Tag Archives: hethersett

Sands of time singing

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Josephine with Paul in 2008
Josephine with Paul in 2008

A cold few days, but happily my feeling of impending doom last Friday turned out to be a false alarm – either that or my precautions took effect. Either way, I was well enough to travel to Pinkys at Halesworth  to read three poems for the assembled throng. Well, maybe not a throng, but it felt like one, because the room was full. More than 20 people, and all aching to read.

Got a good reception, but not quite as good as that for a youngish guy new to the scene who performed in Luke Wright fashion and almost as well. His name is Oliver; so of course I looked on him favourably and complimented him.

The next day we braved a sprinkling of snow as we left and drove to London to see the Coomes, where we continued a hectic day by enjoying a large lunch, then travelling by car and tube to Lambeth to see a painting  exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. Some new names to me, and some excellent stuff among others not so exciting. Particularly liked a guy called Nevinson. Also a superb large canvas by John Singer Sargent.

We lingered so long here that we had to continue straight to the Indian restaurant we normally visit, without returning home. Thanks to the large lunch already mentioned, I was not feeling particularly hungry, but the food was quite reasonable.

On the Sunday Dot and I went with Kristine to Mass at the local RC church while David stayed at home and mused on life, the universe and everything. Afterwards we had another largish lunch, rejecting the opportunity to go shopping in favour of starting back for Norwich while it was still light, in view of the forecast of snow in Norfolk. In fact the journey was quite easy, and no snow materialised at all.

One reason I had been nervous was my fear of not being able to get back to Norwich for the funeral on Monday of my Aunt Josephine, who died on December 30 at the age of 99. I had arranged to take my uncle Paul (91) to the burial at Cringleford at 10.30am, followed by a thanksgiving service at Hethersett Methodist Church at 11.30pm, with refreshments. Paul managed to keep track of what was going on, and sang enthusiastically, particularly the (very) old favourite, The sands of time are sinking, which I had to admit I enjoyed too.

Phil, Birgit and Dot were there too, with Joe joining us for the thanksgiving service. While getting more sugar for Paul (he took five spoonfuls in his tea), I ran into Melanie Cook, a homeopathist and nutritionist who had helped me some years ago and who is really nice. We introduced her to Birgit, who is having a lot of problems with various obscure afflictions and could probably benefit from a more holistic approach than is afforded by the NHS.

Yesterday Dot was quite busy, and so I had a good opportunity to get things done. Needless to say, I didn’t. But I did walk up to the sorting office and then the Rosary in what seemed the coldest weather for a long time. Not unpleasant, just very cold.

Today we await the arrival of Linda to cut our hair, having already been out to North Walsham to help Jessie celebrate her birthday with a selection of sausage rolls and mince pies (supplied by her, of course). I gave her a copy of my Iona book: we also popped one through Teresa’s door. She had requested one via Facebook.

Hethersett: end of an era

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Auntie Ethel's bungalow at Hethersett, after several weeks' work
Auntie Ethel’s bungalow at Hethersett, after several weeks’ work cleaning and clearing

Summer lingers on, though there’s a touch of autumn in the air. Today we had our hedge cut by Colin, after a slight alarm when the Norfolk Wildlife Trust said they had no-one to open the gate. Bet they’d have found someone if a great-crested newt was in trouble. Anyway, Colin managed by climbing over the wall and erecting his platform, assisted by his son Jordan, one of Dot’s former pupils.

Also this morning Paston Heritage Society’s UEA intern David Whittle dropped in to pick up leaflets for distribution. At least, that’s what I thought he was doing, but he stayed for a good while, consuming tea and biscuits and taking notes. Dot is now out on the town with Anne, and tonight we’re going to an organ concert at St Andrew’s Hall, featuring the Mozart Orchestra.

The car’s air-conditioning is still unfixed. The garage had the car most of Tuesday, then rang me to say the compressor they’d ordered didn’t fit. And so it goes on. I’d walked back home from the garage, calling on Nicholas to get him to sign some cheques and then at the church hall to read the meter and retrieve last Sunday’s collection. After happening on Phil at Fye Bridge and reporting on Andrew’s condition, I was rather late home and had to rush to Dragon Hall for a talk on Robert Toppes that turned out to be very good. Some Paston references, so I bought the book.

