28 September 2007

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Amy showing off her party dress. Picture by her father.

A relatively quiet week. On Monday I was bought lunch by Jo at The Forum as part of her bid to persuade me to get involved with a Raising Aspirations project for Year 8 boys in North and West Norfolk. I agreed as long as I wasn’t involved in organising it, so I may be trying to tell them something about journalism at the UEA in November. Well, it was quite a nice pizza.

Later I drew my chess game against Lowestoft. Should have won, but slipped up near the end.

On Tuesday we made an attempt to do Dot’s tax return, which proved more difficult than expected. However, we got as far as registering online, but then had to wait for her to be sent a password, which arrived today. So it’s still not done. In the evening we had our smallest ever Tuesday Group meal – three.

During the week we have been watching all the TV episodes so far of Heroes, which turns out to be surprisingly good. Now up to date.

Yesterday I spent most of the day on InPrint. I met Annette and Rupert at Bally at about 10.30, during which I got a rough idea of what was going on. Then I bought some paper and labels in the city and came home to about three hours’ computer work. I typed out some poems to box size, then did some logos for the boxes, then worked out how to print out labels. I invented some new “warnings” for the boxes. Earlier in the week I had designed a flyer for the PVM and sent some publicity blurb to Annette to be passed on to Borders bookshop in Chapelfield Mall, where we’re exhibiting the PVM next week.
Back at Ballys I guillotined the poems to fit – and returned today with the Warning labels. It may be coming together.

Oh, and this week I’ve written six or seven poems.

Dot spent yesterday taking her aunt to Buck Brigg, where she had a truly wonderful roast lunch. Envious? Moi? And as I write we’re waiting for the Stedmans, who are coming for tea and scones. And rock cakes.

24 September 2007

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This a picture taken by my son David of his son Oliver, who is clearly showing promise of solving Spurs’ striker problem. Nice balance, ball control, concentration – it’s all there. Meanwhile, England did avoid losing to Samoa, but Norwich City look candidates for relegation. They lost 2-0 to Wolves on Saturday and had two men sent off. Spurs scraped a win against Bolton (away) and could have done with Oliver up front.

Artists M & A came for a meal on Saturday night, and we spent some time discussing South Africa, where some of A’s family live. I also showed her how to use the InPrint calendar and e-mail facility. The InPrint site is on the brink of fulfilling its potential, with lots of news coming up about the poetry vending machines being placed in a couple of new spots, including the biggest bookshop in Norwich. (www.inprintartsandpoetry.co.uk)

Amy2, daughter of Vicky2, was dedicated at church on Sunday, with family visitors from far and wide. Lovely occasion: Vicky asked me to take family pictures, so I hope they come out all right. It was a beautiful day, and after the meal we went for a walk through the Rosary and to the nearby exotic garden, which we found because V2’s family told us it was there. It comes to something when you live about half a mile from an attraction and have to be told it’s there by people who live in Yorkshire (and occasionally South Africa). £4 entry, but probably worth it. Some unusual plants, original layout on the side of a hill and a splendid tree house. Always something interesting round the corner, including V2’s family, who must have thought we were stalking them.

In the evening Ambient Wonder on art, which featured (as well as some thought-provoking visual stuff) Bridget’s magnificent buns and juice.

22 September 2007

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This is a special spot for us – about a third of the way down Gley Ey in Scotland. A couple of larch trees guard the ruins of an old settlement in a valley that was once quite well populated. On our first visit to the Glen this is as far as we got; this year we went all the way.

Andrew went into his new home, The Langleys, on Monday, and so far all seems well. Reports from the manager and from his social worker are good. On the same day we had our central heating serviced and discovered it needed a powerflush, which is what I thought you got anyway when you reached about my age. As Dot and I are both over 60, we qualify for a £300 discount. So clearly if a General Election is called I will vote for Mr Brown. Probably would do anyway.

Lost my first chess game of the season – also on Monday – so I am at 50 per cent so far. Made a mistake in the opening and never really quite recovered, though it was close at one point. On Tuesday we had three new people at the weekly meal – 11 people altogether. And on Wednesday I went to Hull.

