Halfway through our fortnight, and some blue in the sky yesterday morning. In fact the forecast was quite promising, and we set off for the Lonach Gathering in optimistic mood after I bought some petrol. We even remembered to take food for the picnic at the last moment.
We arrived slightly late, and Ella was off looking for us in the grounds. I went to look for her, missed her and returned to find everyone stuck into the picnic. I joined in.
The weather turned out to be astonishingly varied. At one point I was so hot I took everything off but my shirt. At another everything was on again as it rained and turned extremely chilly. At the end of the afternoon it rained quite hard and was very cold on the way back to the car park.
The Gathering itself was traditionally good, with the marching bands especially moving. One of our group of Ella’s friends competed in the hill race and came in sixth in the women’s race, winning £5. Total entry (men and women) was 90, plus two dogs. The setting is pretty magical, though a mite muddy on this occasion. Of the gathered friends, we remembered Anne and Gareth, Ian and Trish and others by sight. The traditional picnic, to which we contributed wine, cheese and other goodies, was as usual far too big but delicious.
In the evening we got takeaway Chinese on a whim. Nothing to write home about.
This morning it could almost be described as sunny, and we’re heading towards Braemar and the Linn of Quoich.
In the end a man with a low-loader arrived from Huntley and took the BMW to Aberdeen, the nearest BMW dealership, to have a new tyre fitted. The old one had a screw in it. We hung around Ballater most of the day, awaiting a call from said dealership, which eventually came, vouchsafing that the car would be ready for picking up latish on Thursday.
Meanwhile we had done the golf course walk, interrupted briefly by a shower and two men with strimmers. Plenty of evidence of the river surge the previous week – uprooted trees and shrubs scattered on the banks. Later we went down Glen Muick and walked part of the way to the loch, but encountered some small insects and retreated. Returned to town and haddock and chips, excellent as usual.
We decided to drive to Pennan yesterday and pick up the BMW on the way back. It poured most of the way there, but miraculously on arrival the rain relented and we were able to enjoy the visit, including some fish cakes and drinks at the hotel, which is under new management and looks wonderful. Many other houses in the village have been smartened up following the landslide, and the whole place is marvellously revived.
We went on to Aberdeen, where we got caught up in some horrendous rush-hour traffic but did manage to collect the BMW. Our satnav then directed us unerringly (though slowly) back on to the South Deeside road while the BMW unsurprisingly lost us, headed for the A93 and took a quarter of an hour longer. Nevertheless we all managed to reach La Mangiatoia for supper just after 7.30pm, the appointed hour. Quite a tiring day, but great to see Pennan again.
Today, egged on by a positive weather forecast, we set off for Cairn Gorm in the BMW, under grey skies full of rain. Happily by the time we got there the sky had relented somewhat, and we enjoyed a coldish break of three hours plus, during which we went up in the funicular, had lunch in the restaurant, bought me a pullover and took some quite good pictures. As we looked round the camera obscura the rain started again and we headed home. Fortunately a warning on the way there that one of the tyre pressures was low proved to be a computer error. But we checked pretty carefully.
On the way back we happened on the scene of an accident with thousands of police and a helicopter in attendance. We deduced that a man on a stretcher was a motorcyclist, but at least he was alive.
It was the Eagles’ 44th wedding anniversary; so Dot bought cakes when we got back.
We are now securely ensconced in our house at Ballater. According to the plan, we should have been on our way to Aviemore, but unfortunately the Eagle BMW had a flat tyre, so we turned back – fortunately before we had actually got out of town. Roger is now ringing for assistance, and we are drinking tea.
Before their arrival, we woke rather late on Sunday and scraped into church by the skin of our teeth. I forgot my glasses, but could just see enough of the hymns to navigate the service. Afterwards we bought pie and sausage roll for lunch and drove up the Tomintoul road, returning via Balmoral in rain and wind. Got a few nice pictures during breaks. In the evening we ate at La Mangiatoia, and very nice too.
