Tag Archives: birthday

New car in the post

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Bird-watching on Cley beach, looking over the marshes.
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.

Amy scoots into her ninth year

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Amy enjoying her new scooter

My granddaughter is now a year older. It happened suddenly, last Saturday, and fortunately we were on hand to help her celebrate her eighth birthday. We arrived on the Friday night, driving through pouring rain all the way, with almost ground-level  clouds. In the morning I went with David and the children to the swimming pool in Dunstable, where Oliver and Amy had their lessons. Meanwhile, Dot stayed at home and iced the chocolate cake made by David the previous night.

We gave Amy a scooter with lots of street cred, which went down very well, even when she fell off it while executing a tight turn. The children have friends in the street, and they came out to play, so that was good: Thomas and Grace, I think. Not related. After a party lunch prepared by David we played Dixit, a remarkable game  that he’d bought her which involved making up a line of a story to match cards, and then guessing the card. Actually it made a lot more sense than that. Later in the afternoon, Vicky, accompanied by Saskia(?), came to pick up the children, and we left soon afterwards, arriving back in Norwich earlier than we’d expected.

At church on Sunday I “launched” my new worship songs booklet, simply by using it for one of the hymn slots. Seemed to work all right. Howard gave a very Howard sermon, including animal noises, on how OT people might have reacted to Isaiah. In the evening Dot and I went for a meal at Anne and Philip’s in the company of Bernadette and Barry Hutchings, who live in Alpington. Touch of nostalgia there – very enjoyable, though I wasn’t feeling great, a theme which repeated all through the next few days. I took some out-of-date antibiotics, but that seemed to make things worse; so I’ve stopped. The right thing to do, I feel.

Yesterday was the final rehearsal for our Chronicle performance at Mannington Hall, complete with hats. Everyone agreed that mine suited me very well, which is a bit worrying. The hats came courtesy of Rob’s wife Penny, who is a seamstress of some repute, and we rehearsed at Rob’s house, with his grandchildren providing noises off. In the evening, with our vegetarian Bridget away with her husband, I cooked chilli con carne for the Tuesday Group, and I have to say it tasted pretty good. Well, I don’t have to, but I will.

Now I am waiting for the arrival of David, Oliver and Amy. The children will be staying with us for three days, and I am told we have to visit the Iceni village at Cockley Cley, because Amy is doing a project on Boudicca. I feel Amy would make a good Boudicca.

Nebraska, the ordered state

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The Canadian connection: Karen and Pete Walpole, Barbara and Roger Murray, and...well...Dot

Suddenly I’m 66, which is not really what you want. Still, I’m feeling reasonably fit with only occasional awareness of mortality – say a dozen or so times a day. It has been warm or very warm ever since we’ve arrived in Ontario, and I’ve only left the Murray spread once – to do a three-mile walk over on Mount Hope Road. We’ve had visitors though: Chrissy, Jackson, Sophie and Seth arrived on Sunday and stayed, and Chrissy’s husband JD also came before heading back late in the day for work on Monday. He’s a psychiatrist and was on call while he was here, but he managed to get away with a lengthy phone consultation. Roger’s brother Rob also joined us for the day on Sunday. He lives in Toronto and is a freelance printing project manager.

The children seem to have hit it off well. Sophie is popular with both Amy and Oliver, and Seth seems very impressed with Oliver. Jackson is pretty independent, being the oldest. David and Chrissy are finding much in common again. There has been frog-hunting and much game-playing – badminton, cricket, croquet, baseball, even a bit of football. Also of course the children are in the pool as often as not.

On Monday the Walpoles came for lunch al fresco – a typically lavish Barbara spread –  and Peter brought a slideshow of their new apartment in Barrie. Good to see them again. They’ll be in the UK in September.

We’ve watched a couple of films – Vantage Point and Red – both of them excellent. I’ve read The Redbreast, a Scandinavian thriller by Jo Nesbo which became compulsive after an irritating start which jumped about all over the place. David bought me Nocturnes by Ishiguro for my birthday: short stories. I’ve read the first, which was excellent. Amy and Dot went into Bolton with Roger and got me another book and come chocolate. Amy also made me a lovely card, and I got a great owl card from David and Oliver, plus one or two others – one from an adorable couple who I didn’t recognise (Oh, yes I did). Chrissy gave me one with a Nebraska theme after a landmark crossword clue, which was “Ordered state”.  Since she had the first two letters, she thought this must be Nebraska. It actually turned out to be Neatness, which for some reason is hysterically funny.

Yes, I had a great birthday: very relaxing and climaxing in a couple of champagne cocktails, which was probably one too many. Slept well, though. Dot has been much-bitten, but got tablets from the chemist that seemed to help. Time seems to be passing slowly in the heat, but very pleasantly indeed.

