16 February 2008

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Yes, that’s me reading poetry at the Appetite coffee bar in Colchester last night, in aid of Lepra. I did a double act alternating with Rupert (also pictured), and Dot did one of the poems with me. It was organised by Jason McLean and was a bit of a shot in the dark as far as I was concerned. I’m still not sure why he picked on us, because I don’t think it was anything to do with InPrint.

Anyway, it was brilliant. We went by train, it was freezing cold, and there was a walk/climb of over a mile to the cafe, which is in a dark back street. But Jason was very welcoming and bought us some wine. We were on first – nearly half an hour late after Jason postponed the start in the hope of getting more people in. Still there were quite a few, and we seemed to go over well. We both enjoyed doing it very much and want to read together as a duo again. We contrast quite well, I think. Gave me quite a lift.

On the train there we talked about Rupert’s YouTube video, which I think is pretty good. I like the idea of doing something similar with Lucy, but she may have to wait until her Paston project is over. We had discussed it in the past but never got round to it. Dot also gave me some ideas for my embryonic novel; so a good day all round, though I had trouble with my car insurance earlier. One company seem to think I cancelled it last year; another wants evidence of my no claims bonus, which wasn’t there because the first company thought my policy had been cancelled. I have all the paperwork, but it’s hard to convince anyone over the phone.

My cousin Ann has replied to my letter, and I’ve added a few details to my family tree as a result of that and a bit of digging, during which I discovered that my aunt Mary’s first name was not Mary but Abi. Puts her in a completely different light!

Not so good today. The weather is beautifully sunny, but at present Norwich City are losing 3-0 to Leicester. Tonight we go to the Robinsons for a meal, which should be fun.

15 February 2008

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This is one of a number of pictures I’ve taken recently around the River Yare as it winds between Cringleford and Earlham. This one was taken near the university, close to the bridge which gives access up to Colney Lane. The best of the other pictures can be viewed on Flickr.

The springlike weather slipped away on Wednesday afternoon, as I walked up over Mousehold to try to find somewhere that sold a lagging set for a 50-gallon round cold-water storage tank. You’d think they’d be everywhere, wouldn’t you? Maybe not. Eventually tracked one down over at Hellesdon (on Thursday) and am in the process of installing it. The lid goes on OK, but of course the pipe doesn’t quite reach into the hole prepared for it. The lagging is waiting to be wrapped round, but although the weather has been much colder, I don’t think there’s much danger of the tank freezing. It never has, and as far as I know it’s never been lagged properly.

Most of yesterday (Valentine’s Day) the weather was quite unpleasant – very cold, with drizzle in the air – but it had improved slightly by the evening, when Dot and I walked into the city for a Valentine’s Day meal at St Benedict’s Restaurant. This was truly wonderful. We arrived early, but they opened up for us and got going on our drinks and meal immediately. We started with a half-bottle of champagne and followed it with some excellent Merlot. The food was really superb, reminiscent of the Green Inn in Ballater and about the same size portions, so we had no trouble eating three courses. I had lamb, and Dot had sea bass, and they were both exceptional. The dessert was amazing. This restaurant immediately goes to the top of our list for taking the Murrays when they visit Norfolk in August. Service and staff were brilliant too.

Totally took my mind off the fact that I had damaged (possibly broken) my little toe just before we left the house. Quite painful, but it eased off – must have been the champagne. Red and swollen this morning.

Earlier yesterday J had come to Norwich, and Dot took her up to see the doctor about her husband. It seems that he will move into residential accommodation at North Walsham. J bought us lunch at Caffe Italia. Liz came round later (while I was in the loft) to borrow the Rohr CDs.

Today it’s dull but not so moist – at the moment anyway. This evening I have a poetry reading at Colchester with Rupert on behalf of Lepra. Dot is coming too. Yesterday I sent off some poems for this year’s Norwich Writers’ Circle competition and wrote to my cousin Ann in Liverpool, hoping to interest her in my family tree.

12 February 2008

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Here are two members of the Lenton clan – one by birth and one by marriage. Paul is the youngest of the eight children of Charles and Rosa Lenton. In his mid-80s, he is one of only two surviving. Josephine is also in her mid-80s and is Frank’s second wife. She invited us to a lunch at Oaklands Hotel in Thorpe yesterday. Another beautiful day, and a good meal – carvery style. As well as Paul, Josephine, Dot and I, my brother Phil and his wife Joy were there, together with their son Joe.

