Tag Archives: thrower

Birthday meal hits spot

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Rather poor picture of our table at the Wensum View Hotel. Mary is on the left, Rachel is to the left of my vacant chair and Barbara to the right.
Rather poor picture of our table at the Wensum View Hotel. Mary is on the left, Rachel is to the left of my vacant chair and Barbara to the right. Dot is sitting next to a pilot whose name I forget.

Mary Thrower’s 70th birthday meal last Saturday turned out to be a delightful event, despite our not knowing anybody but Mary and Neville – plus, amazingly, Bernadette from Archant, who turned out to be their next-door neighbour.

The setting, despite rainy weather, was beautiful, with the room at the Wensum View Hotel looking way out over the golf course and the Wensum valley generally. The food was really delicious, despite the party being over 60 in number (quantity often reduces quality). And the six people who sat at out table were all very easy to get on with – in fact when nearly everyone had gone, our table was still all present and correct.

The number included Mary’s son Jamie (really nice guy) and his equally nice wife Rachel. I think the others were friends rather than relations: one couple came from Carleton Rode and the other from further away.

That was on Saturday. The following day I roused myself to lead the service at St Augustine’s in the presence of the new vicar, who was attending for the first time, as an observer. He stayed a long time afterwards and spoke to everyone. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of his aims is to get the two churches to do things together. That should be interesting.

The rest of the day was dull and rather oppressive: we couldn’t rouse ourselves to do anything much. But on Monday Colin came and fixed the garage door handle – which has unfortunately gone wrong since. He is coming again on Saturday. In the evening we had a PCC meeting at which for the first time in living memory St Augustine members almost made up 50% of the attendance. Howard didn’t make it, of course, but Eleanor and Judy did. I think we were a little less formal than the new vicar would have liked (what? no votes?), but no doubt there will be  conversion process, one way or the other. Simon gave a presentation on our registering as an individual charity, which you have to do when your turnover exceeds £100,000.

On Tuesday Barbara and her dog came to sort out some video for their p4c DVD and commandeered my computer to do so. I went to pay some cheques into the bank and wondered over to the Forum, where a young guy asked if I’d like to play chess (there’s a board game section in the library there). We had a good game, but he beat me after I hung a rook. I suggested he joined a local club. Enjoyed the game, but it sort of showed me I wasn’t up to what used to be my standard.

Yesterday was dull again, though warm. I got some work donned then went to Morrison’s with Dot for a fairly large bout of shopping before she disappeared to orchestra. An odd day.

After the storm surge

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Uneven floor

After the storm surge, we drove out to the coast last Thursday to survey the damage. We started at Hemsby, where I spent many a week in my youth, wandering the valley between the dunes and playing cricket in the rare smooth bit. Idyllic times. The valley is still there, though we usually approach it from the Winterton end, but the dunes on the seaward side have been eaten away by the sea and are much lower.

In the recent surge the damage was done south of the Gap, where we rarely ventured when I was young. I got some quite dramatic pictures of semi-demolished houses (one with a washing machine hanging on by its power cord). We then moved on to Happisburgh, where only one house now remains in the road to nowhere: a lot of land lost along the cliffs to the south. Then Walcott, where the road was opened. The sea wall was OK, but there was quite bit of damage to properties across the road. We had fish and chips at Bacton and drove home.

Bedroom with sea view
Bedroom with sea view

On the way home the car started making a strange rattling noise underneath. So the next day, on the way to the Archant pensioners’ Christmas dinner,  I called in at the garage – and while I was eating my meal and chatting to former colleagues, they fixed it. The protective shield under the engine had come loose.  The meal was average, but it was nice to see the colleagues. It was raining.

Preached on Sunday on John the Baptist and spent much of the weekend writing cards, with very little walking. However I have made up for it since, having achieved nearly 15 miles since Monday. This included much shopping, but also a walk up to the vicarage to pick up an urgent cheque that had to be paid into the bank.

Dot had a blood test early on Monday, and had to avoid alcohol over the weekend, which was of course quite difficult. We await the results. On the ending I made a rare visit to the chess club, where I took part in the Bob Royall Christmas event, which featured such rare variations as extermination chess, Fischer random, diagonal pawns and team chess. Despite being handed a defeat in round one, where we had to move to a new board halfway through, and the board I moved to was completely lost, I managed to finish equal third out of 12. I was particularly pleased because I found some key moves in the team chess and set up wins.

However, I was very tired afterwards, and found it hard to sleep. That was the main reason I stopped playing regularly, so it wasn’t too encouraging. Good evening, though.

A full attendance at the Tuesday Group on Tuesday, for which I cooked chilli con quorn, a well known Christmas dish. Judy brought some stolen; so all was not lost.

Yesterday Dot forgot to look in her diary and arrived at Barbara’s around 11am, or roughly two hours too early. Meanwhile I was delivering cards and buying more presents. Dot got back in time to take the bus up to Chapelfield and queue to obtain certain footballers’ autograph on a ball. Took Dot’s picture with said footballers.

After this we hastened home to get ready for the Sillars Orchestra Christmas outing at Merge, a Malaysian restaurant at the junction of Dereham Road and Grapes Hill. Quite a pleasant evening, though Dot was much keener on the food than I was. I had a chat with the conductor and others, and afterwards we were invited for coffee by Neville and Mary (Clarinet) Thrower. I was in the same class as Neville at school, though he wasn’t Neville then of course: he was Thrower, or occasionally Chucker.