Tag Archives: heating

Alongside poetic greats

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Julia wonders if she has bought enough drink for the evening.

The gas man eventually cameth at 1.20pm last Wednesday (claiming he thought it was an afternoon appointment) and quickly sorted out the radiators: one had a sticking valve and the other had accidentally been turned off – the movement to do this was a quarter turn, surprisingly. He also allayed my fears about the system staying on because of a pump valve sticking while we were away. Apparently there are loads of failsafes on the system, and the boiler would eventually turn itself off. So that’s all good.

When he departed Dave and I finished our lunch and went to Stranger’s Hall museum, which proved surprisingly interesting: it has a warren of rooms representing different historical periods. Afterwards we continued through the rain to M&S, where we met Dot and Julia, and I resisted buying a jumper. After a pause for afternoon tea we returned home by way of a couple more shops, and ate in.

Thursday was Dot’s 67th birthday, and the weather was much nicer. We took a bus up to the Sainsbury Centre and after coffee in the cafe there (seated at the next table to Charles Clarke) we looked at the main exhibition and then at portraits by John Hedgecoe, which included one of my friend Lisa D’Onofrio, alongside other poetic greats such as Paul Larkin, Ted Hughes and John Betjeman.

Afterwards we walked along the river part of the way to Cringleford, but had to abandon halfway because of the mud. We diverted on to Bluebell Road, had refreshment in Waitrose cafe and helped Dave and Julia buy 12 bottles of Beaujolais nouveau, which I believe is a kind of wine. We then caught the bus home, changing at St Stephen’s. No sooner home than we were out again,up to the craft fair at the Forum, where it was cold, especially outside. Dot bought a ring, and we returned home in time to prepare for our evening meal at Prezzo’s, for which the Robinsons joined us. It proved to be their last evening as non-grandparents.

Yes, Charlie Theodore Smith, son of Sophie, was born at 2.20am, narrowly missing Dot’s birthday and weighing in at over 9lb, which is a bit excessive. On the same day Dot left at 8.30am for Thetford, where she was doing a day’s SIAS training, and the Evetts headed north at 9.45am for Scarborough. It was all go again. For them.

Dot returned just after 4pm, and by 5pm we were heading down the A11 for Caddington, where we were due to spend the night before lunching with much of the Coomes family near Bishop’s Stortford and proceeeding to David and Kristine’s for the rest of the weekend. This was partially scuppered by illness striking DC and Lydia, and we ended up spending Saturday with David, Oliver and Amy, which was very nice. Took Amy swimming in the morning, then on to Sainsbury’s, where we bought food under Amy’s guidance and then washed the car at Amy’s request. David and Oliver returned from Finchley, where Oliver’s school football team had won 6-2 in pouring rain.

Stayed in during the afternoon and played games after watching F1 qualifying, then David made a second excellent evening meal (toad in the hole; the first was salmon) and after the children had had a bath and gone to bed, we drove home, arriving about 10.30pm. It was still raining hard. Dot had been given her presents the previous day – a scarf, some soap, a necklace and a bracelet.

So that mean we were at church for Heather’s visit: she spoke on the disappointing vote which fell short of approving women bishops and got quite emotional, but it was a good sermon. I prefer to think of the vote as overwhelmingly in favour, but not overwhelmingly enough. But then I’m not a woman. Some of you may have spotted that. Ruth played violin with us, which was a refreshing change.

A significant centenary

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My mother in untypical pose on our Lea Francis on holiday in Devon, not long before my father died

My mother was born 100 years ago today, in Eaton village, just outside Norwich. She remembered seeing “the first car go up Eaton hill” and lived through huge changes – most significant of which for her was the early death of her husband at the age of 42, leaving her with three small boys to bring up. It triggered her move back from Coventry to Norwich (I preceded her by six weeks, staying with our former neighbours in Brian Avenue so that I could start school in the city).

Her father was a gardener. She was a teacher and lived to the age of 82. She was a very dutiful mother but in a way never got over her husband’s death. At home she was always there, and I appreciate most of all her decision not to oppose my going to London to live and work, though it would have been easy to put moral pressure on me to stay. I never asked her why.

Sadly she didn’t live to see her great-grandchildren, but she would have loved them as much as we all do. Dot and I went to Caddington on Wednesday – a beautifully sunny drive – to watch Oliver perform in his school concert (he led out the boys’ choir), to help put up the Christmas decorations and to have supper with David while they went to karate. Amy’s reading is coming on really well. We drove back quite late: I’m sure there’s something wrong with the car headlights, but I don’t know what. Today Dot has taken my car to Bradwell (near Yarmouth) for interviewing, so I hope she’s not too late back.

She spent Saturday in London with Anne, and thankfully a poor weather outlook turned out to be quite wrong. They went to the Degas exhibition at the Royal Academy, had lunch at Fortnum and Mason’s and then did a little shopping before catching the 21.30 train back. They got very cheap tickets – so cheap that they travelled first class, as befits first-class women.