The Seagull had an unusual weekday version of their poetry and music event on Thursday:  Dot and I (she “fresh” from a DSSO day at Letton Hall) went, and I read three poems I had written based on our stay in Yorkshire. Dot also helped read a couple of tanka strings.

On Friday we both went to Hethersett to pick up some of the last stuff from A Ethel’s bungalow. My last visit, so I took a couple of pictures: amazing how big the rooms seemed. Afterwards we went to Park Farm for lunch and glimpsed chess player Steve Moore also partaking. Dot went on to one of her schools at Tasburgh, while I fulfilled my mission of getting her pills from the chemist.

Tomorrow we will visit A Jessie, so it is imperative we locate the missing photographs that she’s asked for. They are in the house somewhere…

Blood pressure rising

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New bike successfully purchased – officially for Oliver's birthday tomorrow, but he seems to have got wind of it...
New bike successfully purchased – officially for Oliver’s birthday tomorrow, but he seems to have got wind of it…

Another long gap, which might seem to reflect how busy I am or, possibly, how little is happening in my life. Reader, it is the former.

Dot returned safely from a successful philosophy session in Middlesbrough, and is now in Hethersett, sorting and packing on her aunt’s behalf with Angela, because the bungalow has to be vacated very soon. She will probably be there all day, as she was last Wednesday. It’s amazing how long it takes to empty a house, even a small one.

Over the past week I have successfully navigated a DCC meeting; transporting Phil and Joy to the doctor’s; an uplifting visit to the dentist (no pain, nothing wrong); and (yesterday) a meeting at the Norfolk Record Office about the Paston exhibition, which starts next month. The latter was followed swiftly by a gathering of  Chronicle at our house, accompanied by a lunch lovingly prepared by Dot. We made plans for the CD, for a performance at the NRO and Cromer, and for more writing, with Oxnead as a focus.

In the evening I played what will probably be my last chess game for some time, losing to Martin Woolnough in the club knockout tournament, which I have got knocked out of on an annual basis for many years. Not a bad game, but for some reason a bit of a relief. Don’t know why, because I love the game, and I have friends at the club.

I have been feeling a bit down for the last few days – at times extremely down, which is unusual for me. It followed a visit to the bank (Santander) by Dot and myself to try to sort out our accounts following the bank’s decision to reorganise their system. I got so angry by all the complications, tie-ins, requirements and so on that I left without doing anything and told the guy what he was saying was rubbish and very annoying. He didn’t seem to agree.

I think I got depressed because this came on top of a number of other things that I haven’t been able to sort out – seats for the flights to Florida and Andrew’s money being prominent among them. I can actually feel my blood pressure rising.

The car’s air-conditioning is another thing. I took it in for diagnosis on Thursday, and the mechanic, who was very helpful and taught me a lot about air-conditioning by actual demonstration, decided that it needed a new compressor and some replacement seals. These are on order, which means the air-conditioning will have cost me over £1000 by the time it’s done, and there’s not even a guarantee that it will work properly when it’s finished. Meanwhile, Dot’s car is making alarming noises.

On the bright side, we had a very pleasant evening on Thursday with the Eagles and Bob and Felix from next door (Mary was meant to come, but she was ill). And on Saturday the Higbees came round for a lovely lunch, which stretched into late afternoon. It’s nice to have friends.

The weather is looking extremely autumnal, with plenty of rain today. The gorillas have gone, but not before I completed the trail on Saturday morning, the last one being hidden in the Roman Catholic Cathedral. This narrowly failed to win the prize for hardest to find, however. That was in Jarrolds’ basement.

