Tag Archives: ambient

Jazz and fruit

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Oliver, Amy, dinosaurs
Oliver about to lose his head in the Dinosaur Park while Amy looks on, slightly concerned

A bit cooler the last two days, with some quite heavy rain yesterday. Dull today, with a slight threat of rain, but nothing has materialised yet. I went into the city this morning to get some euros, having found 100 of them in my reserve currency position. Also bought a new battery for my Panasonic camera: oddly the Panasonic shop didn’t have one (despite knowing they were out and ordering one only for a previous customer), but the Norwich Camera Exchange did. A shop to be recommended. After purchasing the euros went to St Margaret’s again, this time for an art exhibition in which my cousin’s son Lewis (“Kitsune”) featured. Imaginative paintings of a surreal nature which were as good as almost anything else there.

This afternoon checked over my Italy file, revealing that our flight on Thursday is at 10.35am. Also discovered that our return airport, Florence, is also very small, which is encouraging. I don’t mind small airports, though I’d prefer it if they weren’t Italian. Being in Italy, though, I suppose the odds were that it would be Italian. Everything seems in order, and I will be checking in online early on Wednesday.

Yesterday Nicholas was leading Communion and remarked on the poor state of the hall, which is true enough. Someone has spilt an awful lot of wax on the carpet and made it worse by trying to clear it up using the wrong materials. The stool was badly marked, the altar table that Dot and I bought has been extensively scratched, and the loo seat has needed replacing for three weeks. Apparently it has been hard to find the right fittings. Rather depressing. When Rosemary was in charge, such things would have been dealt with so effectively that we wouldn’t have known they’d happened. Nicholas is a bit worried because the Bishop is visiting next Sunday, and by coincidence, most of the key members of the congregation are going to be away. Ho hum. No, it really is a coincidence. People are so busy.

In the evening Dot and I went to an Ambient Wonder event held upstairs because the downstairs was booked by someone else, who didn’t turn up. Good session, though, with mint julep by Anna. Jazz and the fruits of the Spirit. You have to think about that quite a lot. Former music group member Elspeth made a brief appearance before deciding it wasn’t for her. Cast of about 12, with two Germans. Friends of the Archers.

On jacks

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Dot got an iPod from David for her birthday. Amy and Oliver were fascinated.
Dot got an iPod from David for her birthday. Amy and Oliver were fascinated.

Cold and wet today; ventured into the city before lunch to make inquiries at the bank. Was amazed to discover that if I want to send money to someone in the United States I cannot do it online but have to obtain some kind of money order which, if I can’t get bank details from the payeee, will cost me £25. I then have to post it to the States. How archaic is that?

Dot’s car is up on jacks in the driveway and has been since last Friday, when Wicked Wheels came and revealed that they couldn’t match the colour without taking the wheels away. There is some damage to the rims, and Dot is having them done as a Christmas present. So they took the wheels away, leaving the car very vulnerable: have to say I’m quite nervous about it, but only two days to go now. Meanwhile we were also going to get her computer upgraded, as it’s very low on memory, but the quote we have for that is over £200, so now we’re wondering about getting a new Macbook Pro. Will have to consult my technical expert.

Went to the Muspole Street private view on Thursday evening and bought a couple of small things in return for some rather pleasant mulled wine. Some very creative stuff going on there. Problem with art: you can’t just keep on buying it. Joe and Birgit came round on Saturday, and we had a good meal which more than made up for Norwich City losing 3-1 to Carlisle in the second round of the F A Cup. This was a neat trick, as it avoided them going out in the third round, which is what they normally do. Why are they such an appalling cup team? Answers on a postcard…

Yesterday I found myself leading a Communion service, with John Easton playing the role of vicar. Because of widespread absenteeism and Rosemary’s fragility, I was landed with taking the Cup round, which I’ve never done before. It may be illegal, but John didn’t seem to think so. Anyway, I managed to avoid dropping it. In the evening we supplied the pizza for Ambient Wonder, and I didn’t realise that one of them was half polystyrene, so it stuck to the pan. Not terminally, I’m glad to say.

10 December 2008

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Winter sunshine shot of St Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich, taken from outside the Forum during my swift guided tour of the city for Jeanette and Graham, who are now in Liverpool, or possibly Southport, and thinking of buying a car, which is hardly surprising, given the size of their suitcases and their lack of any permanent hall to leave them in. They sent us a nice message thanking us for our hospitality and inviting us to Cornwall when they (a) get there and (b) find a house. They seemed quite happy with out cold winter weather: apparently Jeanette, at least, “likes the cold”.

