Tag Archives: chess

26 April 2008

Uncategorized, ,

Still feeling pretty down: tubes clogged up and hardly any energy. However, yesterday we did manage to get out to West Runton to visit Fred and Sue in their caravan. Fred was our best man 40 years ago. We had a very pleasant time with them and drove to where the picture was taken – Cookies restaurant at Salthouse, where we had a large lunch: a “royal” salad consisting mainly of fish and other seafood. I skipped the crab because I have a slight allergy sometimes, but it was all very impressive. We took our own bottle of wine, so the whole thing cost us only about £25 for four. Afterwards we wandered around near the caravan, saw the cliff edge falling away (the steps down to the beach now end in mid air) and noted the kind of price you could pay for a log cabin on a caravan site – a mere £140,000.

We took the MX5, so Dot was driving, and we navigated home across the wilds of North Norfolk, through places like Sustead, Calthorpe, Ingham and Banningham. Almost a straight line, actually, but narrow roads in many places. Lovely scenery, though.

I cancelled the chess tournament I was supposed to be playing in this weekend, and donated my entry fee to the prize fund. Pity, but the right decision: I would probably have lost all my games and been even more depressed. Elsewhere my aunt in South Africa is not at all well, and a friend at church – Anne – is in hospital with a blood disorder. So things could be sunnier.

4 March 2008

Uncategorized, , , , , ,

Granddaughter Amy turns on the charm – something she’s extremely good at. Meanwhile her brother Oliver has learned to swim underwater. I personally have no problem getting under water, but I can’t swim there. I can sink quite well. Oliver has also started e-mailing us, so it’s clearly just a question of time before he has his own website.

Dot has pretty much finished the living room, and all the pictures have been rearranged, because some of the frames didn’t suit the new paint. All looks good, I have to say. We’re just back from the city, where we ordered new insides for our sofa cushions to try to stop them falling forward. I wonder if I would stop falling forward if I had new insides. We also put some money in Dot’s ISA, so of course we got the hard sell about switching to an online one. I really can’t be bothered arguing any more, so we’re going to do that. Needless to say, we’ve heard nothing from the insurance company. What would it take to get them to react? A pile of manure on their doorstep? No, I’m not going to do that. Oh, I don’t know. It’s an idea.

Bought some food from M&S and then had a look at some lights in John Lewis. Weather is very cold and windy, as it was on Sunday (Mother’s Day), when we went to North Walsham cemetery and also to the Rosary, where we found that my parents’ grave had been totally refurbished, with a new headstone and words. Looks really terrific. I haven’t had the bill yet.

It was cold yesterday too, when I played for my club’s A team at The Goat, Skeyton, which is so in the middle of nowhere that I suspect the home team were hoping to pick up a few points from defaults when opposing players couldn’t find it. Well, we all found it (I know it well, of course), but we might as well not have done because only our captain managed to avoid losing. I played weakly again after my momentary resurgence in February.

Saw the nurse again this morning, who repeated her usual mantra that my blood pressure was just below the level where they would start prescribing things. I’m amazed it’s not higher after this last week, but even if they do prescribe things, I have no intention of taking them.
Instead I have an olive oil spray to get rid of some of the wax in my ears. How romantic is that?

I’ve submitted a couple of poems and short piece of fiction for the Fish competitions. I think the piece of fiction is really quite good, so it clearly has no chance. That’s the way competitions work.

27 February 2008

Uncategorized, , , , ,

Three in a row and a bonus point. My two grandchildren, Oliver and Amy, with their friend Alastair, all entranced by a Wii computer game. We spent a weekend in Caddington, and Alastair came round on the Sunday, bringing with him his sister Lydia, and his parents Phil and Jane. Quite a while since we’d seen them: I used to work with Phil’s father David on The Christian newspaper in London in the mid-60s.

And another similar relationship: last night Dot and I went to the Maddermarket again to see a play which included Sam, the son of Nigel, my best friend at university, also in the mid-60s. Sam is clearly an actor of some promise, and the play – The Musicians – was very well done. Sam and his mum Heather came back for coffee afterwards.

