Tag Archives: coomes

If it’s not one thing, it’s another

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David, Kristine and Dot at Strumpshaw Fen

Not so much a hiatus, more of an abyss. Been working hard for days (I know it doesn’t sound like me) and I’ve still got piles to do. Don’t really know how it happened. Also I haven’t been sleeping well: watching wrens in the garden at about 6am today. So I’ve let the blog/diary slip a bit.

It started with the Paston Open Day a couple of weekends ago. There was the set-up on the Friday, which wasn’t too bad, followed by a full day on the Saturday. That was also quite enjoyable. With Caroline and Rob read a couple of letters and poems from the pulpit, then partook of a tour of Paston Hall grounds with guidance from Lucy and the owners, Mr and Mrs Clark, an accommodating couple who also let us see into their cellars. There’s obviously still lots to be dug up in the garden of historical significance, but I’m not sure how much of their garden they want dug up. Been very good about it so far. It matters very much to certain of our society exactly where the hall used to be, but I can’t get worked up about it.

In the evening of the same day Dot and I went to Prezzos with the Robinsons and their friends, Jean and Alan from London, to celebrate Philip’s birthday. Had a Fiorentina pizza purely to refute Philip’s announcement that I had nothing else but pollo al funghi, and very nice too. we indulged in prosecco beforehand and they all returned for coffee afterwards, so it was quite a full day.

On the Sunday I preached in the morning in the absence of Dot, who had a concert at Hindolveston in the afternoon with the Sillars Orchestra. She needed to get there in good time to rehearse, so went on her own. I joined her about 15 minutes before the concert began at 2.15pm, and sat with my old school colleague Neville Thrower, whose wife Mary is also in the orchestra. Enjoyed the mixed music: the violins sounded particularly good.

All through the week I was catching up with mainly Paston paperwork: for instance, I had to write an hour’s talk which I am giving to the Norwich Blue Badge guides this week. It’s written, but I have to try to work out some pictures, if I can get hold of a projector. Then on Friday I was presented with some stuff to edit from South Norfolk Healthcare, and I also put together a brochure on the Pastons in Norwich and wrote a piece for my website, but I’m not sure about that yet. I’ve also been updating the Paston website, which threw a frustrating wobbly at one stage.

Meanwhile I won a good win at chess on the Monday (against Yosif Antonov) and attended the Paston Heritage Society annual meeting on the Tuesday (with Dot). This meant missing the church agm, but it was a good evening, with excellent sandwiches afterwards and some cider in the bar with Rob and Penny before. Good attendance of 19: I said a few words about Dragon Hall, and Peter Stibbons put on a much lengthier presentation about his research website and the DVD he’s putting together.

On Thursday (with the weather all week sunny and reasonably warm) I had another session with Sharon, who decided to book me in for an x-ray, as the shoulder was not showing much improvement. Afterwards Dot and I had lunch with the Eagles (Sue and Roger, not the group) at Mambo Jambo in Lower Goat Lane: they had a voucher and treated us. Really good time (we get on very well), and good food, but I took the rest of the day to recover from it. Sort of Mexican-American, and very filling.

A lapwing at Strumpshaw

On the Friday we had booked a tour of the Cathedral Library, which turned out to be extremely interesting, being much more extensive than I thought. It was led by librarian Gudrun Warren, who cuts an unlikely figure for a Cathedral librarian, but is very knowledgeable and helpful. I must pop up to the library one day and have a browse. The tour ended with scone and tea in the Hostry that was worth the price on its own (£5). Got talking to a nice couple from Beccles.

So a nice relaxing weekend? Not exactly, though it was very pleasant, except for the disappointment of Norwich City managing to lose to Aston Villa at home and put themselves in real danger of relegation. We heard this when we were walking around Strumpshaw Fen with David and Kristine, who were up for the weekend. This had meant of course that Dot couldn’t go to the match, so we used the ticket (from Jonathan) for Fred, who happened to ask on the offchance and picked it up just after lunch.

