Tag Archives: jessie

In the loft with the children

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Andrew playing on the giant wooden xylophone at Dunston Common, where we went for a walk on Boxing Day.

This will have to be a quick one. Dot is in the loft with the children, and David has gone into the city. I haven’t finished preparing the New Year quiz, and I’m sure I’ll be in demand very soon. Hold on – yes, Amy wanted to come out of the loft. Now she’s gone up again.

We’ve had a pretty busy Christmas, which I suppose goes without saying. I fetched Andrew from Coventry on Christmas Eve and took him back on the 27th – two drives of nearly 300 miles, which was tiring, although road conditions were good each time. David arrived in Norwich on Christmas Eve – about an hour after I got back with Andrew – then went back for the children on Boxing Day, then left again on Wednesday to visit the Coomes at Bishop’s Stortford and go on to Caddington before returning here with the children yesterday afternoon. They are staying until tomorrow. Are you following this?

The cold weather has thankfully abated, to leave a murky greyness, which is not exactly thrilling but doesn’t obstruct the traffic. Dot and I went to Christmas Eve Midnight Communion and led Silent Night on guitar; we also did a couple of readings and I assisted with the chalice (slightly unnecessarily). The church was warmer than I expected, and I took the collection away in the absence of treasurer Vicky, looking after her new baby, George.

Jessie, Roger and Philip joined us for Christmas Day, which went well, with the help of a lovely bird from Morrisons and some of Jessie’s scrumptious mince pies. Andrew seemed to enjoy himself. Phil, Joy, Sam and Lucy came round on the morning of the 27th, and I took Andrew over to Clarke’s to get some new shoes. The planned new TV/DVD player will have to wait till things calm down. Andrew seemed short of clothes when I fetched him, and I meant to give him some of mine, but forgot at the last minute. I will probably send him a parcel.

On the 28th David, Oliver and I went into the city, and I bought Dot a new MacBook Air, which David has now set up for her. I also got a cover for my iPhone, and Oliver one for his iPod. Apple seems to work on a different price structure to everything else on the planet, but we go on buying from them, because their stuff is so good. A lesson for others? Or not?

Now Dot and the children are at the shops, buying prizes for tonight’s New Year quiz. So I’d better work on some questions. Should just mention that among many other brilliant presents (some solid reading and watching ahead) David and Bridget came round last night to bring us a voucher for afternoon tea at the Assembly House. Must lose weight.

Unsticking the pump

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The Thames at Henley, from a couple of weeks back

Feeling shattered this morning after a terrible night. Dot woke me in the early hours to say the central heating had failed to switch off again: I managed to unstick the pump valve by hitting it (yes, that is the approved method), but by then I was too awake to go back to sleep, and very little sleep followed at all, despite a busy day yesterday.

I had taken an hour to get out to Paston after getting stuck behind a very slow-moving convoy of agricultural vehicles on a road (Salhouse-Wroxham) where there was no alternative route. Went on and on, and when there was an alternative, leaving Wroxham, I found myself in tiny lanes behind another vehicle (a car this time) travelling less than 20mph! I was not in a good mood by the time I arrived for the Paston Heritage Society trustees’ meeting (Lucy, Jo and me), which lasted for nearly two hours. Journey back was much easier, but after a brief meal I was out again, this time with Dot, to the First Thursdays Ambient Wonder meeting at the Workshop cafe. Can’t pretend I enjoyed this – noisy discussions are not my forte – but Dot had a good time, I think. This morning she is at a Diocesan team-building meeting at the King of Hearts, where I delivered her shortly after 9am. When I pick her up at about 3.30pm, we will be off for a weekend at Aldeburgh. Feel more like a weekend in bed.

British Summer Time is over, and the weather turned wintry immediately, though it’s now milder. Dark early evenings are not much fun. On the bright side, David came up on Monday and stayed the night. He went to two meetings – one with NAfPHT and one with Howard’s company to chat about making a website tender. (I have been doing more work for Howard too.) David not only gave me his old iPhone as a late birthday present but kindly queued up at the O2 shop to sort out a sim card for me. I am now technologically at the cutting edge, or at least slightly nearer to it. Sadly I was pre-booked for a chess match at Lowestoft on the Monday evening, so I had to leave mother and son alone together, which I’m sure was nice for them. Despite knowing Lowestoft quite well, I managed to get lost while trying to find the venue and arrived late; on the plus side I won the game, and we drew the match 2-2.