On Monday the vicar came round for tea, and we had a chat about life, the universe and anything. The church – or to give it its alias, the Norwich Christian Meditation Centre – will soon be having a website, and I shall probably be having some oversight of it, which could be interesting. In the evening I scored what must be one of the luckiest wins of my chess career, having been dead lost for most of the game. My opponent panicked in time trouble and let me mate him. The team captain, who had stepped out briefly, couldn’t believe I had won, and I was of much the same view. It was rather like a football match in which one team is stuck in its own penalty area for 89 minutes, then breaks upfield, the ball hits someone and ends in the opposing team’s net. Well, maybe not quite that bad. I did make a couple of quite nice moves, but it should have been all over by then.

Speaking of football, Spurs managed to win a cup at last – the Carling Cup, beating Chelsea 2-1 on Sunday. David, Phil and I were sneakily listening on radio for much of the match.

Yesterday I spent 2-3 hours with Annette, talking about our Paston workshop, and got some interesting ideas together. I will make a proper note of them when I’ve finished this and send them off to Lucy, via Annette. Had lunch there after Annette and I had picked up some eggs from a roadside stall. Showed Mike how to put images on the InPrint website. Dot meanwhile was checking out places we could have our ruby wedding anniversary party in August, and it seems likely to be Dunston Hall. We had a big party for relatives a couple of years ago: this will be for friends (with the odd exception).

Today – bright though chilly – J is with us again, having visited her husband in hospital. They’re beginning the painful process of working out where he will live and who will pay for it. There’s a chance it will be the NHS, but you can never be totally sure. It’s now after lunch, J and Dot are in the city, and I’m waiting for the insurance company to ring back about the dispute we’re engaged in about whether I cancelled my policy last year ot not. I’ve supplied paperwork, but they seem reluctant to admit they’re wrong. It’s important because of the no claims bonus issue. Over £400 hangs on it.

There was an earthquake last night. It woke and frightened Dot, and she woke me up. A reasonably large quake for England (around 5 on the Richter scale and centred in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire), but no-one injured and no damage in our area. Very little damage elsewhere. Annoyingly I couldn’t get back to sleep properly afterwards – thinking about that insurance thing – and after lying awake for ages, I got up at 5.20 and watched TV for the next two and a half hours – stuff I’d recorded, not the rubbish you normally get on in the middle of the night. Now, of course, I’m very tired. Why can’t you fall asleep in front of the TV when you actually want to?

20 February 2008

Uncategorized, , ,

A group of eager artists gazing intently at the results of a new photo-etching process during a workshop at The Barn, Paston, on Monday. This was part of the Paston Project, and I spent the afternoon there so that I was up to speed on what was going on, because Annette (who was helping to lead the workshop) and I are working together at the Open Day in the church on March 22.

Part of the work was being professionally filmed, and some of the results of the photo-etching were superb. All very messy, though. Writing poetry (my contribution) is much more straightforward. It was an extremely cold day with only a little sunshine; very foggy early, and by the time I left, before 4pm, there was thickish fog all the way to Norwich.

In the evening I played quite a good game of chess and drew. My position was a little better, and maybe I could have played on, but I was running out of time.

Yesterday was my monthly visit to the chiropractor’s. No problems, it seems, though Dot and I have spent a couple of days this week (well, parts of days) in the living room, putting up new curtain rails, which I have to say look pretty good. And so they should, at such an extortionate price that I’m not even going to mention it. If we’d had them fixed professionally, the three windows would have cost £1500, materials included. We made a very substantial saving by doing it professionally ourselves!

If Tuesday is chiropractor’s, then Wednesday must be haircuts. Well, at the moment, anyway. We ran late out to Reepham, arriving ten minutes in arrears. Dot had some exciting highlights put in, and I went for a walk towards Salle, finding an idyllic spot by a wood just as a watery sun broke through the mist. The moment was interrupted by a phone call from Dave Hall wanting a game of chess tonight. Unfortunately, we are going to the theatre.

I’m still having a battle with Zurich Insurance, trying to convince them that my motor policy was not cancelled at the beginning of last year. I’ve now sent them copious paperwork to demonstrate that it wasn’t. This is all to convince my new company that I have a current no claims bonus, and it’s a waste of time and effort that could have been put to better use.

I’m now in regular touch with three members of my uncle Leonard’s family: his daughter Ann Rumsby from Liverpool; her daughter Dawn Jones; and Howard’s daughter Jeanette Eglington from South Africa. My family treee is shooting out – in one direction at least.

