Tag Archives: jessie

Effective but dirty

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Roses road train

The speed of light – and therefore time – increases again. I don’t care what anyone says: I’m from Yorkshire. Well, no, I’m not, but nevertheless time does seem to be hurtling past, and I don’t seem to be achieving an awful lot. Certainly not on Tuesday, when the Broadband was down for several hours. As we all know, when Broadband is down it’s like a newspaper strike. Nothing happens.

It was also the day the accountant came, and we spent some time trying to open one of Barbara’s files, which was in some outlandish open source software, and compressed to boot. Gave up in the end, because we couldn’t access the internet to find out how it might be opened. Went back to the pigeon.

Last Saturday we went to a concert at St Augustine’s, and on the way discovered that it was part of the Magdalen/St Augustine’s Festival, which aspires to be a kind of mini-Notting Hall. The concert was in three parts, of which we saw the first two – an organ recital, which was strangely dampened and attended by very few people; and some music from a violin, a cello and an organist who doubled as an amazing counter-tenor. More people at that one, and some of it was very good. But I think a few songs from Far Cry would not have been out of place.

On that theme, I have today printed out 24 song booklets for church, each of them containing 20 of my songs (words only). I should be able to produce music versions: I can write music, but I can’t think of any way to do it that would be useful. Lack of imagination and a touch of laziness thwart most things.

I have also been judging the Two Valleys Poetry Competition for the second year running. At first the entries seemed unexceptional, but on closer examination there are a number of pretty good ones, and it’s been hard to make a final choice.

Much of the rest of the time has been spent on being church treasurer, including the usual trip into the city yesterday to pay in cheques. This occurred  after a lunchtime visit by the Higbees, before they rushed down to Bedford to babysit their granddaughter, Arianna. Dot did a rather nice curry, following up her triumph the previous night of butternut squash and potato soup for the Tuesday Group. The Higbees also bought a patio cleaner for Dot to try out, and she got so enthusiastic that she did the whole of the back garden area while I went into the city. Effective but dirty, rather like the Roses road train.

Good food day on Sunday. We started with lunch at church – soup and rolls left over from the aforementioned festival – and proceeded to North Walsham for mince pies at Jessie’s. She makes a mean mince pie. Home through pouring rain and up to Loch Fyne for an evening meal, purely to obtain a free bottle of wine for which we had a voucher. Loch Fyne meals are good, though on this occasion service was very slow. But maybe spending £50 to get a free bottle if wine is not the most economical thing to do.

Down to the Plantation Garden

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Jessie and Dot in the Plantation Garden (iPhone picture)

At last the furniture has returned, and after a few minor alarms, it turned out to be all complete, including brackets and screws. The bookshelves proved a bit tricky to get right, but everything else was pretty straightforward, if a bit tiring. So now we have a spanking brand new room, and the roof is repaired. And so far we haven’t paid a penny. This will change shortly, 0f course.

After getting everything in order, I relaxed by playing a tournament chess game against Norman Thomas, and won fairly easily. My game score totally vanished on its way home, and I had to reconstruct the game while I could remember it. I even returned to the club in case I’d left it there, but no…

On Tuesday we restarted the Tuesday Group, which went pretty well, with much catch-up talk. Then yesterday Jessie came up by bus for lunch, and we all visited the impressive sunken Plantation Garden off Earlham Road in the afternoon. There was an autumnal wind, but quite a bit of sun, so it was a pleasant excursion, especially as I had never actually seen the garden. Bit of a challenge parking in the area, but still… After tea I drove Dot and Jessie to North Walsham, and Dot stayed with her while I attended a meeting of the Paston Trustees, where I took the minutes. Lucy seemed a bit better, but Jo is very stressed. Rob was calm as ever.

Today I have spent much of my time writing a sermon for Sunday. It came rather more easily than the last one; I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or not. Tomorrow it’s Joan’s funeral, and I’ve just heard that my “uncle” Richard – the widower of my aunt Vi in South Africa – has also died. I didn’t know him very well, and he was in his nineties, but it’s always sad when someone in your family goes.

Chilly wind blowing round Mr Bunn

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Dot at sunny Southwold

The weather has turned to autumn, with a chilly wind blowing around Mr Bunn, who has been on the roof for the last couple of days, repairing our valley and replacing some tiles. He should finish later today, as should Tim the decorator (no, not me: this one’s from Yarmouth and knows what he’s doing). Both very pleasant and helpful guys. Tim woke me at 8am yesterday, but today I was ready for him, despite having a lousy night for some reason. Dot is out at Acle school, but I’m expecting her back soon.