Last weekend Dot and I took sandwiches to church and ate them with a cup of tea before shooting off to Wroxham to visit her Uncle Frank, who seemed physically in quite good shape. Afterwards we took Jessie home and stayed for tea and delicious mince pies. You don’t get shortcrust pastry like that just anywhere.

Rain and champagne

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Queen Amy
Queen Amy processes down the castle steps during our holiday in Llanberis.

The time is just flashing by. Probably something to do with my being 65. It looked as if it was going to be a quiet week, but something happened every day, which I guess is better than the alternative. Tuesday was our 42nd wedding anniversary, and we celebrated with lunch at Caffee Uno (during which it poured with rain outside) and champagne at Tuesday Group. On Wednesday, Dot and I met Jessie at Jarrold’s, had a meal with her and then brought her home to look at our Welsh pictures on Apple TV. To make up for it, we took her home afterwards. On Thursday I went to the hospital while Dot was at Ethel’s. I received a certain amount of reassurance concerning rehabilitation from my operations; I had been feeling a bit down about it. Actually my health is quite good, and I walked halfway home afterwards. It was a bit muggy, so I took a bus the rest of the way: in fact the mugginess has been a constant over the last few days.

On Friday I drove over to Paston while Dot carried through the second stage of a mammoth house-cleaning project, and met with Lucy and Annette to discuss taking the Paston project to Oxburgh Hall. Annette and I will be offering a workshop, if we can work out how to organise it. Every sign that the Paston thing will extend some way into the future, and that there will be more poems and artwork to come from it. Maybe a second book, though it will different from the first – no more copies of which can be printed because several of the plates have unbelievably collapsed or gone missing. I have to write the words for a flyer and a press release, and later this month will be going to Oxburgh Hall with Annette to reconnoitre. After the discussion Annette and I were treated by Lucy  to lunch at the Ship in Mundesley: we all went for the fish and chips, and were not disappointed. Good service: according to Lucy, they only employ graduates. That must be illegal, because it works so well.

In the evening we were given a lift by Vicky and Jared to Roger’s birthday do in Thorpe. As none of us knew anyone else there (except Roger’s son Philip) we spent most of the evening talking to each other and had a good time. Met Roger’s new girlfriend, who seemed extremely nice. We had a little too much to drink, but survived without medical help. Ho, ho.

David came up on Saturday to accompany us to the friendly match between Norwich City and Everton, which ended 2-4. Quite encouraged by the performance of the new Canaries, especially Andrew Crofts. Norwich gave away a couple of soft goals, but weren’t hopelessly outclassed. It was 2-2 for a while. Well, about a minute, I think. Although it was raining when David arrived shortly before 2pm I successfully predicted no more rain after about 2.15pm, after consulting three different forecasts. So we bravely managed without umbrellas. Still very warm, as it is today. Afterwards I showed David our Welsh photos, and then we watched the European Athletics championships, at which we did quite well. Appropriately, a Welsh one-two in the 400m hurdles. England also doing quite well against Pakistan in the test match. David stayed overnight, and left about 10 this morning.

Today Ruth was taking the service for the first time, and I gave Steve a hand with the music. We had originally intended to be in London with the Coomes’, but Maurice has been very ill, and David and Kristine are up in Yorkshire. Ruth and Steve did really well, and I’m trying to persuade Ruth to do it on a regular basis (and Steve to join the music group). Good sermon by Margaret.

Have done a bit of work in the garden, but not as much as Dot, obviously. I’ve cut back some roses from above the potatoes, and we’ve tidied up at the front too. Our brown bin runneth over.

Sledgehammer to crack an opera

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That sinking feeling at Brancaster Staithe

Just stopped watching Wimbledon because it look as if Serena Williams is going to win easily (she did), which is about as boring as you can get. The Nadal-Murray match was something else. Nadal played probably the best tennis I’ve ever seen, and still Murray was an ace away from winning the second set. No shame in losing that one.

It’s been a warm week. The MX5 went in for a service and MOT, and one day stretched into three, because (a) the MOT centre’s computer went down, (b) the car failed on tyre tread that the garage had thought OK and (c) new tyres had to be obtained. So not a cheap day out by any means.

