Tag Archives: carrie

Strange week

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Just a quick one. This has been an odd week, in suspense waiting to go on holiday. I have spent most of my time catching up with computer and paper work and hoping that the council might empty our brown bin – to no avail. We are leaving it out as we go on holiday, just in case. Mary is looking out for it and may water some flowers.

I have been in the city a couple of times to pay in cheques and to visit the Guildhall in the company of the vicar, plus Carrie Sant and Andrea Cope, from St Luke’s. An invitation went out to all and sundry with an upper limit of nine, but only the three of us made it. I took the opportunity to have a brief chat with the vicar about Ian, which he took well. He seems very anxious about Sunday, because we’re away and Howard will probably be in London, as Anandi has just had her baby – a girl.

The Guildhall tour yesterday was not bad: I learnt one or two things I didn’t know, but the guide was kind of irritating, especially when he gatecrashed our tea with the Sheriff (a woman) and monopolised the conversation. Probably being a bit unfair there: Carrie also had quite a lot to say trying to get money for her work (which is fair enough) and I was feeling extremely hot and tired. Good tea, though.

Today we finished packing, and I paid £20 (for the year) to get Adobe’s pdf conversion gizmo, so that I could put a complicated document with images into the Paston magazine, which I’m putting together in Pages. I had tried a free version off the Internet after much research, but it was useless. I could get the words, but not the images. I will charge Paston, of course.

It will be an odd day tomorrow, because there is a CNS reunion, during which I have to give an hour’s talk on the EDP and my part in its downfall (sorry, that was Spike Milligan and Hitler, which is quite different). Thence we will come home before setting out for Gatwick and a night in a hotel before flying out to Canada.

From Lithuania with love

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Spent the week making a gradual recovery from my head infection. Haven’t quite got there yet, but will be giving it a good test in an hour, when we go for lunch with the Higbees at the  Sugar Beat in Swainsthorpe. Still feel very clogged up and am prone to the occasional coughing fit.

I did, however, make it to church on Sunday, when Eleanor baptised a little Lithuanian girl called Gabriele. Her family were all in white, and a few had come over from Lithuania specially. We had a lunch afterwards, and I had a chat with those who could speak English, especially the slightly older daughter (5-6), who goes to Catton Grove school and can speak English, Lithuanian and Russian. Following the lunch (and the Lithuanians’ departure) Dot, Phil and I did a bit of a rehearsal which included my new song, Julian Blues. We were joined for a while on piano by Carrie.

Saw Carrie again last evening (5.30pm), when I attended Golden Dog Lane for a Carrie support group meeting. Only four of us (Carrie, Howard, Debbie H + me), but we had a good talk, and the cake tasted excellent. Dot had been at Mildenhall much of the day doing an RE quality mark assessment; so she had her evening meal while I was out, and I did my own after I walked back.

Surprises all round

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Hectic couple of days. Monday was completed by a walk to Howard’s, where I formed part of an advisory group for Carrie’s activities. This was followed by a meal with Howard and Dot, who had just arrived, and that was followed by a DCC meeting.

A surprise attender at the DCC meeting was Liz, who had a couple of complicated proposals as usual. We sort of agreed the first one, concerning her use of the hall for meditation sessions, but the second was so obscure that after she had presented it for about ten minutes, no-one knew what she was talking about. We suggested she produce a one-page paper on it.

I presented my financial report, and we agreed to contribute whatever was necessary to make up St Luke’s shortfall on their parish share, since we had received an £18,000 legacy and were temporarily affluent. Dot and I walked home afterwards. Very cold. Wished I hadn’t taken the large lever arch file.

Yesterday I visited Lucy after dropping Dot off for her ladies’ lunch at the Mercure Hotel on the ring road. Had a pleasant time with Lucy and Naomi, both of whom seemed quite well, and I now seem to have Lucy’s computer to take in for repair.

Back in Norwich, I picked up Dot and Sue from the lunch and dropped Sue in town. I then walked back into town to pick up the watch I had left for a new battery when I went in earlier to pay in cheques. On the way home I was asked directions to Earlham crematorium by three Essex people in a car. Since they were so far away from where they needed to be, I saw no alternative but to travel with them.

While doing so I discovered that they were already so late for the crematorium that it was pointless going, and so I took them to the Eagle pub on Newmarket Road for the wake. They were profusely grateful, but I declined a pint.

I then walked home again, met chess colleague Jon Burrows on the way and caught a bus outside Debenhams for the last section. Dot didn’t seem to have been too concerned about where I was (she had been at Morrison’s).

I then cooked my own dinner (if you remember, Dot had had a Christmas lunch with the ladies) and compiled a Christmas Compline from sources on the internet and elsewhere. At 8pm Judy, Vicky and the Archers arrived and we had some Christmas nibbles and mulled wine before listening to Dylan Thomas’s superb A Child’s Christmas in Wales, which David Archer had brought on CD, and then doing the Compline. Exhausted, Dot and I then watched A Question of Sport. I don’t know why.

Today she is at a DCC meeting at Diocesan House.