On Monday we bought a watch for Dot at Byzantium and visited the station, where I bought another map. The Eagles arrived mid-afternoon with a delicious quiche, which we had for supper after a walk round the town. Weather still cool, windy and with frequent showers.
Yesterday after some deliberation we did the Seven Bridges Walk and were lucky with the weather, encountering a couple of light showers only. Oh, and a small deer. Later we drove to the Log Cabin and had a lovely light lunch; Dot bought me a shirt, which I wore to the Glen Lui in the evening. Another excellent meal with first-class service.
I have been feeling a bit under the weather off and on, and was quite shivery this morning, so have started a course of antibiotics after much consideration. All very odd.
Here we are in Ballater, in a beautiful cottage near the town square, and it’s just stopped raining. It’s markedly cooler than it’s been for weeks in Norfolk, and we have the heating on, though the wood-burning stove remains unlit. We’ve just been to church, which is roughly two minutes away, and had an early lunch: pie and sausage roll from the bakery.
We arrived yesterday at around 3.15pm after filling up at the petrol station, and the owner of the cottage – a youngish woman called Sue – was here to meet us. She was very pleasant and was clearly keen not to intrude. She left us a bottle of nice merlot and some chocolate biscuits. The cottage is pretty near perfect, except for the lack of a tumble drier. I suspect it has been completely refurbished very recently. We have the downstairs bedroom, with an en suite bath and shower. The Eagles will be upstairs, which is only right.
Last night we bought some food from the usual place and visited the river, which apparently burst its banks last week. The woman in the bakery said she had never seen it so “angry”. Some sandbanks are still lying around, and the river is quite high, but there are no longer any sheep being washed down to the sea. We booked meal at La Mangiatoia for tonight and failed to book one at the Glen Lui for Monday, when it is “residents only”. Then we bought some Indian from the takeaway directly opposite, which was fine but far too much.
TV reception is good, and so is WiFi. We watched Match of the Day (or most of it) in bed and caught up with Norwich this morning on iPlayer (Norwich 3 Watford 0).
The journey was mixed. The first part, from Norwich to Lockerbie (Annandale Water) was pretty awful. We followed our new satnav and took the direct route via the A17 and the A1 for a change. Never again. The A17 was funereal, averaging around 40mph and too many cars to make overtaking feasible. The A1 was even worse, continually stop-start until we took the M18 to avoid a nervous breakdown, stopped at services and came back on the M62, rejoining the A1 further up, where it was much clearer.
However, we then made the mistake of acting on advice from someone who recommended an east-west route through Bedales, Leyburn and Hawes. Beautiful road, but very twisty and therefore slow. Eventually we hit the M6 near Kendal and stopped for petrol at the Westmorland services. After this the going was very easy, but the whole journey still took us nine hours, and we had stopped for only about an hour in all. Distance: 342 miles. Our one lengthy stop was for lunch at The Chestnuts – favourite stop on the A17 for the Evetts and the Towns. We will probably never go there again, but it was very nice.
Annandale Water services: excellent room, with balcony and view of the lake. Pleasant receptionist. Poor restaurant facilities: McDonalds or Costa. We chose the latter, and also had breakfast there the next morning, me with sandwiches and fruit from Smiths, Dot with a croissant. the journey from there was pretty easy, though the A9 was unexpectedly slow. We stopped at Stirling services and then were held up by road works approaching Perth.
We had a sandwich by the Cairnwell chairlift and then proceeded through rain to Ballater, where it was much brighter.
I should mention a couple of events before we left. On Wednesday I had a “dress” rehearsal of Chronicle at Rob’s, which seemed to go quite well. Caroline tried on her new dress, made by Penelope, which can be seen on the Paston Heritage Society Facebook page.
On Thursday, with Dot in London for the day with Anne, I checked in at the printer to approve a dust jacket for the Chronicle book and (later) picked up Dot’s pills. In the afternoon there was a meeting at Mundesley of the PHS trustees, where I got rather annoyed with Lucy because her drive was so appalling and I was afraid I might have damaged the car. I hadn’t (as far as I know), but the drive was far worse than it was last time. Not much to report from the meeting, but I managed to write the minutes when I got home.
