Touch of deja vu, this time with children

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Chilly trio atop Ranworth church tower

Certain amount of déjà vu this week. It’s just as cold, but thankfully remaining dry. And again I found myself at Ranworth and the Castle Museum in Norwich (though not simultaneously). This time in the company of David, Oliver and Amy, who are staying with us for a few days.

We went to Ranworth on Easter Monday, and I managed to fulfil my promise by buying the map I had looked at with Andrew. This time it was priced! We spent some time at the visitor centre and then had something to eat at the church tea rooms. We caught the second shift coming on duty, and they kept telling us they had no idea where anything was, or indeed if it was at all, which suggests a certain failure in organisation. However, they were very friendly, and the tea was good.

Afterwards we climbed the tower – a steep process made even more difficult by the need to pass some people coming down. The children took this in their stride and made the summit easily. Needless to say the wind was blasting across, but the view was even clearer than last week.

On Tuesday we took the children to Winterton while their father did some work, and we had a good time as usual in the dunes while becoming increasingly aware of our advancing years. I fell over almost immediately while executing a body swerve, and then wrenched my arm while tagging Amy (or, looking at it from her point of view, not tagging Amy). Meanwhile Dot also fell over, though not so dramatically, and we discovered later that she had lost one of her earrings.

Earlier we had had baguettes and rolls in the cafe, which was packed – possibly because it had featured in a national newspaper recently as a top food spot. We always knew that, of course, but we had previously benefited from the fact that it doesn’t look it at all. Quite unprepossessing and lacking in style, but hey, the food is great, and so is the tea. Afterwards we drove to North Walsham and had even better tea with Jessie, followed by a visit to the cemetery.

Yesterday we took in the Castle Museum with Oliver and Amy and half the population of Norwich – presumably because it was still so cold outside that the beach was out of the question. Some interesting items for the children to tackle, and games to play, but the battlements were out of order and the dungeon trips full. We ended with some tea and cake and a trip to the shop before meeting Daddy in M&S and buying Oliver some trousers.

Then Dot, Oliver and I took the bus home while Amy, after some indecision, stayed with her Dad for further shopping. They arrived home just in time to join us for a meal at Prezzos and chocolate dessert at home. Meanwhile part of our rear containing wall has fallen down into the Wildlife Trust car park, but it was not hit by a vehicle. Oh no. Actually it may well not have been. We await a conversation with the NWT people.

On Easter Sunday we couldn’t persuade any of our guests to join us at church, which was a pity, because it was a nice service, led by Geoff, and quite well attended. It also featured some chocolate eggs at the end.

Bit of manipulation

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Andrew wrapped up against the cold at Ranworth

It isn’t getting any warmer. It snowed briefly this morning, but the main factor throughout the week has been the biting east wind, which as my friend Sandra would say is a lazy wind, because it can’t be bothered to go round you – it goes right through you. Despite this, life goes on: I guess you’d get used to living with it eventually. As another friend, Kevin, said, it’s not bad weather, it’s the wrong clothes. Not sure that’s entirely right (puts on extra jumper).

On Monday another Paston trustees’ meeting at Dayspring. I went a bit early to chat to an afflicted Lucy, but not sure I helped much. The meeting went well, and I agreed to help at the Paston Day at the end of April, organising some Chronicle stuff, or as we prefer to put it, reading out some poems and letters.

Drove to Coventry to fetch Andrew on Wednesday. Phil is having a bad time at the moment, so he couldn’t assist. No real problem in the driving, and A was much better than expected. On the Thursday we braved the wind and cold and went to Ranworth: had a sandwich or two at the staithe and then walked to the revamped wildlife centre on the edge of the Broad. Pretty much on our own there, which was quite nice in a way. Good views; but the staff had spent the morning unpacking and weren’t really in full flow. I wanted to buy a map, but no-one knew how much it cost. In the end I said I’d leave it and come back next week (which we might do, with the grandchildren).

Andrew and I then climbed Ranworth Church tower and found ourselves on top with a family of four: grandparents and two young children. We took each other’s photographs, but didn’t hang around long. Earlier I had walked over to the Riverside shops with Andrew and bought him two pairs of new shoes as well as some other items of clothing. On the way back from Ranworth we called at the Rosary, which he didn’t recognise for some time as we were approaching it from the wrong direction.

