Tag Archives: inspection

From one hotel to another

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Threatening sky at Holme beach

No sooner were we back from one hotel than we were off to another: this time the King’s Head at Great Bircham. Our second visit: Dot was doing a church school inspection at the primary school down the road, and I decided to accompany her to the hotel because I like the area. I like the hotel too, though it’s a bit pricey. Lovely room with a huge bed and good food in the restaurant, though the service is sometimes endearingly and sometimes irritatingly amateurish. There is a new owner since our last visit, but there was no perceptible change.

While Dot was inspecting I headed for the coast – first at Holme, where I walked over the golf course to the beach and stayed for an hour; then at Thornham, where I walked along the coast path back to Holme Dunes nature reserve, which is run by our next-door neighbours, the Wildlife Trust. Bought a gooseberry ice cream at the visitors’ centre and then walked back, after a brief foray through the dunes and on to the beach. Both walks (together) amounted to about five miles.

Despite some threatening clouds, there was no rain until I was sitting in the car waiting for Dot to emerge from the school – rather later than expected at 4.30pm. Needless to say, she chose to come out precisely when the short shower was at its heaviest. So she, who had been indoors all day, got wetter than I did.

Since then we have been preparing for France – or at least, I’ve been preparing for France while Dot wrote her report. We’ve also worked in two visits to the dentist (one each, neither involving any work) and answering various questions from Phil about how the church hall radiators should be sited. I carefully took a radical view so that I can say “I told you so” when the majority decision goes horribly wrong. I now have to write a sermon to be delivered on Sunday week just after our return from France. I blame the organiser of the rota: yes, me again. It’s tempting to preach on radiator placement, but I shall probably resist it.

After a hot day yesterday, the weather has realised its mistake, and today it’s raining, quite hard in many places. The forecast is not good either, and at least two of our friends are camping this weekend. That can’t be good, can it?

Good reception for band at the Seagull

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Gainsborough stands proudly in the centre of Sudbury.

All in all, we agreed the Mill Hotel was a Good Thing. Although the evening meal was only average, and I didn’t sleep well, the setting and service were very good. While Dot went to inspect her school the next morning after an early breakfast, I returned to the hotel and had a bath while taking a good bite out of The Snowman, by Jo Nesbo. I also managed to write the start of an article for my website, but couldn’t do much about the sermon because I’d written it in a late version of Pages that my laptop couldn’t open. I could see it (on Quickview), but that wasn’t really enough. If I had been more determined, it probably would have been.

Instead I left the room at 11am and went for a three-mile walk on the meadows. The weather was not quite as warm as the previous day, but it was very pleasant. Afterwards I had lunch back at the hotel (cheddar sandwich with generous leaves and crisps) before wandering around the town for a bit. The hotel had its second wake in two days booked into the bar for the afternoon, so I couldn’t go back there. Discovered that the town was famous for its association with Gainsborough but didn’t have time to explore the Gainsborough House. Picked up Dot around 4pm and drove her home.

Food shortage at home, so drove to Morrisons and drove round for five or ten minutes before finding somewhere to park. Then had difficulty finding things in the store because it has been redesigned and filled with shoppers, most of whom had no more idea where anything was than I did. In the evening recovered by going round the Kerrisons for delicious meal of fish kedgeree and a pleasant chat. Thea passed through our room: she has grown almost out of all recognition.

I had managed to finish off my sermon on the Saturday, and so I was able to deliver it on Sunday to a very small congregation (ten). It was, however, a lovely service – not surprising as Howard was leading it. Phil, Dot and I stayed behind to rehearse our songs for the evening event at the Seagull Theatre in Lowestoft, and later Phil came round for one of my chillis before he drove us to Lowestoft. The event itself went really well – even better than last time. When I had this ambition in my 20s to sing my own songs with a band, I little thought I would be 66 before it happened. It’s never too late. It was a big thrill for me.

The event ran late because it had the most performers and the largest audience in the two years it had been running. So we didn’t get home till after 11pm. We got a good response and felt we’d made a reasonable job of it. If we carry on like this we’ll have to give the band a name. I rather fancy Esker.

Wonderfully unseasonable evening

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The Mill Hotel, Sudbury: our bedroom overlooked river and meadows.

