Tag Archives: david

Birthday celebration for three at the Norfolk Mead

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Birthday snow for Dot
Birthday snow for Dot (the night before)

After the Evetts went last Friday and Dot was catching up with some paperwork, I drove to Pinky’s café in Halesworth and read two of my poems to a packed house, nearly all of whom were also reading poems, though not at the same time. I read Counting Water and Autumn at Wells. Sat with Sue Mobbs, who often reads at the Seagull. Ollie did a blasphemous verse: I was tempted to offer to tell him what Christianity was really about, but the opportunity didn’t arise.

It was a breezy drive back, and Saturday was so wet and windy that we were glad not to be going anywhere. We did sneak in a quick visit to Morrisons without getting soaked.

Sunday was Dot’s 70th (59th) birthday. There was snow on the ground, and Anna did a cake for church. We took a bottle of Prossecco, and Howard bought another one. After lunch Anne and Philip called in with a present (more fizzy) on the way to a birthday party for their grandson Charlie, who is three.

David drove up from Caddington, and we all went to the Norfolk Mead at Coltishall for an evening meal. It was superb, as was the service. Really nice having the three of us together, and extremely kind of David to pay for the meal. Earlier he had gone into the city to take his phone to Apple (and buy Dot a present), but he had to return to the Apple store the next morning to get it fixed.

Dot had got up early to give Paul a lift to a Diocese team day at Letton Hall, and I had scraped ice from the car. I had a bath while David was in the city, but had to leave for a dentist’s appointment half an hour after he returned. Fortunately, he was about to leave anyway.

The dental appointment turned out to be a bit traumatic, because Pip (the hygienist) decided I needed a deep clean. She did one side of my mouth under anaesthetic, and left the other to be done next Monday. Well, that’s something to look forward to – and all for only a few hundred pounds.

I decided to go straight home. Dot had a long day and went into the Hendersons for a cup of tea when she dropped Paul off; so she didn’t get home till about 6pm. Today she has already been to the UEA for a bit of medical research, which went well (apparently she has a healthy body; I knew that). Now (12.15pm) she has just left for Elveden, where she is adjudicating an RE Quality Mark application. I have an eye test this afternoon, which should prove less traumatic than the dental experience, though I suspect I may need new glasses; so it may be almost as expensive. It’s very damp out.

A touch of fireworks and a piece of flint

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IMG_3162On Thursday last week we had a short-notice and very welcome visit from David and the children. They stayed overnight, and we had some fireworks in the garden – though not too many, because we realised that several of them required you to be 15 metres away, and our garden is not that big. So David took some home with him. We lit a fire in the chimenia and some candles and had a generally good time. It wasn’t too cold. Dot cooked some jacket potatoes and chicken drumsticks, plus a chocolate pudding thing.

Earlier David had gone into the city, and over the two days we played table tennis, Dixit (Amy brought her new cards) and Coppit. Oliver and Amy both composed tunes on Garageband. Towards the end it became obvious that Oliver had a bad cold – or possibly a reaction to his flu jab.

Things went very quiet on Saturday, especially as Norwich City lost again – 2-1 to Manchester City. Rather unlucky. On Sunday we went to church and Carrie preached on saints. Dot and I both agreed her mother was one, in the sense that her character was attractive and an example to others. I mentioned my aunt Dorothy.

Later in the day Dot left for Kensington, where she stayed the night before doing her philosophy training for a very large group in a primary school yesterday. For a change they stayed in a nice “boutique” hotel. Meanwhile I took that car in to Wrights to have the back tyre looked at, and Wayne the mechanic found a piece of flint was causing a slow puncture. Hopefully that is now OK; I still have to get the MX5 tyres sorted. I also managed to get the car washed (did it myself at the garage) and filled with petrol, deposited the Humax box at the tip and paid the church cheques in. Not simultaneously. Later I peeled some apples.

Today Dot and I went to the Archant coffee morning; Brian and Tricia, Robin and Shelagh and (eventually) Maryta and Paul all there. Afterwards we walked down with the Hendersons to London Street to see their photographs in Boots’ window (ice and gorillas) and then on through the Close and home. This afternoon we entertained Dot’s accountant and will shortly be going to Judy’s for compline and cake. Slowly catching up on a pile of paperwork.

