Tag Archives: cricket

All slow in the Brancaster area

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David C at sunny Thurne
David C at sunny Thurne

Had a good – though exhausting – weekend with David and Kristine. The exhaustion was largely because of an ill-advised trip to Brancaster on Sunday afternoon for lunch at the Ship Hotel. The lunch was good, but the service was slow, very much like the traffic on the way there and back. Caravans, motor homes and even cars all happy to poodle along at about 45mph.

That wouldn’t have mattered so much if we weren’t on a tight schedule, racing to get the Coomes back for their journey home.  This all followed a rather nice Communion service, where the music went particularly well, despite our not having seen Phil for about a month. Obviously no practice is the key to success.

On the Saturday afternoon we took David and Kristine to Thurne for a short walk that turned out to be even shorter than anticipated when Dot had trouble with her ankle – very similar to the problem she had in Iona. Nevertheless it was a beautiful day, and Thurne was picturesque as always.

In the evening we went up for dinner at Jamie’s (prompted by our good experience in Glasgow). I drove the other three up because of Dot’s ankle problem, then took the car home and walked up. The meal was particularly good and quite reasonably priced, and the waiter was first class (as in Glasgow). The restaurant was very full: I was impressed with the way they had refurbished it to meld in with the Arcade decorations.

Yesterday was still very warm, though cloudier. There were even a few drops of rain as I headed up into the city to pay in some church cheques. Afterwards I walked round the Cathedral close a bit and then through the Cathedral. My ankle stood up quite well. In the cloisters they were removing evidence of filming for a forthcoming film, Tulip Frenzy. 

After months of prevaricating, the TSB has now admitted that it can’t/won’t transfer all the church standing orders automatically, and I’ve had to contact all our givers to get them to change their details. It remains to be seen how many don’t bother, and how much we lose.

Today has been much duller, with one thunderstorm. I had been intending to go for a walk, but haven’t made it out, though I have cleared up some other longstanding to-do items, such as putting pictures in frames. I am now about to watch the final England World Cup game, to see if they can avoid a hat-trick of defeats.

<Pause> They did. It was a stunning, not to say boring, 0-0 draw. This was followed (on our TV-watching schedule) by England losing the Test Match – and series – against Sri Lanka with two balls to go. Still, a great century by Moeen Ali.

Just popped up to post a letter and was propositioned by a young woman. Long time since that’s happened.

Going west

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Dot on Holme beach
Dot on Holme beach

Took a day out yesterday to travel to West Norfolk to visit the lavender. Quite a nice spot, though somewhat marred by an extremely heavy and prolonged shower which lasted almost our whole visit and lowered the temperature considerably. In one sense this was quite predictable, as I had deliberated over taking our anoraks and then decided not to, since it was pretty sunny and warm in Norwich. On the plus side, Dot took her umbrella. Tea rooms passed muster well, and the gardens certainly had potential.

As soon as we left the skies cleared, and we arrived at Holme beach, northern end of the Peddars Way, in bright sunshine: bit of a wind still, but warm enough to walk out across the golf course to the edge of the sand. I was irrationally annoyed by the fact that a couple of noisy families chose precisely the same moment to do the walk. This is the sort of place – wet sand, mud, sea holly – that should be bleak and lonely. I may go again: oddly, I don’t remember ever having been there before. We continued along the coast, buying heavily at a farm shop and then having another cup of tea at Holkham before heading home. Meanwhile England were taking lots of Australian wickets, mainly through my man Stuart Broad, who I have long backed as a future star. How are they going to lose this one?

Have just discovered that my mother’s father’s family – going back to my great-great-great-great-grandmother Rebecca Akehurst – came originally from an area of East Sussex I know quite well: Icklesham, close to where Dave Gemmell used to live at Udimore; Iden, not far away; and Hooe, where Stella Gemmell now lives. All close to Hastings, of course, where I frequently visited the Editorial Centre, and where Dot and I often stayed with Dave Gemmell and his first wife, Val. Perhaps it explains why I always liked the area.

Many years from now

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Now I’m 64. Son and grandchildren came up to help me celebrate, and we had a good time, despite my feeling rather weak and lacking in energy. On Saturday I rested on the sofa while they went up to the fair on Chapelfield Park, but on Sunday, after eating a good lunch at Prezzo’s, we all went to Winterton and had fun on the beach and in the dunes. Amy was pretty lively, but Oliver was clearly a bit under the weather. In the picture above he is taking a breather with Daddy while Nana and Amy (and Grandad, for a while) went down to the water’s edge. We had had a bit of a run in the dunes first. The weather was really warm and pretty much perfect for the beach, with a refreshing breeze that even Barbara wouldn’t have thought was chilly.

I was fortunate to receive many lovely presents, including a lovely leather bag from Dot and a stack of books that I’m looking forward to reading. One (from David) contained the last stanza of Bob Dylan’s She’s your lover now, which I had been looking for for a while. It was sadly never released officially, and the bootleg version breaks off in the middle of the final verse. Great song. Today Dot has gone to do Philosophy at Ditchingham school, though she still isn’t completely recovered from a really bad cold. As I write I’m listening to the Waterboys, another present (from Phil and Joy, who came round on Saturday morning: it was their wedding anniversary yesterday). I intend to take it easy for the rest of the day.

England performed a small miracle by avoiding losing to Australia in the first Ashes Test, with our last-wicket pair hanging on by their fingernails. David knew the result but kindly didn’t tell us so that we could enjoy it on the highlights.

27 January 2007

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The last of the snow on the hill above our house yesterday. Today it’s still pretty cold, but the sky is blue, and Dot has recovered sufficiently to go to the shops. We were going to see Aunti Ethel, but didn’t want her to get what was left of the cold.

Dot also managed to get to a performance last night of Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Der kaukasische Kreidekreis) by the National Theatre at the Playhouse. I dropped her outside and parked behind the Green’s. The place was packed, largely with teenagers who must be doing the play for A-level, so lots of chattering in the foyer. We were in the balcony – bit squashed, but an excellent view.

The performance was on the mind-blowing side of mellow and included the most intriguing array of technical effects I have ever seen on stage. Not least impressive was the way a doll was used as a baby, but manipulated very realistically and with one of the cast producing convincing baby noises through a microphone. The singer was a very powerful presence, backed by drums and odd electronic instruments, effectively tying the action together. This was useful, as the action is often chaotic and spans time and space.

The actors were tremendously energetic but had a huge range of styles. All had several roles, including technical ones. Many a tour de force, especially the two leading roles and the judge in the second half. A memorable evening.

After that we even survived watching the cricket, in which England were humiliated even further by Australia, scoring only 110 and then failing to take a single Australian wicket, except one run-out. When will someone notice that Flintoff often plays badly when he’s captain and Strauss plays badly when he isn’t? The solution is not rocket science. You get the definite impression that the team has more or less given up, and FF can’t do anything about it. Pity: he’s a great guy.

David and Vicky bought a new car yesterday: an Astra less than one year old, from a garage in Harpenden. He sent us pictures over the net and I’ll use one soon. Looks impressive. Oliver is very keen.