On Good Friday we walked up to the Castle Museum and spent a couple of hours looking round, starting with the wildlife section and proceeding to the basement by way of the keep. After lunch at home Phil walked down to see him. Andrew and I left for Coventry at about 3.303pm and stopped for a meal at Thrapston Little Chef before reaching The Langleys just after 6.30pm.

Unusually he wanted me to help him unpack and sort himself out; so I didn’t start for home till well after 7pm. But despite being delayed by alleged animals on the road near Newmarket (the police stopped traffic and were searching along the edges) it was a really easy ride back , and I was home by about 9.45pm.

I have omitted to mention that while Andrew was in Norwich I had my first session with Sharon Gibbons at the Oasis, when she got a life history and did some manipulation of my shoulder, which is quite painful at times. Not sure what caused it: she suggests a problem with a complex of muscles in that area. Sounded convincing, and the manipulation felt good.

The whole appointment took longer than I anticipated (over an hour) and I was late back for our meal, which made Dot late for her visit to Carrie. Oh well. (Fleetwood Mac again).

Today we enjoyed an extensive bit of shopping at the supermarket, and I checked one of my car tyres again that I thought might have a slow puncture. It probably has, but it’s very, very slow. Now anticipating the artival of David and the children late this afternoon. According to our tracking device, they have arrived safely at the Co0omes’ house in Bishop’s Stortford for lunch.

Dot has a new job as an RE Quality Mark assessor. It remains to be seen how much more time this will take, but it shows how highly thought of she is. Not surprisingly.

Exploding oven and torpedoed rehearsal

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Unusual use of aeroplane at County Hall. Or maybe things are not quite as they seem…

Spring has not yet put in an appearance, despite the equinox. The air remains chill, and there is further risk of snow at the weekend. On the plus side, there is some blue sky today.

The quiz went quite well last Saturday. Our group of six came 5th out of 11, which is respectable enough not to be embarrassing, and everyone contributed. It was also fun, and the fish and chips was not too bad. The wine helped. Cold walk home, though.

I led the service on Sunday, and Margaret preached. I used a very old hymn called It is well with my soul, which I introduced by listing all the problems the composer had gone through. The hymn made quite an impact, as it had done on my poet friend Joy, who sent it to me. Funny how these old hymns still work.

The PCC meeting on Monday attracted the usual high attendance from  St Augustine’s (Dot and me) and brought a discussion on whether the church should state where it stood on controversial issues such as women bishops and gays, or indeed gay women bishops. Interesting arguments on both sides (of whether we should state where we stand), but no final decision reached.

Have almost finished the Dragon Hall leaflet; now need to get to grips with the one about the Pastons in Norwich, but I’ve been strangely lacking in energy. I’ve made an appointment with a sports injury specialist recommended by my doctor – not because I have a sports injury, but because my arm is getting worse rather than better, and there’s a chance she might be able to find out what’s wrong.

During preparations for Tuesday Group our bottom oven exploded. Happily and strangely, this had no adverse effect on the top oven, and we were able to transfer the jacket potatoes. Today a man came to repair the oven, which he did remarkably quickly and for a modest £77 – replacing an element and some other piece of gubbins which governed the display panel.

Other items which have taken up my time include stopping a couple of cheques that went missing en route to The Langleys. I have now arranged to pay Andrew’s fees by bank transfer. I have also confirmed that Fred will be joining us on April 5 for the CNSOB reunion at Dragon Hall and Yellows, which is nice. He’s the only one I know other than superficially.

Dot is spending a lot of time practising her violin to get ready for a concert by the Sillars Orchestra at the end of April. Meanwhile our band rehearsal scheduled for Sunday has been torpedoed because one member will be in Bristol. Oh well (Fleetwood Mac).

The women, not the drugs

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Dot in the grounds of the UEA during a recent walk. Can’t explain the sun.