Meanwhile things have quietened down a bit. Today I spent quite a lot of time making Christmas cards and then addressing envelopes. I surmounted the problem of replacing two ink cartridges while Dot was away with Barbara working on P4C in Metfield, though I did lose it momentarily while trying to use of one of those cheaper cartridges where you have to switch the electronic tag, or whatever it is. Definitely not worth saving the money. Incidentally the P4C website designed by David with content by Dot and Barbara is now up and running. Proof-read by me, so any mistakes are my fault. I’m hoping there aren’t any.

Dot finished her inspection at Carleton Rode on Monday morning. I took some stuff up the tip. That pretty much sums up our different roles. In the evening I played a really good game of chess against Colin Payne, then lost it through one bad move late in the evening. Unaccountably, I have been feeling down ever since, though I don’t think it’s entirely the chess. I’m not sure what it is.

Dot went to the dentist yesterday and apparently needs some work doing, despite the dentist’s admiring both the quality of her teeth and her general fitness and stunning appearance.. Apparently she would never be taken for a woman of 63. Tell me about it. We had a mammoth number of people round in the evening, and Dot and I ended up sitting at the breakfast bar. Still, the carrot soup didn’t run out, and we had a good session. I may not have mentioned (yes, I could check) that we also went to Ambient Wonder planning on Sunday, and tomorrow we have the big AW adventure, when we take over St Stephen’s Church just outside Chapelfield Mall and try to entice passers-by into talking to us and seeing what we have to offer. There is some excitement about this (quite rightly), but I find it difficult to cope with the chaos of it. This is a character defect. I have just been reading Jack Earl’s autobiography (he is in his late 90s), and it is amazing what he has done in his life – on a purely geographical level, apart from everything else. I put this down to his enjoyment of camping, which I could never get enthusiastic about. Oh, and the war.

6 October 2008

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The three wise men of Chamonix – aka two members of our tour group with the tour manager (left), in one of the main shopping streets of Chamonix. Seems long, long ago. Quite wintry here now, though today at least it’s dry. The shower room transformation is in progress: Dot was in the city for about three hours – partly with Carrie, partly buying me a long-arm stapler to facilitate my publishing activities. I now have 20 leaflets of Paston Poems ready to go, and this morning I printed out 20 A4 leaflets for the exhibition, giviing artists’ and poets’ notes.

Saturday was quite interesting. I was due to speak at a Christian Writers’ meeting at Lowestoft at 2pm – so I thought. I had a call at 11.10am telling me the meeting started then and went on till 2pm, including lunch. This had never been vouchsafed to me, but I offered to go immediately, which I did, arriving at high noon. I gave my talk to four people, then we had a quite nice lunch and chat. I arrived home around 5pm after dropping off Catherine Mapes at her home in York Street and then getting stuck unexpectedly in city traffic.

Another lunch out on Sunday – at church this time – followed by an afternoon catching up on television. It was too wet to do anything else. Ambient Wonder in the evening, with some interesting global input from Anna and Howard following their round-half-the-world trip. Sweet tea and something spicy in pastry featured strongly. All strangely effective.

11 April 2007

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This is a drawing by my grandson Oliver, aged four and a half, of a calculator. Remarkable attention to detail. Since the last blog entry, Dot and I went down to Caddington and looked after the children for three days while their parents worked. Dot was just getting over a virus which had made her cough really badly. She was just about OK for Caddington, and I was fine, but now I’ve got it. Very unusual – during the day it’s hardly noticeable, except that it makes you very tired, but in the late evening and during the night, coughing is very severe – stemming, I think, from mucus coming down from the sinuses. No real nasal problem, though my eyes get sore in the evening. No sore throat, either. I’m not grumbling.

At Caddington we took the children to Woodside Farm on the second day: it was very cold, and we eventually repaired to the Play Barn, where the two of them occupied themselves for almost two hours in the Toddler section. The next day must have been about ten degrees warmer, and we went to Stockwood Park, where there was a lot of running around. Amazing place: some beautiful gardens and a very acceptable cafe. Amy had go to the loo two or three times, but mainly to look at herself in the full-length mirror.

The Ambient Wonder Easter event went quite well, despite my worrying about how it was actually going to work. About 40 people visited 12 Stations of the Cross, and I managed to rig up a loop on a combination of IPhoto, ITunes and Garageband – with a monologue I had written for Simon of Cyrene.

The rest of the Easter Weekend was quite quiet: I was feeling a bit rough, so Dot did the relative rounds. Incidentally, Aunt E bought Oliver a radio for Easter that was an immense hit. Yesterday Barbara V came round to brush up on philosophy plans. I did a new front page for the leaflet which went down quite well, but Microsoft Word is very hard to handle for that kind of thing. It won’t do the simple things, like divide an A4 landscape into three even columns plus margins. Or at least, it probably will, but I don’t know how to.