Holiday approaching fast. Dot is completing her packing today – or at least making a list – prior to a day in London with Anne. I will be packing too, but I have a “dress” rehearsal with Chronicle this afternoon.
Last night I met my god-daughter Holly for the first time since her wedding. She is now divorced and seems very happy: we had a lovely evening with her and her parents, Paul and Maryta, at Prezzos. The waiter was excellent, and Paul insisted on paying. How much better could it get? They also spent some time with us before and after the meal, and I discovered that Holly is a science fiction fan, especially Iain M Banks and Alastair Reynolds. I recommended Robert Holdstock’s Lavondyss and Mythago Wood, and lent her copies.
Dot was particularly pleased to have a good meal, because she had been fasting over Monday night in preparation for a blood test early yesterday. This meant that she was not able to have either the tea or the cake at Bridget and David’s during our monthly “cake and compline” gathering. Still, she could do the compline. Judy took us in her new car because she was a bit worried about parking it next to ours. So she had to park it at the Archers’, which is even more of a challenge.
On arrival home we forgot to retrieve the child seats which she had left at ours, so I took them to her yesterday morning while Dot was waiting for her blood test.
On Sunday we had another downpour or two – the biggest one as church ended. We were afraid that our living room would be flooded again, and were relieved (and surprised) to discover no water at all on the floor when we got home. The rain and wind were apparently the tail end of Hurricane Bertha – much worse in some other parts of the country.
We were a bit hesitant about fulfilling our scheduled visit to Walpole Old Chapel, near Halesworth, in the late afternoon for a poetry reading. But in Suffolk there had been little rain, and it was sunny and quite warm (though a bit windy). We were amazed at the number of people there – probably around a couple of dozen or more reading – and we all got to read three shortish poems or two long ones.
I read Something is required,Flood levels and Pelican, and they seemed to be well received. Mike Bannister, the organiser, was very welcoming and wanted me to read again at another Suffolk group. Another woman (wife of Hebridean poet James Knox Whittet) was convinced she knew me, but we couldn’t work out where or how. The whole affair lasted about 2½ hours. The chapel itself was amazing.
All this followed a full Saturday, which started with Dot visiting the doctor and getting a positive response to her complaint about her thyroxin tablets being cut. (She had been feeling under the weather, apparently as a result.) This doctor restored her former dose and said she could quote him if they tried to cut it again.
From here we proceeded to Jessie’s and then to the Gunton Arms, where we had an unexpectedly full lunch. I had been anticipating a sandwich, but we were sat at a restaurant table, so I felt I had to order a proper meal. This was a mistake, but quite typical of me. However, the shoulder of lamb was excellent. I shouldn’t have had the cheese and biscuits, though. Felt too full the rest of the day, which included Denise’s 70th birthday party in the evening.
This was fun, despite our not knowing many of the people there: it is after all 30 years since we lived in Yelverton. We chatted with the Jarys and especially enjoyed catching up with Keith, Clive and Elaine. I also had a longish chat with Barbara, who is not well but remains cheerful. It was also nice to talk to the Wrights’ new next-door neighbours, a youngish couple (though they have an 18-year-old boy who is interested in journalism).
A very hectic week started with a delightful barbecue last Saturday at Vicky’s house, to mark her 40th birthday. David and Bridget were there, plus the Streets and the Cumberlands, and of course Vicky’s parents, both sprightly. In fact Derek did most (if not all) of the barbecue meat, which was exceptionally good.
The rain arrived late enough not to spoil things, and the children did a dance in it. Amy and George are growing quickly. Exhibiting similar qualities: Florence and Mabel Street and Emily Cumberland. A further Cumberland was too small to exhibit much growth – a matter of weeks in this world, and not sure what to make of it.
On Sunday we had a special service in the old church to mark the start of world war one, and I read one of my poems, Shadows (available on back2sq1.co.uk). Howard was on the organ. Afterwards Stuart was selling copies of his book They Are Not Dead (manifestly untrue) about parishioners from St Augustine’s who were killed. A couple of people wanted copies of my poem, which was nice. Later Dot and I walked up to our actual parish church, St Matthew’s, to see an advertised exhibition, but this was not as exciting as we anticipated. Still, I bought a CD about the history of Thorpe Hamlet.