I had a long chat with Paul about his parents and particularly about his brother Leonard, for whom he worked for a while as a roofer, before Leonard went out to Africa – originally as a roofer for a Christian organisation but later doing many different jobs. I knew Paul had been out to see him several times, but didn’t know he was best man at Leonard’s second wedding. Although Leonard was oldest and Paul youngest, Paul felt he knew Leonard better than all his other siblings.

Very good time – we were there from 12 to 3. We Lentons rarely get together, but it’s always good when we do. I walked most of the way home afterwards – until Dot came and picked me up because I had the front door key! In the evening I went up to the chess club and had a few quick games, in which I did not do well. I’ve managed to do a fair bit of walking in the last few days – because of the good weather – and my weight is down to just over 12 stone.

On Saturday we went to a commissioning service for Norwich Youth for Christ, for which Dot is a trustee. Quite enjoyable, though it was a bit like stepping back in time. My father used to be involved with NYFC back in the 1950s, I believe.

Took the service on Sunday. Most of the singers were away, so I thought it was a bit hard going, but two or three people afterwards said they enjoyed the hymns! In the evening Dot and I went to the Ambient Wonder preparation, though we won’t be there for the actual event. Bit of pizza and wine, and a really good discussion. Quite a fun time.

9 February 2008

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Another picture from Thursday’s walk along the banks of the Yare. Yesterday I repeated part of it, taking a bus to the university and walking down to the Broad and along the path to Cringleford, where I got the bus home. All very relaxing – until the bus was involved in a nasty accident at the top of Prince of Wales Road.
I couldn’t see exactly what happened, because I was sitting sideways on behind the driver, but a young woman apparently stepped out into the road and, despite the driver’s attempts to avoid her, he didn’t. In the process he also hit a traffic sign and smashed his windshield.

No-one in the bus seemed to be hurt, but the woman was left lying half under the bus, which had to be raised to free her. She was taken to hospital, and the EDP reported this morning that she had serious head and lower leg injuries. I didn’t hang around, but did take a couple of pictures, from a reasonable distance.

Last night we went to the cinema to see No Country for Old Men, a Coen Brothers film billed as being better than Fargo. It wasn’t, but there were some excellent performances and many moments to savour. And an abrupt but appropriate ending. The structure of it didn’t quite make it for me: nevertheless, worth seeing.

Today has been beautiful: sunny and actually warm. I went for another walk, this time from Eaton down Marston Lane to Ipswich Road – just over two miles altogether. Discovered Marston Marsh nature reserve, which was too wet to walk on but looks lovely, and Danby Wood, which I didn’t know existed.

8 February 2008

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Dot and our friend Joan pictured during a walk down the Yare Valley from Cringleford to the University Broad yesterday. We returned on the other bank, through some woods and up on to Colney Lane, which has been closed to through traffic – making a rather exclusive and semi-private little community. Can’t imagine how that happened.

Joan, who taught with Dot at Muswell Hill around 1970, stayed overnight on Wednesday, after arriving just after lunch, which Dot and I had enjoyed with her aunt Jessie at Caffe Italia. Jessie was in the city to visit her husband, who was taken into hospital on Monday when his illness worsened suddenly. But he is doing remarkably well there.

Had a cup of tea with Jackie Willis on Tuesday in the massive Sainsburys store at Longwater – first time I’ve been in there. She has set up a company, Care Motoring, to teach driving in a more thorough way, hopefully improving road safety. Many of her clients are people who have already passed the test. We met some time ago when I was writing about road safety in the Eastern Daily Press.

Incidentally, the EDP has finally got round to mentioning that my page has ended after 11 years. They’ve put my farewell page on their website, and it contains a reference to my own website, though they may not have noticed. Seems a bit more satisfying: I had been feeling rather in limbo. I’ve been putting the occasional commentary piece on my website and hope to carry on doing so.

Dot has done another church school inspection – at Salhouse – which turned out to be a bit fraught through no fault of the school’s. She was pretty tired when she got home (Shrove Tuesday); fortunately I was cooking for our normal Tuesday invitation meal, and we all managed to stay awake. Well, more or less. Must have been the pancakes, courtesy of friend Bridget.

Last night we had a very lengthy DCC meeting covering a multiplicity of church topics. Never really enjoy these: I’m not very good in meetings and find it hard to balance between not taking part at all and being more forceful than I mean to be. We have agreed to drop our Ditchingham weekend this year, which will disappoint a few people, including us. Everything is changing, it seems.

