Tag Archives: southwold

Chilly wind blowing round Mr Bunn

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Dot at sunny Southwold

The weather has turned to autumn, with a chilly wind blowing around Mr Bunn, who has been on the roof for the last couple of days, repairing our valley and replacing some tiles. He should finish later today, as should Tim the decorator (no, not me: this one’s from Yarmouth and knows what he’s doing). Both very pleasant and helpful guys. Tim woke me at 8am yesterday, but today I was ready for him, despite having a lousy night for some reason. Dot is out at Acle school, but I’m expecting her back soon.

So the living room should be completed and dry by tomorrow. Unfortunately we can’t get the furniture back till Monday, but that’s a minor thing really.

On Saturday, when it was still relatively warm, we had our hair cut and then went to Southwold to celebrate the Robinsons’ ruby wedding. We arrived a couple of hours early and after driving round by the harbour (spoiled visually by a lot of construction work going on) we parked on the seafront and walked down to the pier, where we had a cup of tea in a cafe out of the wind. Then we drove up to the Swan and negotiated its parking challenge (the most contorted parking area I’ve ever come across) before Dot went into the loo and changed into her dinner party clothes. The Robinson family duly arrived – children earlier than parents, who brought Francine with them. Eleven of us in all, and a very nice meal.

I was preaching at church on Sunday and completed my preparation less than an hour before the service started. Still, it went OK, and afterwards I sat in the church for an hour waiting to see if anyone wanted to look round – it was Heritage Day. One woman did, the sparse attendance possibly down to a mistake in the Heritage booklet, which had us open only on the Saturday. When Claire arrived to take over, Dot and I made for North Walsham via Morrisons (I was almost out of petrol) and took in the cemetery before visiting Jessie and supplementing our lunchtime sandwiches with a piece of cake. The cemetery was at its best – really warm in the afternoon sun.

Last night I replayed my knockout chess game against Greg, which was again an up-and-down affair. I emerged eventually with a clear advantage, but in time trouble couldn’t be sure of the winning line. I messed it up, but he obliged by taking so long over his calculations that he lost on time. So I am through to the next round.

Bit of brightness

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The River Blyth at Blyford Bridge

The pitch and putt went pretty well. Although I didn’t play as well as I did last time, I did improve my score slightly. There were quite a lot of people on the course, but we were lucky in that a group of six-plus who paid ahead of us let us go first. I think four should be a maximum really, but then I’m pretty right-wing about that sort of thing. Anne had real problems actually hitting the ball, except when she was on the green, when she was very good. I don’t know who won, because significantly, we didn’t compare scorecards at the end. Instead we went for a meal at Prezzo’s.

Yesterday I took advantage of a bit of brightness in the morning to drive to Southwold to get some photos for my rivers project. Stopped at Blyford Bridge and then went on to Southwold Harbour. Again, plenty of people about, but I did manage to get a couple of decent shots. Dot didn’t come, because she was already feeling light-headed as the diet in preparation for her colonoscopy tonight kicked in. Today she is feeling pretty low because of the rather violent reaction to the medication she has to take, which means she has to be within about six inches of a toilet at all times. This is not easy to arrange. She has finished eating now. The procedure is at 7pm.

I’ve finished my river poems and sent the pictures to Ian, but no response yet. I now need to turn my attention to the Paston poems and to Blofield. Lucy is in hospital again and feeling the strain.

Something absolutely delicious

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Canoeist somersaulting
Canoeist tests submarine mode

Typically early visit from the piano tuner on Thursday roused me from my toast, tea and Sudoku. Wandered into sufficient consciousness to discuss Norwich City and other essentials while Dot prepared for DSSO visit to Yarmouth school. Later in the day she went to a governors’ meeting at Gillingham and dropped me on the Kirby Bedon road. I did a bit of exploring round the hinterland of Trowse and eventually found my way down to Whitlingham Broad and then home along the road, with a brief meadow excursion. I would guess about four miles in all, and very pleasant too. Got in some walking every day last week (until the weekend), and after a discussion with long-distance walker Michael, from down the road, went up to John Lewis and bought myself a pedometer that you can wear round your neck. New technology: you had to wear the old ones clipped to your belt, and I broke or lost several of them. I gave this one a brief test immediately, and it seemed pretty accurate. Unfortunately available only in kilometres, but the conversion maths will give my brain some exercise.

During the Thursday walk I took several photographs, and was lucky when I did the final bit along Riverside and found a canoeist doing practice stunts in the Wensum. Got some nice shots.

Drove to the Swan Hotel at Southwold on Saturday for Philip Robinson’s 70th birthday celebration meal. Got stuck in Norwich City championship celebration post-match traffic on the way out of Norwich, but still reached the hotel first, by about half an hour. Too chilly to go for a walk, so had a drink in the bar. Eventually, everyone turned up: Philip and Anne; Anne’s friend Francine; Sophie and husband Rich; Charlotte and fiance Chris; and Louise and boyfriend James. Had quite a long talk with all of them during the evening, which lasted till nearly midnight. Particularly good chat with Charlotte and Chris, who sat opposite us in the restaurant. The food was pretty well perfect. I had pigeon breast followed by beef – both done beautifully, and then poached pears with something absolutely delicious, the exact nature of which I’ve forgotten. It may have been supernatural. Gave Louise and James a lift back: they live on Thorpe Road, opposite the Town House.

Before all that I started work on the book I’m editing and got a couple of chapters done. I’ve fired them off to the author to see if she’s happy, but haven’t heard back yet. Perhaps she isn’t.  Despite our rather thick heads (we didn’t get to bed till about 1.30am) Dot and I enjoyed St Augustine’s yesterday, where I read the Banns for Ed and Jenny – for the second time of asking. Caught up on some TV in the afternoon and decided at the last moment not to go to the Ambient Wonder cafe evening, partly because our neighbours from the end of the road came round to tell us they were moving three doors down, and why. Nothing to do with us. I’m happy to say, but the same problem with the same people that everyone else seems to be having. Oddly, it’s bringing the rest of us together.

Today Dot dropped me off at the Premier Inn near the bypass on her way to Yarmouth. I walked back from there to test new pedometer again. Pretty accurate, but have adjusted step length downward slightly (85 > 80 cm) which works out about right, I think. More walks to follow! Quite warm today, but with some spots of rain.