Tag Archives: water

By rail to Coventry

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My form photo, probably from 1960-61, recently unearthed. The form teacher is Neddy Carter, and I can remember almost all the boys' names. I am standing almost on my own, on the left.
My form photo, probably from 1960-61, recently unearthed. The form teacher is Neddy Carter, and I can remember almost all the boys’ names. I am standing almost on my own, on the left.

We haven’t quite lost summer yet: today is warmish and Dot has gone for a walk in the city. While there she bought a lot of printer paper, and I went up in the car to pick it up. Earlier this morning, the MX5 was at last taken away to be repaired, and we have a Nissan Micra in the drive. Surprisingly, the man who fetched the MX5 drove it away. I warned him the front had fallen off once, and the back tyre was losing air, but he didn’t seem worried. Not after I gave him a cup of tea, anyway.

Yesterday I spent mainly getting to Coventry and back, with a brief break around 4.40pm when I spoke to Andrew in hospital for about 40 minutes, and had a chat with the senior nurse. Andrew doesn’t seem too bad. He has a large bear. I went to Coventry by rail, starting at 12.30 and transferring to Euston by tube before a one-hour journey to Coventry. From there it was about a half-hour bus trip to the hospital. On the way back I got an earlier and faster train than I had expected, but unfortunately it was delayed because of a signalling problem between Rugby and Milton Keynes. Still, I got home about 10.45pm and finished one of my birthday books, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Good prize-winning SF with some very original ideas.

On Tuesday I had expected a quiet day but Philip Robinson was very anxious to get on Facebook so that he could contact (or be contacted by) someone he met on holiday. So I spent a couple of hours fixing him up with a Facebook account and a couple of friends. He found the guy he was looking for, and we sent him a Friend Request.

The excitement on Monday centred on the DCC meeting. I spent much of the day writing a Finance Report and sorting out a few other details. The meeting was at Howard’s and so featured much wine and nibbles, which I’m not sure the vicar was expecting. As it turned out, the meeting was the longest I’ve ever experienced, finishing at 10.10, when Judy gave us a lift home (we’d walked there). No doubt things will quieten down, but I guess this is the sort of thing that happens when the vicar is single and has too much spare time.

The drama about the water leak continues, with Stuart complaining about more or less everything but at least arranging for progress to made. He’s had Colin digging up the neighbour’s garden and searching for absent stopcocks, and is now complaining about the insurance policy, which looks fine to me. I think he’d really like the church to be liable to pay huge amounts of money…

As I mentioned last time, I went to the Seagull last Sunday on my own, as Dot was not feeling too well and Phil was under a lot of pressure from various sources (though not Anglian Water or Stuart). I read half a dozen poems which seemed to be well received. Well, no-one threw anything.

Old wax, crawling and an ugly spider

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View from the quay at Wells
View from the quay at Wells

The heatwave got here: it’s been in the high 20s for the past few days, but not scorching enough to be uncomfortable. We head for Blakeney today, and while it’s still going to be warm, there’s also a certain amount of rain forecast. I have several possible walks prepared – well, prepared is possibly putting it a bit strongly – but not sure how far we’ll want to walk. Obviously the Royal christening at Sandringham on Sunday is a must 🙂

I’m still having trouble with my ears, but I’ve managed to see a nurse. She says there’s no sign of an infection, but my ears are pretty comprehensively blocked with “old wax”. I’m continuing with the ear drops and putting up with the occasional sharp pain. I’m due to see another nurse next Wednesday for a syringe. Hope that sorts it.

On Monday I left Dot at Jessie’s after dropping a birthday card in at Sheila’s and picking up Jessie from the optician’s. I then continued to Mundesley for a PHS trustees’ meeting, which lasted quite a long time, with periods of obscurity. I returned to Jessie’s for a cup of tea in her conservatory, which was nice, especially as it came with a mince cake.

On Wednesday it was very warm. Dot and I walked to Riverside, where I bought some new batteries at Poundland. I had been having a few problems with my computer after I tried to update some apps. Everything started crawling, and Safari and the App Store refused to quit – some problem with web content on both. I looked at various “solutions” mentioned on the Internet. The one that seemed to work (although it may have been a coincidence) was when I emptied Trash. All of a sudden, everything was clean and very quick.

In the middle of all this the trackpad had run out of batteries, which is why I had to go to Riverside. It turned out well, though, because we bought some birthday presents for me: three(!) pairs of trousers from Next and some new sunglasses from Boots. We also had a drink at Costa (fruit-flavoured iced tea for me, which was surprisingly nice). Later we had our hair cut.

Yesterday we both felt very lethargic, and suddenly Dot had very bad diarrhoea. We still don’t know why, but she had recovered enough to go to Little Plumstead in the evening and have a P4C stall to show parents what had been going on. She spent a long time preparing, but none of the Year 5 parents came, which was a bit disappointing. She was able to speak to come others, though, including Brigitte Williams, daughter of the legendary David, who has two children at the school.