Lovely weather yesterday for our walk down the Yare: a bit chilly, but dry and a certain amount of sun. It seems much the same today. An article in the EDP today said we need to get used to not having winter – so stand by for several feet of snow over half-term. Still, a case of wine has just arrived from Cooden Cellars, so we will probably survive.

Have been having an exchange of e-mails with Jeanette Eglington, who is Beverley’s half-sister and my cousin once removed. She also lives in South Africa and has given me more information about the family, which I am about to insert in my tree on Genes Reunited. Great to be in touch with her and Bev, and to find out more about the African branch of the Lentons.

4 February 2008

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This picture was taken only about half an hour after yesterday’s, which sort of shows how fast the snow was melting. All gone now, of course. Today is bright and not so cold.

Spent a lot of yesterday watching TV – even sat right through Calendar Girls, which we’d seen before in Florida. Compelling stuff, obviously. Most of the time, though, I was watching rugby and got quite excited when Wales came back to beat England, totally unexpectedly. I watched it a day late, and Dot did well to keep the result from me. I’m trying hard to like England and was doing well until their exciting winger, Strettle, got injured after a brilliant run. I’m very worried that England will now revert to the boring forward-centred game they seem to think is so wonderful. I prefer brilliance to efficiency, which is why I wasn’t too distraught by Scotland’s loss to France, even though I’m very pro-Scotland.

3 February 2008

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Snow hit East Anglia early on Friday evening, just as Dot was about to go to a friend’s house for a meeting of Dangerous Women. They don’t call themselves that: I call them that. As she felt she might like to drink a drop or two of alcohol, I gave her a lift. A short drive, but interesting, with blizzard-lite conditions constantly threatening to get worse. Made it there and back OK, and fortunately she was given a lift home by one of the more spectacular DW, by which time conditions had improved.

By Saturday morning there was a fair bit of snow remaining, as can be seen on the picture, but it melted very rapidly. We stood at the bedroom window watching little avalanches of snow falling off the roofs opposite.

It was very cold still, and the road remained slippery on our little hill, so we drove to the supermarket together before returning for an InPrint meeting at our house. We discussed the future of the group, news of which will appear on the InPrint website soon, then Dot and I took Annette out to Paston for the launch of the Paston Project. This consisted of a Latin Compline in a barely heated church, lit by candles. Quite a strange experience: it felt as if we were secretly carrying out some illegal rite under cover of darkness. On the other hand, there was mulled wine and nibbles afterwards.

Making my way back to the car through a fair amount of mud, I managed to slip over, but happily without dire consequence, other than caking my coat in mud. One other unexpected result was that when we returned home (dropping Annette at Lisa’s to pick up her car) I must have got some mud from my key into the lock, because this morning I couldn’t lock it from outside. I had to lock it from inside and go out the back door, which meant in turn that when we got back after church lunch (outrageously delicious chicken) and entered by the back, the alarm went off. As I was anticipating it, I was able to disable it in seconds, so I don’t think we caused any disturbance. Afterwards I freed the lock using WD40.

1 February 2008

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Two roses in front of quite a lot of thorns. Amy and Dot walking the Whitlingham path last weekend. Today the weather has been sunny but bitterly cold, and snow is apparently on the way. Yesterday was extremely wintry, with sleet and high winds, but I managed to get into a break between the showers, and bussed up to get Andrew’s money.

Today I drove down to Annette’s then – after picking up her car from a “garage” in the middle of several fields at the end of a track, and after she then taxed it – she drove us to Colchester to pick up the PVM from The Minories. We were given a hand to transport it to the car via Rupert’s trolley. The Minories is being abandoned because its lease has come to an end, and the spectacular new building isn’t finished yet. The PVM made a measly £27 during its six-week stay, and I didn’t sell any books.

Had a chat with Annette about the future of InPrint. The feeling generally seems to be that we may be heading for a looser group with less ongoing commitment. But we’ll see at the meeting tomorrow. Sadly, I seem to be getting a cold, which is not helpful.

On Tuesday I went by train to Hull to assess the four reporters at the Hull Daily Mail. Weather was quite good both days – especially so on the way back, and the trains were amazingly prompt. Going up I had one change at Grantham, which was about as good as it gets. Coming back earlier than I had anticipated, I had to change three times, at Doncaster, Peterborough and Ely. All trains were pretty full, especially the Stansted Express (Peterborough-Ely). Best run was Doncaster-Peterborough on the very fast National Express to King’s Cross. These are very frequent, quite luxurious and make you realise what you’re missing living on an outcrop like Norfolk.

