Tag Archives: Robinsons

Magical spot discovered by accident

Uncategorized, , , , , , ,
Oliver on the beach at Woolacombe

As soon as the Murrays returned to Canada, the weather improved. Yesterday could almost be described as hot, especially if you had been walking into the city, paying in some church cheques and then, out of the blue, buying a guitar for Oliver’s birthday. Last Friday, by contrast, was not hot, but we did manage to get out into the garden for a quick drink before retreating inside for a meal with Roger, Barbara, Anne and Philip. Excellent meal by Dot – citrus salmon – despite her not feeling great, but I was so tired that I actually went to sleep toward the end of the evening. I don’t suppose anyone noticed.

On Saturday it was quite pleasant, and we went to Holt, where Dot and Barbara shopped while Roger and I went our separate ways. I accidentally found this beautiful area called Spout Hills and walked through it and on along a path into a hilly field. Quite magical in places. Started writing a poem. Also bought a new book by Alan Garner called Boneland, which is supposed to be a sequel to the Brisingamen trilogy. Went on to Blakeney and had afternoon tea in the Blakeney Hotel’s upstairs lounge, then walked a little, but the wind was quite chilly by then. Drove home via Salthouse (brief walk on the shingle), then West Runton and by country lanes to Aylsham.

In the evening we had a really nice meal at Loch Fyne. Our waiter, Pedro, was brilliant, and I entered into the spirit of things by having the seasonal fish, which was turbot – and very good too with samphire and chips. This was a sort of celebration of the Murrays’ 45th wedding anniversary, which was actually on the Sunday, when they were flying home – which meant that Barbara would be practically unconscious for most of the time. Afterwards, there was the packing, while Dot and I watched Match of the Day.

They left early on Sunday, in case of hold-ups on the road, but actually made it to Heathrow in record time and rang us to tell us so: unfortunately the phone rang in the middle of one of our quiet periods in church, and Dot had to rush out with her bag, because the phone was somewhere in there… We spent the rest of the day (with breaks) clearing the living room of all we could in preparation for the work that is now going on. Trickiest bit was keeping the curtains neat and depositing them on the table tennis table, but it was followed closely by shifting the hi-fi and the television, plus DVD-player, Humax and Apple TV – then reconnecting all the wires. Everything worked except the television, because the aerial wasn’t receiving a signal. We could still use Apple TV and watch recorded programmes, but not live TV. I Have called in our expert aerial man Ryan, and he will be arriving later today.

Yesterday the furniture men arrived promptly at 9am, and all seemed to be well until they found they couldn’t safely dismantle the bookcase because the top bit was nailed on. So they shifted it off the wall and made it movable so that it could be worked round. Everything else (bar the piano) was removed, either by us or by them. The house is now a mite cluttered. Today we have the asbestos men, who arrived at about 9.45am and are almost finished. They had to drive here from Lincoln, which seems a bit excessive.

To round off yesterday we had a DCC meeting, during which I presented the financial report. Happily there were no questions I couldn’t answer. Today Dot is doing Philosophy at Kersey in Suffolk, which I happened to stumble on during an earlier inspection trip and which is a lovely little village with a ford in the middle of it and a steep hill up to the church. Nothing to do with Philosophy, but a nice setting for it.

Limping towards the end of the year

Uncategorized, , , , ,

It’s the last day of the year, and half-hearted grey rain is just about managing to fall from a half-hearted grey sky. It’s as if the year is struggling to make it to the end and may not quite get there. Dot and I are on our own. David is still in Caddington, where he has revamped the children’s rooms (viewed on Facetime), and I believe Oliver and Amy are returning from Lapland some time today. Our projected New Year’s Eve dinner with the Robinsons has been called off because Philip is unwell, but as compensation we have two Robinson tickets for Norwich v Fulham this afternoon (Norwich lost 2-0 to Spurs on Dec 27 – see last post).

I have just had a letter complaining that Siemens have been unable to effect entry to our property to check our gas meter and making vaguely threatening noises about applying to the court for a warrant. This is nonsense, as as far as I’m aware they haven’t made any attempt to look at the meter. When I rang them they couldn’t change their unilaterally arranged visit because their system was down. I think I shall apply to the court for a warrant to ensure that I have access to their system. Or I may ring back later.

Oddly, I don't have a usable picture of Dot's Uncle Frank, who died this week, but this is Oliver and Jessie during our visit there last week. Oliver is sitting in Frank's chair.