On Wednesday we had Heather, Sam and Simon round for an evening meal which I turned out to be cooking because there was some compelling tennis on TV and the house also needed cleaning. Chicken turned out to be good and we had a very pleasant evening. HSS brought some prosecco to celebrate the publication of Heather’s textbook, and Sam is recovering well from his atypical pneumonia which apparently only one in a million people get. He had a hard time with it.

On Thursday a triple whammy, starting with lunch with Aunt Josephine, Kathleen, Paul, Phil and Joy at the Oaklands Hotel carvery. Good food and an intriguing discussion afterwards about what churches should be doing nowadays. A surprising amount of agreement, considering our backgrounds and the distance we’ve moved. Later in the day Linda came round to cut out hair, and then we went to a PCC meeting at the vicarage. Again, a convivial atmosphere and general agreement. Nice when that happens.

Yesterday Dot went to Dickleburgh school, and I met InPrint poet Lisa D’Onofrio in the city for coffee at Jarrolds. She’s in England for a couple of weeks before returning to Australia, where her mum is very ill, and where she is now living at Castlemaine, north of Melbourne. She is the international arm of InPrint!

In the evening Dot and I went to the Claxton Opera, an annual event which takes place in a theatre in someone’s house. It holds just over 100 spectators and is a remarkable feat of engineering. Our friend Ruth is their leading soprano, and she had the main role in Le Pauvre Matelot, which someone had unfortunately translated into English, thus exposing the poor libretto and plot for all to see. Ruth was superb, but the rest of it was pretty terrible, and Richard White (the owner and impresario) should have been glad the Press failed to turn up. The second half of the programme, Trial by Jury, was wonderfully performed, but of course Gilbert and Sullivan is wonderful to start with, and Le Pauvre Matelot emphatically isn’t. Towards the end the wife kills the sailor with a sledgehammer, which was the only good idea in it. To get to the house/theatre, up a narrow lane, you have to park at a farm on the “main” road and are then transported by bus.

Today we stirred ourselves early and went to North Walsham, taking flowers to the cemetery and dropping in on Jessie, who we transported to Wroxham, enabling Dot to see Frank. I went for a short walk while this happened, and on the way home we called at The Rosary and put flowers on my parents’ grave.

Warm time with grandchildren

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oliver and amy on tyres
Amy and Oliver on collision course at the Dinosaur Park. Hope their tyres hold up.

Very warm June so far, coinciding happily with visit of grandchildren: first time we’ve had them both together without one of their parents. We picked them up late on Wednesday. Dot had been to a meeting at Diocesan House, where she had a speaking role, and I waited outside and we continued south-west from there. The Watton road was quite pleasant until we reached Watton itself, which was totally jammed and took ages to free itself. The culprit: a combination of market day lorries and a complete absence of police to ensure vehicles could get through. When we eventually freed ourselves we had another pleasant stretch until the Brandon-Mildenhall road, which has a lunatic speed limit of 40 all the way past RAF Lakenheath. Almost dozed off. Rest of the journey was good. We had tea cooked by David, and then brought the children back to Norwich: a smooth journey featuring much I-Spying.

On Thursday we all visited Rosie and her nine dogs. Some trepidation on the part of the children, but they eventually got used to them, and Amy ended up with several of them in her arms. Cup of tea, cake and a tour of the gardens also featured. On to North Walsham, where we called in on Jessie briefly before heading back to Norwich. Dot’s MX5 had been in the garage overnight with a mysterious water leak, which turned out to be rain collecting where it should have drained out: in other words, blocked drainage holes. I picked it up en passant, dry and, in my case, £45 lighter. This was followed by the excitement of our having our hair cut by Linda, with Oliver surprisingly being more interested than Amy at first. Then went to Morrisons for some food, and I managed to drop a bag and fracture two bottles. How exciting is that? Fortunately no other harm done, and we ended up having fish fingers and chips (Oliver and me) and pasta, cheese and beans (Dot and Amy).

Yesterday was Dinosaur Park day, and we had a great time. Oliver was delighted to find all the stamps so that he could get a medal, and Dot had packed a picnic for us. Although there were a lot of people there, the place was easily big enough to accommodate us, and there were no long queues, even for ice creams. We arrived home in time for Oliver and I to present our highly rehearsed show on guitars and vocals, consisting of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (Oliver solo guitar), A Little Help from my Friends (Oliver lead guitar, Grandad rhythm) and Let it be (Grandad vocals and guitar). Huge audience response. Amy also had a show featuring various circus acts involving hula hoops and other items. Evening meal was at Prezzos, Daddy arriving from Caddington just in time.