Obviously I can’t reveal who did it

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We like to catch these new shows early.
We like to catch these new shows early.

Another busy period. I started writing this on a train to London on Monday, where we went to catch The Mousetrap, which is a kind of role reversal, I guess. Reverting to chronological order…

Last Tuesday was Amy’s 11th birthday, Dot was in Hull and I was in the city, paying in cheques and buying Amy a silver Parker pen. In the afternoon I went to a PHS trustees’ meeting at Rob’s, after which I dropped in a thankyou card to Jessie, thanking her for the meal on Sunday.

After a brief lull on Wednesday, Dot and I drove to Coventry on Thursday to see Andrew, who’s still in hospital at the Caludon Centre. We were with him for just under an hour. He seemed pretty disengaged and under strain, but I’ve seen him a lot worse.

We then drove on to Caddington, arriving in time for a quick meal and a handover of Amy’s presents before David went to his history group. We then played Dixit using Amy’s new extension cards – a great game!

On Friday I roused myself to go with David to take Oliver to school in Aylesbury, leaving at 7.30am. Oliver read all the way, finishing off A Cuckoo’s Egg – a story of computer hacking that I read many years ago and have forgotten. Later Dot and I took Amy to St Alban’s for some shopping and a meal at Jamie’s. Amy didn’t really like what she ordered but didn’t make a fuss: she’s very considerate. We got her some bread to supplement her sauce, which she did like. Got back to Caddington as David was leaving to fetch Oliver.

We drove home at 6pm because we’d agreed to feed Ellie’s guinea pigs (before we knew about our Coventry/Caddington trip). Got back at 8 despite dire warnings from our satnav about a major hold-up. Happily it melted away just in time.

Bit of a kerfuffle at church on Saturday when Stuart got worried about hirers (a church plant) making too much noise at the hall. Called in to check on the way to Cromer, but nothing was happening. Got worse later, apparently. Ran into Phyllis and vicar David, who had rushed down from the Enneagram session check what all the fuss was about. Conflicting reports about what happened next, but apparently one local resident was very upset, and since then storing of excess equipment has proved impossible to handle; so they’re probably going up to St Luke’s. Good luck, St Luke’s.

At the Cromer History event I saw re-enactors Diana and Lisa, as well as Peter. Small hall, lots of people – even more earlier, it seems. Very wet day.

On Sunday after church we went to the Hendersons’ for lunch, which was delicious, and heard about Uganda. At home, saw some of US Grand Prix, but too tired (because of putting clocks back) to see the end. However, it came to my attention that Hamilton won and is world champion again. When we eventually saw the highlights yesterday, it turned out to be quite exciting.

London worked out well. The hotel (hub by Premier Inn in St Martin’s Lane, was extraordinary: lots of technology but not much space. Our room was tiny, taken up mainly by the bed, but everything worked well and of course you don’t go to a London hotel to stay in the room. Comfortable and clean, anyway. We went for a walk and took in some of the National Gallery before heading to Brown’s for a pre-theatre meal, where I was extremely impressed both by the efficiency and by the quality of the food.

The Mousetrap was fun: well-acted first half especially, though the second act was barely credible. Obviously I can’t tell you who did it. Interesting theatre in that you walked straight off the street across about ten yards of entrance hall and into the dress circle. Very good seats; the ice cream was good too. Not sure why three large people left at the interval. Maybe they were uncomfortable, but surely you’d want to know who did it.

Not a great night’s sleep, but my fault, not the bed’s. We went up the road to eat. for breakfast because Dot wanted a croissant. I had sandwiches. After that we went to the National Portrait Gallery and saw quite a few portraits, notably several of those used by Simon Schama in his TV series, which was interesting. After that we checked out from the hotel and took a tube, catching the 12.30 from Liverpool Street, which was pretty good going.

As coming down, we were in first class, and this time Dot didn’t spill her coffee. We were home by just after 2.30pm, and too tired to do much. However, we did take our old TV and DVD player round to a guy in Churchill Road, who seemed appreciative.

This morning was miserable, and I got wet checking the car tyres (still not happy with them). Later we went to Morrisons and bought much food. Traffic was horrendous. I walked home and got back about a quarter of an hour before Dot. Spent quite a lot of time on writing three pieces for Parish Pump, on Slavery, Refugees and In Flanders Fields.