Sadly, we have lost a family member over Christmas: Dot’s Uncle Frank, who has been suffering from Alzheimer’s for years, died of pneumonia at Wroxham late on Wednesday. I had to travel to Coventry with Phil to take Andrew back on the Thursday, but Dot went out in the evening to spend some time with her aunt, and we’re visiting her tomorrow afternoon.

The journey to Coventry went smoothly enough, though the weather was indifferent: after leaving Andrew we stopped for a meal at the usual Chef on the way back. While he was with us in Norwich we took him to buy some new clothes (mainly underwear), and we made the customary trips to Dunston Common and the Rosary  – where David, Dot, Oliver, Amy and I had put some flowers on Dad and Mum’s grave earlier. I also took him on a drive to Loddon, Hardley, Langley, Claxton, Rockland, Bramerton and Wood’s End, where the skies were clear and the place was deserted. Beautiful sunset seen from Hardley, where we also visited a very cold church. Andrew himself was OK much of the time, but finds it difficult to deal with change in routine, so in future we may more often visit him in Coventry and take him out for drives, rather than transplant him to Norwich. He has few remaining acquaintances here.

I should mention that during his visit Phil brought Sam and Lucy round, and Sam gave me a copy of his new book, It was the tree’s fault – a collection of monologues.

Last night Dot and I ventured out into the rain to go to the cinema, where we saw the new version of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was riveting, though disturbingly violent in places. Daniel Craig and his co-star Rooney Mara – in fact, all the cast – were sharp and compelling.

Dot is still suffering from problems with dizziness – a particularly bad bout while washing her hair this morning – and will have to go back to the doctor. Happily, she is not feeling ill in between the bouts, which are not frequent.

Separate countries

Uncategorized, , ,

From quite sunny, we progress to extremely sunny, and hot with it. Reminds me of our two weeks in Canada earlier this year. Coincidentally we had dinner last night with two of our Canadian friends – Karol and Pete Walpole – at the new, expanded home of Anne and Philip Robinson, who are just home from another holiday, this time in Crete.

Now Dot has left me: she should be arriving at Stansted airport about now en route to Eindhoven and eventually Hilversum in Holland, where she and Barbara will deliver a couple of P4C workshops tomorrow. I may be wrong, but I think this will be the first time Dot and I have been in separate countries since we were married. The last couple of days have been taken up largely with making sure that Dot knows what she’s taking and is taking it. Hope that worked out all right. Meanwhile, I am thinking about doing my tax return. Eventually, I may even do it.

The other item at the top of my to-do list is the forthcoming Paston poetry book, provisionally named Another Country. We’re aiming at 30 pages of A5, with some art – assuming we can persuade the artists to produce something. If not, it will be with photographs. At the moment e-mails are flying backwards and forwards in an attempt to decide who will pay what towards production costs, and who will receive any profits. Using the word “profits” very loosely. I am going to be putting most of it together. I also need to write a couple of poems, the introduction and some notes.

Our Humax, which has been acting very strangely – recording things it wasn’t asked to, not recording what it should, labelling recordings wrongly and duplicating this that and the other – has suddenly gone very quiet after it seized up and I rebooted it. Suddenly all the recorded programmes disappeared, and it seems to be recording things correctly again. Can this last? I hope so, because I’ve cancelled Ryan (Mr Hometech Solutions) who was going to come and have a look at it. In other news on the technology front, Dropbox seems to have nearly finished uploading my picture files. It has started forecasting the end of the operation in hours instead of days – currently 41 hours.

Amid all the Euro-preparations, Dot and I dropped in at Ethika on Timberhill on Tuesday to view Annette’s new fashion collaboration. Looks good. Teri was also there. Dot bought a bag and a hat, the latter from someone other than Annette.

Suddenly involved with all these rivers

Uncategorized, , , ,
The Waveney at Syleham

Here we are at Saturday again. Doesn’t time fly? The week started with another poetry reading at the Seagull Theatre on Sunday. Dot came with me, and I found myself reading about a dozen poems because so few poets had turned up (well, it’s the middle of August). The audience as always was small but appreciative, and I enjoyed it , as did Dot. We had quite a long conversation with Ian Fosten, and I now find myself intimately involved with a project centred on the Rivers Waveney and Blyth  – if you can be centred on long things that wind around the countryside.

Most immediately, this means I have to write about half a dozen poems involving the two rivers and their environs, and if possible accompany them with pictures – by September 1. As my knowledge of the area is sparse, this means I have to do some swift travelling, and I started yesterday by “discovering” the source of the Waveney. This is in a ditch near Redgrave, which coincidentally is the name of friends who are visiting us on Monday. They mentioned they might drop in on the “ancestral” village of Redgrave on their way up to the holiday home at Kessingland, and so there was an outside chance I might see them there, but unsurprisingly this didn’t happen.

