20 September 2008

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We’ve stumbled into some lovely weather. Yesterday Dot and I sat in the garden for a while, and this robin came and kept us company. We have two or three mirrors in the garden, and it seemed mystified by the appearance on an extra robin in odd places. Very loud song. We also walked to Morrisons to buy a few things and stopped at one of the bars on the way back through Riverside for a glass of wine and Smirnoff Ice. Sat and watched the river and felt quite continental. Dot has checked the weather for Switzerland, and it looks good. Should also be good for Oliver’s party with his friends today: hope he’s feeling OK – he had a sore throat yesterday.

I had a really bad night: only about three hours’ sleep, and it’s not likely to be much better tonight. As a result I feel quite hazy; I started on antibiotics this morning after no improvement in the usual area. Tim M has been round to pick up the key: he’s staying here while we’re away. Also Menita and her children called but didn’t stop – apparently Alex wanted to look at where they used to live (opposite).

I’ve sent out the Paston Private View invitations and caught up with just about everything I had to do. The Flip people say they’re sending me a replacement, which will no doubt arrive while I’m away, so I hope it doesn’t go astray.

Ian Bullock came round on Thursday night and stayed for about three hours. Had a good conversation about our days at the EDP: he left a couple of years ago to go freelance, and he and his wife have had a number of health problems. Good to see him.

We shall be leaving for London in a couple of hours – staying at the King’s Cross Travelodge tonight. Hope it’s even more wonderful than it sounds. Dot is keen to get a glass of champagne at the long bar in St Pancras station this evening.

18 September 2008

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Oliver demonstrates his tree-climbing prowess on Dunstable Downs. Lovely day again today: we went out to lunch at Park Farm – excellent fish and chips – and then called in on A Ethel to deliver a scanned photo of her parents. Stayed for about an hour, then continued to Bally to deliver prints from Lucy (delivered to us by Simeon earlier). She wasn’t there, but we saw Rupert and Martin Laurance – then came upon Annette walking down Hall Road on our way home. We turned round and gave her a lift. Now we’re home. Ex-colleague Ian Bullock is coming round later. I think I have another urine infection and am about to start on the antibiotics, which is a bit of a drag.

I got a replacement Flip delivered on Tuesday, but that doesn’t work either, which is also a bit of a drag.

Yesterday Lisa came round early to pick up some leaflets for the Paston exhibition, and I’ve been putting together an illustrated note to go out with my invitations to the Private View. We also had our hair cut yesterday, so we’re all ready for the holiday… The organisers rang us up this morning to say we needed to be at St Pancras before 7am on Sunday because of the ongoing repair work in the Tunnel. If it goes on being that relaxing, it will clearly be a holiday to remember.

On the plus side, I have filed my tax return online, though not without putting in the wrong figures the first time and having to file an amendment.

16 September 2008

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Oliver and Amy on the slopes of Dunstable Downs, where we all went kite-flying last Saturday afternoon. It was a warm day with intermittent wind, and we managed to get both kites up high at one point. There was a lot of glider activity from the field below the downs, so plenty of entertainment all round. In the evening we looked after the children while David and Vicky celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary with Philip and Jane (20th) at Bishop’s Stortford. Oliver had plenty of presents and was consumed by his Nintendo DS, for which we got him an extra game.

On the Sunday afternoon we went to Stockwood Park, two miles away, which is now even better since the creation of a Discovery section: lots of play areas and gardens. We all had an ice cream, and I watched a mother patiently teaching her son how to play chess on the open air board while Vicky took a conference call from work and the others explored their surroundings. Afterwards we all had a look round the motor museum, which is also very interesting. And no charge for any of this (except the ice cream). Even the weather was excellent again. We stayed at Caddington till the children had gone to bed, then had a cup of tea and left just after nine, getting home just after 11pm. Dot drove both ways.