Delivering presents and entertaining old friends

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Mick and Gill Stedman in our garden.
Gill and Mick Stedman in our garden.

Lots of rain last week, but the weekend turned nice, which was just as well, because we were fitting a lot in.

The Stedmans were coming to stay for a couple of nights so that Michael could officiate at  a wedding at Bergh Apton. Dot had arranged for the Robinsons to join us for roast chicken on the Friday evening, but this was thrown out slightly when Mick rang to say Gill was extremely tired and was missing the wedding rehearsal. So the meal was for five instead of six, but nonetheless enjoyable.

Mick stayed the night and left after breakfast on Saturday to fetch Gill. We discovered at the last minute that they were not coming back for lunch but going straight to the wedding; so we were able to go down to Caddington earlier than planned to give Oliver his birthday presents.  We got there shortly after 12 (diverted because of Duxford Air Show) and had lunch with the family plus Philip and Jane and their children. Lydia is now 14 and Alistair 10. When we arrived (and before the Coomes’ arrival) Oliver impressed us by doing some pretty thorough house cleaning. Not bad for a 13-year-old.

The children spent much of the time on computer games, but during the afternoon we all went over to the nearby field and had a good time playing first football and then basketball on the hard court there. I surprised myself by doing quite well and scoring a few goals: no doubt the pitch was just small enough for me to cope. Not so good at basketball, though I eventually managed to get one in the basket (after the game had finished).

We stayed for an evening meal but had to leave straight afterwards. The journey home was easy, and we arrived, strangely, at exactly the same time as the Stedmans; so they didn’t have to use their borrowed key. It was lovely to be able to fit in the Caddington trip.

We didn’t see an awful lot of Gill, because we all had a fairly early night. After breakfast yesterday Dot and I left for church about 10.15 (I was leading the service), leaving the Stedmans to lock up the house and leave not long afterwards. They are both (I think) over 80 and need to take their time over things: Gill was very worried about packing for a forthcoming cruise.

After church and an inspiring sermon from Howard, Dot decided to invite Phyllis Seaman to lunch, and she was able to accept. This went very well; she seemed quite perky. This was our weekend for entertaining people in their 80s, but afterwards we were entertained ourselves by the Hendersons: we had tea, wine and cake while listening to Norwich draw 1-1 at Anfield. I say listening: the radio was on. As a result, the Hendersons are coming to Ethel’s funeral. I’m not sure why.

A long look at the loft (and the garage)

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Auntie Ethel, who died yesterday, aged 91.
Auntie Ethel, who died yesterday, aged 91.

Very, very wet today. Drove Dot down to the Scole Inn for 10.30, where she met Barbara, and they proceeded in Barbara’s car to St Helen’s for a P4C session tomorrow. Made good time despite the weather.

Yesterday was exciting: I went to church in the morning while Dot cooked a roast chicken lunch for David and the children, who arrived separately. David drove up from Caddington, but the children had spent the night at the Wensum Valley Hotel, following a wedding  at Reepham the day before (Kerry from Bury), involving a train and a drone taking pictures. Vicky dropped them off and picked them up again at 3pm after lunch and a quick game of Dixit, which they had bought me for my birthday.

David also bought me three books and a protective screen for my iPhone. Amy and Oliver also brought me some biscuits from France.

After the children had gone David went through loads of stuff in the garage and loft with us, looking for stuff he wanted us to keep, and stuff we could get rid of. The latter was in the majority. He left quite late.

Dot’s Aunt Ethel has died. It was quite sudden in the end. Angela rang during lunch yesterday to say she was not well, and when she spoke to Dot later, it was all over. No doubt there will be chaos over the will: no-one knows if she made one or, if she did, where it might be.

In the midst of life

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Andrew and I in the sensory garden at Brandon
Andrew and I in the sensory garden at Brandon

Heads still spinning, we arrived home this afternoon from Caddington to find that Mairead’s husband Simon had been found dead near a railway bridge. I spoke to him a few days ago and know he had been in a lot of pain and had poor prospects of improvement, but he seemed cheerful enough, as he always did. Obviously Mairead is devastated, but she is made of stern stuff: the children are the same ages as our grandchildren. We’ve offered to help, but she has family with her at the moment.

