HIgh price of levelled lights

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Dot with the chest relocated to the garage. Quite a lot of captions rejected there.

Approaching the end of November and very wintry – apparently the earliest snow for 17 years. Not too much of it here – it barely settles and then disappears – but lots in the north (eg Scarborough) and our usual haunts in Scotland are badly hit. Still a bit uncertain how our journey to London will go tomorrow; according to the forecast, we should be all right if we can get out of Norfolk.

Enjoyed our lunch on Tuesday with Lucy and her friends, which showed signs of going on into the evening, but we had to go to the supermarket and then Tuesday Group at the Archers; so we left around 4pm. No time to call in at the garage, but we did that the next day after a visit to the tip to deposit some failed electrical items. Discovered a new automatic light leveller would cost £340: the service guy at the garage was as shocked as we were, and he’s booked the car in next week to see if some other method can be found of fixing it. Meanwhile, of course, no problem with it. We’ll see what happens on the way back from London on Sunday, after our much-postponed visit to the Coomes’.

We went to see 100-year-old Phyllis on same day and shared Communion with her, her daughter Janet, Nicholas and Elvira, in her little flat at Doughty’s Hospital while it poured with rain outside. Later, with exquisite timing, had our hair cut. Yesterday I went into the city and tried to get some sense out of the O2 shop regarding switching my old mobile phone data to my new one, including the number. Had three attempts and wasn’t happy with what they said, so I’ve decided to use the number that came with the iPhone. Now have to let everyone know, but as the people who actually ring me on my mobile can be counted on the toes of one foot, this shouldn’t be too arduous. For anyone who’s interested, the new number is 07543 804041.

Today our new unit for the hi-fi was delivered, and Dot has spent much of the day, with some help from me, rearranging and tidying up the house. The living room certainly looks good. Discovered loads of David’s old school and college stuff (including a monitor) in the old chest which is now relocated in the garage.

The long good birthday

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An iPhone picture of birthday girl Dot at her desk

I was expecting some editing work to do this morning, but it hasn’t arrived, so instead I’m bringing my blog up to date. Winter is fast approaching, with snow forecast for the end of the week. We are about to venture into a no doubt chilly North Norfolk for lunch with Lucy and a couple of her friends who want to know about Ambient Wonder. We are not experts on AW, but will do our best!

The past few days have centred on Dot’s birthday, which “began” last Friday (see previous post). In the evening we went to the Norfolk Mead at Coltishall with Anne and Philip. Excellent meal and ambience, though a trifle on the pricey side. Still, well worth it. My car lights started playing up again on the way there, and I guess I’m going to have to call in at the garage later today. The auto-levelling system isn’t working properly. Sometimes it’s OK; sometimes it isn’t. Just what you want: an intermittent fault that won’t be happening when we reach the engineers.

In view of the slight risk of dodgy lights, we took Dot’s MX5 to Caddington for the weekend and had good journeys each way. Lovely birthday meals both days: Amy had made some buns, and Oliver had bought Dot some chocolate. David gave her a Kindle, which she is already much absorbed in. On Saturday afternoon the Coomes family came over; it was good to see them again. The children all get on very well. We returned home when David left to take the children to Aylesbury – just after 3pm on the Sunday.

Monday was Dot’s actual birthday. In addition to the bracelet, I bought her the book of the radio series, A History of the World in 100 Objects , a sizeable tome which she seemed very pleased with. It weighs several hundred Kindles. To celebrate her birthday further, we bought some more furniture from Gary’s Pine – this time an oak unit to hold our record player and a small table to hold a plant. From St Giles Street we hurtled to the Ruschcutters for a lovely lunch, made even better by the free birthday bottle of wine. From there things quietened down a bit, though the aerial man arrived just after 2pm to fix the connection to out bedroom TV. Will probably have him back in the new year to sort out a switch to bedroom digital!

On a technical note, Dot was overwhelmed by the number of birthday wishes she received via Facebook. Impressive.