Unseasonably warm and sunny day: we have just been sitting out by the river at the Mill Hotel, Sudbury, on one of those wonderful still, clear evenings that usually happens in late summer or early autumn, drinking white wine. We arrived at about 4.30pm and walked up to look at the school Dot is inspecting tomorrow. Our room is small (as advertised) but pleasant and right by the riverside. We have booked a meal for 7pm.

Earlier today we had a long chat with the Murrays on iChat after Dot had gone into the city and bought a new watch under the pretext of picking up her restrung necklace from Dipples. I confess I had put the suggestion into her head  and was delighted she went for it.

Yesterday I attended another Paston library session, this time at Mundesley. I gave Lucy a lift. The new maps website has come online (http://historic-maps.norfolk.gov.uk/) and this makes a big difference to to our researching Paston because of the much improved detail. Took Lucy home and discussed what we needed to do for the weekend exhibition on March 3/4: it now seems remotely possible that we may have enough material for people to look at. But can we get it ready in time? It all depends on whether Lucy’s health holds up.

We’ve eventually got Dot established in the the office, and it seems to be working OK, though we may get Gary to move the filing cabinet by removing an unnecessary sliding tray. I’ve written most of my sermon for Sunday and chosen the hymns, but I have quite a lot of writing to do for various things.

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.

14 February 2009

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Busy week. Carrie turned up in hospital, but is recovering. Meanwhile I’ve met Sandra, who I’m collaborating with for the Norwich 20 Group exhibition. She lives off Earlham Road and showed me a series of pictures she’s doing on Norwich. Happily, I really like them, and we found we were on a similar wavelength, so it should go well. I have written a poem, and it may or may not be the final one: I’m quite pleased with it. It’s called Stretched Stone. At the moment, anyway. However, I was then approached by another artist who wanted to collaborate, and after some initial caution (wasn’t sure I should be collaborating with more than one artist for this exhibition) it transpired that she knows Sandra, who is quite happy about it. I should see her next week: I’ve left a message on her answerphone. Exciting times!

On Tuesday Dot went out to a couple of schools at Tacolneston and Wreningham, wearing her DSSO hat, and I had a long list of things to do, all of which were completed and have now been forgotten. On Wednesday she spent the first part of the day with Barbara at Metfield discussing the P4C project, while I walked to Surrey Chapel to deliver my talk to Joy’s afternoon group. Turned out I had completely underestimated the length of it, which meant it was rather unbalanced, with the poetry only just scraping in at the end. Rather too much on my early life, I suspect. Still, could have been worse.

On Dot’s return from Metfield we travelled to the King’s Head at Bircham, which is a lovely hotel, quite sophisticated in an unpretentious sort of way. Quite difficult sometimes to find a member of staff on the premises, but a very warm welcome when you did run into them. We had a good meal in the evening, and I indulged in steak, which was excellent. The next day I took Dot to her inspection at Flitcham school, about five miles away. One of her interviewees was the Queen’s chaplain, who is the local incumbent. I went for a brief walk in the Fring area. Found a white owl which looked snowy but was almost certainly barn. Followed it for a while. Walked up a hill on the Peddar’s Way to Dovehill Wood at the top. Not exactly a stiff climb, but the guidebook calls it “an Everest for Norfolk” at about 200ft (61m). Very cold morning, but the sun made it pleasant. The back roads were pretty icy. After I picked up Dot we had a sandwich back at the hotel bar and then went for a drive to Thornham on the coast. Brief stroll, but the wind was bleak and bitter, and we retreated to the car. We then tried Sandringham, but it was pretty cold there too, though the shop, restaurant and toilets were all open. We decided to go back to the hotel, but took an excursion first to Wolferton, which I hadn’t realised was so remote. The old station was well preserved. It used to be kept open purely for the Queen, but eventually shut in 1969. While we were there it started to snow, so we drove back to Bircham as the snow got heavier. It kept snowing for about six hours, and I was concerned about getting Dot to Flitcham the next morning, but by then the temperature had risen above freezing, and the roads were actually better than they’d been the previous day. Still plenty of snow, though: the photograph was taken from our bedroom window at about 7.30am. Another good meal at the hotel while the snow fell, and the only two other people there turned out to be colleagues of Birgit at the nearby Construction Industry Training Centre. They clearly liked her, and the hotel owner liked one of them (possibly both), so he provided all four of us with a champagne-type drink on the house. Which was very nice.

