Tag Archives: mairead

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.

Troop ship to China

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Dot with the temporary Corsa
Dot with the temporary Corsa

Half-term week seemed empty, but it filled up fairly rapidly. The first three days saw blue skies, but yesterday it rained in the afternoon and evening, and today it’s just chilly and grey. I’ve just been up to the city to buy some new paper for the printer and was picked up by Dot on her circuitous way back from collecting her pills. Well, that paper is pretty heavy.

On Tuesday we eventually managed to fulfil our promised visit to Mairead and Simon for a cup for tea. The children were with his father; so we had a fairly uninterrupted hour or so, if you don’t count the dog. Simon seemed a lot better, but still awaits news of what they can do about his leg, which gives him a lot of pain. In the afternoon Dot and I went up to the Castle and heard Rob speaking in the person of John Paston III abut the Pastons in Norwich. Nice costume. Penny was there too, and so was David Clegg, the lutanist, who I failed to recognise without his hat.

In the evening we gave a lift to Judy when we visited Claire for Pancakes and Compline. I have a great fondness for pancakes, and it’s sad that we seem to have them only once a year. All present and correct, which was nice.

On Wednesday morning I at last managed to visit Mary Welander at Eckling Grange, which was a strange experience. She is 98 (almost) and has very poor eyesight, but is quite alert. Once I’d explained who I was things went reasonably well; I replaced the battery in her clock and read her post to her. She has nice little bungalowette in the grounds of the main house, and has been there for about 30 years, since her return from Malaysia, where she had been as a nurse for the previous 30 years.

She has connections with Surrey Chapel (as well as being Joy McCall’s niece) and she went out to China as a nurse/missionary in December 1945 on a troop ship to Bombay, followed by a train across India and a light plane into China. She was at a hospital in north-west China, near the Gobi Desert, until she was deported by the Communists. She returned to England, working for a while in 1951 at North Walsham Cottage Hospital (amazingly enough) before someone realised that the nurses who’d been in China (and could speak the language) would be good in Malaysia, where there were a lot of Chinese. So off they went.

I left when her lunch of liver and bacon arrived. It didn’t look very exciting, unlike the first part of her life. Later in the day Dot and I visited Jessie, who is a mere 82 and very lively. Excellent tea and buns. I always enjoy seeing her.

Yesterday evening Paul and Maryta came round for supper of fish pie and carrot soup, though not in that order. Paul seems to be feeling at a bit of a loose end after his retirement, though he says he’s writing a book about being a headmaster. Maryta is doing lots of riding and dog-walking. Both of them are worried about their neighbours’ proposed extension, which does sound a bit intrusive.

New car in the post

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Bird-watching on Cley beach, looking over the marshes.
Bird-watching on Cley beach, looking over the marshes.

Seems a long time ago since I posted something. Let me see, what has happened? Oh yes, I have become 69. I am in my 70th year. Three score years and ten on the horizon. I suppose getting this far has been good, but it all went by so quickly, and the more it went by, the quicker it went.

So I was feeling a bit down on my birthday, which was last Saturday, as I recall. Maybe this was partly because the previous four years I had been on holiday when my birthday came round: this one seemed strangely flat. That was until I bought a new car.

We called in at the garage on the way to the North Norfolk coast for a late afternoon visit, and things soon got out of hand. We took a Mazda2 for a test drive – both of us had a go, and it seemed really nice, light and nippy. We sat down to talk to the salesman/general manager, who we know quite well, and before we knew what we were doing we had ordered one.

Things I forgot to check: whether I could get my guitar in the boot. Bit worried too about how I’ll cope with the much smaller engine and loss of Sport boost, but on the plus side it’s much cheaper to tax and insure, and it uses far less fuel.

Afterwards I was driven to Holt by my wife and we had tea and cake there before moving on to Cley, where we visited the beach and then the Three Swallows before ending up at the church for a performance of Caroline’s Pepys extravaganza, which was brilliant and worthy of being seen by many more people. She seemed pleased to see us. The rest of the audience were very weird, so we fitted right in. One of them had bought a dining table for £8500, apparently. I didn’t mention the car.