So the living room should be completed and dry by tomorrow. Unfortunately we can’t get the furniture back till Monday, but that’s a minor thing really.

On Saturday, when it was still relatively warm, we had our hair cut and then went to Southwold to celebrate the Robinsons’ ruby wedding. We arrived a couple of hours early and after driving round by the harbour (spoiled visually by a lot of construction work going on) we parked on the seafront and walked down to the pier, where we had a cup of tea in a cafe out of the wind. Then we drove up to the Swan and negotiated its parking challenge (the most contorted parking area I’ve ever come across) before Dot went into the loo and changed into her dinner party clothes. The Robinson family duly arrived – children earlier than parents, who brought Francine with them. Eleven of us in all, and a very nice meal.

I was preaching at church on Sunday and completed my preparation less than an hour before the service started. Still, it went OK, and afterwards I sat in the church for an hour waiting to see if anyone wanted to look round – it was Heritage Day. One woman did, the sparse attendance possibly down to a mistake in the Heritage booklet, which had us open only on the Saturday. When Claire arrived to take over, Dot and I made for North Walsham via Morrisons (I was almost out of petrol) and took in the cemetery before visiting Jessie and supplementing our lunchtime sandwiches with a piece of cake. The cemetery was at its best – really warm in the afternoon sun.

Last night I replayed my knockout chess game against Greg, which was again an up-and-down affair. I emerged eventually with a clear advantage, but in time trouble couldn’t be sure of the winning line. I messed it up, but he obliged by taking so long over his calculations that he lost on time. So I am through to the next round.

Titian, Ovid and the Shrew

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Dot and Tim on Stapleford HIll, just above the Hemlock Stone

Our Nottingham visit concluded (as it were) with a visit to the Theatre Royal to see an RSC version of The Taming of the Shrew which turned out to be both unnecessarily coarse and strangely compelling. This is a play that could never be written today, and despite my natural political incorrectness, I found myself recoiling at the treatment of women in it, much more than at the coarseness. Beautifully acted, though, and a good evening.

The next day found us on the road home, with the mist gradually lifting to reveal the promised blue sky. We stopped at Cambridge Services for a quick lunch at Costa Coffee, then again at Elveden to buy some food for the following day, when Audrey and Bent came for lunch. Astonishingly, it was four years since we’d seen them, and so there was much catching up to do. At table all afternoon, and when they left I travelled with them to Martineau Lane for guidance, then walked home. (I didn’t get any guidance.)

On Saturday Dot and I were at Framingham Earl High School for an informal evening concert in aid of a Malawi schools link, organised by Sue Eagle, who did some singing. A variety of differing acts of varying quality – some of them surprisingly good. On Sunday we spent far too much time watching Battleship Galactica, but Norwich had lost 1-0 to Newcastle, so we had to do something to distract ourselves. On the plus side, Jensen Button won the first F1 grand prix of the season.

Yesterday Dot did some DSSO stuff and ended up at North Walsham with some belated mother’s day flowers for the cemetery. I was in Norwich paying in some church money when it occurred to me that I could get a bus out to North Walsham for free, so I did – meeting Dot at Jessie’s for a cup of tea. Quite a quick journey in lovely bright weather.

Today we went up to the Castle Museum to see Diana in action – sorry, that should read Diana & Acteon (ho, ho), a painting by Titian which is being lent to the museum for a couple of weeks. Also an hour-long talk by an expert on Ovid’s influence on medieval painters: impressive. The picture itself was pretty good, though I have to say I think Diana’s head is too small. Perhaps she was famous for having a small head, though you would expect a goddess to sort that kind of thing out. Otherwise, a magnificent piece of work. No doubt Titian, were he alive, would be gratified to hear me say so.

TV breakthrough and owl at Paston

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Owl of anguish: beautiful bird that was a big hit at the Paston weekend

Seem to have spent the first three days of the week dealing with money, one way or another. Partly our own (lots of outgoing at this time of year) but mainly the church. Don’t know why everything seems to be happening at once there, but think I may have caught up with it at last. I have just filled in Gift Aid claim forms to be sent off tomorrow. The weather recently has been pretty awful, with high winds and huge amounts of rain, and I’ve been feeling below par: my entire head seems to be silting up. Still, not bad enough to actually stop me.