While Dot paid her second visit to Flitcham yesterday, I returned to the hotel, had a bath and packed and wrote a bit of a poem about the owl. Left at 11am, drove round by the training centre to see what it was like and then by a circuitous route to Flitcham, where I parked and looked round the church, then walked down to the River Babingley. Dot emerged a bit late, and we drove straight back to Norwich, eating as little as possible for the rest of the day.

21 May 2008

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We eventually reached Caddington at 8pm after a very easy journey (Dot driving). The children had just gone to bed, so we had to creep in radioactively and keep quiet till they settled. The next day was David’s 36th birthday, which we celebrated with present-opening at breakfast and a barbecue at lunchtime, plus fun for the rest of the day largely featuring David’s new Wii fitness board – his present from us. Very impressed by it, especially as I did an excellent ski jump. (Don’t ask.) I was no good at anything else, though.

The picture above is Amy playing in the garden with Nana (out of picture). In the afternoon Oliver was at a party in St Albans. Weather was quite good, though not good enough to eat the barbecue outside.

Home in the evening, with Dot driving most of the way again: another fairly easy journey. On Monday she was at Thurton school doing a church school inspection: I caught up with this and that and then drove to Wroxham Barns with some pictures to be framed and stopped off at Wroxham Broad. I’d forgotten how unexciting it was: the public are restricted to a small pay-and-display car park from which you can see only part of the Broad and none of the marina. The sun was quite warm, and I hung around for about 20 minutes, then came home. Earlier I had a healing session with a friend of a friend, which was quite relaxing, but this was rather spoilt by the evening’s chess game, which I played very well and then lost again in time trouble. Left me rather down, and I didn’t sleep well. I have another game tonight and tomorrow night – both at home. What I need is a noisy crowd cheering me on.

Yesterday we took our friend Stephanie out to lunch at Cafe Rouge, which was tasty and good fun. And in the evening our usual friends came round for the usual Tuesday meal – sans David and Bridget, who are on holiday in Sussex and who rang me just beforehand. All very concerned about my wellbeing. The weather is teetering towards summer without any real sign of it wanting to commit itself.

8 February 2008

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Dot and our friend Joan pictured during a walk down the Yare Valley from Cringleford to the University Broad yesterday. We returned on the other bank, through some woods and up on to Colney Lane, which has been closed to through traffic – making a rather exclusive and semi-private little community. Can’t imagine how that happened.

Joan, who taught with Dot at Muswell Hill around 1970, stayed overnight on Wednesday, after arriving just after lunch, which Dot and I had enjoyed with her aunt Jessie at Caffe Italia. Jessie was in the city to visit her husband, who was taken into hospital on Monday when his illness worsened suddenly. But he is doing remarkably well there.

Had a cup of tea with Jackie Willis on Tuesday in the massive Sainsburys store at Longwater – first time I’ve been in there. She has set up a company, Care Motoring, to teach driving in a more thorough way, hopefully improving road safety. Many of her clients are people who have already passed the test. We met some time ago when I was writing about road safety in the Eastern Daily Press.

Incidentally, the EDP has finally got round to mentioning that my page has ended after 11 years. They’ve put my farewell page on their website, and it contains a reference to my own website, though they may not have noticed. Seems a bit more satisfying: I had been feeling rather in limbo. I’ve been putting the occasional commentary piece on my website and hope to carry on doing so.

Dot has done another church school inspection – at Salhouse – which turned out to be a bit fraught through no fault of the school’s. She was pretty tired when she got home (Shrove Tuesday); fortunately I was cooking for our normal Tuesday invitation meal, and we all managed to stay awake. Well, more or less. Must have been the pancakes, courtesy of friend Bridget.

Last night we had a very lengthy DCC meeting covering a multiplicity of church topics. Never really enjoy these: I’m not very good in meetings and find it hard to balance between not taking part at all and being more forceful than I mean to be. We have agreed to drop our Ditchingham weekend this year, which will disappoint a few people, including us. Everything is changing, it seems.