So quite a busy few days, which also included our usual Tuesday meal (at Ed’s) – totally delicious concoction of chicken and vegetables – and Communion on Sunday, featuring the reappearance of our original drummer, Lisa Campling, with her little boy and husband, and the first apeparance at St Augustine’s of Suzanne Cooke and her family. Suzanne cooked (ho ho) the magical soup at the Rohr event in January. More soup to come? Also went to the Robinsons last Saturday for another meal. We’re doing well. The Hamilton-Lowes were also there. Dot drove, so I indulged a little. Not much, though, because it was icy.

And I’m down to just touching 12 stone – a loss of a whole stone in 2-3 months. Feeling much better for it too.

29 January 2008

Uncategorized, , , ,

We enjoyed Whitlingham so much that we returned there on Sunday with Vicky and the children while David watched Spurs lose 3-1 to Liverpool in the FA Cup. Parts of it are very picturesque, the only problem being that it tends to be overrun by welly-wearing dog walkers talking intensely about cultural matters. Oliver went on ahead, and we found this lovely spot by the Broad as the sun was progressing down the sky: a small wooden landing stage about 30 yards off the main path. I shot the picture into the sun (of course) and told Oliver that he would be in shadow, which intrigued him. He didn’t seem to like the idea, but it made a good photo. Well, I like it.

Had a really good weekend altogether – went into the city on the Saturday to swap one of Oliver’s Christmas presents at John Lewis (he’d been given the same thing by two different people: I’m amazed it doesn’t happen more often). I used the opportunity to buy a new guitar tuner before rushing home in advance of the others to turn on the lamb stew. Quite nice weather, though coldish.

Went to church on the Sunday in the morning to do the music and wished I hadn’t. The two of them would have done just as well without me – “just as well” in this case meaning pretty bad. Tendency to rehearse in meticulous detail and then forget it entirely during the actual service.

Actually won a chess game last night: I was offered a draw in a position where my opponent had lots of pressure, but decided to carry on because I couldn’t see anything forcing and assumed he couldn’t either. Eventually won a long endgame, which was satisfying.

Today I head north to Hull – by train for the first time. The weather forecast is not good, but at the moment it’s fine here.

Still nothing in the EDP about my page ending, and no sign of the last one as promised – even though they had a stand-in piece today. I have tried to ring the deputy editor, but he’s not there. Again.

And Rupert has resigned from InPrint, which is a tremendous blow, as he was the driving force. I think he became fed up with being the driving force. So a few of us are having a meeting on Saturday to see where we’re going. More news when we find out.

22 January 2008

Uncategorized, , , ,

This is Eddie, my cousin’s daughter’s child, who paid us a visit on Saturday, together with his grandparents and mum and dad. To me he looks exactly as his father (also Eddie) did when he was a child. They all came for a meal, and he was extremely well behaved and quite delightful. The five of them were up in Norwich for the weekend, which was bad luck as far as the weather went. For many days now – until today – it has been overbearingly grey, with plenty of rain.

Today we had some blue sky, the wind dropped, and it was pleasant. Dot and I took the opportunity to get out of the house and walked round the Broad at Whitlingham. I took a few pictures, some of which turned out very well. I have invested in a new fast memory card and a gorillapod – a small tripod that can be used to stabilise the camera practically anywhere.

Last night I travelled to Lowestoft to play chess – and lost again after getting a reasonably good position. Either my judgement is totally shot, or I’m getting too old to sustain concentration, or I’m very unlucky. The last is obviously favourite. Gave a lift to a teammate who I discovered is a paramedic: clearly I shall have to give him more lifts. Just in case.

I’ve sorted out my photographs on iPhoto up to the Event stage: I now have 56 events, and my next task is to tag all the pictures. Put three of this afternoon’s pictures on Flickr.

On Sunday we had an alternative guy called Adrian joining us on guitar – in short space of time he managed to upset pretty well everybody, and I have to hope he doesn’t show up next week. Not the right attitude, I know. The evening’s Ambient Wonder event was excellent, with a good attendance despite teeming rain. The theme was “new beginnings”: not strikingly original, but it was refreshingly unusual and left everyone – as far as one could tell – feeling optimistic.

This feeling disappeared for me yesterday when there was still no mention of my page ending in the paper, and no sign of the final page appearing. Felt quite low most of the day, alleviated in the afternoon by a visit to Jessie’s. Today my replacement was described as our “controversial new columnist”, but I haven’t seen him write anything controversial yet. Even Ms P R Bland-Bland still has her page. Bitter? Me?