Changes in the living room

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Jill Cann (left), mother of the skirting board man. You never know when these pictures are going to come in useful.

Dot’s birthday is on the horizon, and for reasons too obvious to mention, she had her present three days early – and wore it to Dipples open day champagne-and-canape-fest at lunchtime. It’s a rather nice bracelet. She will be wearing it again tonight as we dine at the Norfolk Mead with the Robinsons. It’s seemed a long day, partly because much of it has been spent shifting furniture around following the arrival of our new TV unit, which looks very good. It was especially satisfying that I managed all the wire reconnections without anything not working. Yet.

The living room now looks rather nice, as Phil acknowledged when he dropped a package off for Dot earlier. A little more shifting around (though not much) when the skirting board man arrived to look at what needed to be done to fix the base of the walls following the removal of the skirting heating. He turned out to be a former pupil of Dot’s and the son of one of the Tuckswood teaching assistants, Jill Cann.

Yesterday was even longer. The man who installed the radiators arrived just after 8am and was here till very late afternoon. He was extremely conscientious and careful, which is what you want form a central heating engineer. It’s fantastic to have some real heat in the living room, even though we had to get through a cold day to get it. To be honest it could have been a lot worse, and we didn’t even resort to an electric fire. It was very still and not too cold. I went our for a walk in the morning for an hour or so and sat on St James Hill (while composing a poem) without feeling in the least uncomfortable.

Glorious autumn – for one day only

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Stormy sky above Aldeburgh last weekend

Decided to go to Coventry on Wednesday, because it was forecast to be the only half-decent day this week. Didn’t start out too well, but in Coventry after a good drive the sun was shining and everything was glorious autumn. Andrew was in good form, and Julia came over to The Langleys to have a chat with us while I was there (I had remembered to phone her while en route, and fortunately she was free). The house seemed in better nick, especially Andrew’s room. After Julia left, Andrew and I went to Friday’s for a steak lunch. He had a gigantic sundae intended for two. Afterwards got some petrol and checked the tyres, which were strangely very low on one side. It may be that this was the cause of a problem with the automatic levelling of the headlights, because when I was on the way home, halfway across the Fens, the levelling suddenly sorted itself out, and has been OK ever since *touches wood*.

Journey back was not good. The A14 was solid after the A1: I realised just in time and turned north up the A1 before skirting north of Huntingdon and reaching the A141. There was another hold-up at Chatteris (heavy traffic at roundabout), but I thought I was making good progress when I reached Nordelph to find that the road to Downham Market was arbitrarily shut. No advance warning. Using my vast knowledge of the area 😉 I eventually located the totally unsigned alternative route via Barroway Drove.

Weather took a nose-dive on Thursday, with high winds and rain, but I managed to get to Paston in the evening for a trustees’ meeting. Slightly nervous journey home because wind was very strong, but no problem. Earlier Dot had become trapped in the Longwater shopping complex after the southern bypass was closed by an accident and traffic was gridlocked on the exit road into Norwich. It took more than an hour to clear, but fortunately Dot spotted that she could get back on to the bypass instead of travelling into Norwich, as most drivers were doing.

Today still very windy but dry, and I walked into the city to buy Dot’s birthday present, plus a couple of books, while she took the car for a valeting by some non-English and therefore very hardworking guys off Aylsham road. Great job!  She then had a meeting with head teacher friends in the city, and I went to Morrisons to restock an empty fridge. When Dot got home she was excited by a piece of furniture, so we drove up, caught its owners just before they shut up shop and bought it. It is a corner unit in oak which will hold our television and a few other things. It will be delivered next Friday. A bargain, I have to say. Well, I don’t, but I will. As I had just paid our house insurance for the year, it turned out to be an expensive day.

Wintry weekend at Aldeburgh

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Dot at Hidden Cottage, our three-night base in Aldeburgh

Our weekend at Aldeburgh started badly. Just before I was due to pick up Dot from her team-building day at the King of Hearts it started raining hard, and it kept on going. Very slow journey as it got dark, and a car warning light came on – later revealed by the manual to be a problem with the auto-levelling of the lights. At the cottage we couldn’t open the key safe and had to call the owner out while we waited in the rain. The central heating was also set too low, but I managed to sort that out.