The next day we had anticipated taking delivery of our new car, and I had devised a cunning plan whereby we drove down to Caddington in both cars, and then on to Coventry in the new one, leaving David with our old car. This failed because the new car did not arrive; so I had to devise a new, slightly less cunning, plan.
We drove down to Caddington in the old car on Tuesday, catching a last glimpse of the children before their departure for Italy with the other grandparents and their mother. We then continued to Coventry, where we stayed the night at an excellent, friendly hotel called the Old Mill at Baginton.
On the Wednesday – Andrew’s birthday – we picked him up at 10.15 and walked into town, which was a bit of a revelation: it’s ages since I’d been there, and it’s really quite attractive. We bought Andrew a new shaver, some shoe laces, a toilet bag and a coffee. While wondering round looking for the Co-op (Andrew had vouchers) we met a couple of people that Andrew knew.
Afterwards we drove to Kenilworth Castle (via 79 The Chesils and 191 Beanfield Avenue) and spent a couple of hours looking round. I can’t remember ever having been there, and it’s quite spectacular. When everyone started getting tired, we moved on back to the hotel and had a late lunch / early dinner in the attached Chef and Brewer. This was again very good value: Andrew had the full three courses, but Dot and I were more than sated after two (first-class steak and ale pie).
We then returned Andrew to Minster Lodge and sorted him out. They all seem very pleasant helpers there, and well organised. Drove home, leaving Coventry during the rush hour fairly successfully. I did that bit, but Dot drove most of the way. Not a bad journey: brief stop at Cambridge Services.
Phil was happy for us to do the birthday honours, because he is too fatigued and in pain from his legs to be able to drive to Coventry. During the journeys I fielded calls from Elaine, Andrew’s carer, who was trying to set up a meeting about Andrew’s finances (we eventually did so, for early September) and on the way back from Jenny Baxi, who had called on Andrew just after we left. This was tricky because of the poor reception.
At last (Thursday) we could take delivery of our new red Mazda 2. Dot took me to the garage and then left to go to the dentist. It took about an hour to sort out all the paperwork, but I was home by about 11.30, having filled up with petrol at Morrisons. After Dot’s return and a brief lunch we left (in both cars of course) for Caddington. Dot went ahead in the old car, leaving me at the traffic lights, and I also stopped on the bypass to ring David. But I caught her by Thetford – she was moderating her speed – and we continued together, arriving at Caddington just after 3pm.
Stayed for a cup of tea and a chat (Chrissy was on the line) and then drove home – Dot first, then me. Haven’t quite got to the bottom of the satnav/radio/music combination, but it was a nice drive, though the engine is notably less powerful. Still, it’s a light car, and very nippy.
After fish and chips I rang up the Hendersons because I felt bad about not being in Norwich when they were moving in. They had just had fish and chips too; we ended up going round for a glass of champagne: took them a card and a house-warming bottle. Impressive house, but a nightmare to get sorted.
Today has been notably calmer. I’ve caught up with a bit of paperwork, posted some stuff to David and the city council (re our parking permit) and called in at the printer to give the go-ahead on the Oxnead book. David rang to say his garage man said the car needed a new pair of tyres and its rear brake discs fitted, but otherwise fine.
We’ve had the builder round to look at the roof. I climbed his ladder and had a look too, and we agreed it was the valley of death. So he’s going to fix that, as well as replace the felt along the back wall, after which hopefully no water will come in. The cost will be just over £2000; so the water had better not come in.
Naomi Care came to stay with us for one night last week, because she needed to be at the UEA early to see her friends graduate. We managed to supply food that did not irritate her intestines, and she seemed pretty upbeat, or pretty and upbeat. Nice to have a fairly long talk with her about her family.