16 January 2008

Uncategorized, ,

Heavy rain on Friday last week didn’t worry us too much, but Howard was the car park attendant. Well, you can’t win them all.

Dot is off for the day on an Exclusions Board, hearing an appeal by the parents of a boy who has been excluded from high school. She spent most of yesterday reading the related papers, which led to the cancellation of our normal Tuesday evening meal – that and the many apologies for absence. In the end we couldn’t reach H, who turned up, and so we did her a baked potato before Dot returned to her study.

Earlier in the day we had lunch at Park Farm before calling in to see A Ethel, who had been rumoured to be very ill. In fact she was in bed but in good spirits and quite lively, except that she couldn’t move. Her leg is very bad – probably fluid on it – and something will need to be done soon. Nevertheless we had a good chat, and left when Rodney and Angela arrived to move some of her furniture – it has to be thinned out on doctor’s orders, so that she can use a walking frame.

Afterwards we went to Waitrose, then I dropped Dot off in the city to get some boots repaired. A wet day in general: happily today is quite bright. I went to see the nurse late in the afternoon. Everything Ok, though my blood pressure is still higher than she would like. I said I didn’t want to take blood pressure tablets unless it was absolutely necessary, as I have an aversion to going on something you can’t come off. She seemed to understand this.

So it was a quiet evening. I finished a mainly graphic novel that I got for Christmas – Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Fascinating stuff, and beautifully drawn.

BTW, I managed to lose another chess game on Monday. Yet again I got a really good position – this time against someone graded higher than me – and made a knight sacrifice which he said afterwards “should have won”. But I followed it up inaccurately, and left my king too exposed. When he just managed to get to the time control, I had to resign.

Nearly as bad as Norwich City, who went out of the FA Cup against a poor division two side (Bury) after scraping a replay at home and having to travel north. Still, Spurs are through, beating Reading 1-0 despite the absence through illness of Berbatov. They are starting to look quite reasonable in defence, but will have to be more than that in the next round at Old Trafford.

20 December 2007

Uncategorized, ,

This a view from under the Humber Bridge on Hessle foreshore, taken about a month ago. I went to Hull again yesterday to assess some young journalists – stayed the night at an excellent Premier Inn with an equally good Brewer’s Fayre restaurant adjoining (chicken and leek pie). And a view of this bridge in the distance. Spent most of the evening on Tuesday catching up with newspapers and magazines I’d been meaning to read, when apparently I should have been watching Spurs beat Manchester City in the Carling Cup. It’s so hard to keep up with what’s going on.

Journey up was pretty straightforward, via the A47, Peterborough and the A1. On the way back I decided on the shortest route, over the bridge and down the A15, but at Lincoln I got fed up with the funereal progress behind crawling HGVs and veered off back to Newark and the A1. The trip was still about 12 miles shorter, but half an hour longer, not helped by a hold-up near Stamford. Because only two of the journalists were available to be assessed, I got home at teatime and spent too much time watching TV, when I should have gone out for a brisk walk. But the weather is still very cold, the air is damp, and it’s not inviting. As I write this in my study, the house is mysteriously chilly – partly because two of the radiators are half-cold. This is something I shall have to get sorted in the new year.

At the end of last week we had a couple of good evenings with friends – the first with the Greens, who are the perfect hosts, and the second at home to four other friends who we know far less well. On Sunday my drama-cum-carol service was extremely well received; a new song I wrote was even clapped! The barely rehearsed actor-readers were all pretty good, the music went well and the atmosphere was warm. It was followed by a superb meal cooked by Vicky and Jared – the sort of Christmas fare you might expect to have been cooked for three or four people rather than a roomful. Delicious.

I played in the Christmas chess event on Monday while Dot went to a leaving do for Marion at Alburgh. Wrong choice by me: I scored only 3.5 out of 8, and the leaving-do was a lot of fun, apparently. Dot gave a speech which was much appreciated. She gave it to me before she went, and I have to say it was excellent. Well, I don’t have to, but I will.

Before I went to Hull I called in at Prospect House to internally verify a portfolio for Bernadette and chatted to a couple of people, including J, who is much improved and working part-time. Tonight we are off to close friends Salmon Fillet for nibbles, and tomorrow we will be doing the North Walsham run.