Annette came round yesterday to deliver leaflets and invitations for the Paston Private View. She stayed for tea, and we discussed the arrangements for exhibiting in the church, which seemed at best obscure. We sent a joint e-mail to Lucy, who replied later with quite detailed plans, so that seems to be all right. I’ve finished off my poems leaflet and have sent some notes on the origins of the poems to Lucy: I’m not sure what she’s going to do with them.

In the evening I played chess against Colin Payne and lost convincingly, never getting a halfway decent position. He is someone I have normally beaten in the past, so I could be going down the tubes. But we’ll see.

I now have 14 friends on Facebook, including, astonishingly, Monica Estruch from Spain, who we haven’t been in contact with for many, many years. We stayed in her family’s house on Menorca in the 90s, after her brother had stayed with us in York.

Barbara is here at the moment, working on Philosophy 4 Children with Dot. They now have a domain name registered, thanks to David, and I think are well on the way to a website. From what I can hear in the distance, I think they have been consulting with David today. Dot has produced a nice draft for an introductory leaflet.

12 September 2008

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As I mentioned last time, I’ve been putting together a birthday present for Oliver that consists of my story Little and the new year game illustrated by a variety of photographs, most of which I took specially. There is a red bus in it that is not the tour bus for Norwich, but it’s the only red bus I could find. Several other pictures are similarly approximations, but I’m pleased with them generally. Hope he likes it.

Won my first chess game of the season on Monday. Got a good advantage out of the opening, then gradually frittered it away until I was probably losing, but by that time he was down to about 30 seconds, and I won on time.

Dot has a new job: she’s a DSSO, which is a diocesan schools support officer: it’s for 28 days a year, and she has more than 20 schools to visit on a kind of pastoral basis. There are four DSSOs altogether, and I guess you could say she was headhunted for it, which is pretty good. Her career has been pretty much a huge success, unlike some people’s I could mention. Today she heard that she got an “outstanding” in the distance learning task she did for her other job as a church schools inspector. She’s quite a star, and I shall bask in her reflected glory. I do quite a good bask.

This week she’s also put some work in on the third string to her bow, which is her Philosophy for Children project in partnership with Barbara. She went down to Suffolk to see Barbara on Tuesday, and on Wednesday she had a meeting of the Norfolk Association of First and Primary Head Teachers (Nafphte), so it’s been a busy week for her. I feel positively inert in comparison, but I did join her earlier on Wednesday in meeting her Aunt Jessie at Wroxham and visiting her husband, who is in a home there. We then went on to Wroxham Barns, intending to eat there, but were put off by a coachload of scavengers and went instead to Divine, a new restaurant at North Walsham, where we had an excellent meal.

In the evening of the same day we both went to the DCC meeting at Horsford, giving Howard G a lift. Howard joined us from the Cambridge train, and the next morning was flying from Norwich to Manchester and back. He’s just returned from a trip taking in Denmark, Finland, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekhistan, China, Tibet and Nepal. Howard makes Usain Bolt look as though he’s standing still.

Went to see Dr Hampsheir yesterday for some precautionary antibiotics for our trip to Switzerland. I’m still catheterising daily, and I didn’t want to be stuck halfway through the holiday with an infection. He was very helpful, and I got the impression he would have prescribed me just about anything.

Yesterday was Oliver’s sixth birthday – we chatted to him on the Web – and today is David and Vicky’s tenth wedding anniversary. We’re going down to stay with them tomorrow and Sunday. After a couple of nice days it’s turned wet and overcast again, so Dot and I went to see The Duchess at the cinema this afternoon: it would have carried more conviction if someone could have made Keira Knightley’s hair look less like a misshapen ball of wool, but it wasn’t bad. Some interesting locations, among which I’m sure were North Norfolk, in the Salthouse area, but I could be mistaken.