Not a week that will trouble my top ten. For some reason I was feeling down at the start of it, and this was exacerbated when I got a good position in my chess game on Monday and, needing only a draw for a team win, proceeded to lose concentration completely and go under very quickly in a pawns-and-bishop ending.

The week “ended” with a visit to the doctor yesterday. My blood pressure has gone down – thanks to my daily walks – but he still thinks I need another pill, as well as some work on my arm/shoulder, which has been giving me trouble. At the moment I am resisting the additional pill (I didn’t take it this morning) but he thinks I’m taking it, which is not the best situation. He is working on statistics, which I don’t have the greatest faith in.

I also messed up Thursday, when I could have gone to see the new Archbishop at the Forum and/or the Cathedral, followed by Sam S playing with his band, The Upgrade, at the Waterfront in the evening. Both opportunities were squandered in typical fashion. Instead, I got a mysterious call from A Ethel’s number in the evening while Dot was at a governors’ meeting, and when I tried to ring back (the call ended after a couple of rings) it just rang and rang. After consulting with Angela, I went with Dot (who had just got home) to see what the problem was and found Ethel sitting on a chair in her petticoat, with the apparently broken phone in her hands and saying she hadn’t rung us. So that was fine. No, it really was.

In other news, I have managed to complete a flyer for the Dragon Hall day, barring a few minor additional bits of information. On Monday I went with Rob to the Norfolk Record Office for a progress meeting for the autumn exhibition there, and that went quite well. Lucy couldn’t go as she is in a bad way with another infection and a bad prognosis from her doctor.

My nephew Sam stayed with us for a couple of nights, but spent most of the time with his parents, of course, organising the purchase of a new laptop for Joy and a new gaming computer for Phil. It was Phil’s birthday on Tuesday: he is 61. I got him a CD he requested, some wine and a rather esoteric book about remote islands which took my fancy in Waterstones.

I’ve finished a biography of Leonard Cohen – I’m Your Man, by Sylvie Simmons – which was beautifully written and compulsive, as well as telling me various things about LC that I didn’t know. I had an idea about the number of women, but not the quantity of drugs. That’s where I went wrong.

I e-mailed the UEA lecturer who spoke to us about translation and attached my “translation” of the Lord’s Prayer from Aramaic. She asked me to do a guest blog on it, which can’t be bad.

Natural break … Just had our hair cut, and this evening we are participating in a Quiz and Chips Night as part of the Roger Mason-Liz French-George-and-Fiona team. Jude is setting the questions, so it should be interesting.

Walking in the snow and rain

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My trousers after I got back from Jan’s memorial service: splashed by a bus on Rose Lane

Winter has returned, albeit a bit later than forecast. A fair bit of snow on the ground last night, which deterred Sam from completing his journey from Birmingham, where he had been attending a Christian Writers’ Conference with Joe and Birgit. He made it as far back as Joe’s and wisely decided to stay the night there.

Earlier in the day I had walked up to Holy Trinity through a mixture of snow and rain to attend Jan Miller’s memorial service: quite an inspiring one – very well organised in a Holy Trinity sort of way. Hardly anyone there I knew, so I didn’t stay for refreshments. Even harder snow and rain on the way back, but all good for my walking programme. Today is the first day I haven’t done at least half an hour for a couple of weeks. That’s because it’s still very cold, with a mixture of snow and rain falling, though the snow that laid last night has largely vanished; so I imagine Sam will eventually make it.

He is visiting his parents, as he had been signed off work for a couple of weeks. On Thursday I took them to the doctors and left them there for about 90 minutes before being recalled to fetch them. I have to say neither of them looked particularly well.

The day before, I had another of my longer walks, dropping off some cash at Ian’s before heading into town for a cafe conversation on translation at the White Lion Cafe. Happily Adrian was there again, and the session was good too, by Dr B J Epstein of the UEA. Some interesting ideas, and practical too. I think it was aimed mainly at people considering doing translation, but that’s not really in my mind. Still it inspired an article and a poem for my website.

I’m also reading the latest biography of Leonard Cohen (I’m Your Man), which is beautifully written and easy to read, as well as revealing some unexpected details about him, such as the huge amount of drugs he took. A combination of that and the translation session inspired me to want to write more poems, though not to take more drugs.