Another warm day, and Strumpshaw Fen was beautiful, though I was pretty tired by the end. Dot cooked in the evening, but on Sunday we had lunch at Prezzos after going to church and listening afterwards to a talk on Lady Julian by Denise Treissman, who was very stimulating and has a nice manner. After lunch we walked up to Julian’s shrine, which was surprisingly empty (it was Bank Holiday weekend, and Julian Week starts today). Popped into the garden afterwards. Very peaceful.

On Saturday morning, pre-Coomes, I had a call from Andrew’s named nurse Vicky at Warwick to see if we were coming over because they needed more clothes for him. Happily, they were willing to fetch them from The Langleys themselves. Feel I ought to go over, but not sure I have the energy. He has an additional medical problem, but we’re not sure if he might be trying it on. The nurse says that a prospective place for him had been located: Minster Lodge in Earlsdon. No doubt a visit will be arranged there for Andrew soon. He will have to agree it, and then there will be all the problem of moving his stuff. Phil is feeling better, and is keen to help, so that’s all good.

Catching the start of a blizzard

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Narnia-like view at the top of the road. That witch again…

Woke up this morning to bright sunshine and a temperature of -11C. Between us we had three meetings today, all of which have been cancelled, largely because of the travel problems. It hasn’t snowed in Norwich today, but more is apparently on the way. We have had a fair wedge of it, but things were quiet as we set off for London on Saturday morning, and the roads were good.

Arrived at the Coomes’ residence in Leyton about 12.30 as scheduled and spent much of the hours before evening eating and drinking. Then we went out for a meal – our third visit to Baharat at Woodford, where we had a good Indian meal. On Sunday we went to Tate Britain for a noon start to see the Pre-Raphaelites. It was an excellent exhibition, though a bit crowded, possibly because it was the last day – though you had to book in advance. On the way out we saw Howard waiting to go in.

Afterwards we had a snack at Pimlico Village, an unpretentious cafe, before making our way home by Tube. It was very cold out. We had a meal in and stayed the night, so that Dot could do Philosophy at a nearby school the next day.

David and Kristine left by 7am, but we woke much later to find a smattering of snow on the ground. Because of a very bad forecast, I was uncertain what to do, but eventually I left shortly after 1pm and took the M11 – a good decision, because although it was snowing all the way up, it wasn’t lying on the ground, and I made good progress. After Newmarket the snow stopped and the roads were dry. I arrived in Norwich not long after 3pm and went to Morrisons for a bit of shopping and some petrol.

Meanwhile Barbara had arrived to pick up Dot, and their session at the school went very well. They too decided on the M11 and had an even better experience than me, stopping at the Services for something to eat while I had steak at home. I was intending to meet them at Scole, but by this time it had been snowing hard in Norwich for some while. Nevertheless I set out mid-evening for Scole, but the roads were treacherous, and it was snowing so hard it was difficult to see the edges of the road. So after making it on to the southern bypass and the A140 roundabout, I decided to turn back. Right decision, I think.

Dot and Barbara saw no snow until they reached Scole, but it then started and there was quite a lot on the road, so the last section to Metfield was the hardest. Dot stayed the night, of course. I was going to pick her up the next day, which dawned bright and cold, but it transpired that Barbara was coming in to Norwich for a course at Wensum Lodge; so Dot came with her. Unfortunately they were just late enough to catch the start of a huge blizzard. I waited for them at Morrisons, but because they had been held up Barbara drove straight to Wensum Lodge, so I drove there, transferring Dot’s stuff to our car before driving home.

That was the tricky bit. The roads were covered with snow, and it was coming down very hard indeed. II followed a guy who was all over the place, but we eventually made it to the bottom of our road. As I turned in I saw a van parked in the middle of the road, but I plugged on, and happily he pulled into the side as I approached, and surprisingly we just reached our driveway. After all that, we spent the rest of the day slumped on the sofa catching up on TV programmes we had missed.