We’d spent the night at Caddington with the children while David went swimming on Monday evening and to London this morning. We delivered them to friends at Markyate for a sleepover before leaving at lunchtime. Oliver is programming his own computer game: most impressive. Amy’s ears are adjusting to being pierced, and she looks sophisticated.

We spent most of yesterday at Coventry with Andrew, taking him to Brandon Marsh nature reserve and visiting several bird hides. The locals were very friendly. We saw a heron feeding, some green sandpipers, numerous geese, a cormorant or three and what may have been a young hobby. Sadly, no kingfisher. Andrew was surprisingly interested. We had lunch in the cafe there: steak pie for the two of us and salmon fishcakes for Dot. Later we had tea and cake in Memorial Park. We were fortunate with the weather: the forecast rain turned out to be very slight and occasional.

We had arrived in Coventry at the Premier Inn (south) on Leamington Road around 5.30pm on the Sunday. We had originally planned to spend the earlier part of the weekend with the Coomes in London, but this was cancelled early on Saturday morning because David had a very painful shoulder. Instead Dot and I went out on Saturday for a meal at Jamie’s, which was excellent, and went to church on Sunday, where we had the unusual experience of simply being part of the congregation. The new vicar was leading Communion, and the atmosphere at the service was very good.

Back on Wednesday last week Richard brought the girls round for lunch (spaghetti bolognaise), and I had a game of table tennis with each of them, imparting extravagant praise when they managed to hit the ball. It was a nice few hours. When they left Dot and I retrieved the Mazda 2 from the garage , where it was getting its first service. In the morning I had walked much of the way home, but got a bus some of the way, discovering en route  that getting through Tombland was a challenge for pedestrians as well as cars – a challenge I failed, ending up going past the Adam & Eve and cutting through to the Close.

Tuesday night’s Cake and Compline went well, with a full complement of attendees. Still jet-lagged, we just managed to keep our eyes open.

Walking with the Romans

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Amy, oliver, Paul, David and Dot at Caistor St Edmund, hunting for fragments of pottery
Amy, Oliver, Paul, David and Dot at Caistor St Edmund, hunting for fragments of pottery

Unusual follow-up to one of Dot’s meetings, in that it led to the exposure of someone putting in false expenses – who claimed to be there, but wasn’t. Despite his prolonged and protested innocence, it was eventually proved that he was lying in his teeth. As a result he was “embarrassed”. Can’t say who it was, or where the meeting.

On Tuesday last week we had a compline and hot cross bun at Judy’s in the company of the Archers. A nice evening, except that the cool temperature (18C) led to my suffering a bit of a relapse. In fact I’m still not right, and nor is Dot. We both have a bit of a cough, have few reserves of strength and (in my case) tend to shiver and (in Dot’s) get too hot. Still, we have managed to carry on, because mostly it’s not too bad. Very irritating, though, as it affects our sleeping too.

Despite that we had a great time with the grandchildren and with David. We picked Oliver and Amy up at lunchtime on Wednesday and got the bonus of a very nice potato and leak soup from David. Good journey home and a rather late night after watching some of The Ark on TV.

The next day we visited Gressenhall. The weather was unexpectedly good – sunny and not too cold – and we were outside most of the time, taking pictures and making videos in the wood, and going for a lovely walk by the river and an exceedingly boring tractor ride. The cafe was pretty good, and there were some interesting old things to be seen, like a schoolroom and a shop. Also saw a horse ploughing in the distance. Drive home was rather convoluted after I avoided going through Dereham (probably unnecessarily). Saw the rest of The Ark. Pretty good.

On Good Friday Dot was helping some people from church with some singing on the Haymarket. After David arrived in late morning, Oliver and I went to meet her, and we all went to the museum to gather material for a project for Amy.  Built bridges and arches and played old games.

The Hendersons invited us to walk with them at Caistor St Edmund on Saturday, and we just made it before they gave us up (10.35). Pleasant walk, encompassing the new bridge and field across the Tas. Paul very good at teaching Oliver and Amy Roman things. He has a real gift. Afterwards we had lunch (pizza and salad) at theirs. Later we had a roast meal at home.