I’ve put a bit of commentary on my website, but I’m getting to the point where there’s not much more to say on the subjects of speed and climate change. Some bandwagons are impossible to divert. I have however introduced a LATER slot on the home page! How innovative is that…

8 September 2008

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This is the bowl that Allan Higbee made for us for our ruby wedding anniversary. We also received a lovely orchid from Hazel Savigny, some roses from the Coomes, a lovely bottle of Benedictine in a spectacular tin from Dave and Julia, three bottles of wine and three bottles of champagne, among other things. If this is what happens when you say “no presents”, I wonder what might have happened if we hadn’t. People are very kind.

Have had a lot of frustration in the last few days with my broadband connection, which comes and goes at random. When it’s on, it’s often very slow, and will drift in and out constantly. It was off all day Saturday. I haven’t got anywhere with BT yet, but I discovered from Martin, who lives opposite, that he and others nearby have been having similar problems. I am writing this blog on TextEdit and will paste it in when I can catch the connection. It seems to be on at the moment, but… anyway, it won’t matter after Wednesday, when the Large Hadron Collider experiment in Switzerland will probably create a black hole that will destroy the world, or at least disrupt our holiday on Swiss railways later this month. I’m looking on the pessimistic side, of course. Alternatively, it may reveal new secrets about the universe.

Our hedge has had its annual clipping, together with much else in the garden. Let Colin loose with a pair of clippers, and nothing is safe. Result: the house seems much lighter and the garden has that “just had a haircut” feel, which is actually good. Colin is coming again next month to do some more work, Large Hadron Collider permitting.

On Friday, while Dot visited her aunt in Hethersett, I went to a chess simultaneous display at St John’s Cathedral, which was supposed to be given by Owen Hindle, but he had to go to Scotland because of family illness, and David LeMoir took on 32 people instead – in aid of John Charman, a leading light in Norfolk chess and editor of En Passant. I arrived at about 7.15pm and stayed for just over two hours, by which time he’d beaten two people. I could see it lasting long into the night, so I came home. Nice to see some familiar faces, though. Back into the new season tonight, when I play Chris Tuffin in the club knockout competition. He’s a hard man to beat.

I’m getting nearer to completing a book I’m putting together for Oliver’s birthday, combining my first Little story with some photographs, most of which are in place. I have to take a few more, but the weather is not good. It’s grey again today, with occasional light drizzle, which is not good photography weather. Hope the sun might break through this afternoon.

Nicholas preached a good sermon on prayer yesterday, and we stayed for church lunch. In the evening we also went to the Ambient Wonder review meeting, when “wine and nibbles” turned out to be a full-scale buffet. Pity we’d just had a normal-sized tea…

4 September 2008

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It’s official: we can get 13 people round our kitchen table. Twelve in the picture (after our ruby anniversary) and me slotting in on the left. From left going round: Jane, Philip, Jennie, Julia, Amy, Alistair, Lydia, Oliver, Dot, Dave, Vicky, David.

Major excitement in that our brown bin (garden rubbish) was emptied today. I suggested ringing up the council to tell them, but Dot demurred. She has been ringing up regularly to tell them it has not been emptied, so it seemed only fair.

More problems with the computer internet connection, so I rang BT, who tested the line. Unsurprisingly, it was OK. In the end the guy suggested trying it with the Ethernet connection, but I said I had, and that didn’t work either. So then he suggested changing the filter on the phone line. So I did that. I also removed the laminator from near the hub (it was switched off) and removed everything else from the electricity socket (time machine, scanner) and suddenly it worked, and has been doing so ever since. I have no idea what’s going on.

It rained extremely hard this afternoon, and has been unpleasantly overcast. This evening, though, is much brighter (at the moment). Dot has gone off to a governors’ meeting at Gillingham. Earlier we tried out my new guitar pick-up, which worked very well on a couple of songs. My stomach is still not right, so I have resorted to a high dosage of acidophilus, and have been OK for a few hours.

This morning the Higbees brought us a wooden bowl that Allan had made: very beautiful. They looked at our photos and stayed for coffee.

