Tag Archives: tennis

Hot day at Beechwood

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Amy shelters from the sun at Beechwood School speech day

Another eventful week, though not as intense as some – not all the time anyway. Most intense day for me was Thursday, when I drove to Warwick to see Andrew, who is still not making much sense, but is calmer. He is making regular visits to Minster Lodge and according to the manager, Helen, is quite a comedy turn there. So that’s all good.

I actually went to Minster Lodge to see Jan Sneath, from Coventry City Council, about Andrew’s money, which turned out to be even more complicated than I thought it was. The arrears that I was assured in 2011 were not counted as savings now are (they were arrears for a year only), so this could have had implications looking back. However, the council has decided to ignore this, which means he is self-supporting for another three or four months, when it will all have to be worked out again. Oh joy.

On the way home I called at Papworth Hospital, where our friend Geoff had not recovered from his operation, largely because it was rapidly followed by two others when they discovered other things wrong. As I was parking the car I met his wife Sophie. She took me up to see him. I was in the intensive care area for about 5-10 minutes before all visitors were ushered out as someone had a bad moment. Geoff was unconscious, sedated, and did not look good.

Afterwards I met Sophie by the duckpond – a beautiful spot in lovely weather – and we had a long chat before repairing to the restaurant for a light meal. She was very calm considering, but very tired too. The next day she left for a rest at home, only to be called back when Geoff had a “massive stroke”. He was transferred to Addenbrooke’s for an operation to stop the bleed, where he remains as I write. Sophie is with her daughter in Tunbridge Wells, hoping for a miracle.

As for me, I left her at 6pm and arrived home 90 minutes later. On Sunday we sung my new song, All will be well, at a service which really centred on Geoff and Sophie, and was a beautiful experience. It seems trivial to add that in the afternoon we watched Andy Murray become the first man in several thousand years to win the men’s championship at Wimbledon, surprisingly outplaying Djokovic. Media reaction continues at a high level today.

We had a lovely evening yesterday with Heather, Simon and Sam – first at the King’s Head and then at the Ali Tandoori. Again a very warm evening, and the conversation and food were of high quality. We all get on very well.

The highlight of the week, however, was on Saturday, when Dot and I travelled down to Markyate for Beechwood School’s speech day. We missed the speeches, happily, but enjoyed the end of a picnic on the grass (we ate our sandwiches at David’s house), then had a tour of the classrooms and a chat with one or two teachers. Very hot weather, and when the day ended with a visit to the Cafe du Lion, with Oliver one of the chefs, the tent was quite stifling. The tea and cakes were good, though. Vicky and her parents were there too, but afterwards the children, David and we went back to his house for fish and chips. We headed home around 9pm after  a game of cricket with Oliver, who looks a useful bowler.

Today has been spent packing for our excursion north tomorrow. We seem to be taking most of our clothes.

Sledgehammer to crack an opera

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That sinking feeling at Brancaster Staithe

Just stopped watching Wimbledon because it look as if Serena Williams is going to win easily (she did), which is about as boring as you can get. The Nadal-Murray match was something else. Nadal played probably the best tennis I’ve ever seen, and still Murray was an ace away from winning the second set. No shame in losing that one.

It’s been a warm week. The MX5 went in for a service and MOT, and one day stretched into three, because (a) the MOT centre’s computer went down, (b) the car failed on tyre tread that the garage had thought OK and (c) new tyres had to be obtained. So not a cheap day out by any means.

On Wednesday we had Heather, Sam and Simon round for an evening meal which I turned out to be cooking because there was some compelling tennis on TV and the house also needed cleaning. Chicken turned out to be good and we had a very pleasant evening. HSS brought some prosecco to celebrate the publication of Heather’s textbook, and Sam is recovering well from his atypical pneumonia which apparently only one in a million people get. He had a hard time with it.

On Thursday a triple whammy, starting with lunch with Aunt Josephine, Kathleen, Paul, Phil and Joy at the Oaklands Hotel carvery. Good food and an intriguing discussion afterwards about what churches should be doing nowadays. A surprising amount of agreement, considering our backgrounds and the distance we’ve moved. Later in the day Linda came round to cut out hair, and then we went to a PCC meeting at the vicarage. Again, a convivial atmosphere and general agreement. Nice when that happens.

Yesterday Dot went to Dickleburgh school, and I met InPrint poet Lisa D’Onofrio in the city for coffee at Jarrolds. She’s in England for a couple of weeks before returning to Australia, where her mum is very ill, and where she is now living at Castlemaine, north of Melbourne. She is the international arm of InPrint!

In the evening Dot and I went to the Claxton Opera, an annual event which takes place in a theatre in someone’s house. It holds just over 100 spectators and is a remarkable feat of engineering. Our friend Ruth is their leading soprano, and she had the main role in Le Pauvre Matelot, which someone had unfortunately translated into English, thus exposing the poor libretto and plot for all to see. Ruth was superb, but the rest of it was pretty terrible, and Richard White (the owner and impresario) should have been glad the Press failed to turn up. The second half of the programme, Trial by Jury, was wonderfully performed, but of course Gilbert and Sullivan is wonderful to start with, and Le Pauvre Matelot emphatically isn’t. Towards the end the wife kills the sailor with a sledgehammer, which was the only good idea in it. To get to the house/theatre, up a narrow lane, you have to park at a farm on the “main” road and are then transported by bus.

Today we stirred ourselves early and went to North Walsham, taking flowers to the cemetery and dropping in on Jessie, who we transported to Wroxham, enabling Dot to see Frank. I went for a short walk while this happened, and on the way home we called at The Rosary and put flowers on my parents’ grave.

5 March 2007

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In the end we skipped the kayaking for the time being, and played tennis instead. I was awful. I continue to be awful. I played again today with Roger and lost again despite his trying to help me. On Saturday evening we watched Being Julia – great performance by Annette Bening.

Yesterday it continued cooler, but it was still quite pleasant. We had brunch at the Lighthouse Cafe, then bought a couple of books and called in at the video store. On to a leisurely drive through the Nature Reserve, hunting for alligators. We saw a huge variety of birds and a few raccoons, but we had just about given up on the alligators when I saw a baby one in a creek near the exit. No sign of the mother.

Back at home played tennis (still awful) then home for food and two excellent films: The Merchant of Venice (superb performances from Al Pacino and Lynn Collins) and Keeping Mum (a surprisingly good comedy with Kirstin Scott Thomas and Rowan Atkinson, among others).

Today has been much cooler, which is to say the equivalent of a very acceptable English summer’s day. Barb and Dot are just back from Naples, where they bought a bundle of clothes. I walked up to the post office, back along the beach and over to the dock. Wind has shifted to the north, and there were crows on the dock. Haven’t seen them before. Very clear – Pine Island was very sharp. No sign of manatees, which had been mating yesterday, we think. Lots of action – very unusual. Only happens once every two years.

Now the other three have gone out to buy desserts from the Bubble Room. I didn’t feel much like going to a proper restaurant, and they wouldn’t go without me.

It’s much noisier now in Sunset Captiva – more families have come down for the March break, whatever that is.

The picture is Dot’s view of the Lady Chadwick, a boat that leaves the quay almost opposite us and promises dolphin sightings. The other evening it overshot its berth to view a dolphin opposite our dock. Could it have been the only one they’d seen?