Earlier in the day we took the car to be cleaned, and while it was being done I went to look at the church water meter, about which Anglian Water had raised some query (possible leak). I had to knock up the guy in whose drive the manhole cover was, because I couldn’t find it – largely because he’d covered it with stones. Eventually I managed to lift it and discovered a particularly ugly looking spider, which I managed to avoid while noting the reading. I was unable to get the cap off, however; so I’ve written to Anglian Water explaining that they had my name and address wrong, as well as the address of the premises – and could they come and see if it needed looking at professionally. Howard has decided he “would prefer it if someone other than me engaged with Anglian Water”. Well, so would I, actually.

Ah, well. Time for a break.

Problems with water

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Dot at Killington Lake before the deluge

The last leg of our homeward journey began under grey skies after a couple of problems. the first was that there was no hot water – result of a lightning strike, apparently – and as a result  we got a £10 voucher for our breakfast (which still left us £8 short). However, the food and tea were good. The drive home was pretty straightforward, but tiring. We called in to see Andrew, and he seemed pleased to see us. Left him some sugar almonds. He was considerably better than the last time we saw him, but very loud.

We drove on via the M45 and M1, with the weather improving relentlessly. Stopped for petrol just past Northampton and then got food at Cambridge Services. Dot drove from there, but I was still exhausted by the time we got home, around 6pm, just in time to see Hamilton win the Hungarian grand prix. Didn’t unpack much, but sat in front of TV after opening my cards and presents (from Phil and Joy). A second birthday! Phil had kept the house and garden very much in order, for which we were grateful.

Yesterday we finished the unpacking and I spent much of the time catching up with various things too boring to go into. Dot felt shattered but had to go and meet Angela and A Ethel at the latter’s new home (temporarily at least) in Welborne. Today is much cooler and quite wet this afternoon. I was about to take the car to Kwik Fit to ask them to have another look at the air conditioning, but all of a sudden, in the short drive there, it started blasting out cold air. I decided to leave it alone for a bit and see what happened. By contrast our hot water system seems to have taken the opposite route and is turning out water that’s far too hot. Possibly a thermostat problem. Again, I’m giving it a chance to put itself right, but I’ll probably turn off the system tonight. Emerged from house briefly to do some shopping for Tuesday Group, but Vicky is providing curry.

Digging for water

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Tackling a leak outside our house.

Fortunately for Norwich City manager Paul Lambert, his team won last Saturday (1-0 against Middlesbrough). Dot was in the stands, so I wouldn’t have liked to be in his shoes if they’d lost. She doesn’t go often, but Jonathan had a spare ticket. I didn’t go, because I had a poetry reading at Cromer, as part of the COAST festival. The Paston travelling exhibition had a small room in the Garden Gallery, next to Mary Jane’s renowned fish and chip shop, which was unfortunately a bigger attraction, especially as the weather was cold, wet and windy. Still, we had a good time: I read a couple of poems, and Jo did a really lively talk in the absence of Lucy (in hospital again with a serious infection). Caroline was also there. She has just won the EDP-Jarrolds East Anglian Book Award for poetry, which is well-deserved. She’s a very deep writer. I myself have just entered another couple of competitions and am getting back into the habit of writing poems, which must be good.

On Monday I performed my first function as a Paston Heritage Society trustee and attended a meeting in the parish church between the PCC and PHS members. Very strange atmosphere and extremely cold too. I had my maximum winter clothing on, and it’s still October. The meeting went off well, though, and there was a general feeling of agreement about the way things would go – except of course for the pews. I sometimes feel that removal of pews is the main theological issue facing churches in the 21st century. Someone is always against it. OK, it’s not theological. I don’t know what it is.

The cold weather continued into Tuesday, when we had to host the Tuesday Group at the last moment because Vicky wasn’t too well: she’s having a hard time (baby due early December). Small group but a good discussion on using our gifts. People who don’t normally say much had an opportunity to speak because people who normally do weren’t there. Not Vicky, since you ask.

Weather turned warm suddenly on Wednesday, which was good timing as we had our hair cut. Huge difference in temperature: both Dot and I went out with too many clothes on and got back sweating, if you’ll pardon the expression. Yesterday and today a bit chillier. Sue and Roger came round for lunch yesterday and we had a great time putting the world to rights, talking until about 6pm. Recommended David’s website expertise, and showed off our Apple TV, which Sue was much taken with.

In the evening I finally booked a man to put in a couple of radiators in mid-November, though I’m still a little uneasy, as I always am when we have something big done. As I speak, May Gurney on behalf of Anglian Water are digging up the road outside, which doesn’t comfort me at all. And as usual the recycling stuff hasn’t been collected. Dot is probably en route from Beccles having given a lift to one of our carless church members to visit her niece, who coincidentally is the former head teacher of David’s primary school. Who’d have thought it?