Up pretty early this morning for excitement of various kinds. Went to shop to buy some additional food for lunch in the garden, and Daddy and children left shortly afterwards. (After the lunch, that is – not after seeing what I’d bought.) Rest of the day clearing up and watching TV. Dot had long-distance call from Canada about her healing and angel experiences. It was Roger’s brother John, who has written a book on similar experiences and wanted to use Dot’s stories when doing some talks on related topics.

Here comes that fuzzy feeling (and it ain’t right)

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robin limmer
Flashback to Adam & Eve: Robin Limmer, with Groucho Marx in background

Feeling a bit fuzzy today: have contracted another UTI and have prescribed myself some antibiotics, which make me feel tired. On the other hand, I haven’t had a full night’s sleep for about five days (no apparent reason) – so it could be that. Otherwise OK: I expect the UTI to retire hurt in a day or two. Today took a trip to Bally to have a chat with Annette and Rupert about the future of InPrint. Turned out pretty positively. We will probably be a tighter (=smaller) group and make more use of the website to publicise individual activities as well as collaborative ones. I think we’re all a bit too busy to take on another big collaborative venture at this point, though Rupert has some interesting ideas about the Great Yarmouth Museum archive. I need to rewrite the “about” page and revise the membership list. I have also landed the job of editing a short novel for a local woman, so I am earning a little money.

Not playing chess tonight, because my opponent called off, but I might wander up to the club later on to see what’s about, as my father-in-law used to say. I did play last Thursday for the C team in curious circumstances. They have five members, but three of them can’t play on Thursdays. So Greg and I were drafted in as guests on boards one and two in a bid to save the team from relegation! I won quite a nice game, which meant we needed one more point from the other three. Greg got a draw, but Norman lost what should have been a drawn position and our fourth member didn’t turn up!! So 1½-2½, and third division here we come. Or there they go, to be ruthless about it. Absent member may not be popular.

Other promotion and relegation issues: Norwich City made sure of promotion on Saturday when they beat Charlton 1-0 away. Cue wild rejoicing, mainly from Dot. Good sport weekend for a change, because Spurs beat Chelsea 2-1, and Button and Hamilton came first and second in the rain-hit Shanghai Grand Prix. More excellent tactics.

Last Wednesday Jessie ventured forth from her North Walsham enclave and came here for an evening meal. I met her at the station. Roger and Jude. Jude is active in the field of red hats, as well as various other fields. She is in fact Queen of the Norfolk Broads. I can’t say more, but we had a very good time. On Saturday, another memorable social occasion: we were invited next door for drinks and nibbles. In view of the amount of food available, I would not like to see their version of a full meal. Started in the garden, which was in truth a bit chilly, and we eventually retired to the drawing room. More good conversation, and a bit too much to drink, which was unfortunate, as I was preaching the next morning. However, it turned out all right.

We’ve had some warm weather over the last few days, but today was chillier. Happily not really affected by the no-fly-through-volcano-ash situation which has seen many, many people stranded abroad – and remain hopeful that the volcano will have calmed down by June, when we’re supposed to fly to Italy.

Roll, pie and cake

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Teresa and her mother, Sheila
Teresa and her mother, Sheila

Spent much of the day in North-East Norfolk. Weather absolutely appalling: incessant rain, temperature just above freezing, sky heavily overcast. I suspect thousands of people must like this sort of weather, because they all take their cars out in it. It was worth it, however. Visited my wife’s aunt Sheila (who is actually her mother’s cousin), and Sheila’s daughter Teresa, who was  our bridesmaid 41 years ago. Had a good time there, featuring a sausage roll and mince pie, then moved on to Paston, where we left a present for the Cares. Doors were open as usual, but shouting evoked no response, so we assumed they were out. Later e-mail on another subject from Lucy made me think she probably wasn’t, however. Back to North Walsham, where we picked up some Philosophy stuff from the printer and moved on to Jessie’s for another pleasant hour or two, this time featuring a kind of cake. We resisted the lure of the cemetery, which would probably have felt like the Arctic tundra on a particularly bad day.