Furthest I’ve driven in a day, I think: well over 400 miles. Got there almost exactly on time after stopping for ten minutes for a sandwich. Start 8am, arrive noon. Saw all four trainees, who did better than I expected, and left at 5pm. Felt very tired but at first intended to head home down the shortest route, the A15 – as an experiment. But police had closed off the A15 for some reason, and I went back to the original route. Suddenly felt very tired and tried to get a room at the Doncaster services on the M18, but they were full. Had a burger instead – not very inspiring, but after a short walk I felt more like driving, and I headed south, with the intention of probably stopping for the night nearer home. But the driving was quite easy and I kept going until Wisbech, where I stopped for a toasted teacake and mug of tea. Waitress called me Darling, which was quite invigorating, and I made it the rest of the way by just after 10pm.

Since then I’ve had a filling replaced, pretty much painlessly, and written my page for the EDP. Took some clothes and other stuff to the charity shop (Break) with Dot on Friday. Last night I watched France hammer Ireland at rugby and today I’m about to watch England try and avoid losing to Samoa.

16 September 2007

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A view from the steep road into Pennan, where it looks as if the houses are actually in the sea. They’re not far off, of course.

Dramatic scenery, and drama at North Walsham too today. After calling at the cemetery we visited Dot’s aunt. Fortunately we got the cup of tea in fairly quickly, because we were suddenly all asked to evacuate the house – together with everyone else in the street. Apparently a guy in the parallel street (ie just behind Queensway) had turned all his gas on and was threatening to set light to it. We had to go to the nearby football ground and pavilion, which was opened up for us. There were probably a couple of hundred people there. Police vehicles descended on us from all over the county – or so it seemed – and for a couple of hours we had to amuse ourselves. Happily the weather was warm and sunny, and I had had the foresight to take a photo album with me. (I felt no-one had their full attention on it, though.)

I tried to persuade them to let me drive out, but the road was blocked by fire engines at the end, so we had to wait. The police were actually extremely friendly and not at all officious. I had visions of us being kept there for hours and was thinking about getting a train or taxi home, but after about 90 minutes one of the policemen told me they had taken the guy into custody, and it was just a question of making the property safe. This took a further half hour or so.

On the plus side, people got to meet their neighbours, and Dot got into conversation with someone whose brother – Billy Turner – was very friendly with her father.

Earlier at the cemetery we bumped into Sandra, Dot’s childhood friend, who we hadn’t seen for a while. Even earlier I preached at St Augustine’s to a small but select congregation. First time back there for five weeks.

15 September 2007 (b)

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Terrible trio at the Braemar Gathering. Front row, of course. Left to right, Dot, Ella and her husband David, complete with kilt.

Holiday was followed of course by a huge rush to sort out post and e-mails and write my page for the EDP (www.back2sq1.co.uk). Also squeezed in visit to dentist before travelling to Caddington late on Friday evening for a family party – Oliver was 5 on the 11th. The other grandparents and uncle, aunt and cousin arrived midway through the following morning, while I was taking Oliver out on his main present from his parents -a rather impressive scooter. He got the hang of it very quickly.

Later in the weekend he watched a mountain bike downhill sports event on TV and got very taken by it. He had to go out and demonstrate technique on his bike: he’s very confident.

His other grandparents bought him a train set, which necessitated a trip to the DIY shop to obtain chipboard to mount it on. I left this to the experts – Dave and David. Lovely party – Oliver and Amy were on good form. We returned late on Sunday, having got diverted on to our old route because of a roundabout being shut on the A505.

On Monday Dot and I went to John Rayner’s memorial service. Lovely man, and a packed Surrey Chapel. He was 74. Stayed afterwards and spoke to his wife and daughter, both of whom I know quite well. In the evening played first game of chess of the new season at a new venue – -the Gas Social Club! Won knockout tournament game against Colin Payne.

On Tuesday Phil and I went to Coventry to take Andrew to look at a possible new home for him – The Langleys in Stoke Green. He reacted very well, and I liked the people in charge. Now it seems he will be moving in on Monday, which is pretty fast-moving after months of doing nothing much. Got back in time for our regular Tuesday meal – six of us.

Dramatic new haircut on Wednesday. Number four razor. Quite amazingly short on top, but I think I like it. Most people have made favourable comments, but they may be afraid I’ll hit them, as I look a bit hard. Also on Wednesday a church meeting at Horsford which went very well – oh, and England beat Russia 3-0.