The long good birthday

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An iPhone picture of birthday girl Dot at her desk

I was expecting some editing work to do this morning, but it hasn’t arrived, so instead I’m bringing my blog up to date. Winter is fast approaching, with snow forecast for the end of the week. We are about to venture into a no doubt chilly North Norfolk for lunch with Lucy and a couple of her friends who want to know about Ambient Wonder. We are not experts on AW, but will do our best!

The past few days have centred on Dot’s birthday, which “began” last Friday (see previous post). In the evening we went to the Norfolk Mead at Coltishall with Anne and Philip. Excellent meal and ambience, though a trifle on the pricey side. Still, well worth it. My car lights started playing up again on the way there, and I guess I’m going to have to call in at the garage later today. The auto-levelling system isn’t working properly. Sometimes it’s OK; sometimes it isn’t. Just what you want: an intermittent fault that won’t be happening when we reach the engineers.

In view of the slight risk of dodgy lights, we took Dot’s MX5 to Caddington for the weekend and had good journeys each way. Lovely birthday meals both days: Amy had made some buns, and Oliver had bought Dot some chocolate. David gave her a Kindle, which she is already much absorbed in. On Saturday afternoon the Coomes family came over; it was good to see them again. The children all get on very well. We returned home when David left to take the children to Aylesbury – just after 3pm on the Sunday.

Monday was Dot’s actual birthday. In addition to the bracelet, I bought her the book of the radio series, A History of the World in 100 Objects , a sizeable tome which she seemed very pleased with. It weighs several hundred Kindles. To celebrate her birthday further, we bought some more furniture from Gary’s Pine – this time an oak unit to hold our record player and a small table to hold a plant. From St Giles Street we hurtled to the Ruschcutters for a lovely lunch, made even better by the free birthday bottle of wine. From there things quietened down a bit, though the aerial man arrived just after 2pm to fix the connection to out bedroom TV. Will probably have him back in the new year to sort out a switch to bedroom digital!

On a technical note, Dot was overwhelmed by the number of birthday wishes she received via Facebook. Impressive.

Magical stars

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Experimental picture taken after dark at Aldeburgh and digitally altered in a pretty basic way. Quite like it.
Experimental picture taken after dark at Aldeburgh and digitally altered in a pretty basic way. Quite like it.

Awaiting the arrival of David and grandchildren: weather mild. Have just been out briefly to book Prezzo’s for lunch tomorrow. Earlier I cleared up some more leaves: I’m becoming something of an expert. Last night was a big success: for Dot’s birthday dinner we went with the Robinsons to the Norfolk Mead hotel at Coltishall and had an excellent meal. Also very relaxed and quiet, so pretty well perfect. Afterwards we came out to see a sky full of bright stars. Magical.

Have just finished my talk for Sunday on Christ the King. Found it difficult to prepare, because I kept getting bogged down in fascinating byways as to the true meaning of certain words in the Hebrew and Aramaic. Have rewritten first verse of Genesis to read: At source, God filled the skies and the earth as an ox moving the plough towards its mark. Not exactly traditional; I may not mention it tomorrow. On the other hand…

Managed to draw my chess game on Wednesday by winning a pawn in the opening and getting a big advantage, then letting my opponent off the hook. Quite happy really, because he’s graded higher than me. Drove the entire team down there, so very late back. Meanwhile, Dot went to a DCC meeting, so she had to tell me all about it. Result: very late in bed.

Lots of activity on internet about leaked e-mails from UEA climate scientists which seem to reveal fiddling of data and some rather unpleasant tactics to silence sceptics. Phil Jones of UEA has apparently admitted they’re genuine. Will be interesting to see how the BBC manages to ignore this. By ignoring it, I suppose.

Climbing and sliding

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Amy, David and Oliver tackle the big slide together
Amy, David and Oliver tackle the big slide together

David and the children should now be back home, and looking forward to a party tea. They had a party breakfast and a party lunch here, and Amy opened her parcels from us for her fifth birthday. She particularly like the tea set on a tray (with birthday cake) that we bought from Tickety-Boo, the excellent traditional toy shop at the top of St Andrew’s Street. All made of wood, but tasty just the same. Yesterday we spent five hours at Bewilderwood, not far from Wroxham, and it was superb. The weather was fine and dry, and although there was a slight autumnal chill in the air, it certainly wasn’t cold. Lots of exciting stuff to do involving high walks, slides, cable rides, assorted clambering and mazes. Oliver was particularly taken by the Muddle Maze, which he got down to a fine art. Both children entered into the spirit of it all wholeheartedly, and we ended up trying to make a den. That is, Dot and David were trying to make a den. Amy found a ready-made den, and Oliver soon followed. I decided someone needed to keep an eye on them, so that was me out of the den-building too. Shame. Had some nice food in the middle of it all. Just the right number of people there: I would imagine it could get pretty crowded in the summer holidays. As we left it started spotting with rain in an unconvincing way, and that soon petered out. In the evening, after the children were in bed, the three of us watched Slumdog Millionaire, which was excellent.