The next day (23rd) I went to Wiveton to see Godfrey Sayers about the book he wanted me to proof-read. It is basically about the North Norfolk coast and his life there from about the 1950s. I found it compulsive. Before visiting him I walked on Cley beach towards Blakeney Point, and afterwards I discovered the true nature of Roman Camp (or Beacon Hill), which instead of being the entrance to a caravan park as I thought, tuned out to be a beautiful wooded heath.
Eventually I agreed to proof-read an improved version of the book, and I returned it to him today. He still needs to do some work on it, and I doubt if he will get it launched by October, as he wants to. Still, he is good at launching… I spent much of this week working on it, and I got paid £150 and six fresh eggs, which can’t be bad. Godfrey is a big fan of Robert Macfarlane. I am too, and I was delighted Dot found a radio programme of him exploring the Cairngorms. Listened to it this morning in bed.
The next day Debbie House came for lunch, which we had outdoors, and I had a chat with her about her new role as occasional leader of services. I introduced her to Bible Gateway, and we had an interesting chat about meditation and body prayer, among other things.
Speaking of bodies, we had our hair cut on Friday last week, and there next day Dot had a pneumonia jab after I threatened the nurse with dire consequences if she had side-effects of our wedding anniversary the next day. I don’t think the nurse was too amused.
From there we travelled on to North Walsham, where we visited Jessie and the cemetery: both seemed to be in good shape. Then on to the Gunton Arms for a snack lunch, which we ate outside. As we were about to leave, a helicopter landed, carrying a group of young men. Rumours started flying. Was it One Direction? No, it wasn’t. As we left, two of them were standing in the doorway, smoking. Dot, being Dot, commented that it was a good way to make an entrance, and one of them said it was a stag do. Apparently the first part of the celebrations, in London the day before, had been marred by rain. I thought you’d like to know that.
On we went, back to newly discovered Roman Camp, which we explored for a while, finding parts that few others had reached. Lovely day, if a bit cooler than when I’d visited a few days earlier. We ended our day out at the Pretty Corner Tea Rooms, which were rather lovely.
Nicholas, freshly returned from Turkey, spoke at Communion the next day on our willingness not to know, saying that it was only when we relinquished control that God could guide and interact with us. To me it seemed a brilliant talk, aimed specially at me; oddly, most of the congregation felt the same, so perhaps we’re all trying too hard to be in control. Except Dot.
This was our 46th wedding anniversary, and in the evening we went to Jamie’s for our celebration meal, which included Prosecco and steak. Very good, and the waitress was also excellent.
It was so good in fact that I decided to have a blood pressure monitor fitted the next day. That’s not exactly true: the doctor insisted I have it fitted or he would give me another pill, which I didn’t want. It was on for nearly 24 hours, and when it beeped I went into a very calm state. As result, the figures seemed to be quite low. Not sure if the doctor will see it like that.
On Wednesday I went into the garage to sign the finance and insurance documents and discovered that the new car should be ready on Monday. Since then Dot has had the old car thoroughly cleaned (this morning, while I took Godfrey’s book back). Yesterday we went up to Santander to sort out our ISAs and close a couple of old accounts. This went surprisingly well, and we celebrated by visiting Presto, chatting with Kathy and Roberto and having tea and a delicious piece of Sicilian confectionery.
I have also rung Geoff Saunders and discovered he is making reasonable progress. Will try to visit him soon. Meanwhile I think we have eventually managed to come to an agreement with British Gas about the church’s direct debits. They kept sending me letters, but hopefully it’s now sorted.
David, Chrissy and the grandchildren have come and gone. It was a rather unusual visit that seemed to pass too quickly. It opened with a bang: Dot arranged an Arbonne party at the house for Wednesday evening, to which many of her friends were invited. Parking problems were surmounted through the use of chauffeurs (Julia), remote parking (Anne and Bridget) and my positioning the MX5 in Rosary Road to make room for Sue and Judy. Too much detail, I hear you say.
The party seemed to go well, though I’m not sure how financially successful it was: in any case there is a suspicion that most of the friends came to see Chrissy, David and the grandchildren. I can hardly blame them for that. I should make clear that it is Chrissy who is the Arbonne consultant, not Dot.