3 September 2008

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The big event is now over, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. The weather stayed good for all but the last couple of minutes of our ruby wedding celebration on Sunday, so people were able to spill out on to the terraces at Dunston Hall Hotel, and the children could let themselves go a bit. They deserved it after staying the course really well for the food and speeches. Amy laughed a lot during my speech, which gave me the opportunity to ad lib, and Oliver was on his best behaviour as always. David gave a lovely speech which was very moving, and I think everyone had a good time. At least, anyone who didn’t kept very quiet about it.

The picture was taken by Pete Stokes, who supplied us with 122 on disc within two days – a brilliant and very kind gesture. Most of Dot’s college friends were there, and we had 62 guests in all, only three unable to come at the last moment.

We had a full house for supper afterwards: David and his family, Philip Coomes and his, together with his mother, and Dave and Julia. I was feeling totally shattered and barely held it together, especially as a stomach upset I had picked up the day before resurfaced. Happily it was absent for most of the celebrations. Dave and Julia stayed the night, and it would have been nice to go for a walk the next morning, but I was in no fit state, so they went into the city with Dot. Later I managed to join them for lunch in the bar at Dunston Hall, where they had left their car overnight, and they then departed for home.

Tuesday seemed very quiet, and my stomach was still dodgy. It poured with rain nearly all day. It was Joy’s birthday, and Dot took her present round as I was feeling bad. My general unease was not helped by the fact that the computer’s internet connection keeps dropping out, and I spent some time on the phone with David trying to sort it out – but to no avail, largely because I don’t have any of the passwords I need. I tried various different connections, but nothing had any effect. Now it varies between no connection and full on. Interestingly, it seems to improve as son as I try to do something, then fades out when I don’t. Totally baffling. One minute it’s like greased lightning, then it crawls. I hate this intermittent stuff. Later on things improved generally, and we had three of our friends round for a cowboy pie. I had had a brief sleep around 6pm when I felt very shaky. A bad day ended well.

Today Dot and I went shopping, and it turned out to be one of those days when everything flowed. First we bought just the jacket I wanted, then found a suitcase that was just right, as well as a small hand-luggage bag on a stall in Brigg Street. Then got a couple of presents for Oliver before shooting up to pick up my guitar pick-up that Dot had ordered some time ago. After that we had lunch at Cafe Rouge (my stomach is improving, though by no means perfect) and got some Swiss currency at the post office before walking home. Dot has done a little gardening to fill our brown bin up and is now relaxing in front of the TV.

30 August 2008

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This is the other Amy, daughter of the other Vicky, our friend at church. The picture was taken at Mangreen Hall nearly three weeks ago. Now we’re on the brink of the big event at Dunston Hall – our ruby wedding anniversary celebration tomorrow. Yesterday and today have been warm, and it should be warm tomorrow, but thunderstorms are forecast. Well, at least it will give us an atmosphere. I think we’re almost ready.

Yesterday Dot and I went into the city and had lunch at Caffe Italia before buying some chocolates as prizes for tomorrow’s quiz. Then I went home, via the Cathedral, and Dot stayed in the city for a while. I then returned the courtesy car and retrieved ours – without dents – from the Rackheath garage where it had been languishing for a couple of weeks. Got it home without incident, just in time to let Dot in.

Today Dot went to Park Farm, and I paid in some cheques and visited the Cathedral again. I have now finished my prostate account – or at least brought it up to date. Nearly 12,000 words, and 30 pages of A4. Dot has started to read it.

28 August 2008

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End of the road – at Happisburgh, where the cliffs are gradually eating into the land. I called in there a couple of days ago, after dropping some stuff off at Lucy’s and buying sausage and chips from the shop at Bacton and eating it in the car on Walcott seafront. I’d meant to eat it outside, but the place was crawling with little black flies. I drove on to Happisburgh to have a look at the erosion, and found that the village seemed to have given up – at least the part of it close to the cliffs. The houses were unpainted and falling apart, disused caravans and sheds lined the two roads, and there was an air of abandonment. Not surprising, I guess, but a little disappointing. What it needed was one of those eccentric Englishmen who would be painting the Titanic as it started to sink. Not enough defiance of the inevitable nowadays.