After tea (I had brought some food) we went to a reading at the Jubilee Hall which was brilliant: J O Morgan, who won the festival prize last year and has a Dylan-Thomas-like storytelling style, only Scottish; Matthew Caley, who could have made a living as a comedian if he hadn’t been such a good poet; and Don Paterson, the well-known Scot. The next day I bought a book by Caley and got him to sign it.

Back at the cottage I thought I’d lost the rest of the tickets and so after an extensive but fruitless search had my second bad night’s sleep in a row. The following morning, while we were barely conscious and the rain had stopped, Dot found them in the bottom of the cold bag. Dragged ourselves to the Jubilee Hall to hear a discussion on a poet’s toolkit chaired by Don Paterson and featuring Bill Manhire, Marie Howe and Lars Gustafsson. Again very good and quite inspiring. On the way there we had run into Caroline Gilfillan and afterwards also Kaaren Whitney, who we met at the Lowestoft reading. Had morning snack at 152, just off the High Street and bought bread. Had a late bath and returned to the fray at a lunchtime session led by John Irons on the difficulties of translating poetry: as a musician he was very concerned with getting the pulse right, but I wondered if the precision of the words wasn’t equally important. Good stuff, though.

Afterwards we queued to lunch at the Golden Galleon fish and chip shop, then bought me a couple of Fat Face sweaters before booking in for supper on Sunday at the famed Brudenell Hotel and embarking on a walk along the top of the sea wall, then inland and home (about 2 miles). Took lots of photos in bright late afternoon sunlight. Later watched F1 practice on TV and the football results: late equaliser from the Canaries.

The evening session after tea (Dot had bought food while I was in the bath) was another reading featuring John Glenday, who was excellent; Dorianne Laux, who was OK; and Bernard Kops, who was a Jewish one-off, ranging between brilliant and annoying. Caroline was also present, but we declined the opportunity of another session and walked home, watching some Battlestar Galactica before bed. Good night’s sleep at last.

Woke quite late. To Jubilee Hall again: rained as we were about to go in, happily delayed because Dot had persuaded me to buy another sweater on the way. Lecture by Don Paterson on Frost: bit esoteric but worth hearing, though DP is not a natural speaker. His God-is-not-there philosophy is a bit intrusive, unless of course you agree with him. Coffee afterwards, followed by drop-in at Peter Pears gallery for exhibition – OK, but not sparkling. Ominous grey clouds and occasional rain.

Later went for a walk to the Martello Tower and beyond: very cold and windy; even the fishermen were giving up and walking on to Orford Ness to dry out. However, the sun broke through as we returned to watch F1 from Brazil. Not quite the result we wanted. To Brudenell Hotel for evening meal: very good without being superb. Shrimps, wood pigeon, duck, brûlée and a very nice Shiraz. Watched two more episodes of Battlestar Galactica, then a bit more football before bed. Two more results we didn’t want: Liverpool winning and Arsenal losing.

Not a great night, but redeemed sleeplessness by writing a couple of poems. Next morning the wind had greatly increased: pretty much a gale, with sea hurtling in at Gunton, north of Lowestoft, where I found myself eating a sandwich in the car after dropping Dot off at Corton school. A good view of it, first from the clifftop road and then from a potholed car park at the end of the promenade with the narrowest entrance (between threatening concrete blocks) that you are likely to find anywhere. Earlier I had popped into Lowestoft, where I bought said sandwich.

Picked up Dot from the school around 1.30pm and after a quick return to the seafront drove back to Norwich. As we approached the rain started again. The house was very cold, because I’d turned the heating off in case of a repeat of the pump sticking. So we unpacked to warm ourselves up and then watched a bit of TV before I played a chess game against Terry Glover at the club. He has a jinx on me. I played a really good game and then managed to lose on time when he stirred up some slight complication which I could have avoided. When my flag fell – without my even realising it was close – I still had a won position. Naturally I had another bad night.