Went to Bally on Thursday to meet Annette and Rupert to discuss InPrint matters (www.inprintartsandpoetry.co.uk) following the relaunch of the poetry vending machine. It seems that something concrete may be about to happen. In the evening we went to the Archers to give them some information on Normandy, whither they are hasting in a fortnight. In return they gave us a meal, which is more than fair, especially as they had to look at our pictures.

On Friday I wrote some of my sermon for Sunday and generally caught up on my in-tray and other things. Walked into city to pay in a cheque and almost went to the cinema, but instead stayed in and watched England lose 36-0 to South Africa at rugby. Could easily have been 50-0.

And now today, here I am finishing my sermon, catching up on my blogging and scanning in some photographs. I shall shortly install some new software. Meanwhile Dot is visiting her gang down at Metfield and is having such a good time that she is staying longer than she meant to. I am about to check the football results.

15 September 2007 (a)

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Ok, I’m not going to fake it this time. It really is mid-September. It’s over a month since I last posted anything – mainly because I was in Scotland for three weeks and computerless. This picture was taken on the way up there at Aberfoyle, which my parents visited on their honeymoon, and where they bought a painting. I was trying to photograph the bridge from the same viewpoint as the painting, but this proved impossible because of foliage growth in the intervening 70 years! However, the bridge and mountain behind are easily recognisable from the picture by F Livesey. Very nice painting, but can’t trace the artist on the Internet.

How to distil more than a month of life into a single blog entry? Well, let’s start with Scotland. A lovely, relaxing three weeks, and we felt we’d really achieved things despite not climbing a single Munro! I did manage to climb Morven at last – something I’d been meaning to do for about 15 years. I came across a route up which looked much more attractive than the others – starting by the lone tree on the Ballater-Corgarff road and walking via Morven Lodge. A beautiful walk, but quite tiring. In fact I almost ground to a halt on the approach slopes, which shows my age. I lay down and got my breath back, then took it very slowly. Reached the summit cairn at roughly the same time as masses of clouds, followed swiftly by quite heavy rain. Got soaked on the way down: 10 miles in all, but very worthwhile.

Dot was with me on our other big walk – to the end of Glen Ey, a stunning glen and a beautiful day. This turned out to be nearly 12 miles, and we were both just about finished by the time we got back to Inverey. But again, very worthwhile – with lovely scenery leading up to a pretty abandoned hunting lodge in a copse of conifers.

Other than this, a brief diary:

14 Aug 414 miles Norwich-Abington. Weather dull, sometimes wet.
15 Aug 200 miles Abington-Ballater, taking in Aberfoyle, Callendar and the “tourist route” via Dunkeld. Coldish in Ballater, but went for an evening walk.
16 Aug 62 miles (3.8 walking) Quite cold, blustery showers. Went for walk at head of Loch Muick.
17 Aug (4.8 miles walking) Warmer and dry. Walked up Craigendarroch and ate in the Hayloft.
18 Aug 47 miles (about 1) Rain. Drove to Braemar, but this was the only day we couldn’t do any walking because of the weather.
19 Aug (over 8 miles walking) Dry, cool. Mainly cloudy. Church in morning, then did Seven Bridges Walk, plus an extension to Knock Castle, which we’d never found before. Dee very full (apparently 5ft up) after yesterday’s rain.
20 Aug 193 miles (1.7) Drove to Black Isle, which seemd a bit disappointing till we hit Cromarty. Beautiful, bleak, exposed place. Watched the smallest ferry in the UK (2 cars) cross to Nigg and saw obelisk commemorating emigrants.
21 Aug 33.3 miles (about 5) Warmer and dry, but cloudy. Followed a historical walk above Glen Gairn, followed by tea at Log Cabin and evening meal at The Green Inn. Excellent, of course. Duck.
22 Aug 43.4 (over 12) Warm, sunny and dry. Glen Ey.
23 Aug 42.3 (4.13) Sunny and warm. Quiet day after yesterday’s efforts. Walked golf course path while Dot shopped.
24 Aug 54.6 (3.5) Warm and dry but with a cool wind at 3000ft, which is where we found ourselves after a trip on the Cairnwell chairlift. Fife Arms, Hayloft food.
25 Aug 38.8 (1.5) Showery, becoming cooler. Lonach Gathering; party of 30.
26 Aug 34.6 (3) Much cooler and clouody. Church, then Fife Arms for lunch. Short history walk by Dee and saw salmon leaping for the first time!
27 Aug 62.3 (2) Cool and wet, then brighter with showers. Crannach for tea: cafe gradually metamorphosing into bakery (shop in Aberdeen). Drover to Braemar then Linn of Quoich, but amazingly assaulted by midges – first time ever in this area. Retreated, wrote postcards and had excellent lamb shank in Glen Lui hotel.
28 Aug 45.1 (10.93) Morven. Dot did first mile then returned to more sensible pursuits.
29 Aug 163.3 (just over 1) Mild with high cloud to start with, so drove to Pennan, where weather turned for worse and rain started. Unknown to us, Pennan had been hit by mudslides a couple of weeks earlier and many of the people were evacuated. Saw mud being cleared away. Inn closed: landlord had moved to Canada. High tide spraying water on to quay. Left in search of food and eventually ended up at Boyndie, a visitor centre beyond Banff staffed partly by disabled people. Had tea and excellent rock cakes, but it was still raining. Home via Keith and Dufftown and found roadside inn that Dot and I remembered independently from years back. I had thought it was something I’d seen in a dream. Didn’t stop. I don’t know why. Oh yes I do: we were headed for the Green Inn again.
30 Aug 74.6 (5) Mostly dry and fairly mild, but a bit windy. Fife Arms for lunch. Longer walk at head of Loch Muick.
31 Aug 26.9 (about 4) Mainly dry, fairly mild. Another quiet day. Walked round golf course together and had an early evening meal at Victoria Tea Rooms, Dinnet. Quite good.
1 Sep 0.6 (1.89) Warm at first, then showers, then brighter and finally cold. To Braemar Gathering with Ella (group of 8 including us). Complicated arrangements resulted in an initial stop at friends for a snack and a dram, then walking to the arena. Stayed for a while, then had lunch in another friend’s garden: we took wine and cheese, others had enough for small army. Back to arena for heavy events, massed bands and arrival and departure of Queen (she was there about 90 minutes). Most people left after that, but we stayed to watch the heavies (caber-tossing, etc), as it turned colder and colder. Back to the first friends’ to pick up car, then Ella drove us home. A fascinating experience: good fun.
2 Sep 46.9 (4) Windy, coolish but dry. Church, then to Tomintoul road, where I did the 3-mile walk down to Corgarff that I had been promising myself for some years. Lovely walk, with three beautiful old bridges, surpassing expectations. Dot did a little at each end.
3 Sep 42.1 (over 8) Started wet, but eventually windy and mainly dry. Up late – Dot finished Harry Potter book. Lunch at Fife Arms, then walked to Loch Callater. Lovely, but a chill wind. Back home to pack, then a final meal – excellent – at Glen Lui.

Drove home on 4 and 5 September, staying the night at Killington Lake, near Kendal (Premier Inn). Changed room because TV didn’t work and we wanted to watch the second episode of Silent Witness! Receptionist – one of several East European girls we had encountered – was really helpful. Mileage on first day was 258, and on second 311.8, including a brief detour to visit Andrew. He was very down, but quite a bit improved on my last visit. Dot, who hadn’t seen him for months, thought he was pretty bad. Arrived home about tea time: our sitter had already left.

11 August 2007

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Yes, it’s France again. This is the branch line from Cabourg to Deauville, taking to the road at Dives.

Meanwhile another busy week. On Monday, Andrew’s birthday, I went to visit him and possibly take him out, but he was the worst I’ve ever seen him. Very sad. I had a long talk with him, but nothing seemed to make any impression. He was tired and frightened.

I drove on towards Hull, stopping at Corley services for a bite to eat and then at Nottingham to see if I could catch the Evetts in. But no, so I carried on to a Travelodge on the M18 (Doncaster North), where I had booked a room. Quite nice, but the kettle didn’t work. Went for a walk in the evening and then had fish and chips, which was adequate: tasty but chunky. Spent the rest of the evening catching up on reading – I had taken the precaution of loading the car up with newspapers and magazines I hadn’t had time to tackle.

After breakfast the next day I drove into Hull, arriving 40 minutes early for my 11am meeting. Had to wait in Reception, but eventually met with three trainees and did the induction. Went quite well. Left about 1.30pm: the journey home was tedious in the extreme – road works and dithering drivers all the way. Took four hours.

On Wednesday we had the carpet cleaned – had to get up early and move the furniture out because Dot had injured her back. This now seems to have cleared up. In the evening attended an Ambient Wonder review which I can’t say I enjoyed, possibly because I was very tired. Good pizza, though.