Today we did venture out, walking to Morrisons to pick up a few items. We almost went by car, but just as we were scraping it, an ambulance decided to park at the bottom, blocking the main bit of road. Apparently if you’re an emergency vehicle you can do that, even if you don’t need to. Anyway, it worked out all right, despite the slipperiness of the pavements. Since we got back Dot has been cleaning the house and I’ve been catching up on e-mails, tanka-writing and blogging, among other things. Time passes quickly when it’s cold and white outside.

Alongside poetic greats

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Julia wonders if she has bought enough drink for the evening.

The gas man eventually cameth at 1.20pm last Wednesday (claiming he thought it was an afternoon appointment) and quickly sorted out the radiators: one had a sticking valve and the other had accidentally been turned off – the movement to do this was a quarter turn, surprisingly. He also allayed my fears about the system staying on because of a pump valve sticking while we were away. Apparently there are loads of failsafes on the system, and the boiler would eventually turn itself off. So that’s all good.

When he departed Dave and I finished our lunch and went to Stranger’s Hall museum, which proved surprisingly interesting: it has a warren of rooms representing different historical periods. Afterwards we continued through the rain to M&S, where we met Dot and Julia, and I resisted buying a jumper. After a pause for afternoon tea we returned home by way of a couple more shops, and ate in.

Thursday was Dot’s 67th birthday, and the weather was much nicer. We took a bus up to the Sainsbury Centre and after coffee in the cafe there (seated at the next table to Charles Clarke) we looked at the main exhibition and then at portraits by John Hedgecoe, which included one of my friend Lisa D’Onofrio, alongside other poetic greats such as Paul Larkin, Ted Hughes and John Betjeman.

Afterwards we walked along the river part of the way to Cringleford, but had to abandon halfway because of the mud. We diverted on to Bluebell Road, had refreshment in Waitrose cafe and helped Dave and Julia buy 12 bottles of Beaujolais nouveau, which I believe is a kind of wine. We then caught the bus home, changing at St Stephen’s. No sooner home than we were out again,up to the craft fair at the Forum, where it was cold, especially outside. Dot bought a ring, and we returned home in time to prepare for our evening meal at Prezzo’s, for which the Robinsons joined us. It proved to be their last evening as non-grandparents.

Yes, Charlie Theodore Smith, son of Sophie, was born at 2.20am, narrowly missing Dot’s birthday and weighing in at over 9lb, which is a bit excessive. On the same day Dot left at 8.30am for Thetford, where she was doing a day’s SIAS training, and the Evetts headed north at 9.45am for Scarborough. It was all go again. For them.

Dot returned just after 4pm, and by 5pm we were heading down the A11 for Caddington, where we were due to spend the night before lunching with much of the Coomes family near Bishop’s Stortford and proceeeding to David and Kristine’s for the rest of the weekend. This was partially scuppered by illness striking DC and Lydia, and we ended up spending Saturday with David, Oliver and Amy, which was very nice. Took Amy swimming in the morning, then on to Sainsbury’s, where we bought food under Amy’s guidance and then washed the car at Amy’s request. David and Oliver returned from Finchley, where Oliver’s school football team had won 6-2 in pouring rain.

Stayed in during the afternoon and played games after watching F1 qualifying, then David made a second excellent evening meal (toad in the hole; the first was salmon) and after the children had had a bath and gone to bed, we drove home, arriving about 10.30pm. It was still raining hard. Dot had been given her presents the previous day – a scarf, some soap, a necklace and a bracelet.

So that mean we were at church for Heather’s visit: she spoke on the disappointing vote which fell short of approving women bishops and got quite emotional, but it was a good sermon. I prefer to think of the vote as overwhelmingly in favour, but not overwhelmingly enough. But then I’m not a woman. Some of you may have spotted that. Ruth played violin with us, which was a refreshing change.