Unsticking the pump

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The Thames at Henley, from a couple of weeks back

Feeling shattered this morning after a terrible night. Dot woke me in the early hours to say the central heating had failed to switch off again: I managed to unstick the pump valve by hitting it (yes, that is the approved method), but by then I was too awake to go back to sleep, and very little sleep followed at all, despite a busy day yesterday.

I had taken an hour to get out to Paston after getting stuck behind a very slow-moving convoy of agricultural vehicles on a road (Salhouse-Wroxham) where there was no alternative route. Went on and on, and when there was an alternative, leaving Wroxham, I found myself in tiny lanes behind another vehicle (a car this time) travelling less than 20mph! I was not in a good mood by the time I arrived for the Paston Heritage Society trustees’ meeting (Lucy, Jo and me), which lasted for nearly two hours. Journey back was much easier, but after a brief meal I was out again, this time with Dot, to the First Thursdays Ambient Wonder meeting at the Workshop cafe. Can’t pretend I enjoyed this – noisy discussions are not my forte – but Dot had a good time, I think. This morning she is at a Diocesan team-building meeting at the King of Hearts, where I delivered her shortly after 9am. When I pick her up at about 3.30pm, we will be off for a weekend at Aldeburgh. Feel more like a weekend in bed.

British Summer Time is over, and the weather turned wintry immediately, though it’s now milder. Dark early evenings are not much fun. On the bright side, David came up on Monday and stayed the night. He went to two meetings – one with NAfPHT and one with Howard’s company to chat about making a website tender. (I have been doing more work for Howard too.) David not only gave me his old iPhone as a late birthday present but kindly queued up at the O2 shop to sort out a sim card for me. I am now technologically at the cutting edge, or at least slightly nearer to it. Sadly I was pre-booked for a chess match at Lowestoft on the Monday evening, so I had to leave mother and son alone together, which I’m sure was nice for them. Despite knowing Lowestoft quite well, I managed to get lost while trying to find the venue and arrived late; on the plus side I won the game, and we drew the match 2-2.

Last weekend Dot and I took sandwiches to church and ate them with a cup of tea before shooting off to Wroxham to visit her Uncle Frank, who seemed physically in quite good shape. Afterwards we took Jessie home and stayed for tea and delicious mince pies. You don’t get shortcrust pastry like that just anywhere.

Digging for water

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Tackling a leak outside our house.

Fortunately for Norwich City manager Paul Lambert, his team won last Saturday (1-0 against Middlesbrough). Dot was in the stands, so I wouldn’t have liked to be in his shoes if they’d lost. She doesn’t go often, but Jonathan had a spare ticket. I didn’t go, because I had a poetry reading at Cromer, as part of the COAST festival. The Paston travelling exhibition had a small room in the Garden Gallery, next to Mary Jane’s renowned fish and chip shop, which was unfortunately a bigger attraction, especially as the weather was cold, wet and windy. Still, we had a good time: I read a couple of poems, and Jo did a really lively talk in the absence of Lucy (in hospital again with a serious infection). Caroline was also there. She has just won the EDP-Jarrolds East Anglian Book Award for poetry, which is well-deserved. She’s a very deep writer. I myself have just entered another couple of competitions and am getting back into the habit of writing poems, which must be good.

On Monday I performed my first function as a Paston Heritage Society trustee and attended a meeting in the parish church between the PCC and PHS members. Very strange atmosphere and extremely cold too. I had my maximum winter clothing on, and it’s still October. The meeting went off well, though, and there was a general feeling of agreement about the way things would go – except of course for the pews. I sometimes feel that removal of pews is the main theological issue facing churches in the 21st century. Someone is always against it. OK, it’s not theological. I don’t know what it is.

The cold weather continued into Tuesday, when we had to host the Tuesday Group at the last moment because Vicky wasn’t too well: she’s having a hard time (baby due early December). Small group but a good discussion on using our gifts. People who don’t normally say much had an opportunity to speak because people who normally do weren’t there. Not Vicky, since you ask.

