Tag Archives: bin

Paston excursions

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Mary Paulson-Ellis in King Street, viewing a beam that is said to have come from a Paston house in Princes Street

It’s turned very cold again, with a sharp wind, but the snow that fell briefly last night has gone. I drove Phil home while it was falling: he’d called to print something out, and we had a long conversation about various problems, especially his roof. In the end I arranged for him to meet Vicky tomorrow: coincidentally, she’s in charge, for Orbit, of work going on next door to him.

It’s been raining most of today, but I’m glad to say that on Sunday and Monday it was dry, because on those days I was showing Mary Paulson-Ellis, a writer from Edinburgh, round some Paston sites in North-East Norfolk and in Norwich. She was accompanied by a colleague, Nic, from UEA, with whom she’s working on a Paston project for the 26 writing group. It’s all Norfolk-based and connected with the fact that Norwich is England’s first Unesco Creative City of Literature.

On the Sunday I rushed to Paston from church lunch to meet Mary and Nic at Lucy’s house, Lucy being still in Benjamin Court at Cromer, recovering from her broken shoulder and bruised foot. Mary was brought by her brother, and Nic had his wife and young son with him. Jonathan was very hospitable and good with the young lad, taking him up on the roof and out into the garden while Mary, Nic and I looked at various Paston-related books (eg Fenn first and second editions and our own handmade book).

Afterwards we went on to Paston Church and then Bromholm Abbey, where Nic and his family made for home while I took Mary to meet Lucy at Cromer. On the way home from Cromer (in the pitch dark) I showed Mary Oxnead Hall and the church, but we decided not to get out of the car!

On Monday I met them at St Andrew’s Hall, and we went in and looked at the roof and the Paston coat of arms in the doors, thence taking in the usual Paston sites: Peter Hungate, Elm Hill, Cathedral and King Street, before going via the Julian Shrine to the Museum, where we viewed the Paston Treasure before having tea and cake. I walked them down past the Guildhall bef0re leaving them. Quite a stimulating time. They want me to do an MA in Creative Writing. I don’t know why.

Continuing the Paston theme, I met Sarah Power at Dragon Hall on Tuesday, drawing up a rough plan of what we would do there on May 31. I now have to get a couple of paragraphs of publicity to her before Feb 22. It’s all go. No Tuesday Group last night, though: several call-offs, which was just as well because of the snow.

Having the usual problem with getting our brown bin emptied: alleged to be “not out” again, but of course it was. I have now been promised a site visit, whatever that is. It still hasn’t been emptied. Have just seen that a new prime number has been discovered, containing 17 million digits. It is so big that even Norwich City Council bin emptiers would be able to see it.

Twenty-ten

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Grandson Oliver on a Norwich bus a few days ago
Grandson Oliver on a Norwich bus a few days ago.

A new year, pronounced twenty ten. Or is it? We shall see. People have got used to saying two-thousand-and because of obvious confusion over twenty-nine and so on, but now that problem is in the past, as so many others are. Will we change? Maybe not. Once we have an idea in our heads, it tends to stick around. A dusting of snow lies on Aspland Road, and the sky is blue over the cathedral; we await the arrival of my Southampton nephew and his wife for a pre-lunch pop-in. Temperatures are still low enough to make driving up the hill less than straightforward.

We arrived home last night about 2am after a laid-back evening with the Robinsons, featuring a lovely meal and a Very Hard Quiz devised by Anne. Well, do you know the capital of Greenland, or what you call a collection of ferrets? Me neither. Well, I do now, and I’m sure it will enrich my life. We also had quite a discussion on family history and a brief stab at charades, which led to my showing them how to access the BBC iPlayer so that they could see a little bit of the brilliantly funny Outnumbered, which I ludicrously attempted to describe as the whole word instead of by syllables. Champagne at midnight, impressively expensive fireworks surrounding the London Eye, some very odd music from Jools Holland’s not-live Hootenanny, and an extra mug of green tea to make sure I was under the limit.