On Sunday, despite feeling pretty awful when I got up, I went to church to play music and do the prayers for the Easter Communion. By the time I got there I wasn’t too bad. Adrian arrived and accompanied me on his acoustic bass, and Howard joined in on the piano for the final traditional Easter hymn (Christ the Lord is risen today). Howard took the service, and Eleanor preached. All very lovely;  I found myself last to leave, which was not what I had intended at all.

David and the children left in late afternoon after a second shot at Amy’s new game, which involved setting up shops and telling stories and making money. She is quite a girl.

Today I took some flowers up to the Rosary while Dot went to watch Norwich City beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 and moved to second in the Championship. I think we’re safe from relegation now.

Braving our unhealthy atmosphere

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David and Chrissy outside Number 22

Our optimism was ill-founded. I was feeling so ill by Saturday evening that I couldn’t join David, Chrissy and Dot for dinner at The Dining Rooms. Dot herself had been bad but was improving a bit by then and was able to have a good time with them. I managed Sunday lunch at home with them before taking to my bed again.

All very disappointing, but it was lovely to see them both happy despite the unhealthy atmosphere (David himself wasn’t too well, having caught something off the children), and it was great that they could come.

On the Friday I had had to cancel my intended visit to the launch of Godfrey Sayers’ book in Holt, and on Sunday I didn’t make church, of course. On the Monday I missed the PCC, as did Howard, who also had some kind of virus. There’s a lot of it about. Dot heroically attended as St Augustine’s sole representative.

This was a full-blown case of the kind of upper respiratory tract infection that I used to get routinely when I was younger – debilitating in the sense that you can’t do anything involving your head for more than a minute or two: talking to people, reading, watching TV and so on. I haven’t had it like this for years, I don’t think, and hoped I’d grown out of it, as I seem to have more or less grown out of hay fever.

Dot wasn’t feeling at all well either for some days: she gets a lot of catarrh and sneezing, but not quite the acute facial discomfort, I don’t think. Perhaps she’s just more resilient, or more determined. But I don’t think so, obviously.

She was out in the city yesterday, and has been to have lunch with Carrie today. I managed to get up to the Rosary, where there was brief bit of weak sunshine, but I still feel very tired and clogged up. The hounds of spring are on winter’s traces, but let it pass. (You have to be a big James Thurber fan to get that one. Unless you happen to click here.)

I should have mentioned that Phil popped round last Friday afternoon for a cup of tea, despite my virus warning. He declined a lift home.

Crawling into another year

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Amy helping Daddy to relax in Prezzo's
Amy helping Daddy to relax in Prezzo’s

Feeling very down and tired, which is not the ideal start to a new year. Slept very little last night, stirred myself just enough to get Dot a cup of tea at 7.20am before she left for a P4C session at Heather Avenue, then lay awake till after 9.30. Eventually had a bath and crawled downstairs about 11.30am. Cannot work up enthusiasm for anything.

We did have a lovely time with David and the children, managing to do something every day. Last Tuesday (the 30th) we visited Jessie, and on the way there I dropped off and delivered a cheque to Rob Knee, having a brief chat with him and Penny before walking the rest of the way. Cold but moderately invigorating, I seem to remember.

On New Year’s Eve we had a pizza and drink at the Hendersons’ at lunch time. In the evening Roger came round for a meal, and the festivities included the mandatory quizzes – including two very hard photo quizzes from the children which took us up to midnight. There was a brief concert from Queen on TV, with their new (very good) lead singer.

On New Year’s Day, after something of a lie-in, we all went to see The Penguins of Madagascar at the cinema, and I only dozed off once or twice. It was actually quite reasonable, and the children enjoyed it.

The next day Birgit and Joe came round in the morning, and after a light lunch we headed for the Maddermarket to see The Borrowers, which was really excellent, making light of the obvious problems in staging. The actors were superb, and it was just the right length. By accident we got five seats behind each other downstairs, and this caused some concern until it became clear that the adjacent seats were not going to be filled, and so David and the children were able to sit together.

On Saturday Richard, Maddy and Darcy came round both before and after lunch at Prezzo’s, and when they departed in late afternoon, David and the children packed and headed home while we did a bit in the house.

On Sunday we woke to a frozen street, and it took me some time to get the car going. Even when it did it insisted on telling us that the tyre pressure was wrong: not sure yet if this was a result of the cold, or if there is indeed a genuine problem. A visual check revealed nothing obvious.