The next evening we went to the Seagull again and I read half a dozen poems, as well as presenting a brown envelope that I hope contained a cheque to Lynn Mummery, the winner of the Two Valleys poetry competition, which I had judged. I was pleased to discover that she was quite a new writer, and I encouraged her to come to the next Seagull extravaganza in a couple of months’ time. We shall see.

The gas man cameth on Tuesday to service our central heating. He was a chatty guy who left his torch behind, but before that he checked all our radiators, fixed a couple of the valves that had broken and revealed how I could get the radiators in the living room warmer by shutting off a valve in the bedroom. You learn something new every day. He also replaced a pump in the airing cupboard which I believed had a sticking valve. I now suspect he may have replaced the wrong one, but hey, what can you do?

Off to the surgery in a minute to get my blood tested following a visit to the doctor last week. I’ve just finished seven days of antibiotics and was feeling quite good till I stopped taking them. Oddly, though, I think this may be a coincidence. I hope the blood will reveal something significant (but something that can be easily put right).

All systems needing attention

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Warning sign near St Olave's

Have just booked a visit from the gas man – thought I’d better get the central heating fixed before Christmas, although it’s more or less OK at the moment. Speaking of faulty systems, I went to the doctor’s yesterday, and he gave me a relatively thorough going over but couldn’t come to any conclusions about various intermittent symptoms. So I’m in for a blood test next week – on what would have been my mother’s 100th birthday. Doesn’t time fly?

In other news, the weather has been quite dry by day, and mild, but windy at times. Neither Dot nor I has been 100%, but we’ve been out and about, and have bought most of our Christmas presents, except for close family. Last night we went to a special evening at the Living Rooms, just this side of Poringland, which sells ethically sourced furniture and smaller items. Nice atmosphere, mince pies, and we bought a few things too.

Raced up to the Castle on Tuesday to hear a lunchtime talk from Anna on some of the pictures in the Family in Art exhibition. Really good. Afterwards we had lunch at M&S, and while Dot went to a schools events at the Cathedral, I bought our Christmas cards from the charity shop. Thought I’d made ample provision in cash, but after buying stamps too, I had to go to the cash machine to complete the transaction!

On Wednesday – a lovely sunny day – I drove out to North Walsham to deliver a cheque to Rob Knee as part of the Another Country payment and to discuss future ideas for the Paston Heritage Society. Quite a fruitful discussion: we felt that maybe the full exhibition had had its day and the church project was a bit of a dead duck. We’re going to suggest pulling out of the church project – partly to see the reaction of the PCC – and concentrate on smaller events, producing cards, maybe a leaflet on the Pastons in Norwich and look at the possibility of using St Peter Hungate as a Paston centre in the city. We’ll also be looking at opportunities to use readings and maybe more wide-ranging ideas (songs? monologues?) to sell the book. I’ve suggested the latter to the other poets, who seem keen.

Afterwards I called in at Jessie’s for a cup of tea and a biscuit. She seemed well. We talked about her retirement from the Blind Association (?), where she has been a helper for many years. Coincidentally, at the PCC that evening curate John Easton announced that he was stepping down after 40-45 years, and he and Jean will be taking a back seat. They are both over 70. Bit of a shock, that. At the same time, Nicholas is keen on starting an alternative type of evening service, which sounds interesting.

Central heating not at its best

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Feeling very cold for some reason: maybe I’m going downhill. The house is reasonably warm, despite malfunctioning central heating: last night I had to kick the pump because it wouldn’t go off, and this morning I had to kick it again because it wouldn’t come on. Think I’d better get it fixed.

Central heating, ironically, was the reason we didn’t visit the Coomes over the weekend: their boiler packed up, which meant they had no heating and no hot water. So we stayed at home and instead we all gathered at the Three Horseshoes, Spellbrook, just outside Bishop’s Stortford, yesterday and had a long Sunday lunch – long because it took them 2 hours 20 minutes to serve two courses. Happily that didn’t matter at all, because it gave us time to talk, and we all went round Phil and Jane’s afterwards for tea/coffee. David was also able to join us, so it was a happy gathering: nine of us. The repartee was, needless to say, dazzling.

On Thursday Dot had recovered enough from her virus-related vertigo to travel to Baldock and stay at Joan’s – it took her three hours because an accident blocked the road at Elveden. The following day she did an inspection at Duxford while I caught up with much work. Granted an extra day on Saturday, as it were, I did the church accounts.

Cold, warm, hot and wet

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fred, sue, dot
Fred, Dot and Sue on the path between Blakeney and Morston

And so it goes on. The ear syringe turned out to be inconclusive, and I have another appointment in two weeks’ time. Meanwhile, my hearing is not as good as it was before. Something going on in there, obviously. And the weather is pretty up and down too. We put the heating on because we were cold, and the system took revenge by getting hotter and hotter and ignoring all my efforts to turn it off. In the end I turned it completely off at the power switch in the garage, expecting to have to call British Gas on Saturday morning. But no, when I turned it on again, it behaved perfectly normally. And when I went out for a walk the weather was quite warm too. Some rain, admittedly, but I avoided it.