The big Paston weekend was an unqualified success, despite appalling weather on the Sunday. Richard Hoggett dug his hole, and the church received well over 150 visitors to see the re-enactors and an exhibition of maps and photographs which certainly impressed me. No idea where they all came from. There was an owl and a falcon too, and rather lovely refreshments from Ruth and Brigitte. What more could you ask for? TV coverage?

Well, we had that too. Shortly after my tardy arrival on the Sunday, following Communion and lunch at church, I was seized upon by a camera crew putting together a series for the BBC on local history: apparently it will be in eight parts and broadcast around May/June time. I was interviewed together with Lucy and Rob, and had to think up a “favourite Paston letter” on the spot. I think I was just about coherent. Dot arrived a bit later and was also involved, probably because of her photogenic qualities. She was asked to read out some excerpts from the letters. One or two others also took part, and no doubt it will all be edited out, but it was fun at the time.

Dot and I then called in to see Jessie before hastening onwards to a new evening Communion service at St Luke’s. This is a brainchild of Nicholas’s and involved drumming and much striking of the gong, but despite that it was pretty good. Nearly 50 people there (no small feat) and a good atmosphere. Had a chat with Annette Vergette of blessed memory and her friend the spiritual healer, plus the Barrells and Val Kibble. So busy chatting in fact that I didn’t get to the cup of tea. Oh, well.

Out again in the biting rain on Monday night to Dragon Hall for the official culmination of the King Street Community Voices project, to which I had contributed a few poems which seemed to have vanished. Well, they may have been there somewhere. I bumped into Suzi Heybourne and a much older colleague from the Magdalene Project, so the evening wasn’t entirely wasted. There was quite an interesting film and lots of old people – former inhabitants of the street.

Another voice from the past last night, in the middle of a depleted Tuesday Group meal. Pauline Oldroyd, a former Alpington friend, rang from Wales to say she knew my aunt, and was I aware of her situation?  I was, of course, but it was a surprise to discover that Pauline knew her so well (from the time she taught at City College). Had quite a long chat, in a nostalgic sort of way.

And today we had our hair cut.

Hard work and good meals

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A glimpse of the new floor in the study

A kind of order has been restored to 22 Aspland Road. The new floor is all down, and only one thing remains to be done – get  a carpenter (Gary) to reduce the oak post under my desk sufficiently to get it in the space now available. Not quite sure why Mark couldn’t do this. Apparently he didn’t have the right saw.

The filing cabinets presented the most difficulty, because they had to me emptied and filled again each time they were moved. The problem was exacerbated because I took the opportunity to do some resorting of files – mainly grouping them more rationally but in some cases doing some thinning out. Very tiring work, but I’m pleased with the result. Moving the actual cabinets wasn’t the problem we thought it might be, and we’ve also got the hall (Gemmell) bookcase back inside and full of books. Dot thinned out the dresser. Of course we now have stuff in the garage that needs to be disposed of – particularly our futon, for which there will not be room when our study has been converted into a two-person room. (Next stage. Gary again. Hopefully we will also get him to fix the catch on the attic trapdoor.)

At present my car is in the garage to be serviced and MOT tested at huge cost (“It’s the big one”). I’m hoping to get it back before I need to be at the surgery to discuss my blood pressure. but I also want them to do a proper job on the lights, which haven’t been working properly for some months. Pressure? No pressure. None at all. No, really.

Had a very pleasant few days to offset the hard work in the house. On Saturday went to the Greens with Judy for a lovely evening. The Veseys had also been invited, but someone had got the dates wrong. So it was just the five of us plus Anandi and her fiancé David, who are lovely. Saw some photos from Howard and Anna’s recent Ethiopian holiday, made fascinating by their comments and enthusiasm. Lovely meal too. Teetotal Judy gave us a lift, so were able to enjoy Howard’s excellent wine.

Last night’s Valentine Day meal at the Eagle on Newmarket Road was also superb. I had a smoked salmon terrine, followed by the best ribeye steak I’ve had for a long time, and we shared a meringue and fruit sweet. Setting very pleasant, a rose for Dot and service first-class. Could hardly have been better. We didn’t drink there because I was driving, but we came home and finished the evening with a couple of glasses of Prosecco.

Earlier in the day Vicky came round with Amy and George. Jared was away in Kent because his mother had died suddenly (though she had been unwell). Amy and George were pretty lively (respectively), and of course George had to climb the stairs. Lot of illness around: my aunt Josephine’s friend Joyce has recently died, and Josephine has moved (at least temporarily) into a home on Cecil Road. My nephew Joe is very concerned about numbness in different parts of his body (CT scan clear), and his brother Sam has dislocated his shoulder again. Saw Joe outside the Cathedral in the remaining snow on Saturday: he had just given a 2½-hour lecture. Had a chat with him and Birgit, who was waiting for him.