Suns on website, clouds in sky

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David and Kristine Coomes during their recent visit. Dot is pointing out local landmarks from St James Hill. At least, I assume that’s what she’s doing.

England duly exited Euro 2012 by managing to stop Italy scoring for 120 minutes but then, as usual, losing on penalties. The guilty players on this occasion were b0th called Ashley, which should have been warning enough. Young hit the bar and Coles’ effort was saved comfortably. Last night Spain beat Portugal on penalties after another 0-0, with Portugal playing above themselves and Ronaldo doing the opposite: he didn’t even take a penalty (one assumes he was meant to go fifth, but it didn’t get that far).

We’ve had some warmer temperatures, but the BBC is having trouble coping, today their website has golden suns all over it for Norfolk, but it’s cloudy and looking as though the threatened “showery rain, sometimes heavy” might well materialise. Hopefully it’s a bit sunnier in London, where Dot and Anne are having fun (one assumes).

Spoke on Sunday about being people after God’s own heart and not worrying about superficial issues: seemed to be well received. Monday night’s PCC was genial and quick, with only Dot and I representing St Aug as usual.

The other major meeting this week was yesterday afternoon: the Paston Trustees. The four of us who made it (Rob was working in London) got through the agenda in about a couple of hours, which I suppose is not bad. Lucy is in one of her rare “quite well” phases, but Jo is looking ill and showing no sign of cutting down on her work: offered the chance of giving the Pensthorpe event a miss this year, she was determined to do it. However, she does want to step down from the not-very-onerous job of being chairperson, so I volunteered Rob in his absence and also offered to help with the newsletter. If Rob isn’t keen, I may get the chair as well.

I arrived early so Lucy took me up on to the roof to see her alpine garden. Impressive, as is the view, especially on a still and warm day. A few inches higher and they would be able to see the sea. Apparently.

 

Mixture of reign and rain for diamond jubilee

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Tenuous royal link: rumoured to be Prince Charles' favourite spot, only a mile or three from his house near Ballater, the Falls of Glenmuick.

A memorable few days watching other people celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. David and Kristine duly arrived on Saturday, having been held up by the usual tailback at Elveden, and we had a late lunch followed by a walk along the river bank, then up on to St James Hill and back through Lion Wood and the Rosary, trying to avoid street parties in deference to our guests’ preference. The weather was cool, but dry, as it remained following our meal for the walk up to the Maddermarket to see Alan Ayckbourn’s play Time of my Life, with the cast including both Trevor Burton and David Newham, former colleagues at the EDP. Excellent production, ending to David’s mortification with the singing of the national anthem! He suspected I had arranged it, but sadly this was not the case.

We took our guests to church for a relatively jubilee-free service, then had lunch at jubilee-free Prezzos. Following this we caught glimpses of the River Pageant, sloppily covered by the BBC, who told you everything you didn’t want to know and nothing you did. The weather got worse and worse, and it was not much fun for the surprisingly upbeat spectators, one of whom was another former colleague, Ian Bullock. He related (on Facebook) that he stood for for hours on the Embankment, getting colder and wetter, and then when it was all over found that both the Embankment and Charing Cross tube stations were helpfully closed and everyone was converging on Leicester Square. I don’t even want to think about it.

Through it all the Queen was serene and the Duke of Edinburgh was becoming ill. He ended up in hospital on the Monday with a bladder infection, which is not surprising, and missed the Jubilee Concert, which (inevitably, I suspect) was a collection of mediocre songs by people who used to be quite good. It says something that Tom Jones stood out. Felt sorry for Paul McCartney, who looked ill and bemused and was not in good voice. On the plus side, Madness on the palace roof (“Our House”) was a nice idea, the rain had stopped, and Prince Charles (who came out of the whole thing very well) made a speech that was about as good as it could have been. The Coomes had left on Sunday evening after tea.