Today, after having our hair cut – and accepting an estimate for dramatic refurbishments to our shower room – we went to the hospital again, and saw Mr Sethia, my consultant. Discovered that the catheters I had been using were not what I thought they were. I was under the impression that they were solid things like pipe-cleaners. He revealed that they had a hole down the middle which was used to reveal whether or not you had reached the bladder (I leave the rest to your imagination: possibly not enough). I also found I should be using them every day for at least a couple of months, and not as suggested by the nurse. Just in time! I fixed an appointment to see him in the middle of October to see how things are going. As a precaution, I have also arranged an appointment with my own doctor for September 11 – principally to ask for antibiotics to take on holiday in case… well, it’s the best place for them.

Other than that it’s been a quiet week. The weather forecast promised sunny days, but in fact it’s been pretty cloudy, though warm. David and family arrived back from France on Tuesday, having had a much better time than last year, and Oliver and Amy are busy choosing what they’ll wear for our party on Sunday. Our car is still in the garage, but we’ve been promised it tomorrow afternoon. Dot tells me she is on schedule with her preparations for the weekend, and I’ve written my speech, though I will probably make some changes. I usually do. Thunderstorms are forecast. No, really! I have made strides with writing an account of my medical experiences of the last three months and am approaching the end of July! And I’ve entered a very short story in the Fish competition. It’s called The Threat.

Oh, I should have mentioned that today is my parents’ wedding anniversary. I think they were married in 1937, which would have made it their 71st. They would have been 96 and 95. Strange to think that my father died over half a century ago.

23 August 2008

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Flashback to Brancaster Beach, with a Dot on it, at the end of last month. This week has been fairly quiet, and I’ve spent most of it at home. However, we have been without our main car, which has been in for repair, and have a courtesy car – a Kia – instead. It has mostly been standing out in the road, but we have been short distances in it – for instance we loaded it up with musical instruments and the odd amplifier on Wednesday to visit Phil Kerrison and have a rehearsal (later discovered his daughter Emily got 10 GCSEs this week – 5As and 5Bs – which strikes me as a bit excessive). Very enjoyable afternoon – we finished off doing Irish jigs, with Dot on electric violin.

Until Tuesday evening I had been feeling rather down about my condition, but after some prayers that evening with our Tuesday Group I unaccountably (!) felt much brighter on Wednesday, and this has persisted. I was supposed to have a phone conversation with the consultant on Friday, but that didn’t happen. Instead I’m seeing him next Thursday. Self-catheterisation is going OK, but my abdomen still feels decidedly odd. Probably nothing to worry about, though. I’ve decided to be very positive!

On Thursday Dot went to Park Farm and met Anne there for lunch; meanwhile I had a lunchtime visit from Sue Moore, who brought photographs of her cuddling a koala. I’m not sure about that sort of thing. She and Richard have just been to Australia (amazingly), and seemed to have an extremely cuddly time.
Today Denise and Peter called in unexpectedly with a ruby present of two rather nice looking bottles of wine, and showed us pictures of Clive’s wedding. Peter seems to be suffering quite a bit with his leg (and foot), but it was nice talking to them.

Dot went to a YFC barbecue last night, and I thought I was going to do quite a bit of work, but I didn’t. However some time during the week I did manage to put together three CDs of music – 54 songs in all – for the party. We’re planning a music quiz – fit the singer to the song! We’re now preparing to go and have a meal with June Wallace, who rang up out of the blue this morning and invited us. She lives at Beccles, so I may have to put some more petrol in the courtesy car! And I really must get down to writing my speech…