The next day I had to preach at St Luke’s. Happily Karen was leading the service and Steve was the worship band, so I felt quite at home, and the talk (on No condemnation) went OK, despite a large man on the front row who tried to join in. He was also in the front row at a concert there in the afternoon to raise money for Carrie’s work, and kept trying to draw attention to himself. He tried to engage me in conversation in the interval, but I was giving nothing away (we had already had a brief discussion after the service, where I obstinately refused to agree with anything he said). He brings out the worst in me.

There was a fierce rainstorm during the concert, and water started to get in, but they soldiered on. Very enjoyable, actually, especially Dvorak’s New World symphony. Dot and I escaped by the side door afterwards to avoid encountering Mr Big in the foyer. Also Dot was anxious to get home to continue with a mammoth clean-up that has been going on all week. The garden is now stunning and the kitchen repainted, rearranged and generally just right for a party, should one happen to occur.

Coincidentally, Chrissy has arrived in the country and will be joining us on Wednesday with David and the children. Oliver has a new phone and texts us quite a lot, which is nice. We also get more of an idea what’s going on.

My birthday meal was on Friday evening. We went to Cafe Rouge, and the meal included a free bottle of champagne, as it was for my birthday. This kind of generosity might help to explain why the place is closing down shortly – something we learnt by chance, overhearing a conversation while we were there. Our waitress, who was an opera singer, said that the group was cutting back, which is a pity, because Cafe Rouge in Exchange Street has a very particular kind of charm that I’m sure you don’t get in other Cafes Rouges.

Earlier we’d popped out to Mundesley to see Lucy, who amazingly was able to let us have the ISBN number for the Oxnead book. She seemed quite well, and her house looked very nice. Not sure what’s going on there. The cat and rabbit look innocent.

On Wednesday last week we went to Muspole Street to pick up my other birthday present, which is a picture by Martin Laurance that I’d expressed an interest in and which suddenly became available. Nothing too expansive or expensive, but it looks good on the newly painted wall with the other two of his that we have. I also called in to see Nick Gorvin about printing the Oxnead book. He gave me quite a reasonable quote.

Going way back, a week ago as I write we were at Judy’s enjoying cake and compline, but without the compline, because no-one had prepared it. Lovely evening though, including the Archers, who took us.

Back to today: I’ve been in the city paying in cheques. Weather very warm. On the way back I looked at David Holgate’s carving of Julian on the Cathedral, which is impressive. He has just died, and his funeral is this week. I have been in touch with his assistant, Philippa, who I know a bit. Also bumped into Margaret and Martin on the way home and had quite a long chat about his worries concerning Mairead’s house, which he fears may be sold for bedsits. We agreed that this must not happen, but had no idea how to prevent it.

Oh yes, there was a World Cup Final. Germany won. Nice goal.

Nothing suspicious here

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In matron's white, my aunt Dorothy pictured at Norwich School in 1964 - from a photo in the school magazine
In matron’s white, my aunt Dorothy pictured at Norwich School in 1964 – from a photo in the school magazine

Spent much of Sunday wondering why Dot hadn’t worked out that David was coming to see her for Mothers’ Day. I could clearly get away with murder. I even cleaned the bath and the washbasin in the morning, and went to Budgen’s after church to stock up on bread. Then we went to North Walsham to put flowers on the graves and in a totally out-of-character move I rejected the possibility of dropping in on Jessie. I then (having by now established what time David would be arriving) stopped by the church at Beeston St Lawrence and we had a look round. Warm, calm, dry, idyllic. Not suspicious at all.

David eventually arrived just after 5pm, as Dot was finishing some work in the garden and not noticing how I kept consulting my Find-your-Friends app to see where he was.  I rejected making the bed in the guest room as a step too far and put the chicken in, peeled far too many potatoes for two, and went upstairs while Dot did work on the computer, thus allowing her to open the door when the bell rang.

It was worth it.

David left this morning just after 12, after we’d had a chat with Mairead outside. This afternoon a buoyant Dot is at Little Plumstead school explaining to parents how wonderful Philosophy4Children is. I went into the city to pay in some cheques. It’s nice to be able to do that without putting on a coat.