The thanksgiving service on Sunday was splendidly and traditionally done and went without a hitch, though the Queen looked lonely without the Duke, who was still in hospital. Excellent new anthem – Call to Wisdom – by Will Todd, but as a writer I felt rather annoyed that the author of the words, Michael Hampel, was barely mentioned – rather as no-one knows (or mentions) who wrote the words to The Messiah. All right, I know they’re both basically biblical texts, but they still need to be compiled in some sort of poetic order. The Messiah libretto was written by Charles Jennens, by the way. I expect you knew that.

The Archbishop gave a good sermon on the theme of dedication and commitment, and the hymns were pretty dull, as expected. If you can have a new anthem, why can’t you have the odd modern hymn? The service was followed by a couple of receptions and a lunch, and then a carriage drive to the Palace, a balcony appearance by the Queen, Prince Charles and Camilla, William and Kate and Harry only. Despite gathering rain clouds, the air force did manage a fly-past with the usual beloved suspects. Those Spitfires are really something.

Dot and I watched all this on and off. I slipped out to Morrisons to buy food for the Tuesday Group, which eventually consisted of only six people. Harriet arrived late (no buses) and Vicky left early but had nine hours’ sleep unbroken when she got home. Dot had prayed that she got more sleep. This morning Barbara is here working with Dot, who has a huge amount to do during the next two or three weeks.

Something sinister at the car wash

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Feeling strangely calm. The sun is out, Land of Hope and Glory is playing upstairs, and we are awaiting the arrival of David and Kristine from London. There is the slight worry that they may get delayed by bunting and street parties, but on the whole, I am optimistic. This is despite my incipient abscess, which necessitated a visit to the dentist yesterday. No pain, but definitely something odd going on up there – not at the dentist’s, but in my mouth. The dentist agreed and has booked me in for root treatment. Oh, joy. Still, it’s ten days away. Can’t think about that yet.

Dot has spring-cleaned the entire house, and we cleaned out Waitrose yesterday. I’m not normally tempted by food, but Waitrose is another matter. It all looks so interesting. Before that we visited the charity shop, the tip and the East Europeans who run the car wash on Aylsham Road. The latter are frighteningly efficient: they also vaccuumed the interior, and all in about 15 minutes. While we were there an expensive car drew up and three sinister men emerged. Made me wonder if the advertised “Polish Protection” was what it seemed.

I should explain that there was a free Elgar CD with the Telegraph last weekend. The funeral of Dot’s friend Jan was in Reading yesterday. Keep thinking about her husband Pete – a really nice bloke. Spent some time trying to find an obituary notice online, but in vain: eventually Dot rang the house and spoke to someone (possibly Pete’s father) to discover that they didn’t want flowers. So will be sending a donation to charity instead.

Bewilderwood comes up trumps again

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Led by Amy, the children cross the rope bridge from the centre of the maze

Well into a wintry April, and this is being unexpectedly written on a new iMac, which I bought from the Apple store in Chapelfield, with a little help from David and Phil Coomes, on Good Friday. The idea is that I can now upgrade to iCloud, but this hasn’t happened yet, despite David taking some considerable time on his last day here pushing files across. We still have to do something about iWeb, which will no longer be supported. However, I have to say the computer itself is a delight. Looks good, feels good, so it must be good. And only £999. Plus Applecare, of course. I am seeing if I can manage without Word and Excel, but if not, I can get it from Amazon, the Apple guy pointed out helpfully.

This came at the end of a week with David, Oliver and Amy, who arrived on the Monday – a week too late for the warm weather. But despite a day of continuous rain on the Wednesday, we still had a good time, including a Maundy Thursday visit to Bewilderwood, which continues to delight. We were accompanied as last year by the Coomes family, with all four children getting on really well together. They stayed at the Premier Inn on Duke Street – not the ideal spot, but apparently a lot cheaper then the Nelson – and came to us for all their meals except breakfast.