I was favourably impressed by Hull Trains – clean and modern – and by the station staff. I went to the inquiry desk to ask where I had to change on the way back, and the clerk quickly (very quickly: I had hardly finished talking) produced a slip of paper with all the details very clearly set out. At the Pumpkin buffet on the station the woman in charge was also highly efficient and clear about what was on offer. The Ibis Hotel was good too, though basic. Had fish and chips in the evening which was excellent, as was the continental breakfast. What they offered generally was limited but quite sufficient, and just the job, really.

The trainees did very well, and three of the four just have to complete their shorthand to finish their NVQs. Sadly, this may not be as easy as they think it will be. The date of my next visit has been left open.

29 January 2008

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We enjoyed Whitlingham so much that we returned there on Sunday with Vicky and the children while David watched Spurs lose 3-1 to Liverpool in the FA Cup. Parts of it are very picturesque, the only problem being that it tends to be overrun by welly-wearing dog walkers talking intensely about cultural matters. Oliver went on ahead, and we found this lovely spot by the Broad as the sun was progressing down the sky: a small wooden landing stage about 30 yards off the main path. I shot the picture into the sun (of course) and told Oliver that he would be in shadow, which intrigued him. He didn’t seem to like the idea, but it made a good photo. Well, I like it.

Had a really good weekend altogether – went into the city on the Saturday to swap one of Oliver’s Christmas presents at John Lewis (he’d been given the same thing by two different people: I’m amazed it doesn’t happen more often). I used the opportunity to buy a new guitar tuner before rushing home in advance of the others to turn on the lamb stew. Quite nice weather, though coldish.

Went to church on the Sunday in the morning to do the music and wished I hadn’t. The two of them would have done just as well without me – “just as well” in this case meaning pretty bad. Tendency to rehearse in meticulous detail and then forget it entirely during the actual service.

Actually won a chess game last night: I was offered a draw in a position where my opponent had lots of pressure, but decided to carry on because I couldn’t see anything forcing and assumed he couldn’t either. Eventually won a long endgame, which was satisfying.

Today I head north to Hull – by train for the first time. The weather forecast is not good, but at the moment it’s fine here.

Still nothing in the EDP about my page ending, and no sign of the last one as promised – even though they had a stand-in piece today. I have tried to ring the deputy editor, but he’s not there. Again.

And Rupert has resigned from InPrint, which is a tremendous blow, as he was the driving force. I think he became fed up with being the driving force. So a few of us are having a meeting on Saturday to see where we’re going. More news when we find out.

22 January 2008

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This is Eddie, my cousin’s daughter’s child, who paid us a visit on Saturday, together with his grandparents and mum and dad. To me he looks exactly as his father (also Eddie) did when he was a child. They all came for a meal, and he was extremely well behaved and quite delightful. The five of them were up in Norwich for the weekend, which was bad luck as far as the weather went. For many days now – until today – it has been overbearingly grey, with plenty of rain.

Today we had some blue sky, the wind dropped, and it was pleasant. Dot and I took the opportunity to get out of the house and walked round the Broad at Whitlingham. I took a few pictures, some of which turned out very well. I have invested in a new fast memory card and a gorillapod – a small tripod that can be used to stabilise the camera practically anywhere.

Last night I travelled to Lowestoft to play chess – and lost again after getting a reasonably good position. Either my judgement is totally shot, or I’m getting too old to sustain concentration, or I’m very unlucky. The last is obviously favourite. Gave a lift to a teammate who I discovered is a paramedic: clearly I shall have to give him more lifts. Just in case.

I’ve sorted out my photographs on iPhoto up to the Event stage: I now have 56 events, and my next task is to tag all the pictures. Put three of this afternoon’s pictures on Flickr.

On Sunday we had an alternative guy called Adrian joining us on guitar – in short space of time he managed to upset pretty well everybody, and I have to hope he doesn’t show up next week. Not the right attitude, I know. The evening’s Ambient Wonder event was excellent, with a good attendance despite teeming rain. The theme was “new beginnings”: not strikingly original, but it was refreshingly unusual and left everyone – as far as one could tell – feeling optimistic.

This feeling disappeared for me yesterday when there was still no mention of my page ending in the paper, and no sign of the final page appearing. Felt quite low most of the day, alleviated in the afternoon by a visit to Jessie’s. Today my replacement was described as our “controversial new columnist”, but I haven’t seen him write anything controversial yet. Even Ms P R Bland-Bland still has her page. Bitter? Me?