Weather turned warm suddenly on Wednesday, which was good timing as we had our hair cut. Huge difference in temperature: both Dot and I went out with too many clothes on and got back sweating, if you’ll pardon the expression. Yesterday and today a bit chillier. Sue and Roger came round for lunch yesterday and we had a great time putting the world to rights, talking until about 6pm. Recommended David’s website expertise, and showed off our Apple TV, which Sue was much taken with.

In the evening I finally booked a man to put in a couple of radiators in mid-November, though I’m still a little uneasy, as I always am when we have something big done. As I speak, May Gurney on behalf of Anglian Water are digging up the road outside, which doesn’t comfort me at all. And as usual the recycling stuff hasn’t been collected. Dot is probably en route from Beccles having given a lift to one of our carless church members to visit her niece, who coincidentally is the former head teacher of David’s primary school. Who’d have thought it?

Amy reaches half a dozen

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Amy in Lion Wood
Six-year-old Amy pathfinding in Lion Wood.

Colin has just finished cutting our hedge – very bravely without the use of an aqualung. It tipped down for the first couple of hours, but it has now finished, and it’s bright but a little windy. Later today Dot is going to the football match, courtesy of Jonathan’s spare ticket, and I shall be off later in the afternoon to Cromer for a poetry reading.

Yesterday the grandchildren returned home with their father after staying with us for a couple of action-packed days. We travelled down in very cold weather (2C) to Caddington on Wednesday afternoon for Amy’s sixth birthday, and after birthday tea we brought them home and put them to bed. No sign of dozing off in the car nowadays. The next day we had to wake early for the piano tuner, and Oliver took a keen interest in what was going on. Later we went for a walk in Lion Wood, where they enjoyed the hills, and ended up in Pilling Park. Oliver was very tired because he’d slept badly, so we returned to the car and drove round to pick Dot and Amy up. However, they’d found a high wire and no children around, so Amy had been whizzing up and down, as had Flopsy. Oliver then had a resurgence of energy and had several goes on the wire and on other equipment. Afterwards drove to Venta Icenorum, because Oliver is doing a school project on Boudicca. Eventually found a Boudicca’s Way sign for him to photograph with his iPod. Most signs were either falling apart or vandalised. Early night for both as they were exhausted and Dot was off to a DCC meeting that I was quite relieved to avoid. I read them a book and they were both reading in bed on their own before going to sleep. Oliver was interested in the Children’s Bible that he found.

Yesterday we took them up to the Castle Museum to view the Boudicca Room. Amy wasn’t keen on Boudicca, or on stuffed animals, as she’s quite a sensitive little soul, but Oliver took some more pictures of coins, pots and notices. We paid a visit to the shop and then had a snack in the cafe before I returned home to dress in a suit for a special Archant reception at the Cathedral Hostry to mark 140 years of the EDP. Just a snack, wine and a chat really, but it was good to reminisce with so many former colleagues for 90 minutes or so. I shall name as many as I can here, starting with the ones I spoke to (more than 20): Keith Skipper, Biddy Collyer, Roy Strowger, Grace Corne and Rex Hancey (columnists); Ian Collins, Rosemary Dixon and Annette Hudson (who had put the exhibition together); Bill Smith (photographer); John Cushion, Richard Batson, Ian Clarke and Alison Croose (current and former chief reporters); current editor Pete Waters and his PA Sandra Mackay; former editor Peter Franzen with his wife Kathy; leader writer Colin Chinery; features editor Sarah Hardy; feature writers Steve Snelling and Angie Kennedy; plus training school head David Paull and David Newham, with whom I had a long chat about writing and putting on plays. Also glimpsed in distance: Peter Hannam, Trevor Burton’s father, Richard Bond and Jacqui Meadows. Notable absentees: Martin Throssell and Paul Durrant. Wine good quality, sandwiches quite acceptable, considering they were taken from packs bought from local supermarket. Afterwards returned home to find kitchen dominated by two dens. Oliver completed his five facts about Boudicca very quickly, and has his pictures in reserve. He then beat me at Tri-Tactics. Still, I had won my chess game on Monday, so I could take it without whimpering.