Lovely weather yesterday for our walk down the Yare: a bit chilly, but dry and a certain amount of sun. It seems much the same today. An article in the EDP today said we need to get used to not having winter – so stand by for several feet of snow over half-term. Still, a case of wine has just arrived from Cooden Cellars, so we will probably survive.

Have been having an exchange of e-mails with Jeanette Eglington, who is Beverley’s half-sister and my cousin once removed. She also lives in South Africa and has given me more information about the family, which I am about to insert in my tree on Genes Reunited. Great to be in touch with her and Bev, and to find out more about the African branch of the Lentons.

22 November 2007

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Dot’s birthday. I can’t reveal which one, obviously. The picture shows her lovely as ever. We are going out for a meal tonight with friends, which will be a bit tricky, as I am on a weight-losing regime. I’ve lost almost half a stone in a couple of weeks, which is quite pleasing. My stomach was getting much too prominent. Hope I can keep it up (the weight loss, not the stomach). I don’t really know what got me started; I must have caught sight of myself or something.

I went to see the nurse on Tuesday – not because I needed resuscitation after losing yet another chess game on Monday (I’m actually playing quite well, but cracking up at the death) – but because I had to renew one of my pieces of medication and they wouldn’t do it without my seeing a nurse. She was commendably thorough, making sure I wasn’t addicted to steroids and testing my blood pressure, which at 146/94 is apparently on the upper limit of OK. I shall resist any attempt to put me on blood pressure pills, because you can never come off them.

Dot left on Tuesday to do a school inspection in south Suffolk. She had considerable difficulty in finding her hotel in Sudbury, but was eventually led there by a man in a white van. I knew they must be useful for something. Appparently a very nice hotel, but she had to leave too early the next day to take advantage of it.

On the way home yesterday she got lost, somehow managing to get on to the A143 going south in the direction of Haverhill, which is pretty much the opposite of what she wanted to do. She rang me up and after we’d established where she was (not easy, because I assumed she was north of Bury) I managed to get her back in the right direction. Meanwhile the police were parked in our drive most of the day while investigating stuff nearby, which meant that when P & J dropped off Dot’s present, they couldn’t stop. The road was full of cars, probably because it was raining. It’s been pretty wet recently.

Incidentally, the forecast storms are still possible, though happily rather later than suggested. A look at the Atlantic charts reveals a couple of ominous, tight lows hovering in the vicinity of Iceland and Greenland.

On Tuesday I did a meal for four others without the aid of Dot, and it went quite well. Nothing tricky, of course. Just quiches, potatoes and salad, with a few extras. Good discussion etc.

Today I’ve been to Bally to help Joan hang some of her work with my poems. I like her work very much, and I’m quite pleased with the poems too. Rupert, Annette and Mike were also there, and Mike took some pictures of my feet to use as part of his illustrations to my prize-winning poem, The Island Grows on Me. He’s already tackled my head and chest, with alarming results. Can’t wait to see the finished work. Rupert is frantically trying to prepare for his exhibition of his parents’ work at the beginning of December. The Open Studios private view, for which we were preparing, is tomorrow evening. There may be a poetry reading. Who knows? Certainly not us.

14 May 2007

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Weather has been pretty unpleasant – lots of rain, although fairly warm. Finished off my last trainee (could be better phrased, I guess) – this was E at Dereham, who I had taken over when her assessor became ill.

Had the Greens and the Higbees round on Friday evening – good time, though I was feeling under the weather, as I have been for several days: head and stomach not right. I had been thinking of driving to Coventry today, but decided against it. Instead went to Bally to use the long-arm stapler on my new book, but couldn’t get through the second set of doors. Got as far as the picture, which is the selling floor, but no further. Must be a trick to it. No-one else there, so no good trying to attract their attention.

Dot is away tonight, in the middle of an inspection at Cavendish, on the Suffolk-Essex border. I had been intending to go with her, but Joyce’s funeral is scheduled for tomorrow, and one of us had to go to that. Indeed, one of us wanted to. More precisely, both of us wanted to, but you can’t really postpone school inspections. I am reading Psalm 24.

Dot has just rung to say she loves the school and the B & B, so I may not see her again. She is lying on the bed, relaxing. I am cooking a lamb chop and wondering whether to go the chess club.