We were lucky, too, with our visit to West Runton on Thursday to see Fred (my best man) and Sue at their caravan. Quite a pleasant afternoon: we had a surprisingly good lunch at Wiveton Fruit Fram followed by tea and scones at the Blakeney Hotel before walking to Morston. From there we caught the Coasthopper bus. Dot and Sue stayed on it right back to West Runton, while Fred and I alighted at Blakeney to pick up the car, cheekily parked at the Manor Hotel, our regular reunion venue. New steps down the cliff at WR, so we popped down to look in the rock pools, revealed by a very low tide.

Friday saw more travelling, this time to Beccles for an evening private view of prints, mainly by Annette and her students. Annette’s mother and sister were there, but we just missed Lucy. Very odd weather. It was cool before we left, so we put on some autumnal clothes. But the gallery was warm verging on very warm, so by the time we left we were boiling. And when we reached Norwich it was pouring with rain, so we were cold, warm, hot and wet in the space of two or three hours. Then very hot when the heating refused to turn itself off…

Saturday was again mixed, but I managed to get out for a three-mile walk in the afternoon. Then out of the blue we went to Godfreys and bought two sorts of hedge cutters and a saw – and not only that but actually cut a few branches off our overgrown hedge. And more today! However, today’s surprise purchase was a windbreak, which we bought at Waxham after seeing what it was like on the beach. This was a joint day out for the two churches or, as it turned out, a very few people from the two churches. It wasn’t cold, but you had to get out of the wind, which was blowing sand everywhere, specifically into the picnic. Dot and I took both our cars so we could give lifts to Phyllis, Elvira, Pepukai, Richard and Allanah, which is a good cross-section not only in age but also culturally, taking in Africa and South America. Quite a good time, but no-one stayed very long after lunch.

I’m getting through Avilion, which is both excellent and mysterious, as Robert Holdstock always is. And we have at last started watching Series 2 of Battlestar Galactica, which is brilliant. Eight episodes down.

18 January 2008

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A nice picture of grandson Oliver in serious mood. He and Amy are now taking swimming lessons.

I have some kind of scalp irritation around my right ear which makes it difficult to wear my glasses. As I can’t see close up without them, this is rather annoying. Still, it’s not painful, and I feel quite good otherwise. I’m down to 12st 5lb, which is not bad going.

We were going to have some friends round on Wednesday, but they could not come for family reasons – her father is very ill – so we were on our own after LD called with a letter of thanks about the Rohr event and stayed for tea and chat while Dot finished the ironing. Earlier I had patched up some wood on our back porch that was seriously coming apart, using wood filler that I moulded around the problem and then discovered shouldn’t come into contact with my skin. However, I have pretty resilient skin, and nothing seems to be amiss. Both hands are still attached to my arms. The result looks a mess but is rock solid: I see it as temporary until we can get the wood replaced. Dot is now thinking of swapping the contents of two of the upstairs bedrooms, which would involve a carpenter since her work area is attached to the wall. Maybe we would be able to combine the two jobs…

Meanwhile she is moving furniture round the living room – an activity she prefers to writing a book, which is understandable. She has a tape measure and is measuring everything. Bit unsettling.

Yesterday was Powerflush Day. Not a new national holiday, but a cleaning out of our central heating system. Clearly we had left it far too long. Huge amounts of sludge emerged, and the already big job expanded into something massive, with new pump and various other items. Fortunately we are over 60 and get it at about half price, but it’s still pretty expensive. On the plus side, the radiators now seem to be working: they had been gradually falling by the wayside. The British Gas engineer was extremely friendly and helpful, and rang back today to make sure everything was OK. I think it is.

While he was here he discovered that the lagging on our big cold tank was waterlogged – ie it had fallen into the water. Did it fall or was it pushed? If it was pushed, it must have been a long time ago. Getting it out was a tricky job, but I managed it with some help from Dot and only a small amount of water dripping down the pipe into the airing cupboard. It is now drying out in the garage, but we’ll probably get a new set, as we professionals call tank lagging.

Today I’ve started work on a book based on the characters in my EDP page. Working title: The Houseago Prophecy. Yesterday there was a letter in the EDP taking my name in vain for no apparent reason, so I replied to it, mentioning that alert readers might have noticed that my page had come to an end, expired, ceased to be, etc. This provoked a couple of e-mails sympathising – one from Bruce and one from a fairly regular correspondent – which was nice.

The weather both yesterday and today has been pretty awful – steady rain and overbearing greyness. Having the heating off yesterday was unpleasant, and its return today extremely welcome. We’re alone again tonight, but tomorrow cousin Eddie and his wife are coming for a meal.