David arrived around 5.30pm, and at 6 we went to Prezzo’s for a meal. Children both quite tired, but ate fairly well, though Amy found it hard to stay upright. They left not long afterwards, leaving behind only a giant ladybird, a homework book and the melody line to Let it Be. Of course we didn’t know that till afterwards.

Sing what you always sing

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Vicki and Dot
Another picture from the recent celebration of Joan's 70th birthday: Vicki Ellis and Dot

Have seen quite a lot of my family recently. Last Thursday Dot and I called in to see Aunt Josephine, who was her usual lively self and revealed that my mother once heard a talk she gave and asked her: “Did Frank write it?” This received the indignation it deserved, because Josephine is still talented and much in demand in the talks department, but it does reveal my mother’s attitude, which is typical of her generation, that the men were top dogs. Sad, because she herself was talented both academically and in sports when she was younger. And from what I know of my father, he wouldn’t have dominated her in any way, except possibly to assume that the man is responsible for the family.

The next day we had an evening meal (fish pie) at Joe and Birgit’s, which is a hard thing to write as I am very hungry at the moment, and my lunch pie has half an hour to cook. Dot is at Stibbard, doing a church school inspection. We had a good evening at Joe’s (or should I say Birgit’s? ;-)) and then I saw them again the next day as I had taken away Joe’s anorak instead of mine by mistake, so had to drive round and exchange them. And yet again on Sunday, when we were at Phil and Joy’s preparing to listen to a CD by Eleanor Mumford that came highly recommended by Phil. It was good too, but there was definite sense of déjà vu about it. Or déjà écouté, possibly. Joe and Birgit called round and listened too.

Another family connection: my cousin Pat, who lives in Stamford, wrote out of the blue inquiring about our ancestors. (Strange that Phil is not in the least interested in where he came from.) I was able to answer one question in the negative and confirm the preponderance of Lentons in the Yaxley area, near Peterborough, going back to before 1840 and possibly into the 18th century. Am now working on a theory about how my paternal grandparents met. It hinges on my grandmother’s mother dying shortly after she was born, but this is far from certain. Very difficult to track down her parents in census returns , which suggests that something odd may have happened.

On the literary side, I’ve reworked a TV play I once wrote for a competition (unsuccessful) and entered it as a stage play for another competition. We’ve also done a bit of shopping, mainly for Amy’s birthday: she’s six on Wednesday. Dot and I scoured the toy shops (well, looked in a couple) for zhu zhus, which are toy hamsters with accessories. We bought a couple of accessories, only to find that she was getting one of them from someone else (my fault: David had said) and so I returned it today. Bought a few other things too. On the way back from the original trip, on Saturday, we called in at Dipples, which has been revamped, and spoke to both Rodney and his son Chris. We have earmarked a bracelet that Dot wants for her birthday. We also called in at the Cathedral Hostry, which is hosting a quite small exhibition on the EDP’s first 140 years, which end this year. Some speculation among the usual suspects as to why they are making such a fuss of the 140th, and we’ve concluded that there is a risk that it might not reach 150. However, I feel this is unduly pessimistic.

Just realised we’re going to be away every weekend in November, which sounds exciting. I have recently finished reading The Last Resort, by Douglas Rogers, which was recommended to me by Sandra, my cousin in Cape Town. It’s an account of the recent years in Zimbabwe – much of it quite chilling and tragic but with many humorous elements, as well as some heart-warming accounts of friendship between black and white Zimbabweans. Made the whole situation much clearer and revealed just why the country seems doomed. Many of the white Zimbabweans have been in Africa for generations. Loved the bit where someone representing a black choir rang up another black guy to ask what they should sing at the funeral of a white farmer’s wife. He said: “She’s an African. Sing what you always sing.”