have done about 8000-9000 steps in all, and I am down for fewer that 2000.
All this may sound very trivial compared with Jessie dying, and of course it is. But she had been on the brink for a while and was in some distress trying to breathe on the last couple of days. We will miss our visits to her very much: she always made me welcome from the time I started going out with Dot all those years ago. She is the last of her generation in Dot’s family.
Yesterday, in between the two visits to O2, Dot and I went to North Walsham cemetery to put some flowers on her sister’s grave: it would have been her 70th birthday. It was odd not going to see Jessie as well. While I was paying my second visit to O2 Dot was attending an Ofsted feedback at South Walsham – possibly the first time she had been to North and South Walsham on the same day.
Our annual visit to Buxton went well. We called in at Coventry on the Thursday, staying at the Premier Inn near the M6 overnight (very welcoming) and visiting Andrew the next morning. We found him in his new, much larger room with a double bed and his new sofa, which I had ordered from Argos earlier in the week and which had been delivered the day before. He seemed better than I had expected, because I knew he had had a fall in the city and been given extra antibiotics. But he was quite perky.
After leaving him (and picking up my phone from Foleshill) we had an uneventful but slow journey up to Buxton, where it was misty but without any sign of snow. The Evetts were already in town, but we decided against joining them there, as we were both tired. The evening meal was excellent, and all the usual suspects were waiting on us.
The Saturday was quite pleasant, though nowhere near as good as the sun and mild weather earlier in the week, and we decided to do a short walk from Tissington, a village which seemed to be anchored in the past. The shops were similar to ones we knew from our childhood (I bought some Fry’s chocolate), and the houses were all old: Tissington Hall was in the middle of the village. We started walking along the Tissington Trail, then cut up across fields and back to the village.
Back in Buxton I had a rest before joining the others for a cup of tea in the Chocolatier’s. Very nice.
On the Sunday it was wet and quite chilly. The forecast was also bad; so we decided on Lyme Park. With our new NT Scotland membership we were able to get into the house and gardens for nothing. We started at the cafe by the pond, then proceeded to the gardens, which were beautiful despite the time of year, and then, as the rain started to fall, went into the house, ending with a scone in the cafe.
The next day we left just after 10.30am and decided to call at Ralph and Lynne Martin’s in Darley Dale. They had just returned home from swimming at Matlock Bath, and we had a good chat and drink, plus a look at their garden. The following day I was able to show a photo I took of them to the pensioners’ group.
Proceeding south, Dot decided she wanted to go to a good quality toilet, and I suggested a National Trust property. We ended up at Kedleston Hall, which had beautiful grounds and an excellent cafe. We shared a scone, and I had indigestion the rest of the way home, which was a bit strange. We stopped again at Cambridge Services, and we got home just after 6pm. It would have been earlier, but Idiotic Transport for Norwich had dug up another road, resulting in huge queues.
In earlier news, Luke has installed most of the LED lights in the kitchen, plus a couple of switches. We had Cake and Compline at Claire’s last Tuesday, and a PHS Trustees’ meeting at our house the next day. Some big crisis is brewing at the UEA, causing them to cancel the Footprints Steering Committee meeting, but no-one really knows what it is. We are carrying on, but the project could be in jeopardy. Dot got annoyed by her orchestra conductor not showing up again and no-one bothering to tell her. She was waiting to give him a lift from the bus station.
Not sure what is happening with Maryta, but am very much afraid that Paul has given in to the idea that he should look after her at home, with professional help. He has frequent chest infections and has just had his varicose veins operated on; so I don’t think this is a great idea, though I understand his reluctance to put her in a care home.
We have enjoyed (pre-Buxton) some lovely sunny and quite mild weather, but it is now back to what we might expect for early March – grey and damp. Am just off for a massage, and I have a bit of a cold that I hope will not develop.