Tag Archives: vi

11 June 2009

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Bit more than a hiatus there: more of a huge gap. Originally caused by the absence of my computer, which has had its logic board replaced under guarantee by an excellent Norwich outfit called Bite, but then exacerbated (or lengthened) by the revelation from my son that Yahoo 360 is shutting down on July 12 – my birthday. How appropriate. Happily he has the expertise to transfer the whole thing to a new blog site called WordPress, where it will eventually be resurrected. Meanwhile…

Dot has been very busy over the past couple of weeks visiting schools in her DSSO role and today is in Hertfordshire on a research trip (I choose my words carefully) organised by the Norfolk Association for Primary Head Teachers. I had to deliver her to Thickthorn services at 7.30am. Rain bucketed down on the way there, but eased off when we arrived. David is going to create a website for said NAfPHT and was in Norwich yesterday afternoon to chat with Dot and Sue Eagle about it. We had a rather nice lunch, and David sorted out a message that kept appearing on my computer. Good to see him.

We have also passed through a good DCC meeting and an excellent Ambient Wonder organised by Matthew and including a barbecue, which we managed to get through shortly before a torrential downpour put it out quite thoroughly. Perfect, really.

The other major event of the past few days had been our weekend at Blakeney with the Evetts and friends: this year’s reunion, once again at the Manor Hotel. The forecast was not good, but the actual weather was much better, and we managed a five-and-a-half-mile walk on the Saturday, up to Wiveton Downs and returning across the fields to the coast path between Blakeney and Morston. The picture was taken on a minor summit at Wiveton Downs – and I do mean minor. Dot, Julia and Dave in triumphant mood. Food at the hotel was generally good without being spectacular, and we introduced Julia and Dave to the amazing Cookie’s at Salthouse, which I think went down quite well. On the Sunday Dot and I returned to Norwich via Baconsthorpe Castle, which was a bit of a revelation: an unheralded but extensive and picturesque Tudor ruin, together with lake, at the end of a farm track which, once the foliage grows a little longer, will be completely unsignposted. At present the sign is just visible from one direction only. Excellent: keep it secret, I say.

On Tuesday Dot and I found a couple of spare hours to respond to the kind invitation of Ruthli Losh-Atkinson (one of my two collaborative artists in the Twenty Group) and her husband Douglas to tea and biscuits, plus a tour of their house and garden. Both of them are incredibly creative, and the house and garden reflect this: the former is absolutely full of paintings and sculpture; the latter is perfectly organised, yielding a big variety of vegetables and fruit. Apparently they have two large freezers. And motor cycles.

10pm: Dot now back from research trip. Collected her from Thickthorn after visit to hospital, during which I was told I needed another operation, though a much smaller one. However, it will be under anaesthetic and will require a night in hospital. Apparently I probably have a problem with the neck of my bladder. Or, possibly, something else. They will see when they get in there. Not looking forward to it, but I am looking forward to something being done, as the last few weeks haven’t been much fun. As it’s urgent, the NHS should be able to do it within 4-6 weeks (I daren’t ask how long it would take if it wasn’t urgent), so I am asking about getting it done privately. I don’t want it to interfere with our holiday in Scotland or my trip to Hull. At present I’m due for a final pre-op assessment (some of it was done today) on June 29, but events could overtake that.

Now I’m going to bed. Haven’t had enough sleep the last few days. I should of course have mentioned that in the midst of all this, my aunt Vi died at the age of 93. It was great that we managed to get out there and see her in 2007, and she had been very ill recently. She died peacefully, I think. Sent flowers to South Africa. Isn’t Interflora wonderful?

7 April 2009

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A photograph of my mother’s sister Vi, who has just turned 93. She is in Cape Town, in what they call Frail Care, with her husband Richard, also pictured. Her daughter Sandy and Sandy’s husband Alex, who live not far away in Table View, are also in the picture.

Have been feeling pretty frail myself the last few days. Practically anything I do leaves me tired out. I’m hoping it’s just an after-effect of the antibiotics and am trying to ignore it. The weather has turned quite springlike, though there’s a chilly wind today. The garden is looking terrific following the attentions of Garden Man Colin and Dot – a formidable team. Two chairs have been delivered to the upholsterers, the carpet has been cleaned and the bathroom taps are halfway fixed. They’ve stopped dripping, but on the minus side, they don’t turn on and off with any great conviction. My Twitter list is developing too.

Sunday was pretty busy, with church lunch and a an Ambient Wonder planning event in the evening. It could have been followed by an exciting DCC meeting on the Monday, but I took the precaution of booking myself a chess game, which I managed to draw. Dot had no such excuse, and claimed the DCC meeting was actually quite interesting. She is busy booking events for the visit of the Murrays in May. We seem to be booked in for tea at The Ritz, and possibly a sailing experience at Blakeney. Meanwhile I’ve got tickets for the Maddermarket for a Terence Rattigan play. For four of us, that cost £40, with the added benefit of it being a picturesque, historic and truly lovely theatre. I also booked Dot and I to see HMS Pinafore at the Theatre Royal later this month, which cost just under £40 for the two of us, after a £20 discount that I had been given for another reason. Something doesn’t add up: perhaps it’s why the Theatre Royal is often half empty, except for guaranteed audience-pullers.

10 November 2007

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I was looking through my mother’s pictures when I came on this one of my Aunt Vi, taken when she was 12. She’s now in her 90s and living in Cape Town.

Yesterday was bright but very cold – bitter wind. We defied it to get our photos taken in the station and then walk up into the city to get our bus passes. We then got a bus home. How exciting is that?

In the afternoon we went to Reepham to get our hair cut. In other directions there were many closed roads and cancelled trains because of overnight flooding following a 1953-style storm surge, with very high tide and high winds. Nowhere near as bad as predicted, but still Walcott was hit badly, and there was extensive flooding along the rivers at places like Brundall. Pull’s Ferry was flooded, with a lone bench sitting in the middle of flood water. Banks overtopped elsewhere. Apparently the tide was eight inches lower than predicted and the surge didn’t quite coincide.

Today was very wet and unpleasant – so grey that it was hardly day at all. Dot went to the supermarket while I reduced the size of my in-tray and wrote a bit about Hingham, based on a phone call I got from a resident. Then I took Dot to a YFC meeting in the city, and am now awaiting a call to pick her up.