11 December 2007

Uncategorized, , , , ,

This is my cousin once removed: Catherine – daughter of my cousin Patricia, who is Paul’s daughter. We met her at Pat’s 60th birthday party on Saturday, held at Mersham Road Elim Church in the heart of South London. I think it was South Norwood, but everything merges into each other down there. We got there thanks to some thorough planning by me – a number of print-out maps featured – and some excellent navigation by Dot. So excellent, in fact, that we were three-quarters of an hour earlier than we thought we had to be there (5pm), and over an hour and a half before the guest of honour arrived (5.45pm). But as we met Catherine at an early stage – and we were given a cup of tea by helpers – this was not a problem. Catherine had her two daughters, Abby and Ruby, with her, and later I also met her two brothers. So a good day for catching up on family matters. A delightful party with plenty of hot food and some cake and cabaret.

Afterwards we drove to the Hendersons in Eltham, about half an hour away: some more excellent navigation by Dot got us there precisely at 9pm, when we had predicted we would arrive. Maryta was so astonished that she woke up. Stayed overnight and had a great time: superb lunch on Sunday. The weather throughout the weekend was awful – rain and wind, and pretty cold, as it has been for some time. Today there is some improvement, and we are promised a dry spell, albeit a short one. It is still very cold.

On Sunday evening we had a call from another family member who I had never met – Bev, who is Howard’s daughter, so another cousin once removed. I thought it was second cousin, but apparently, a second cousin is the child of your parent’s cousin. So Catherine and Bev are David’s second cousins. Glad we’ve cleared that up.

Bev was calling from South Africa: she’s coming to England in January and wants to meet some relatives, so I’ve invited her to stay with us. But it sounds as if she might be trying to cover the whole country in about a week, so I don’t think she’ll be with us long. I’ve given her directions from Gatwick…

I have now won my last two chess games, the latter one against quite a strong player, so things are looking up. I don’t know how long it will last. What with writing Christmas cards and various other things (I was trying to put together a few poems to sell tomorrow – see next blog – but I don’t think that’s going to happen), I hardly seem to have time to do anything. It must be an illusion. We’re busy every evening till Sunday and most of the days too. Yesterday I went to the chiropractor; today Dot and I had lunch at Park Farm. Not doing enough walking because it’s so unpleasant out.

I almost forgot – on the way down to London we stopped for lunch at Swynford Paddocks Hotel, just outside Newmarket at a place called Six Mile Bottom (ho, ho). Very pleasant toasted sandwiches and curly chips with garlic dip. I shouldn’t, but I did. And I’ve still lost over half a stone in the last three weeks. SPH was very big on Brigadier Gerard, a famous racehorse, so I expect that’s where he came from. The Paddocks, not the hotel. Presumably. We also checked on the hotel Dot is staying at later this week when she does her school inspection at Newmarket. Looks very acceptable.

14 November 2007

Uncategorized, ,

Is it a bird? Well, not exactly.

Had a lot of computer trouble over the last two days – Broadband dropping out or being very, very slow. After several attempts at various things, I plugged hub and computer into different sockets, and now it seems to be fine. It’s strange what a nice feeling you get when it all works well, and how depressing it is when it goes wrong. After all, it’s only a machine. But such a nice one.

In the intervals I’ve been writing a drama for Christmas, including a song, and my page for next week, all of which is now more or less finished. Today I went and saw the dental technician – an interview that lasted a maximum of two minutes – and he attempted to get the right shade for my forthcoming crown. Walked back into the city from his place (other end of Unthank Road) and then got a bus back to pick up the car. Both of which were much easier than driving home, because I made the mistake of going by the ring road, forgetting that it’s Christmas shopping time, which means Riverside is crammed constantly. Had to divert via the city centre.

Came back from the dead on Monday night when I was close to resignation in my chess game against a guy I know from Diss. Played what was the only move then, after he missed the best move, was able to sacrifice a knight for some play, which turned out to be good enough to draw. Quite pleased with the last few moves. I was actually a pawn up in the end, but with opposite-colour bishops.

Our Tuesday night meal / meeting went really well. Talked about prayer, then did it. Really nice feeling to the group.

Tomorrow we drive to Baldock to see Joan, then back for a PCC meeting in the evening. Weather has improved: mainly sunny and not quite so cold.