Most of yesterday went on sorting files from the second drawer of the filing cabinet. Contained quite a lot of stuff that brought back memories, which made it slow going. Still bits of it hanging around in the kitchen. Dot was busy completing her inspection report, and about 5pm we abandoned it all and went to the Rushcutters for a meal, using a 2-for-1 voucher that had been e-mailed to us. Superb chicken and mashed potato for me; lovely trout for Dot. Later we went to a PCC meeting at St Luke’s to discuss the proposed change-of-use proposal for their car park which, if it went through, would enable the council to use it for housing at some point in the future. Determined to resist this, though it could be a tricky one. The diocese would like to make some money out of it, and the council doesn’t like cars. Still, we have a clued-up lawyer in our camp, not to mention God – though his views are by no means certain on this particular issue.

On Monday I managed to lose another game of chess. After getting a good opening I found myself lagging in development when my opponent failed to fall for any of the tricks in the position. I then made a disastrous choice of move which gave him all the positional advantages. I found myself with no sensible plan and in due course fell apart.

27 January 2009

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This is Dot’s cousin Roger in typically relaxed style, pictured at Jessie’s last week. Another family meal looms on Sunday, when quite a large number of people are due at Angela’s at Dereham to celebrate Ethel’s 85th. This was supposed to be a sort of a secret, but the cat has been let out of the bag by someone who shall remain nameless. As the nameless person’s husband is in hospital with pneumonia again, she can be forgiven. Dot has been at Ethel’s this afternoon, calling in with presents on her way back from Yarmouth, where she has had her first school visit as diocesan school support officer, followed by lunch with her friend Anne. She is keeping pretty busy: a long afternoon yesterday was spent with Barbara preparing for next Tuesday’s head teachers’ conference, including a visit to the venue – St Luke’s Church Centre.

This morning I got over an appallingly shoddy loss at chess last night by going for a walk that turned out to be nearly four miles. It started innocently enough with a call at the sorting office to post a letter for Dot, but then got out of hand. I walked up through the Rosary, down the steps to Cintra Road and down on to Thorpe Rod, left and up the hill again via Stanley Road and Harvey Lane, then through what was Pinebanks and down a footpath back on to Thorpe Road and up to the River Green. I sat on a seat for a while in the sun – the weather was really mild compared to what it has been recently, people were feeding ducks, geese and swans, and it was all pretty idyllic really. I then went really mad and walked up to Whitlingham Lane and over the rail footbridge on to the river path, where I noticed that work on the third Whitlingham Broad was far advanced. All we need now is a bridge over the river from Thorpe to Whitlingham. Someone … Anyone? A couple of pretty ramshackle vessels were moored there, and an old man had got a fire going on the bank. Not sure what for. I returned to the main road and caught a bus back to the station, feeling I had earned my favourite cheese and onion sandwich, which I bought from Budgens.

The rest of the day I’ve spent writing some liturgy for our Tuesday group. Sort of experimental, based on a book we went through for Advent and Epiphany. I had a phone call from Annette last night saying there had been a radio programme about the Paston book, following a page of publicity in the EDP, and as a result we had sold another four of the big hand-made books at over £1000 each. It would have been nice to have had this news the day before, when 15 artists and poets met at Cringleford to discuss the future of the project. The meeting was at poet Adrian Ward’s rather splendid house, and was followed by an InPrint meeting, which didn’t last long after I’d persuaded everyone to admit that they didn’t really want to apply for a grant to do stuff they didn’t really want to do and didn’t have time for. So we shall proceeed with the Paston project, producing more work, hopefully, and maybe running some more workshops. I’m not too bothered about the workshops, but Annette, Caroline and Lisa are keen. Fuller story on InPrint website.

Before the Cringleford meeting, Dot and I went to Martin Laurance’s exhibition at the Grapevine on Unthank Road – a splendid gallery which will be home to a Paston exhibition from March 29. Martin is a superb artist and worked on the Paston project (he used a couple of my poems for collaborative pieces). The private view was pretty full, and Rosemary, the librarian from Archant was there. So were Annette and Caroline, and so were some other Paston people, though I didn’t see them. They had probably already left by the time we got there. Dot and I only had a few minutes there because we’d been to church (I had been preaching on the conversion of St Paul), and Caroline gave me a lift to Cringleford so that Dot could take the car home. Later Dot picked me up and we gavc Lisa and her two children, Dash and Blossom, a lift to their place in Pottergate.

This afternoon Phyllis Seaman from church called unexpectedly with a gift of some windfall cooking apples. I love stewed apples. It’s my one weakness. No, it’s really one of many.