Oliver was not too well after the first day or two, but manfully kept going, though David had a touch of whatever it was, and so did Dot and I. As I write, she is still coughing: she hasn’t been able to sleep well, and this lunchtime she had quite a frightening coughing fit provoked by eating something that irritated her throat. She didn’t come to church yesterday, but recovered sufficiently to get to the traditional Red Lion lunch with Phil and his family, including both sons, their wives, and the German contingent. Had quite a long chat with Joe (Wizemann), and the meal was good, though too large as always. Very pleasant time.

As a result of Dot’s illness, and the fact that I wasn’t feeling good myself, I rang Ian Fosten and excused myself from what was apparently an oversubscribed Seagull gig. Watched too much TV instead. But the morning service was enjoyable: I led it as usual, and John Easton preached and did Communion. Quite a good number in the congregation too.

Before the children left on Friday afternoon we had a game of football on Mousehold that either ended in a 4-4 draw, 3-1 to us or 6-5 to them, depending on who you asked. David had a procedure at hospital on the Saturday, but seems to be recovering well. Nothing to with the football.

Walking in uncharted territory

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A less than brilliant picture of Dot and Kristine crossing London Bridge in late afternoon

Surprisingly, I finished Amy’s story shortly after my last post: it all came to me in a flash, just before Tuesday Group. I posted it off the next day, together with the last Little story in booklet form. I’ve also managed to write nearly two poems for Ian Fosten, so things are looking up. However, I’ve not been feeling good for a while: intermittent bursts of feeling quite peculiar, involving head and stomach and chills. Have managed to keep going with paracetamol, and much of the time I’m OK. But it keeps coming back. Not for long, I hope.

Happily Dot’s dizziness has gone. We suspect that the doctor got rid of it when she did the famous manoeuvre early last week. When Dot returned on Friday, she did it again and found that the revealing eye-fluttering had gone and she was OK – just in time for a full weekend, that started with a meal at the Robinsons in their shiny new reconstructed house.

I see I have got all out of order here. Back to Wednesday, when we had our hair done and I went to the dentist for a filling, then headed straight to Jessie’s with Dot. Last of the mince pies – or so I thought. The following day we depended on the weather forecast and were rewarded. Despite a heavy grey sky and some rain we drove to Bodham, where we had a drink at the Red Hart before heading off across the fields to Baconsthorpe Castle on one of the Coast Partnership’s trial walks. The sky quickly cleared and became bright blue, which compensated for the chill in the air.

At the castle we managed to go wrong –  mainly because we’d been there before and didn’t read the directions very carefully. We reached the village by the wrong path and headed into uncharted territory – uncharted by us or the Coast Partnership, that is. We couldn’t make sense of the instructions, but relied on our sense of direction and found an alternative footpath that took us back to the castle, where it became apparent what had happened. Now on the right track, we proceeded wearily back to Bodham – 5-6 miles in all.

We spent the weekend with David and Kristine, arriving just before noon at Leyton after a smooth journey. Kristine produced a delicious Spanish crumble with chorizo sausages that would probably have been enough for the rest of the day; however, we went to Baharat Indian restaurant in the evening and had another large meal. In between, we took the tube to Bank, discovered the Northern Line was shut and spent some time walking in Bank station before we could find the way out on to the street. (Several other people were having the same problem – signs were hopeless.) Eventually we made it out and walked past Monument and across London Bridge before visiting a bookstore near David’s office.

Lovely area of London that we hadn’t visited before. We proceeded on to Tower Bridge and had tea/coffee in a busy place much frequented by David before heading for home by crossing Tower Bridge and catching the tube outside the Tower of London. Lovely day, and a beautiful, busy evening. Didn’t sleep all that well, however.