Still, I walked a bit around the ditch, which looked suspiciously dry. But there was a “Waveney Trail” which included part of the nearby – and very watery – Redgrave Fen. The trail also ventured into some nearby woods, but these were unexceptional. Took a few pictures and drove onwards to Billingford bridge, which was interesting,  and another bridge nearby over the River Dove, which wasn’t. Next bridge was at Syleham, by an old mill, and that was beautiful: got one or two nice pictures. At Homersfield, close to the famous Black Swan pub, I discovered the oldest concrete bridge in the country. How do I get this unpoetic information into a poem?

I ended a very warm afternoon at Bungay, where I parked at the golf club and walked down a side of the course, where the river makes a loop rather more graceful than any of my golf shots. Here I got a really good picture of some canoeists, but left without completing the course as I wanted to meet a carpenter who came to look at our living room table. Just got back in time, and it seems he will be able to fix it.

Haven’t written any poems yet, but I have been jotting down a few ideas, in between finishing what must be the most depressing book I’ve read – Stoner, by John Williams. It’s a beautifully written story of a college lecturer who is a good man but without the basic awareness you need to survive: his wife is extremely unpleasant and probably unhinged, and through lack of fight he allows her to ruin their daughter’s life. There’s much more to it – including some important comment on intellectual passion or lack of it – but you get a profound feeling of emptiness which, on reflection, may be because there’s no reference to any deeper purpose of life, either supernatural or spiritual.

I’ve managed to do quite a bit of walking this week, but it doesn’t seem to have had much effect on my efforts to lose weight. When Dot went to see Anne on Tuesday, she dropped me just beyond the bypass, and I walked past Whitlingham Hall and down to the broads, then (with a few delays and excursions) back up Whitlingham Lane and into the city. Continuing the rivers theme, I discovered how the Tas, Yare and Wensum meet, though without much help from the Broads Authority, whose notice at the confluence of the Wensum and Yare is hopelessly inadequate. Why am I suddenly involved with all these rivers?

On Wednesday, as a kind of precursor to my Bungay stroll, Dot and I played pitch and putt on Mousehold. At first my putting was terrible, but it improved towards the end. Mostly my pitching was reasonable, though I did have a bad patch in the middle. Dot was steady in both areas, and we ended up about level, though the dubious card entries showed she won by a single stroke. We were both under 100 – which sounds a lot, but is only just over 5 a hole. Or just under 6. We need practice, and have pencilled in a session with the Robinsons on Easter Monday. The same day we finally got to watch the final film in the Harry Potter series (3D), and it was impressive. We also saw JK Rowling on TV searching for her French roots, and she came over very sympathetically. Fascinating story, too.

On Thursday we had a lovely evening with the Robinsons and their friends from London, Jean and Alan: dinner at Prezzo’s followed by coffee at home. Dot seems to have recovered completely from her tonsillitis, and my mild fluey sort of virus (if that’s what it was) has also abated. I have taken to cooking roast chicken. Dot has spoken to her doctor and is going ahead with her colonoscopy at the end of the month: purely precautionary – no symptoms. My blood test came back “normal”, which doesn’t inspire me as much as the previous “undetectable” and “perfect”, but I guess it’s OK.

It can be a nice old world

Uncategorized, , ,
Open-top bus full of Canaries heads down Theatre Street

Ignore all previous hectic weeks. This was one was really exhausting, as I prepared for our Scottish holiday and tried to sort out two burning issues: Andrew’s pension credit and the British Gas situation as it relates to St Augustine’s. Having heard nothing for six weeks about Andrew’s money, I rang the pension service and was told that they needed my power of attorney. It would have been nice if they had actually told me this earlier instead of waiting for me to ring, and I am not terribly optimistic now that I’ve sent it to them. I suspect it may get lost somewhere. Of course the fact that I’m going on holiday will confuse them totally, despite the fact that I’ve told them verbally and in writing. I’ve also heard nothing about what money needs to be sent to The Langleys – and of course can’t get through to Coventry City Council at all. I’ve left a message. More confusion looms.

At first British Gas couldn’t do anything about my queries in response to their price-rise letter, because I was not Vicky Myers. So I had to e-mail them the change of treasurer. Then someone was supposed to ring me when I returned from holiday but rang the same day instead, and after much discussion we agreed a new contract: or at least he told me about a new contract, and I agreed to it. Apparently for this it didn’t matter I wasn’t Vicky Myers.  It’s a funny old world.