Spring about to disintegrate

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Edingthorpe Church from the lychgate

Almost springlike today, with blue skies and a distinct rise in the temperature. Sadly, it is all forecast to disintegrate tomorrow, with rain sweeping in. It was lovely yesterday too, when I drove out to Paston in response to a call from Lucy. Afterwards I called at Edingthorpe Church, which is a beautiful spot, then walked a bit down the Weavers’ Way, from the point where the Yarmouth Road meets the North Walsham bypass. Yes, I’m keeping up my walking routine, but not losing any weight. My blood pressure just better be down…

Of course forgetting to take my pills yesterday, and then losing at chess, didn’t help. I played pretty badly against Chris Tuffin until I lost a piece, then pretty well, but it was too late. Unfortunately, he followed the same pattern but didn’t lose the piece.

Still writing tanka with Joy, though I’m a bit late with the final one in the current series. Must get down to it. On Sunday I read five poems at the Seagull, which seemed to go down well. Hope to do some songs next time, if Phil can fit it into his now busy schedule.

On Saturday we visited North Walsham, refurbishing the flowers at the cemetery and dropping off a cardigan to Sheila (she had lent it to Ethel at the funeral). We then spent most of the afternoon with Jessie, listening to Norwich lose 4-0 to Manchester Utd. The tea and cake made it worthwhile. Called in at Waitrose afterwards, and Dot got a refund on some flour – together with more flour. What nice people.

Dot bids for art

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The cake made by Amy and her grandmother (see earlier post)

As February rolls to its end, we roll home from the Sainsbury Centre, where we have been to an art private view and auction, at the invitation of Anna. Wasn’t really looking forward to it, but it was actually a lot of fun. We put in a few bids in the silent auction, but don’t expect to win any of them. Dot bid in the actual auction and went up to £50 before dropping out. Anna and Howard were both there, of course, and so was Nick Castor, who took over my journalism course at UEA in 2006. Nice to see him again.

Unfortunately there were sandwiches and prosecco. Not unfortunate in itself, but we didn’t know that was going to happen and so we took out some lamb chops from the freezer, which we now have to eat. We went by bus, which took nearly an hour from the point where we arrived at the bus stop to the point when we reached the Sainsbury Centre. Half that time coming back of course, but again we did have quite a long wait at the stop.

Yesterday I drove to a Paston trustees’ meeting at Dayspring. Quite nice weather (it’s been reasonable over the last few days, though cold). Lengthy discussions about plans for the year, budgets and particularly the planned DVD and the new website, which is all very exciting but confusing. Today I attempted to do the minutes after editing Lucy’s piece for the newsletter in which she spelt not only the patron’s name wrong, but also the chairman’s – and that’s only four letters (Knee). Still, she’s not well.

I’ve been managing to keep to my 30-minute brisk walks each day (more or less), and as a boost, today I also cleared up a lot of foliage that Dot had cut off the bushes in the front garden. I’m sleeping better too. Still writing tanka with Joy, and she sent some of them to a reviewer she knew, who was quite complimentary.

Incompetence behind the lines

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Oliver reaches a summit in Lion Wood

House feels very empty today. Dot is out working under her free governor’s hat, I haven’t done much except put a BBC producer in touch with a St Peter Hungate trustee, and David and the children are back home (or in two cases, at school). They arrived here on Thursday, and we had a relaxing three days, because it was too cold to do anything much outdoors. Nevertheless Oliver and I did manage a lovely 2½-mile walk up through the cemetery and Lion Wood, while Dot and Amy went shopping and David ventured into the city.

We also fitted in a very nice lunch at Prezzos on the Saturday, before listening to Norwich beat Everton 2-1 with a goal in the last seconds. Amy and Dot made a cake, and several games were played. Oliver is progressing well with his chess. He took away my old iMac: not sure his father was overjoyed by this idea, because it’s quite big, but Oliver seemed happy enough, though Amy wanted half of it to go with the new clothes Nana had bought her. Both children still delightful and growing up quickly: both enjoy writing and are creative as well as lovely. After a bit of uncertainty, they left at around 7pm on the Saturday and had a straightforward journey home.