Number crunching

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No, I'm over here

As we move into summer (or at least BST), the air gets cooler, but the sunny skies remain. Friday and Saturday last week were quite warm – the sort of weather that tempts you outdoors, and so of course we were indoors most of the time, at an Enneagram workshop at St Luke’s. The ideas behind the enneagram are fascinating (click here), but the practice turned out to be a bit tricky because of the size of the group, which reached the 100 mark. A lot of time was spent on panels featuring the various personality types, and as there were eight out of nine that weren’t you, attention tended to flag. Some sections of the group resorted to setting up a new enneagram, which began 8 = irritating, 9 = boring, 1 = impossible. Of course this referred entirely to the panellists: I know some lovely 8s, 9s and 1s. Where were they? Obviously I can’t reveal my personality type, but it came between 4 and 7. Yes, you’re right: it was 5½. Which doesn’t exist. Ho, hum.

All very mathematical and probably not essential to life as we know it. Last week we had a bit of social interaction, starting at the Castle Museum on Tuesday. Because of a miscalculation, we arrived on time, but the lecture hall was still packed. Fascinating talk on Ovid and his effect on medieval painters, which is a lot more fun than it sounds. For one thing we saw some great pictures; and for another the speaker was a witch. Of course I didn’t know that till afterwards. She certainly spoke entertainingly and triumphed over a stutter that would have defeated a lesser person. An elf, for instance.

On Wednesday we entertained the Higbees, which is always good. They appear to have sold their place in Italy, which is frustrating for Dot, who never got to see it, but probably good for them, though they put a lot into the place and will undoubtedly miss it. On Friday it was the Eagles: as a bit of a challenge, Dot invited them on the evening of the Enneagram event so that she had plenty of time to prepare. Or not, as the case may be. Nevertheless we did a quick shop and it was all very nice. Another entertaining evening, which didn’t end till nearly 1am. Sue and Roger are off to Hong Kong now. We may not go very far, but we have friends who do.

In between these two social whirls Dot and I visited my aunt Josephine, who is still languishing in Cromwell House on Cecil Road, which she admits is very nice, but wants to be elsewhere – preferably at home, looking after herself. She doesn’t react well to being looked after. I ought to know what personality type that is, but I don’t. To be more precise, she would rather be in her own little place in Hethersett, because she admits the house she shared with people who are now dead (her father, Joyce, Frank) might be hard to live in. She is very entertaining and a lovely person, but I think it might be hard to take care of her.

Ethel is in Hethersett of course, and Marion Roberts Court might suit Josephine. One day last week (I don’t remember which) Dot went to see her and dropped me halfway there so that I could get some exercise. I walked 2½ miles and had a cup of tea. It was warm (the weather, that is: the tea was very hot). Ruth is in Hethersett too; so are Joe and Birgit. It’s very popular. I don’t know what number it is. Countries have numbers too, apparently. England is 6.

Scarborough and the fatal four

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engine
Grosmont rail station

Loose ends: I did visit Kathleen, and she proved surprisingly perky, chatting for well over an hour. I did deliver part of a poetry and art workshop at Oxburgh Hall on a lovely sunny day, and it went very well – the only problem being that I could not see the screen of Dot’s laptop in the marquee. It was too bright. After some while I gave up and took the laptop into the armoury, where I completed typing the workshoppers’ poems before returning to the marquee to print them out. Dot arrived late morning and joined in, and we had five others, including Paston artist Kit Price-Moss. All produced good poems, plus some lively artwork with the assistance of Annette. All middle-aged women, interestingly. The day before I had helped to set up the Paston exhibition, again in very nice weather.

After Communion on Sunday we had lunch at home and then set off for Scarborough by the direct route. Quite a straightforward journey, except that we were stopped by the police on the A17 as part of a random sample for a little lecture on road safety. This centred, needless to say, on speed, and might have been suitable for a class of teenagers thinking about driving. The lecture was given by a female member of the local safety partnership, and I would have loved to give her a few arguments, but I didn’t want to delay our journey in order to do so, so I satisfied myself by suggesting the “Fatal Four” were lion, elephant, rhinoceros and hippo when she was angling for speed (hah!), seat belts, drink and mobile phones. It did inspire me to write a piece on the dangers of driving slowly, which will soon appear on my website.