Today I went up to Bally to meet Bronwen and plan the positioning of our joint piece using her photos and my poem, Unable to find North. She then came back here and we selected the images we thought we’d use. She has now returned to Beccles. The weather is very warm for the time of the year, and I’ve had my hair cut. Bit traumatic – L is moving salons after about 20 years.

David has finished the InPrint website, which everyone seems really pleased with.

13 February 2007

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The other snow photo, taken the other day at Caddington: Amy looks on admiringly as her brother bravely throws a snowball at their father.

Of course it’s all gone now, and we’re back to a normal winter – chilly and wet. The weekend was very busy for us. I spent all day at InPrint studios, discussing the future and getting creative with ideas for exhibitions. Fun in a cold atmosphere – that’s the temperature, not the relationships. We had several heaters in the studios but didn’t quite get rid of the chill. I went so far as to buy fish and chips, which helped a bit. Studio 2 is leaking a bit.

In the evening Dot and I went to Heather S for a meal, and the three of us had a great evening putting the world to rights. On Sunday, as well as the morning service, Dot and I had to put together an Ambient Wonder event in the evening, which I was very unsure about – possibly because we hadn’t picked the theme, and not many people were offering to add bits. But the feedback was good – to my astonishment. Over 20 people there, several for the first time.

On Monday I had another chess win, amazingly, against a good player. I was turning out as a guest for the B team and played Trevor Ansell, of Fakenham. I was black, and the end of the game was quite exciting.

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cd 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Bg5 e6 7 f4 Be7 8 Qf3 Qc7 9 0-0-0 0-0 10 Bd3 Nc6 11 Nde2 b5 12 a3 Bb7 13 g4 b4 14 ab Nxb4 15 Bxf6 Bxf6 16 g5 Bxc3 17 Nxc3 d5!
18 e5 Rfc8 19 Qe2 Qa5 20 Kb1 d4 21 Ne4 Qa2+ 22 Kc1 Qa1+ 23 Kd2 Qxb2 24 Rb1 Qa3 25 Ra1 Na2 26 Rhg1 Qa5+ 27 c3 Rxc3! 28 Nf6+ (Desperation. Nxc3 loses immediately, but Kd1 makes it a little more difficult for Black) …. Kf8 29 Nh7+ Ke7 30 Rgb1 Rc1+ 0-1 It’s mate next move.

Today it’s a little brighter, and we had three adults and three children for lunch. Very tasty.

9 February 2007

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Yes, it’s been wintry recently. Not so much in Norwich, where we’ve had a little snow which melted fairly quickly; but in much of the rest of the country there have been quite heavy falls, as can be seen from the picture of my grandson (left) with the snowman he built – possibly with a little help from his Dad and sister. This is in Bedfordshire, and much of the Midlands and West have caught it. Here in Norwich it’s been bitterly cold, but now it’s raining. Warnings of ice on the roads, but fortunately I don’t have far to go tomorrow.

Today I did actually get out of the house and walked back from the plumbing shop – about two and a half miles with one or two detours, including a non-stop climb of Gas Hill – always a good test of how fit I am. Quite surprising, really.

The plumbing shop visit was to pick up tap inserts to repair the bathroom sink taps, which had been broken by a visitor. For reference, I hammered the insert into the tap head, then pushed the tap head on to the shaft. The shop suggested doing it the other way round, but it proved impossible. It’s working at the moment. I don’t think they really knew, though they were very helpful – for instance in getting the old insert out of the tap head.

Saw A on the way home – her father has had a massive stroke and is in a bad way.

Dot went to Watton in the snow yesterday, but it wasn’t too bad. Vicky has been in Hull and had a tricky journey back to Nottingham, where she spent the night. David had been going to come to Norwich to discuss the website(s), but he had to look after the children yesterday, and the weather was still dodgy today. So we had a webcam session.

During the last couple of days I’ve also written my page for Monday and written a couple of poems for tomrrow, which is InPrint’s Creative Day. We’re hoping to get well on the way towards preparing a presentation for the Welborne Arts Festival. I’ve also put together an Ambient Wonder event (www.ambientwonder.org) that Dot and I are curating on Sunday. The idea is for loads of people to come up with ideas and we sort them out, but there wasn’t much input, and I’m not very good at delegating. So I had to come up with some ideas, which is bad news.

Yesterday morning, one of Dot’s head teacher colleagues came round, and the three of us put together some questions for a music quiz for the National Association of First and Primary Heads annual conference in April. Very few on Bob Dylan – unprecedented restraint.