Sunday featured the first of our projected post-service talks, and it was an impressive start. Louise Øhrstrøm spoke on St Julian, who she has translated into Danish, and there must have been about 60 people there, about a third of whom attended the Communion beforehand. Nicholas was in his impresario mood, which I have to say he does very well. Louise’s talk was very good, despite being quite difficult to listen to because foreigners, however good their English, always have a different intonation and flow. Good response generally.

Earlier in the week, on Wednesday, we had an evening meal with the Higbees at Newton Flotman after having difficulty getting out of Norwich because of road works on King Street, creating traffic jams. Not feeling at my best ( I was a bit below par all week), but an enjoyable time as always.

Have finished Into the Silence, a book by Wade Davis on the attempts on Everest in the 1920s. Fascinating stuff and very thorough research. I learnt a lot about Tibet and the huge organisation that seemed to be required to even get near the mountain. The book casts doubt on several reputations, and makes others. The early section on the Great War left me extremely angry at the arrogant  incompetence of the generals, especially Haig, but there was plenty of incompetence during the Everest expedition, not least from the people organising it safely at home (as Haig was safely behind the lines).

Having read the book, I doubt that Mallory and irvine reached the summit, though it’s not totally impossible. Amazing that Reinhold Messner (my favourite mountaineer) did the whole thing on his own without oxygen in 1980.

Funeral of Peter Beales gets TV coverage

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Signs of spring in the Rosary today

Rather a lot going on at the moment, which explains my lack of posting. Dot took quite a while to recover from her cold after Buxton, and she still has a bit of a cough, as have I. Feel more or less all right, though, especially as I’ve just booked a fortnight in Ballater at a house called The Coyles in Golf Road, just round the corner from the legendary wee house.

Today is a lovely winter’s day, with blue sky and not really cold after an initial frost. I walked up to the Rosary for about half an hour, under doctor’s orders. He took my blood pressure last Wednesday and pronounced it too high. I declined his offer of more pills, and he gave me a month to show some progress. Have booked an appointment online for March 15. It was the only one available.

Took Phil to the doctor’s last Thursday, and after returning him home and calling on the vicar with cheques, took the car in for servicing, which came out at an unexpectedly high £400. Walked home (of course), but Dot drove me up to fetch it at tea time.

The service included cleaning the car, which was fortuitous, as the following day was Peter Beales’ funeral, which was big enough to make it on to TV as well as into the newspapers. Dot and I drove to the nursery and took advantage of the coach into town to avoid problems with parking. Fortunately seats were reserved at the front of the church for us (as family), and I managed to keep three chairs plus a wheelchair space for Angela, Rodney, Vicki and A Ethel. The latter survived the whole thing remarkably well, even when the lock to her bungalow jammed when we took her home, and we were stuck outside in the cold for about quarter of an hour waiting for the warden.

She had been taken to the church by a specially adapted taxi with R, A and V, and she also came to the refreshments in the nursery bistro, which coped splendidly with about 200 people. She got lots of attention, and it was a nice occasion. Richard and Mandy both gave good tributes (read by the vicar), and the service featured the Shipping Forecast, by special request of Peter. No-one knows why, but it certainly got people’s attention.

The taxi did the same return journey with Angela & Co, but we met them at A Ethel’s, which is how we came to be involved in the jammed lock situation. After we go tin and they left we stayed with A Ethel for a while, but she was nowhere near as badly affected as we thought she might be. Ironically (I suppose) I received an e-mail while we were there telling me that our friend Jan Miller had died of cancer at the age of 64. Totally unexpected; we had no idea she was ill.

On Saturday we had booked to go to a Riding Lights performance at Lowestoft, but the tickets never turned up, and Dot was coughing quite badly, so we decided to give it a miss instead of ringing up and demanding action. Not very good on their part, though, especially as when I originally tried to book, their website malfunctioned. Spent most of the day finishing off my sermon on Jesus’ temptations, which I delivered on Sunday, of course.

