Tag Archives: anniversary

I am now 70, so I can do what I like

Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Beached, and looking its age.
Beached, and looking its age.

So I have managed to reach the age of 70, struggling across the line after eating and drinking too much over the weekend. Yesterday was my birthday, of course, and we had a celebration at church after my sermon on the beheading of John the Baptist. Dot made a delicious chocolate cake and bought champagne. She invited several people, only one or two of whom could come: Vicky and Paul and Maryta (the latter for the celebration only). Really nice to have so many people wishing me well.

I got texts from David and Chrissy in Italy, and in the evening Dot and I went to Cafe Rouge in the Chapelfield Mall with the Robinsons. The restaurant was fairly empty, except for our dentist and his wife, but the food was excellent: I think this type of food is my favourite, especially the way they do steak and chips. We had a free bottle of bubbly too. Hope this restaurant doesn’t go the way of the previous one on Exchange Street. The service was also excellent.

The previous night had been Roger’s 55th birthday party, at Jurnet’s Club. The atmosphere and food were first class, though we didn’t know many people. The music was pretty loud (though good); so both Dot and I found it difficult to conduct conversations. I spent much of the evening listening to Jude, but I practically had to sit in her lap to hear what she was saying. She is apparently being threatened with legal action by a woman in a wheelchair for suggesting it might be helpful if she (the wheelchair woman) brought a friend to the Red Hat excursions to look after her, in view of her disability.

Also spoke to Fiona, George and Debbie (apparently Roger’s new girlfriend, though he’s known her a long time) and surprisingly, Kim Pummell, with whom he went to school. She works as a secretary to various Archant executives, and used to arrange my company cars for me. Meanwhile Dot was having similarly difficult conversations with men I didn’t know.

Earlier in the day I went to a farm at Aylmerton to assist Peter Stibbons with some filming for the Paston DVD. He was already being assisted technically by Paul Damen, but I was found a role as sound man. I also read one of the letters in costume. The location was Tony Colman’s Park Farm (no relation), and because of an anomaly on the map I found it hard to find. Still, better late… Lovely sunny spot. Most of the re-enactors were there.

On Friday the gas man came to service our boiler and discovered we needed a flush-through. I am awaiting a phone call to arrange this. Nice bloke. In the evening we went round the Hendersons for a light meal. No flush-through required.

On Thursday I had taken Joy and Phil to the doctor’s again. It was their 40th anniversary on Sunday and they managed to get to church to celebrate, which was quite an achievement for them, as they find it hard to walk far nowadays, and both get tired quickly.

This week has turned rainy. Joy is worried because the 23rd (when they plan to go to Southampton) is forecast to be 29C. I tried to persuade her that no-one can make accurate ten-day forecasts, but she remains concerned.

Valley of death, but more expensive

Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Dot on the heath at Beacon Hill
Dot on the heath at Beacon Hill

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.

Spectacular celebration marks our anniversary

Uncategorized, , , , ,
Amy and Oliver on Mundesley beach

And so the excitement continues. On Tuesday Dot and I picked up Oliver and Amy from Caddington and brought them back to Norwich for a few days, with fine weather forecast. Wednesday dawned fine and very warm, and so we headed to Winterton with an amazing amount of equipment and camped on a surprisingly crowded beach. Locals with dog were heard to ask “where all these people were in the winter” and add: “We want our beach back.” I didn’t point out that we came to Winterton at all times of the year; anyway they weren’t talking to me. There was a certain amount of paddling done, some frisbee throwing, some picnicking and some dashing about in the dunes. All in pretty warm weather.

On Thursday Amy and Dot did some shopping in the morning, and we had lunch at Prezzos. In the afternoon we drove to Mundesley. When we arrived (4pm) it was a bit chilly, with one of those misty things off the sea, but the longer we stayed, the brighter and warmer it became. Amy did some swimming in the sea, and even Oliver and Dot went a fair way in. Astonishingly, I paddled a bit too. By the time we left, just after 7pm, the beach was near-deserted and looked stunning in the evening sunshine. An idyllic couple of hours.

Oliver had heard someone mention fish and chips, so decided we should get some, and we drove to Bacton, where the chip shop was still open after its stated closing time, so we bought some fish and chips and ate it at the table outside. Embarrassingly late home.

Friday was warm again, and we took the City Sightseeing bus around the city, which was a bit expensive but good fun. David had phoned saying he was coming to stay the night, so we decided to go to Winterton again and have some games in the dunes, followed by tea and cakes in the excellent cafe. I impressed Oliver by my speed off the mark and my death-defying leap to reach the hide-and-seek base. Ended up aching all over, which was not so impressive. Got home shortly before David arrived, and we had an evening meal of chicken, some of which I had purchased earlier, at the same time as filling the car up with petrol (well, not exactly the same time, obviously).

Friday was also our 44th wedding anniversary and the opening of the London Olympics. We had prosecco to celebrate (provided by Dot) and then we all stayed up to watch the Olympics opening ceremony, which I thought celebrated our anniversary very well. We didn’t watch it all because it went on very late, but we recorded it, and Dot and I watched the ending today. I have to say I was greatly impressed.

Colin came on Saturday and finished off some stuff in the garden. He was going to do a temporary repair to the living room ceiling, but the company who are going to fix it wanted to see it as it was; so instead he’s left us a board to screw in after they come tomorrow. Meanwhile it rained heavily today, and water started flowing through one of the holes again. I rang up the roofer, who has promised to come tomorrow morning.

I preached at St Luke’s this morning and then went down to St Augustine’s to sort out various money matters and to get shown how our new heating system works. Stayed on to rehearse some songs for Lowestoft next week.