The next day we drove up to Spellbrook Three Horseshoes and experienced the slowest service anywhere in the world (possibly). Arriving just before 1pm, we met Phil, Jane, Lydia and Alistair, and then David, who had driven up from Caddington. It reached 2.30pm before our main course was served. We abandoned the potential dessert and drove to Phil Coomes’ house for Christmas cake and mince pie.

Today was Frank Mason’s funeral, and David had another long drive to arrive in good time to get to St Faith’s Crematorium with us. Nice service: afterwards most of the attendees joined Jessie and Roger at Elm Tree Farm for refreshments. Teresa was there, as were all the usual suspects. Afterwards we drove David back to ours for his return journey before joining Jessie and Liz at Roger’s for a chat and the odd drink. Later Liz left for another appointment (her daughter’s birthday celebration, I think), and the four of us ended up at Oaklands Hotel for a carvery. That wasn’t our intention, but the “proper” restaurant opened an hour later than its website promised. Nice rhubarb crumble to finish. Pretty tired now.

Central heating not at its best

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Feeling very cold for some reason: maybe I’m going downhill. The house is reasonably warm, despite malfunctioning central heating: last night I had to kick the pump because it wouldn’t go off, and this morning I had to kick it again because it wouldn’t come on. Think I’d better get it fixed.

Central heating, ironically, was the reason we didn’t visit the Coomes over the weekend: their boiler packed up, which meant they had no heating and no hot water. So we stayed at home and instead we all gathered at the Three Horseshoes, Spellbrook, just outside Bishop’s Stortford, yesterday and had a long Sunday lunch – long because it took them 2 hours 20 minutes to serve two courses. Happily that didn’t matter at all, because it gave us time to talk, and we all went round Phil and Jane’s afterwards for tea/coffee. David was also able to join us, so it was a happy gathering: nine of us. The repartee was, needless to say, dazzling.

On Thursday Dot had recovered enough from her virus-related vertigo to travel to Baldock and stay at Joan’s – it took her three hours because an accident blocked the road at Elveden. The following day she did an inspection at Duxford while I caught up with much work. Granted an extra day on Saturday, as it were, I did the church accounts.

Brown bin full of fallen leaves

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Oliver in his den in our garden

Not exactly a seamless move into autumn. We had our hair cut in preparation, and then bought a fridge, while wondering where the extra hour went. The first brown bin full of fallen leaves was left out on Monday, and now the road is covered with golden confetti. I have just taken Joy to the dentist’s – and fetched her again. Bit of an ordeal for her (the dental work, not my driving).

Dot went to London on Sunday and stayed with her colleague Barbara at David Coomes’ place in Walthamstow. Handily, this was five minutes from the school in Waltham Forest where they were doing a day’s P4C on the Monday. Kristine was absent in Kabul (some people will do anything…) but DC made them welcome. My radius has been much narrower over the past few days, the highlight being a visit to Paston to see Lucy and obtain some exhibition material that could be photographed for publicity for the Dragon Hall event. I should mention that I had to tackle a vampire on Hallowe’en, but only a small one: Phoebe, from two doors down.

Also on Monday I had to open the church hall for repairs and found myself assisting guy who was replacing a broken window, checking the starter on a light bulb and repairing some guttering. The heaters have also been serviced in my absence, and I was surprised to hear that two are broken. We knew about one of them, but the other was working very well on Sunday, so I can’t help being suspicious. Now there’s a big debate about whether we should install a better heating system.

In other news, Ian Fosten dropped in the 42 poems submitted for the Waveney and Blyth competition, from which I have to select a winner and four or five commended. Boot-on-other-foot situation. Dot has gone off for lunch in the city with Becca from NYFC, followed by a meeting with Anne, and I have a long list of things to do, largely because I’ve spent much of my time this week (a) preparing a sermon for Sunday and (b) preparing a one-day session on our relationship with Creation for a St Luke’s group. Also taking antibiotics for suspected infection in the lower abdomen area, but I think that’s on its way out. Either that or I am.