21 January 2009

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Beautiful day, but cold. To celebrate Jessie’s birthday, she took her niece Dot and me, with her son Roger and her friends Janet and Ray, to Elderton Lodge for lunch. Lovely setting: deer in the park, folly in the distance. Meal was delicious: I had game and duck terrine, followed by game casserole with short crust pastry and a fantastic Eton mess dessert. The wine was good too. Afterwards we repaired to North Walsham, where I had another cup of tea and Jessie (pictured) tried to make us eat even more – unsuccessfully, in my case. Left just after five to pick up my car from the garage, where it was having its wing mirrors replaced.

You may wonder why it was having its wing mirrors replaced. I woke on Monday morning, after winning a long chess game the previous night, and found both mirrors smashed, and bits scattered around the path and road. As I was taking pictures Sam, who lives at Number 15 and has a two-year-old called Ellie, told me she had seen a gang of five youths running up the road at 1.30am and kicking all the cars, then wrenching off my wing mirrors. She yelled at them, but they just made a rude gesture at her and ran off. I reported it to the police and had my fingerprints taken for elimination purposes (I had handled the pieces from the wing mirrors). I believe the police have also spoken to Sam. Obviously they dusted the pieces for fingerprints as well, but I’m not optimistic. I rang the garage and discovered the mirrors would cost £260 to replace. As I have a £250 excess on my insurance, it was clearly a waste of time making a claim. So the vandals owe me £260. Fat chance. Tonight the car is in the drive. It is only six months since it was badly damaged by vandals climbing over it and denting it.

I’ve made entries to several competitions – mostly poems but also a short play and a short short story. These range from Kent through Wales and Ireland to Scotland, so I am casting my net wide. I’ve also entered the annual Norwich Writers’ Circle poetry competition. Well, you have to give it a go. Today we picked up the printing for Dot’s workshop next week. All looked very good until we noticed that a number of apostrophes hadn’t printed. As it was done through PDF files, I can’t understand how this could have happened, but Dot will give them a ring tomorrow. It’s not a complete disaster, because it’s easy enough to insert the apostrophes without making a mess, but it would be tedious. Dot is working extremely hard on her Philosophy material and had another two people sign up for her workshop today.

Through a Genes Reunited contact I have discovered that my mother’s grandfather and great-grandfather came from Sussex. Her grandfather, Charles Brown, lived in Brighton and then moved to Cambridgeshire, where he was head gardener at Hall Lodge, Milton, and married a local woman. My mother’s father was also a gardener, so I guess the skill was handed down. Her great-grandfather, Henry, was an agricultural labourer. So many agricultural labourers in my family tree… All ploughing the same furrow.

13 August 2008

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Another picture from Sunday – this one is of our friends Bridget and David Archer, members of our Tuesday Group and just two of many who didn’t come last night, when we almost had an all-time low of three until Claire turned up late. Vicky was the other one, and the four of us had a very pleasant evening.

Earlier Dot and I had been out to Paston to deliver some acetates for Lucy. Jack was there, looking quite chirpy at 95, and so was Naomi, plus Lucy’s sister, niece, niece’s husband and great-nephew. So obviously we had a cup of tea and passed a pleasant half hour before departing for North Walsham to drop in on Jessie for another cup of tea. She had fallen over on some uneven pavement and had a few cuts, but seemed more or less OK. I instructed her not to do it again.

On the way home we saw evidence of the downpour that had swept across a narrow band of Norfolk in the morning and kept us in bed (well, it doesn’t take a downpour to keep us in bed, but it’s a good excuse). By afternoon it was was reasonably pleasant, but the showers have continued into today, and the forecast is not too wonderful.

According to my Norfolk Almanac of Disasters, nothing really bad has ever happened here on August 13, and this record continued today, as far as I know. Dot went down to Suffolk just in case, but mainly to meet Barbara, with whom she is working on Thinking Skills for Children. I got quite a lot done in her absence, including fetching a prescription, giving a bit of money away and reading an interesting essay on Kafka by Zadie Smith (in the Telegraph Review section). Have been in contact with Flip technical help about my new camcorder, which won’t connect properly to the computer, and it looks as if I’ll be getting a new one. This evening I’ve printed out all the Paston poems on quality paper so that they can be put up on exhibition. Dot continues on her mammoth task of sorting out all our photographs.

I’ve also entered five poems (mainly from the hospital series) in the Aesthetica Competition.