Tag Archives: jeanette

30 January 2009

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How Hill nature reserve, near Ludham. I did a 4.8-mile walk in the area yesterday, after Dot and I had visited Jessie and then left some flowers at the cemetery in North Walsham. It was her mum’s birthday. We also left some on what Dot thought might have been her grandmother’s grave, though there was no gravestone. Then on to Ludham where we shared a turkey baguette in the King’s Head before she dropped me off and went on in her DSSO role to a school at Sutton, about four miles away. I walked some very damp roads before venturing into a deserted How Hill, where I walked down to the River Ant and took a couple of pictures before continuing back to Ludham church. No sign of Dot, so I walked on to Womack Staithe and back. I was about to go into the church when she pulled up. The longest walk I’ve done since my operation, and I felt reasonably OK, though tired. In the evening I went to a St Augustine’s local ministry team meeting in the Ribs of Beef on Magdalen Street, which ended with Nicholas, Howard, Phil and I (the only attenders) discussing concerts we had been to and the first albums we’d bought. Dot stayed at home. She’s been working too hard recently.

It was a cold day, as it is today, with a wind that’s biting if not particularly strong. We’ve just heard that my second cousin Jeanette and her husband, who were emigrating here from South Africa, have decided to go home. They did pick a particularly cold winter to come over here, and their holiday home rental in Cornwall has not given them much warmth. And in the current credit crunch crisis they haven’t been able to get jobs. Sad, really. I’d been hoping to get to know them via visits to Cornwall!

Today I’ve spent a few hours at Paston learning how to use iMovie with assistance from Lucy, who also gave me lunch. She’s a bit better at the moment, though long-term prospects aren’t much different. Naomi is also going through a rough patch and will have to come home for treatment, since the medical people in Durham have proved particularly inept at looking after her.

10 December 2008

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Winter sunshine shot of St Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich, taken from outside the Forum during my swift guided tour of the city for Jeanette and Graham, who are now in Liverpool, or possibly Southport, and thinking of buying a car, which is hardly surprising, given the size of their suitcases and their lack of any permanent hall to leave them in. They sent us a nice message thanking us for our hospitality and inviting us to Cornwall when they (a) get there and (b) find a house. They seemed quite happy with out cold winter weather: apparently Jeanette, at least, “likes the cold”.

Meanwhile things have quietened down a bit. Today I spent quite a lot of time making Christmas cards and then addressing envelopes. I surmounted the problem of replacing two ink cartridges while Dot was away with Barbara working on P4C in Metfield, though I did lose it momentarily while trying to use of one of those cheaper cartridges where you have to switch the electronic tag, or whatever it is. Definitely not worth saving the money. Incidentally the P4C website designed by David with content by Dot and Barbara is now up and running. Proof-read by me, so any mistakes are my fault. I’m hoping there aren’t any.

Dot finished her inspection at Carleton Rode on Monday morning. I took some stuff up the tip. That pretty much sums up our different roles. In the evening I played a really good game of chess against Colin Payne, then lost it through one bad move late in the evening. Unaccountably, I have been feeling down ever since, though I don’t think it’s entirely the chess. I’m not sure what it is.

Dot went to the dentist yesterday and apparently needs some work doing, despite the dentist’s admiring both the quality of her teeth and her general fitness and stunning appearance.. Apparently she would never be taken for a woman of 63. Tell me about it. We had a mammoth number of people round in the evening, and Dot and I ended up sitting at the breakfast bar. Still, the carrot soup didn’t run out, and we had a good session. I may not have mentioned (yes, I could check) that we also went to Ambient Wonder planning on Sunday, and tomorrow we have the big AW adventure, when we take over St Stephen’s Church just outside Chapelfield Mall and try to entice passers-by into talking to us and seeing what we have to offer. There is some excitement about this (quite rightly), but I find it difficult to cope with the chaos of it. This is a character defect. I have just been reading Jack Earl’s autobiography (he is in his late 90s), and it is amazing what he has done in his life – on a purely geographical level, apart from everything else. I put this down to his enjoyment of camping, which I could never get enthusiastic about. Oh, and the war.

7 December 2008

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Granddaughter Amy in her ballet outfit, performing a few pas de deux ou trois while staying with us last weekend, and looking stunning while doing so.

My second cousin Jeanette and her husband Graham left us on Friday by train for Liverpool, arriving at my first cousin’s there by early evening. Before they left we had fish and chips after a visit to the Rosary to see some family graves. The previous day we visited Paul and had a really good 90 minutes with him. He had a lot to tell Jeanette, most of which I’d heard before, but I did discover that my mother had been desperate to have a child (I was born eight years after they married) and made herself ill over it. I had always thought that they deliberately put off having me till the war was over. Jeanette was impressed by Paul, who is in his mid-eighties and still extremely fit and healthy.