The weather has been warm, and some of the party was in the garden. On the Thursday Dot and I took the children to Winterton, one of their favourite spots, where we had a late lunch at the cafe and followed it up by some hide-and-seek in the dunes, which my ankle stood up to reassuringly well. Even Dot was able to move about a bit 🙂 We also spent some time on the beach, when all of us paddled.
While we did this, David and Chrissy were doing my Norwich Paston walk, partly as a test for some software he’s writing. They appeared not to get lost. There was also a great deal of table tennis played, with Oliver improving visibly as the three days progressed. In the end he was beating both Dot and me. Amy spent a lot of time watching some kind of drama on her small screen, and did not welcome intruders.
L:ate on the Friday David and Chrissy took my car to Suffolk to visit a cousin of Chrissy’s. Earlier Richard had called round coincidentally and was able to talk to David about websites and similar matters.
The Caddington contingent returned home on Saturday just after lunch, following a visit to Hobbycraft and Morrisons and an unsuccessful search for a Mr Whippy. Sorry, Amy. The journey went well – probably a good time to travel.
After a rest in the afternoon, Dot and I went next door for a meal. Much of it was in the back garden, the weather still being very warm. But it ended in a thunderstorm: we rushed home to take washing off the line when we saw the lightning, but returned for another half an hour. Good food and drink and some enjoyable conversation, mainly philosophical 🙂
But this thunderstorm was nothing compared to the one that hit Norwich yesterday afternoon. We had been to church, where I preached on God being with us, and were sitting watching television when there was a huge, prolonged cloudburst. It wasn’t long before water came into our living room again. It seemed to come down the walls, but there was more on the floor than seemed to be indicated by marks on the walls. We got the towels out again and mopped it up.
Next door had flooding in the bathroom, and are having a builder round tomorrow. He is popping in to see us too.
In the evening Dot and I went to Lowestoft for a Seagull performance. We read a tanka series together and then I read a couple of my other poems which were well received, especially by Kaaren Whitney, who wants me to read at some other place in Suffolk in August. Uniquely, there was a guest poet, Rodney Pybus, who was pretty good, but it left little time for others, and the whole thing didn’t finish till after 10pm, by which time we were pretty tired.
Bird-watching on Cley beach, looking over the marshes.
Seems a long time ago since I posted something. Let me see, what has happened? Oh yes, I have become 69. I am in my 70th year. Three score years and ten on the horizon. I suppose getting this far has been good, but it all went by so quickly, and the more it went by, the quicker it went.
So I was feeling a bit down on my birthday, which was last Saturday, as I recall. Maybe this was partly because the previous four years I had been on holiday when my birthday came round: this one seemed strangely flat. That was until I bought a new car.
We called in at the garage on the way to the North Norfolk coast for a late afternoon visit, and things soon got out of hand. We took a Mazda2 for a test drive – both of us had a go, and it seemed really nice, light and nippy. We sat down to talk to the salesman/general manager, who we know quite well, and before we knew what we were doing we had ordered one.
Things I forgot to check: whether I could get my guitar in the boot. Bit worried too about how I’ll cope with the much smaller engine and loss of Sport boost, but on the plus side it’s much cheaper to tax and insure, and it uses far less fuel.
Afterwards I was driven to Holt by my wife and we had tea and cake there before moving on to Cley, where we visited the beach and then the Three Swallows before ending up at the church for a performance of Caroline’s Pepys extravaganza, which was brilliant and worthy of being seen by many more people. She seemed pleased to see us. The rest of the audience were very weird, so we fitted right in. One of them had bought a dining table for £8500, apparently. I didn’t mention the car.
The next day I had to preach at St Luke’s. Happily Karen was leading the service and Steve was the worship band, so I felt quite at home, and the talk (on No condemnation) went OK, despite a large man on the front row who tried to join in. He was also in the front row at a concert there in the afternoon to raise money for Carrie’s work, and kept trying to draw attention to himself. He tried to engage me in conversation in the interval, but I was giving nothing away (we had already had a brief discussion after the service, where I obstinately refused to agree with anything he said). He brings out the worst in me.