We arrived safely at Scarborough around the estimated time – 6pm – and enjoyed an evening meal with Dave and Julia. We then spent three days with them without going anywhere near Scarborough town or beach. The weather was good on the Monday, so we drove to Goathland, home of the TV series Heartbeat, where we parked and walked to Grosmont, just under four miles away along the line of an old railway track. Mostly downhill, with a brisk wind behind, and very pleasant. Had a snack in Grosmont and then caught a North Moors Railway train back. In the evening we went to the Stephen Joseph theatre and saw a remarkable Alan Ayckbourn play based, surprisingly, on a time travel device. It worked very well, although Julia really didn’t like it at half-time. Most enjoyable and very clever, I thought. Communicating Doors starred Liza Goddard and Laura Doddington.

Helmsley Castle
Helmsley Castle

Next day was supposed to be rainy, so we headed for Nunnington Hall. In fact it didn’t rain at all and was less windy and therefore even nicer than the day before. Nevertheless we enjoyed the hall and a brief trip into Helmsley afterwards. In the evening we had a very good meal at Tuscany Too, a restaurant half a mile down the road from the Evetts’ apartment. So good in fact that the richness of the food meant I had trouble sleeping that night.

cliffs
Cliffs near Flamborough Head

On Wednesday we travelled in two cars down to Flamborough Head, so that we could continue on to Norwich afterwards. An impressive spot with a smattering of twitchers, but we walked along the cliffs, which were dramatic: could have stayed much longer. As it was we climbed the lighthouse, then had lunch (fish and chips for Dot and me) and set off for home about 3pm, following Dave and Julia until they turned off for Hornsea and Tracy Savage. We continued into Hull (probably a mistake) but emerged unscathed ono to the A63 and headed for the A1, where we stopped for refreshments at Blyth (nice one) before heading for Peterborough and home along the A47. No real traffic problems, and we got home just before 8pm. This was a longer route, but more relaxing to drive. The A17 and A15 are all right if you don’t mind travelling in a 45mph convoy all the time.

Yesterday I went to the dentist to check that his treatment of my sensitive teeth had worked – and it had, so that didn’t take long. Bought some presents for Oliver and an iPod for his Dad to give him, then ran into Martin Laurance. Dot was taking a head out to lunch, so I spent the rest of the day writing Oliver’s latest Little story – Little and the steps too far. Today I finished it off (with pictures) and am now catching up with various other things, like paying bills, writing e-mails and choosing hymns.

I forgot to mention that last Thursday we went for a meal with Ruth and Steve. Finding their home in Hethersett was a bit of a challenge, despite stopping and phoning them from the end of their drive. Ruth’s directions persuaded me that it wasn’t their house, but eventually Steve came out and guided us in. Very pleasant evening.

2 July 2007

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A pause for refreshment during the Cley Marshes hike. The refreshment hut – an interesting conglomeration of brick and random pieces of dodgy-looking wood – was due to be pulled down in spring, but evidently survived the threat. The drinks were surprisingly good, and at this point the weather was lovely – warm and calm. A couple of hours later it was tipping down. Present at refreshment were Dave and Julia Evetts, and Dot.

Anyway we’ve just had lovely weekend with David, Vicky and the children – despite the Hollywood Bowl being mysteriously closed when we arrived for our session. They obviously saw us coming. Inistead, after much cogitation, all of us except David went by train to Wroxham and back. During our 30 minutes at Wroxham we walked over to the Bure Valley railway and saw the little train arriving.

The road out of Wroxham towards Coltishall was closed by police with several vehicles in attendance, and in this morning’s paper we found that a young person had been killed when their car hit a wall. No idea why it hit the wall.

On the Sunday the weather was still iffy, and we all went to see Auntie E at Hethersett. Took Amy’s tricycle but couldn’t get Oliver’s tractor in the car, so I spent some time explaining to him how my car’s air conditioning worked, which naturally fascinated him. During this, I discovered that I didn’t know exactly how it worked, but I have a better idea now. Auntie E seemed quite well.

In the afternoon we were mainly indoors, though Oliver had a go on the tractor for a short while. Amy got extremely interested in wood lice, as well as the water feature, but fortunately didn’t combine the two.

This morning I took Phil to the doctor’s. He’s had a bad bout of flu and now has severe UTI; so they’re in a bad way at the moment. Dot is working on her last inspection report of the term.