I also took Jeanette and Graham for a drive round a few key spots, including our cottage at Yelverton, taking in my grandmother’s former homes at Queen’s Road (demolished), Hall Road (still there), Caistor Lane (changed out of all recognition) and Poringland (hardly changed at all).

I stayed in yesterday, writing a sermon on John the Baptist for this morning. I think it was too long, but three or four people said they liked it. In the afternoon yesterday I proof-read Dot’s website and completed the Ambient Wonder material – or would have done if the laminator hadn’t wrapped film around itself. Tried to fix it this afternoon, but couldn’t even get it open. I think it’s had it. I will get a new one tomorrow.

4 December 2008

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This is Jeanette and Graham, her husband, who are staying with us at the moment. Jeanette is my second cousin, from South Africa (near Pietermaritzberg) – the first daughter of my cousin Howard, my uncle Leonard’s son. They are coming to live in England – possibly in Cornwall, where they have a arranged a three-month rental of a holiday cottage near Tintagel while they sort themselves out. The rental doesn’t start till after Christmas, however. They arrived on Tuesday and are leaving by train tomorrow for Liverpool, where Jeanette’s aunt Ann (my cousin) lives. Yesterday I gave them the tour of Norwich, including lunch at Caffe Italia. It was a bright day but got colder and colder, and we were glad to get home in the end. Dot cooked lamb steaks. The previous day we directed them to Prezzo’s while we had our usual Tuesday gathering, and they also had a walk round. They are very easy to get on with and have plenty to tell us about the family in Africa, which has been fascinating.

Today is quite different: dull and wet. Dot has just taken her car to fill it with petrol prior to a trip to Ipswich this afternoon for a meeting to do with her Philosophy4Children project. She’s also showing Graham how you get petrol in England! Later I’ll take J & G round for a drive round a few significant spots, such as Howard’s birthplace in Queen’s Road.

At the weekend David and Vicky and the children came up, and we bought Oliver a Norwich City football kit for Christmas. Technically I didn’t, because I was cooking roast chicken at the time, but I was there in spirit. In the evening we all watched Hot Fuzz after the children had gone to bed. On Sunday I had to go to church owing to a shortfall in the music group, and all went well. We all went out to lunch at Prezzos, and when we got home Eddie, my cousin from Ilford, called in with his wife Christine and saw the grandchildren for the first time. Might also have seen David for the first time, come to think of it. Oliver became rather unwell during the day, with asthma affecting his chest. He was away from school a couple of days but is back today and improving. Hate to see him unwell. Amy showed us a few of her ballet moves and was generally adorable.

25 May 2008

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This is Dot (right, if you’ve not been following so far) with our friend Stephanie, with whom we lunched at Cafe Rouge last Tuesday, when the weather was quite reasonable – as it was right up to last night. Today is pretty appalling – very wet indeed and by no means warm. Such changeability is all very English: maybe I should warn my cousin’s daughter Jeanette, who has just told me she and her husband are moving to Cornwall from South Africa. On the plus side, Cornwall is probably safer. Sandy, my Cape Town-based cousin (other side of the family), is installing an electric fence after recent violence not far from her house. She is also installing a swimming pool, though. I am hoping the pool is not too near the fence.

In the evening on Friday – catching the threads of my last post – Dot and I went back to Wroxham Barns to buy an arch for the garden. I had originally thought it far too big, but when we measured it, and the space, it was clearly OK. Dot has much better powers of visualisation than I do. It is now safely installed, and the surrounding foliage has been given instructions to flow over it. On the way back we called at our friend Ed’s, where he and a couple of other friends were meeting to pray for me. Sat out in the garden, and I had a rare lager. The lager wasn’t that rare; it was me drinking it that was unusual. I only drink lager in hot weather and when I’m very thirsty. Pretty much.

Yesterday was warm and quiet: I spent most of it going through a whole pile of magazines and newspapers that I had been meaning to read, and Dot was writing her school inspection report. We took some time out to erect the arch. Or to be more accurate, she took time out to put the arch together, and I helped her stand it up and tighten the nuts. This morning we went to church, where I was leading the service, and Dot and Phil were playing the music. Pouring with rain, but we left feeling very good. So many kind friends.

Dot is now visiting her aunt at Hethersett, who has a problem with her arm and needs some help. Sacrificially, I stayed at home and watched Lewis Hamilton win the Monaco Grand Prix. Everything seems to be pushing me towards the operation on my prostate, but I haven’t finally decided. As I told a friend, it’s like sitting in one of those restaurants where you can’t choose between several things on the menu, and you end up with the one you were inclining to at the moment the waiter happened to arrive.