Last Friday I took the afternoon off to go to North Walsham while Mark finished the floor. We had a meeting of the group which will probably be known as Chronicle (Caroline, Rob and me) to discuss putting a Paston show together suitable for presenting at the Coast festival late this year, as well as at Dragon Hall next year or St Peter Hungate (some time). This last followed a meeting with a Hungate trustee on Friday which established that they would be keen for us to do stuff at the church, which is a prime Paston site as well as being significant in its own right. He bought tea and cake at the Briton Arms for Rob and myself – has to be a good sign. The three of us are now going to do some writing centring on Margaret Paston from Mautby.

I led the service on Sunday, and we followed that (after coffee) with a rehearsal of four songs aimed at the Seagull on the 26th. Went surprisingly well considering I was working on the tune of one of them till the last minute. They are Bernadette, Living on a Fault Line, I didn’t think it would come to this and Where you go I will follow (which is not a stalking song). The cold weather has been abating since then – probably not causal – and for the last couple of days it’s been damp , windy and a few degrees above freezing.

After our North Walsham meeting last Monday I called in to see Jessie and her new bathroom. Roger was there too. The bathroom looked really good, though disturbingly there were two metal tubes left over. She seemed in good form. Elsewhere in the county someone has been found to be stealing money rather systematically from another of Dot’s relatives. Who? Sub judice, I’m afraid.

Eating out with Jessie

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Only the year is different: Jessie celebrates last year at the Banningham Crown. This year same Jessie, same place, same pavlova.

Jessie is having her bathroom noisily rebuilt – to a plan by Roger – and so we took her out yesterday to lunch at the Gunton Arms (Elderton Grange reincarnated in more pubby but still upmarket mode). More accurately, as it turned out, she took us out for lunch, but as it was a snack and a drink, I decided to allow it. My smoked salmon pate and toast was delicious; Jessie had a venison sausage roll and Dot a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel. All very good, with deer in the background and a touch of sun – which was a change from yesterday, when it hardly got light at all.

This was the second meal out with Jessie in less than week. As I mentioned last time, we went for an evening meal to the Banningham Crown last Saturday with Jessie, Roger and Liz, and that was excellent too. I had a game pie, followed by an impressive pavlova. If you had a league table of service standards, the Crown would be at the top: welcoming, efficient and very friendly throughout. Food is good too. Not entirely convinced that the garage has fixed my lights – in fact pretty sure it hasn’t, but I really can’t be bothered to go back. They will have to sort them out when they do the service in the middle of February.

After preaching on the wedding at Cana on Sunday I watched Senna, a film that David had got me for Apple TV. It was excellent: Senna himself came over very well, and the ending was particularly poignant, with an inevitability about it. Funny how all this background story totally passes you by at the time.

On Monday evening we went to a planning meeting at the vicarage. Nicholas has an idea about introducing a monthly Sunday evening service aimed at people who are turned off by “church”. It’s a communion service, but much simpler and with no hymns. Obviously. I managed to avoid getting too involved, although I’m in favour of it. I have enough to do at St Augustine’s at the moment – as well as organising the services, I’ve been dealing with the accounts this week, trying to get the to balance as near as I can. Hard to do it when the start point is so obscure.

Before seeing Jessie yesterday I had a visit from Rob: we had a discussion about various Paston futures. Lucy is in Papworth again with a worsening prognosis, and I’m not sure when she’ll emerge. I’ve spoken to her on the phone a couple of times, and she seems remarkably cheerful.

Limping towards the end of the year

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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.

All systems needing attention

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Warning sign near St Olave's

Have just booked a visit from the gas man – thought I’d better get the central heating fixed before Christmas, although it’s more or less OK at the moment. Speaking of faulty systems, I went to the doctor’s yesterday, and he gave me a relatively thorough going over but couldn’t come to any conclusions about various intermittent symptoms. So I’m in for a blood test next week – on what would have been my mother’s 100th birthday. Doesn’t time fly?

In other news, the weather has been quite dry by day, and mild, but windy at times. Neither Dot nor I has been 100%, but we’ve been out and about, and have bought most of our Christmas presents, except for close family. Last night we went to a special evening at the Living Rooms, just this side of Poringland, which sells ethically sourced furniture and smaller items. Nice atmosphere, mince pies, and we bought a few things too.