There was a fierce rainstorm during the concert, and water started to get in, but they soldiered on. Very enjoyable, actually, especially Dvorak’s New World symphony. Dot and I escaped by the side door afterwards to avoid encountering Mr Big in the foyer. Also Dot was anxious to get home to continue with a mammoth clean-up that has been going on all week. The garden is now stunning and the kitchen repainted, rearranged and generally just right for a party, should one happen to occur.
Coincidentally, Chrissy has arrived in the country and will be joining us on Wednesday with David and the children. Oliver has a new phone and texts us quite a lot, which is nice. We also get more of an idea what’s going on.
My birthday meal was on Friday evening. We went to Cafe Rouge, and the meal included a free bottle of champagne, as it was for my birthday. This kind of generosity might help to explain why the place is closing down shortly – something we learnt by chance, overhearing a conversation while we were there. Our waitress, who was an opera singer, said that the group was cutting back, which is a pity, because Cafe Rouge in Exchange Street has a very particular kind of charm that I’m sure you don’t get in other Cafes Rouges.
Earlier we’d popped out to Mundesley to see Lucy, who amazingly was able to let us have the ISBN number for the Oxnead book. She seemed quite well, and her house looked very nice. Not sure what’s going on there. The cat and rabbit look innocent.
On Wednesday last week we went to Muspole Street to pick up my other birthday present, which is a picture by Martin Laurance that I’d expressed an interest in and which suddenly became available. Nothing too expansive or expensive, but it looks good on the newly painted wall with the other two of his that we have. I also called in to see Nick Gorvin about printing the Oxnead book. He gave me quite a reasonable quote.
Going way back, a week ago as I write we were at Judy’s enjoying cake and compline, but without the compline, because no-one had prepared it. Lovely evening though, including the Archers, who took us.
Back to today: I’ve been in the city paying in cheques. Weather very warm. On the way back I looked at David Holgate’s carving of Julian on the Cathedral, which is impressive. He has just died, and his funeral is this week. I have been in touch with his assistant, Philippa, who I know a bit. Also bumped into Margaret and Martin on the way home and had quite a long chat about his worries concerning Mairead’s house, which he fears may be sold for bedsits. We agreed that this must not happen, but had no idea how to prevent it.
Oh yes, there was a World Cup Final. Germany won. Nice goal.
Busy day last Thursday: so busy that Dot got confused and ended up doing a presentation at Little Plumstead school instead of coming to the Paston members’ meeting at Bacton, where Susan Curran spoke rather well and then almost had a fight with Lucy about the Pastons’ reputation and origins.
Earlier we had a Chronicle meeting at Rob’s house, preparing the Oxnead event and discussing various other things, including the book. It seems I will be wearing some kind of costume. I may have to leave the country. Afterwards Rob and Penny entertained me to tea, which meant I was pretty full when faced with the fabled Paston refreshments.
Still, at least we all got there, despite signs declaring the Bacton road closed (it wasn’t). Apparently removing road signs afterwards isn’t included in the contract for repairing a road. Not many people at the talk, but a nice evening.
Dot and I missed an extraordinary meeting of the PCC that discussed the parish profile (probably a good thing), but I made some comments beforehand that Howard passed on. I called on him the next day and bumped into Beth, who is looking very well.
On the same day we emerged triumphant in our table tennis encounter with the Robinsons, despite not having practised. It was interspersed with lasagne and a couple of world cup quarter-finals, both of which were pretty dire. Philip went to sleep at one point.
Saturday and Sunday were quiet, apart from a lively Communion service and afters at church. Elvira brought a cake, and there was some jamming with Carrie (using my guitar), Dot and a guy from the farm, who plays the piano by ear.
Today, which has been muggy, Dot visited a couple of schools and continued the task she started yesterday: painting the kitchen. She claims to like doing it; so I let her do it (as if I had a choice). It all makes me feel uneasy, though.
Have had a look at Godfrey Sayers’ book and made him an offer. Haven’t heard from him; so it was probably ill-judged.