On Sunday evening we met Heather, Simon and Sam at the King’s Head and progressed to the Ali Tandoori for our usual Indian meal. Miraculously, Dot did not cough while eating, though she did have quite a lot of red wine. Had a really good evening: we get on very well with them. Pity they will soon be going to Bournemouth: Heather has a job at the university there (she is already commuting) and Simon is looking for one in the area. Sam is due to go to Chester University next year, and his band, The Upgrade, is playing at the Waterfront next month.

Monday afternoon saw another Paston event: a cafe conversation led by Elizabeth McDonald at the White Lion Cafe. About a dozen took part, and it went well: I was able to make some contributions. Kay Riggs was there, as was Adrian Ward, which was nice. In the afternoon Dot and I did a mammoth shop at the supermarket and ran into Barbara Vidion, which was also nice.

Appointment with Lowry a highlight of weekend

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View from bedroom window yesterday morning, with Dave removing snow from his car

Left for Buxton at 11am on Friday, rather nervous at a forecast that seemed to indicate we would have trouble getting back. Too pessimistic, as it turned out. Stopped nearly an hour at Cambridge Services, then had to divert because the M1 was closed, so went up A1 – missed a turn because it was badly signed and went up to the A57, then through Staveley and Chesterfield.

Deadly slow: thousands of speed cameras, but they didn’t need them because the drivers were so snail-like. Eventually reached hotel at 4pm. Quite crisp and bright after a very soggy start. Hotel has reduced size of rooms and is still redecorating; so not ideal. Dot had trouble with paint smell throughout, and we should probably have asked to be moved at the outset. But great view from the room as always. Fair bit of snow on hills. Dave and Julia had arrived earlier and were having coffee in town when we arrived.

Excellent meal – steak. But had a very bad night with stomach gas. Powdery snow overnight, but nothing significant. After breakfast we went into Buxton and had a look inside the university dome. Impressive. Then a bit of shopping – Dot bought some bowls – and tea/coffee at Charlotte’s Chocolates. After a bit of discussion and rethinking decided to drive to Lyme Park, where we repeated the 3.5-mile walk of a couple of years ago, over to the Macclesfield Canal. Very muddy in places, and a light drizzle developed. After a snack we returned to he hotel through low cloud above Whaley Bridge. Not a bright outlook, and Norwich 0-0 against Fulham. Improvement on 5-0 loss on first day of season, but lack of goals worrying.

Good fish and chips for supper, followed for second night running by port in the Evetts’ room. Slightly better night, but didn’t sleep much after 5am. More snow this morning as we headed to station to  catch 10.29 for Manchester. As we neared Manchester  snow disappeared, to be replaced by rain, which persisted for rest of day. After coffee we caught tram to Salford Quays then walked to The Lowry. Saw film, talk and exhibition: all fascinating stuff, but by now Dot was beginning to feel ill with symptoms of a cold. Returned by tram to Manchester Piccadilly and caught train back to Buxton: full, but not as full as the one in the morning. Happily we got seats both times. Carriage quite cold, and snow appeared as we neared Buxton.

Walk back to hotel was icy in sleet and snow. Dot and I had shower and bath respectively, then supper. Had been geared up for steak, but there was none left, so I had ham terrine followed by linguine: Ok, but nothing special. Got into bed very early, passing up  the opportunity of more port. Snowing outside.

Plenty of snow lying in the morning, and we had the usual excellent breakfast before leaving just after 10.30 for the drive south. Road by hotel quite slippery, but once we got on the main road, there was no trouble. Interesting to see on the way back how it had snowed in some areas but not others.

Got some petrol at Morrisons in Buxton and drove via A6 and A610 on to the M1, where we stopped for coffee in a near-deserted service station near Nottingham. Then on southwards, across areas where there had been no snow at all and others where there had been quite a bit. But it was all fading away. Stopped again at Cambridge Services, where Dot was feeling so bad she had a Kentucky Fried Chicken, and of course I had to have one too to keep her company. It’s the salt, apparently. Still quite like the taste.

Arrived home about 4pm. In the evening I went to a DCC meeting and delivered the financial report. The rest of it was all a bit hazy, as is today. I’ve been food shopping and have never seen Morrisons so full on a Tuesday. Odd. We’ve cancelled the Tuesday Group tonight, of course.