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.