Rather an odd morning at church, or maybe it was just me. Eleanor, who was presiding at Communion, had a bad cough and so Dot distributed the bread while I sang. Phil was away, as were several other people, but we got a few from Carrie’s group there, plus a Latvian couple who wanted to have their baby baptised. When we left, Anna and a helping group were solving a problem with one of the curtains.

I had a quick look for a stopcock, which Stuart has been writing e-mails about, but couldn’t see anything obvious. Back home I tried to get the new Apple TV to work (David kindly bought it for us at Christmas), but after some partial success failed almost completely. On the plus side, we can now watch YouTube and see Flickr on the TV.

Coffee machine trumps globe light

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On the brink of Christmas. Tomorrow comes the traditional drive to Coventry to fetch Andrew. Today featured the big shop at Waitrose, with Roger due to pop round later.

Back in Caddington several days to go, I took David to Heathrow with quite a lot to spare, thanks to very reasonable traffic, and got back to Caddington even quicker, taking advantage of the spare time to fill up with petrol before having a bath. (That didn’t come out quite how I meant it to.) Later we transported the lovely Amy to Aylesbury: her directions were immaculate, but there was a lot of traffic in the town, and Oliver was home well before we got there.

We waited for Vicky to get back, heard evidence of Oliver’s huge improvement at keyboards, and I shared some TV watching with Amy. We left soon after Vicky got home and headed for Milton Keynes to take advantage of the beautiful A421. Sadly that road had been violated and abused, and there was a 40mph speed limit for almost its entire length, for no obvious reason.

We turned off to try to find a pub, but could find only a Chinese restaurant, and eventually we made do with a Little Chef as we joined the A1. I had an excellent Olympic breakfast, while Dot had something much more sensible. She was driving, and the journey after that was straightforward.

The next evening we joined the Hendersons and friends for a pre-Christmas party and had a good time, meeting people we’d lost touch with, such as Philip and Heather Butcher, Chris and Caroline Brown (David’s old head), Neil and Harriet from Saxlingham and the Dowdeswells. Relaxing, and with some nice things to eat.

I can’t remember what happened the next day. Perhaps Phil came round. I was undoubtedly catching up with countless Christmassy things, making sure all was prepared for the Alternative Christmas Truce Carol Service, and Dot was certainly very busy. I believe she got some service sheets printed for Christmas Eve at some point.

The ACTCS actually went very well, and Geoff and Sophie came along, which was extraordinary – and extremely encouraging. He seemed considerably better. Vicky II was also there with Amy II.  The meal was pretty good, and afterwards we shot off to North-East Norfolk, calling in briefly on Sheila, who had a bad cold; then putting flowers in the cemetery; then diverting to Mundesley to return Lucy’s computer and pick up her cheque; and finally arriving at Jessie’s for tea and  mince pies.

Yesterday I went into the city  to pay in cheques, buy a lock for the church gates and obtain some presents for Amy. I then made the mistake 🙂 of calling in at M&S to find Dot and Anne in the cafe, following which we bought some crackers in BHS (interminable queue) and looked for a globe light for Dot for Christmas. Failing this, we repaired to Jarrolds, where Dot wanted to buy me a book, and on the way out we stumbled across some coffee machines, following which Dot didn’t want a globe light any more. The coffee machine was quite heavy, but apparently it suits requirements. Certainly looks nice.

Later I dropped Andy and Joy’s present in, and while I was there David Street and his girlfriend Sasha called; so we had a brief reminisce. In the evening I played in the Bob Royall Christmas event at the chess club, featuring a number of  types of variant chess (knight can’t take pawn, nothing can move backward, no checks unless it’s mate and queen can’t take any piece, etc). Did predictably badly at this, though two or three of my losses were on time. One good game and a couple of wins.

Julia and Alan Higbee called this morning and were the first to sample the new coffee. Following this we headed for Waitrose, which was predictably stormy  but not unnavigable. We purchased a chicken and some salmon and numerous supporting cast. Later we finished wrapping the presents, but before that remembered we had to pick up my jumper from the dry cleaners and take a couple more items to Dipples. In doing this we discovered that the traffic in the city was pretty bad. Ah well, it’s Christmas. Nearly.