On Thursday, after lunch at Park Farm, I drove to Yarmouth to watch the penultimate day of the British chess championship. Was there for about four hours, most of which I spent watching the four top boards, which were on demonstration. But also spoke to a few friends and watched some other games. Repeated this yesterday for the last day but left before the end. Watched a nice game by Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, a Georgian “Scot”, in which she demolished Simon Fowler to take the ladies’ title. A Danish “Scot”, Jacob Aagard, took the British title on 8.5 out of 11, after he beat Glenn Flear, who left his king too exposed. The only person who could have matched him, Stephen Gordon, was held to a draw by Tony Kosten. Fascinating to see so many peple whose names are so familiar and whose games I have played through in the past. Good also to see so many young girls doing well. The website is at http://www.bcfservices.org.uk/livechess/british/2007/

Today – the spell of good weather continuing – Dot and I went to Reepham to get our hair cut and then on to North Walsham. Left flowers at the cemetery and then visited Jessie and Frank.

4 August 2007

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Yes, it really is 4 August, and this is a gratuitous picture of Honfleur. Note the absence of licorice ice cream.

Following our return from Ditchingham we had a day at home before travelling down to Caddington to look after the grandchildren for three days: the journey down on Monday evening was a record – about 1 hr 50 min, largely because of the absence of any problems, unlike the journey back.

David was away working up north, and Vicky was leaving home at 6am and returning at 5pm; so we had charge of Oliver and Amy from when they woke (earliest 7.15am, latest 8.30am) until Vicky’s return. The first two days were warm and dry. The children didn’t really want to leave the house until the afternoon in each case. The first day we went to Stockwood Park; the second Ashridge Forest, where Oliver did some mature riding on his bike up a road used by cars all the time, and we all went further into the forest than we meant to, so that O and A got a little muddy. Visitor’s centre there was surprisingly good, but the toilets were surprisingly bad – pretty disgusting, in fact. Still, fun was to be had with ponds and logs. On the Thursday it rained, and the fair didn’t open till 6pm (!), so we paid a late visit to Woodside Farm. Because of the small number of people there, the children were able to take advantage, and Oliver spent some time in the bouncy castle on his own. So much fun that we were home a good half-hour later than Mummy, who was cooking us our third lovely meal in a row. Children were lovely, and made it easy for us.

We left for home about 9.15, anticipating an easy ride, but the Newmarket bypass was closed, and we got in a long queue of traffic diverted through the town (Dot driving). As the Highways Agency couldn’t organise their way out of a paper bag, there was no provision made to allow all the extra traffic to drive throught the town easily, but we eventually crawled through and made it back home by about 11.45pm.

Yesterday Dot and I both had a blood test and caught up on paperwork. Very warm, as it is today. Decided to have a meal at Cafe Rouge, which was superb as always. Discovered that Andrew was ill, possibly the result of anxiety at being under the impression he was about to be moved. Spoke to Julia, his social worker, a couple of times. First she hoped to get him into a place in Coventry, but this turned out to be not possible. Then there’s one at Leamington, and she wanted me to take Andrew to see it. However I rang the hospital, who said Andrew was too ill to come home this weekend as planned. I rang again today to check, but he’s still bad. I hope to go on Monday – his birthday – and maybe take him out for a meal. Dot is at present in town having a meal with the gang of four from Alburgh.

as at 29 July 2007

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Following a visit to Dr Thompson late Friday afternoon to renew my prescriptions (and ask about my gastric upset), we went to Ditchingham for the parish weekend away. Weather throughout was good, and the children had a great time, as can be seen from the picture taken at the open air swimming pool. Interesting shade of green, but the water quality was assessed as safe by our resident expert from Naiad Aquatics.

Pretty tired for most of the weekend and didn’t enjoy the “formal” aspects of it very much, especially as they were conducted in a chaotic way which was supposed to be democratic but in fact could be described as the dictatorship of the pushy. Felt very out of it by the end. The informal aspects – meals and general chat – were good as always.

as at 26 July 2007

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We have just completed a week in Normandy, and this might be considered to be the high point: Dot and Dave on one of the Etretat pinnacles reached by a narrow path from the main cliff. Julia and I declined the challenge as we both have a desire to jump off high things. The exposure was if anything worse than it looks here.