The other highlight of yesterday was picking up a new bin from the John Lewis warehouse after the lid on the old one fell apart. It has a lovely movement, as Alan Partridge might say. I am now reinstalled in my study and about to install Snow Leopard, but I shall wait till my son is available in case of technical problems. He has been strangely offline for quite a while.

4 September 2008

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It’s official: we can get 13 people round our kitchen table. Twelve in the picture (after our ruby anniversary) and me slotting in on the left. From left going round: Jane, Philip, Jennie, Julia, Amy, Alistair, Lydia, Oliver, Dot, Dave, Vicky, David.

Major excitement in that our brown bin (garden rubbish) was emptied today. I suggested ringing up the council to tell them, but Dot demurred. She has been ringing up regularly to tell them it has not been emptied, so it seemed only fair.

More problems with the computer internet connection, so I rang BT, who tested the line. Unsurprisingly, it was OK. In the end the guy suggested trying it with the Ethernet connection, but I said I had, and that didn’t work either. So then he suggested changing the filter on the phone line. So I did that. I also removed the laminator from near the hub (it was switched off) and removed everything else from the electricity socket (time machine, scanner) and suddenly it worked, and has been doing so ever since. I have no idea what’s going on.

It rained extremely hard this afternoon, and has been unpleasantly overcast. This evening, though, is much brighter (at the moment). Dot has gone off to a governors’ meeting at Gillingham. Earlier we tried out my new guitar pick-up, which worked very well on a couple of songs. My stomach is still not right, so I have resorted to a high dosage of acidophilus, and have been OK for a few hours.

This morning the Higbees brought us a wooden bowl that Allan had made: very beautiful. They looked at our photos and stayed for coffee.

30 May 2008

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Back late last night from three days in Caddington, looking after the grandchildren during half term. Journey back was in heavy rain, and so was the journey down on Monday night. In between we had a little dry weather, but plenty of rain too. Vicky is working very hard on a project which is up against a difficult deadline; David took the opportunity to go up to Lancaster on one of his regular visits – a little bit worrying, as he has still got a kidney stone lodged above his bladder, but it shows no sign of moving.

On the Tuesday we stayed in the house, but on the Wednesday we braved the dodgy weather in the afternoon to go to Ashridge Forest, where we had a drink and a snack before popping into the visitors’ centre and shop. Oliver bought a frog, of which he quickly became fond. Amy got a ball and something else, which I’ve forgotten. I bought them a secondhand book each and one for Dot (three for £1). The forest was soggy and muddy. We drove over Ivinghoe Beacon on the way back, which is a pleasant road.

We spent all of yesterday at Whipsnade Zoo, leaving home not much after 10am in fine and dry weather that persisted for several hours before collapsing into solid rain midway through the afternoon, roughly at the point when Oliver and Amy were queueing to go on the train (see picture). We also went on the bus, and Oliver had an earlier ride on the train with me while Amy was on the bouncy castle. We paid two visits to the flying birds display (the first quite exceptional, the second pretty good) and took in the sea lions and the elephants, though we were a bit late for the latter, and Oliver was too shy to push himself forward for a good view. Still, he did see them. The gift shop was total chaos as it was pouring with rain and everyone funnelled in there, but we managed to emerge intact, and with something for each of the children. All in all, a pretty good day, with some nice food from the Marquee Cafe for lunch. Amy attempted a death plunge from her buggy, but this was only partially successful. Plunge spectacular, but not even minor injuries.

Whipsnade has a lot to offer with huge amounts of space and some lovely animals, but it is expensive, unless you live nearby and can get a season ticket.

Today has been mainly catching up, though Dot and I went to Park Farm for the usual routine, which was quite pleasant. I tried to find out the date of my operation, but it hasn’t been fixed yet. The nurse thought it wouldn’t be arranged until after Monday’s cystoscopy, but I should know on Tuesday. She felt sure it would be in June, though. Weather today a bit better, and the brown bin got emptied, though they hid it three doors down after emptying, presumably because they’re a bit miffed at having to empty it.