But it can be a nice old world if you can afford it. Last Saturday we had a lovely evening at Morston Hall with the Robinsons to celebrate their birthdays and Anne’s retirement (I think that was the excuse). Top-class food, of course, and top-class service too. I restrained myself from drinking as much of the excellent red as I would have liked and drove home – too fast, apparently (Philip Robinson). But no hangover, which meant my sermon on Sunday was relatively coherent, and afterwards we celebrated Anne Travis’ 90th birthday with a cake supplied by her daughter. Anne, who has not been well, came after the service and seemed quite bouncy, as well as very appreciative. Her actual birthday is tomorrow, and Dot collected money and bought her some flowers and chocolates, which we took round to Chris Fiske’s this morning so that she can deliver them when we’re on our way to Caddington. It was nice to see Chris Denton and Zoe on Sunday.

As well as ploughing through paperwork during the day, I played chess on Monday evening: a rapid tournament in which I got totally won positions in four of the five games  and lost two of them. I also lost one I deserved to, so a pretty poor result really, except that I beat my bête noir, Terry Glover, with a very nice finish.

The weather has been much more pleasant, with only a shower or two today. Hope it’s not building up to some solid wetness in Scotland. On Tuesday, after more phoning and writing, I accompanied Dot to North Walsham, where we visited the cemetery and had tea with Jessie, who seemed very well. We got back in time for some quick fish chips before making our way up into the city crowds celebrating the Canaries’ promotion, and got a reasonable view of the open-top bus from near the Forum on Theatre Street. As the crowds dispersed (or moved on to a later viewpoint on the route) Dot and I went into St Peter Mancroft for a concert by the Navarra (string) Quartet. Impressive musicianship, but on the whole I preferred the lunchtime concert on Wednesday at the Assembly House by Mark Lindley (cello) and Elena Kiseleva (piano), which was stunning. We got there with seconds to spare after getting up late and misjudging the time.

Afterwards  we had lunch at M&S, and I bought some slippers and socks for the holiday. I then went and paid in some church money at Lloyds before heading home. Much of today has been spent packing, but with lots of other things to do as well. In the end I moved the printer downstairs because it stubbornly refused to connect wirelessly. Printer offline, it bleated inaccurately. It will probably stay down here now. Rang David to see how his bad back was progressing, and booked in at Loch Fyne tomorrow for a birthday meal. Now we just have to get there in time.

While all this was going on our neighbour opposite (No 19) has been doing extensive work to his property and has been removing huge amounts of soil and rubble in skips: a real challenge for the skip lorry necessitating lots of juggling with cars and vans. I kept ours out of the way in the drive as much as possible. Hopefully no bodies will be unearthed. Phil is keeping an eye on the house while we’re away: he and Joy came round Sunday afternoon to survey the plants.

Naked feet on the edge of the bath

Uncategorized, ,
Red ball
Part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, this giant red ball will be appearing in various parts of the city. Yesterday it made its debut outside the station.

Got quite a bit of work done on the book yesterday, and also fitted in painting the bathroom ceiling: well, parts of the bathroom ceiling, after Dot revealed that she had in fact painted it last year. So I was just painting over a couple of deteriorating bits, and now it all looks brand new. I was prepared for it to drip all over the place, so painted in old shorts and a T-shirt, with naked feet. Actually naked feet came in useful for standing on the edge of the bath.

The book is a bit odd: parts of it are quite professionally written, but then you come to a paragraph that’s barely English. Ah well; it shouldn’t take too long, though I’m feeling a bit below par today. This may be because I think I have another UT infection, or it may be the really lousy weather (wet and cold) or it may be because I got very little sleep last night after a late meal at Delia’s Restaurant with the Robinsons. The meal was excellent and quite reasonably priced, but late eating doesn’t suit my metabolism, what with the sherry, vodka and wine. Not excessive; oh, no. Just a bit too varied. Had interesting conversation with Philip Robinson about the Election and What Happens Now. If pressed to compare Delia’s with the Swan, the Swan would just get my vote. But Delia’s is good.

Today has not been great so far, especially as Norwich City managed to finish the season in triumph with a pretty pathetic 2-0 defeat – just what you want when they’re going to present you with a trophy. But the Higbees will be joining us for egg curry later. Annette and Mike have cried off with illness, and I tried to contact others to join us, but was unsuccessful. Dot is feeling a bit down after knocking her glass butterfly onto the floor and breaking it. Hope this does not affect the weather thousands of miles away. Perhaps someone has broken a butterfly in China.