Etretat is a stunning little town north of Le Havre, reached across the Pont de Normandie. Its main features of course are the cliff formations – pinnacles and arches. We climbed the cliffs on both sides after having a coffee (tea), followed by lunch in a rather lovely restaurant, Des Deux Augustins, in the main street. I took the opportunity to have moules et frites. Actually, Dot declined the second climb because she was feeling a bit under the weather. Weather was excellent – warm but not hot enough to make the climb uncomfortable.

That was on Tuesday. We had arrived on Friday, after a long journey that featured a visit to hospital (my six-monthly check: blood test not improved) and a nightmare drive down the M11 through rain that was sheeting down. It was the same rain that caused huge floods in the west, especially Gloucesterhire, and I was quite surprised we kept going. In Kent things were much improved: warmer and dry. We stopped at services on the M20 near Maidstone before arriving early at the Tunnel. Caught a train about an hour before scheduled, and the journey through France was quite relaxing. Stopped at the Aire de la Baie de Somme for a while and reached Villers sur mer at around 8.45pm. Dave and Julia were staying in the top apartment, and we were on the ground floor, which had a garden. Very comfortable. Dave delivered croissants (sometimes a demi-baguette) every morning between 8.30 and 9.

On the Saturday we walked into town and bought provisions plus three bottles of cider, and then returned for lunch at our table on the lawn. After lunch went to Beuvron en Auge (l’un des plus belles villes de France) and did a walk of about 3.5 miles up a hill to a church and back. In town had crepes flambes and cider as rain begam to pour down. Dave and I went to look at model trains while the women shopped: Dot bought €45 necklace – anniversary present. Julia cooked evening meal.

Sunday was dry and pretty warm. In the morning we drove into Pont l’Eveque for a traditional market. Also a flea market (Les Puces), where Dot bought a watch for €6. Followed this with coffee (tea) at a pavement cafe and lunch at home on the lawn. In the afternoon we drove to Dives sur mer, where we parked and walked into Cabourg, along the river and then the prom. Took in the Grand Hotel, where there was an excellent exhibition, and Dupont’s cafe, where I had a truly mouth-watering cake which included elements of dark chocolate and cherries. Walked up and down main street, and Julia bought a white anorak. In the evening we walked into town and had a lovely meal at Le Mermoz. Waiter, duck and sunset all outstanding.

On Monday it rained all day, and our intended visit to Etretat was abandoned. Instead we walked into town to buy lunch between drops of rain and in the afternoon Dot and I drove on our own to Caen to see the Memorial (Peace Museum). Not an easy journey, especially along the Peripherique. Bad at first – packed with cars and people; we had to park in a field, and Dot was not feeling well. Still, we persevered – at least, Dot did – and we eventually got tickets for the tour and a couple of films, both of which were quite good, though the one called “Hope” was anything but. Lots there – maybe too much – but to our generation nothing really came as a surprise. I was struck by a big picture of two resistance workers hanging: their faces looked almost angelic, whereas pictures of collaborators had something empty about them. Maybe we were projecting our feelings… Julia cooked in the evening.

Tuesday we did manage Etretat, and on Wednesday it was Honfleur.We took the green bus from just up the road, which went along the coast, then dipped inland. My stomach was feeling gassy, but shortly after arrival we had mint tea at a pavement cafe which seemed to settle it completely: the tea had actual mint in it and was delicious. Walked around the town a bit and then had lunch – a €23 four-courser. Mine was delicious – foie gras, steak, cheese, sorbet – but unfortunately Julia’s was very disappointing, and everyone who had fish (ie everyone but me) agreed that the sauce was excessive. Visited one or two exhibitions afterwards and walked up into the old town (actually it’s all old) away from the harbour,calling at a few exhibitions and shops. Lovely place. Julia on unsuccessful quest for licorice ice cream, which was supposed to be sold by the harbour. Eventually got the bus back at about 6 and changed at Deauville.

Today (Thursday) we left about 10 for an easy journey back up to Calais, stopping again at the Somme. Got train at Calais an hour early ands because the M25 was heavily roadworked, took the Blackwall Tunnel, which worked out well. However, on the M11 heavy rain returned to welcome us back. Stopped at services, then took a roundabout route via Saffron Walden. Traffic very heavy towards Elvedon, so detoured again via Brandon. Extremely tired at home. Wrote column, then had diarrhoea and shaking. Hot bath helped a bit: went to bed very early.