Norwich managed to lose 2-1 to Leeds by fluffing a goal kick in the last minute after playing really well. Dot is now doing some Philosophy for Children at a school in Taverham. If she returns in time, we’ll have a quick bite and then go to a concert by Stuart Townend, a Celtic-inspired hymn-writer, at Holy Trinity.

23 November 2008

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Plenty of snow over the last couple of days. This was Aspland Road at lunchtime today, when we failed to get up the hill and had to park at the bottom of the road. More tricky than it might have been, because Dot was carrying a large chocolate cake that had been cooked for her birthday by Anna and brought to church. Actually there were three cakes, spelling d – o – t, but two of them were eaten at church. Later this afternoon I was able to go and drive the car up, because the temperature had risen and a snowman in the garden almost opposite had lost its head. Still quite white generally though.

Friday night at the Cathedral was good, and afterwards Dot went off with the girls (Vicky, Annette et al) for a drink in the Maid’s Head while I returned home and watched some average folk music on television, because I was feeling tired. Tiredness still a problem, but everything else seems to be progressing in the right direction, and we’re planning to leave by train at about 11am tomorrow for Scarborough. Forecast is quite good for the next few days, assuming the snow melts and we get some sunshine as promised. The temperature should be in the 5-10C bracket, which could be worse.

Yesterday – Dot’s birthday – we had a lie-in and eventually got to St Luke’s just before 1pm. Afternoon session was interesting. Snow was falling outside, but not enough to worry us on the journey home – just as well, as we were in the MX5. In the evening I cooked steak and chips. The chips mysteriously burnt, though the heat and timing were as always, and I did some instant mashed potato, which was in the freezer and tasted really good. After it was cooked, that is. Managed a bottle of wine between us.

22 November 2007

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Dot’s birthday. I can’t reveal which one, obviously. The picture shows her lovely as ever. We are going out for a meal tonight with friends, which will be a bit tricky, as I am on a weight-losing regime. I’ve lost almost half a stone in a couple of weeks, which is quite pleasing. My stomach was getting much too prominent. Hope I can keep it up (the weight loss, not the stomach). I don’t really know what got me started; I must have caught sight of myself or something.

I went to see the nurse on Tuesday – not because I needed resuscitation after losing yet another chess game on Monday (I’m actually playing quite well, but cracking up at the death) – but because I had to renew one of my pieces of medication and they wouldn’t do it without my seeing a nurse. She was commendably thorough, making sure I wasn’t addicted to steroids and testing my blood pressure, which at 146/94 is apparently on the upper limit of OK. I shall resist any attempt to put me on blood pressure pills, because you can never come off them.

Dot left on Tuesday to do a school inspection in south Suffolk. She had considerable difficulty in finding her hotel in Sudbury, but was eventually led there by a man in a white van. I knew they must be useful for something. Appparently a very nice hotel, but she had to leave too early the next day to take advantage of it.

On the way home yesterday she got lost, somehow managing to get on to the A143 going south in the direction of Haverhill, which is pretty much the opposite of what she wanted to do. She rang me up and after we’d established where she was (not easy, because I assumed she was north of Bury) I managed to get her back in the right direction. Meanwhile the police were parked in our drive most of the day while investigating stuff nearby, which meant that when P & J dropped off Dot’s present, they couldn’t stop. The road was full of cars, probably because it was raining. It’s been pretty wet recently.

Incidentally, the forecast storms are still possible, though happily rather later than suggested. A look at the Atlantic charts reveals a couple of ominous, tight lows hovering in the vicinity of Iceland and Greenland.

On Tuesday I did a meal for four others without the aid of Dot, and it went quite well. Nothing tricky, of course. Just quiches, potatoes and salad, with a few extras. Good discussion etc.

Today I’ve been to Bally to help Joan hang some of her work with my poems. I like her work very much, and I’m quite pleased with the poems too. Rupert, Annette and Mike were also there, and Mike took some pictures of my feet to use as part of his illustrations to my prize-winning poem, The Island Grows on Me. He’s already tackled my head and chest, with alarming results. Can’t wait to see the finished work. Rupert is frantically trying to prepare for his exhibition of his parents’ work at the beginning of December. The Open Studios private view, for which we were preparing, is tomorrow evening. There may be a poetry reading. Who knows? Certainly not us.