Dot on one of the more remote paths at Hever Castle.
The plumber did sort the leak out, but he discovered that we need a new stopcock. Meanwhile, we have bought a new 48″ TV (Samsung 4K), a BT YouView replacement for our Humax box and a Sony CD player. We managed to get them all home from John Lewis in our car, though it was a much tighter fit than I thought it would be. It’s a taken few days, but I now have them up and running, together with our Apple TV, though the day-to-day operation is far from smooth. It goes without saying that we are not using any of them to their full potential, or even correctly.
The whole operation was so all-consuming that we totally forgot that we had tickets to see Brian Patten at Halesworth on Sunday before Dot had arrange to have an evening meal with Jessie, Roger and Debbie. Clearly Brian Patten couldn’t compete. I offered the tickets on Facebook and rang a couple of people, but sadly they went to waste. Still, we had a good time at North Walsham. Jessie’s cousin Margaret and the Vicar of Suffield came round to discuss family history, with particular reference to Lacey Pike, who was killed at Gallipoli. I was able to contribute a small amount, but not much. Lacey was Dot’s grandmother’s brother, unless I’ve very much mistaken.
As I write Dot is in Hull with Barbara, training some teachers there in Philosophy4Children. After she left yesterday (at about 3pm) I walked up to Revelation with a heavy bag of secondhand books, then continued to the church hall, where I found Carrie and Sophie. I was able to retrieve some cash from the safe and remembered at the last minute to check the meters: I need to speak to British Gas at some point soon.
From there I progressed to Halfords and bought a digital tyre inflator, which I felt we needed, and then proceeded home via the Riverside Path and The Close. Pretty tired at the end of all that. I found I’d done over 4 miles in the day. So I cooked myself a pie and watched Norwich lose 6-2 to Newcastle without looking at all bad, and Ireland and Scotland lose in the rugby world cup quarter-finals, the latter because of a very bad refereeing decision.
I forgot to mention that last Thursday, in the midst of my electrical challenges, I went up to the Theatre Royal to see Martin Laurance’s new exhibition (Dot decided to give it a miss). Very good selection of pictures; if I hadn’t just bought a television, I might have been tempted. Ran into Rupert Mallin, who was in rude health, and on the way out poet Hilary Mellon.
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.