Raced up to the Castle on Tuesday to hear a lunchtime talk from Anna on some of the pictures in the Family in Art exhibition. Really good. Afterwards we had lunch at M&S, and while Dot went to a schools events at the Cathedral, I bought our Christmas cards from the charity shop. Thought I’d made ample provision in cash, but after buying stamps too, I had to go to the cash machine to complete the transaction!

On Wednesday – a lovely sunny day – I drove out to North Walsham to deliver a cheque to Rob Knee as part of the Another Country payment and to discuss future ideas for the Paston Heritage Society. Quite a fruitful discussion: we felt that maybe the full exhibition had had its day and the church project was a bit of a dead duck. We’re going to suggest pulling out of the church project – partly to see the reaction of the PCC – and concentrate on smaller events, producing cards, maybe a leaflet on the Pastons in Norwich and look at the possibility of using St Peter Hungate as a Paston centre in the city. We’ll also be looking at opportunities to use readings and maybe more wide-ranging ideas (songs? monologues?) to sell the book. I’ve suggested the latter to the other poets, who seem keen.

Afterwards I called in at Jessie’s for a cup of tea and a biscuit. She seemed well. We talked about her retirement from the Blind Association (?), where she has been a helper for many years. Coincidentally, at the PCC that evening curate John Easton announced that he was stepping down after 40-45 years, and he and Jean will be taking a back seat. They are both over 70. Bit of a shock, that. At the same time, Nicholas is keen on starting an alternative type of evening service, which sounds interesting.

Sweet birthday candle for Jessie

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Jessie with her becandled birthday meringue

Feeling pretty tired: not sure if this is a combination of a continued infection (if that’s what it is) and the stronger antibiotics that the doctor gave me or just the result of a packed few days. Because of the tiredness it’s hard to tell if I’m actually feeling better, but I think I am: I don’t have the nauseous feeling any more, and the strange headiness is much diminished, but the heaviness in my abdomen is no better. The doctor wants me to get this looked at by insertion of what he calls a telescope into my nether regions. The letter for me to book an appointment has arrived, but when I tried to book, neither Norwich nor Cromer had any appointments available. I am resisting the massively uncompelling lure of Gorleston and Bury St Edmunds.

Dot meanwhile still has a back problem: she is under the chiropractor and feeling a bit better, but nervous of doing any stretching at all. Walking is a bit painful after a while. Meanwhile my brother Phil tells me that he and Joy are both suffering severe leg pains. Nevertheless he came with me this afternoon to John Lewis (before he told me about his legs) to buy a television/DVD player for Andrew. A quick operation: I had gone home for the car and returned to pick it up within half an hour. Just hope Andrew will be able to use it. I’m dropping it off on the way to Derbyshire on Friday.

Yesterday I had a bit of déjà vu at Wicklewood, where I had been invited to talk about journalism for a modest fee. Year 6 class and teacher proved very amenable once I had managed to find the way into the school, and it all came back to me. Seemed to go well: I enjoyed it anyway. Afterwards I met Dot at Park Farm for lunch. In the evening I played Steve Crane at chess and won on time after seeing a winning combination earlier and wrongly dismissing it. Made hard work of the whole thing.

I made my first tentative stabs at being church treasurer last Thursday, when I called round Vicky’s for an explanation of how it worked. Seemed reasonably straightforward (hah!), but she is hanging on to the accounts until she finishes them off for last year and reconciles a discrepancy on the statement.

The next day we went to the Banningham Crown for a birthday lunch with Jessie. Also present: Roger, Jude and Philip; Janet and Ray and their daughter Judy and her husband Don. Meal and service were first-class; they even lit a birthday candle for Jessie and stuck it in her sweet. Went back to Jessie’s for tea and coffee and suddenly realised it was 5.45pm, and we were supposed to be helping to set up St Luke’s for Robert Beckford at 6.30pm. Well, we were a bit late, but there were plenty of helpers. RB is a theologian who makes documentaries for Channel 4, and he was very challenging on “picking a fight” with people who were persecuting the poor. He highlighted the USA’s exploitation of Ghana by dumping subsidised rice there and ruining the local farmers, with appalling results (teenage girls leaving the villages and working in town brothels). Hard to understand how people can do this and still sleep at night.

Dot has just returned from visiting another school (Wreningham) and the odd shop on the way back. She heard a story on the radio about headlines, which included one about a road crash on the Azores, where there were only two roads and only one crossroads on the island. Azores a first time. Olé.