{"id":6672,"date":"2024-10-21T10:08:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T10:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/?p=6672"},"modified":"2024-10-21T10:08:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T10:08:41","slug":"getting-together-in-gander-and-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/?p=6672","title":{"rendered":"Getting together in Gander and elsewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"886\" src=\"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_0779-1024x886.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6673\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_0779-1024x886.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_0779-300x260.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_0779-768x665.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_0779.jpeg 1204w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Bridget and David celebrating 20 years&#8217; marriage<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Today (Monday 21st) is a little better than yesterday, in that it&#8217;s dry, though very overcast, a little windy and not too cold. I have just taken the car in for servicing and MOT, and had a chat with Ingress, the receptionist, who we&#8217;ve known for a long time.  She&#8217;s aways very helpful. Walked back past the Boundary and then caught a 38 to Tombland. Dot saw me walking down Prince of Wales Road, and got up before I arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back to last Tuesday, when it was dry and mild. Up quite early to have breakfast with Brian and Tricia at Un Caf\u00e9 on N Walsham Road. Good food and service and had quite a long chat: Brian on good form. Dot bought steak pie from farm shop, and we had it for supper.\u00a0 In the afternoon she went to take Joyce\u2019s watch back and had another longish chat with her. I was feeling a bit shivery; so had a bath. Felt a bit better afterwards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Had paracetamol before going to Theatre Royal in evening to see <em>Come from Away<\/em>, a brilliant musical based on the people stranded in Gander, Newfoundland, when planes were diverted after 9\/11. Beautifully done by a cast that sounded largely Irish. Standing ovation. Highly recommended. We took the bus up there and walked home. Before going to bed we watched the rather disappointing ending of <em>Joan<\/em>. Could have been carried off better.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wednesday was sunny, dry and even milder. Judy came round to see the first episode of the fourth series of <em>The Chosen, <\/em>which is still excellent. As usual I left early for church and met up with Steven on his way. Eventually we had Dot, Jude, Debbie, Steven and Ellie for Bible Study, which went very well. Afterwards Dot and I left for Fakenham, which should have been an easy journey, but encountered loads of slow traffic on the Fakenham road, and arrived on the dot for James Knox Whittet\u2019s book launch at the Library, after working out how to use the parking machine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>James did an interesting talk on how he had written his memoir, and Dot and I both asked questions. This followed some beautiful Gaelic singing by Anna McCrae, who I had heard before: couldn\u2019t remember where, but she remembered me, as did a couple of other people, including Kay Hathway. I wish I could remember names \u2013\u00a0I got them off the programme. Also there was Mike Bannister, now 88 and suffering from heart problems. Had interesting chat with him: we get on very well. He\u2019s a good poet and read three of his poems. I read one of my Orkney poems &#8211; <em>Westray<\/em> \u2013 and I think it went down all right. Three or four people said they liked it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Forty or fifty there altogether, I should think, but not James\u2019 wife, Ann, who had an appointment with the Bishop. Drove home after an encounter with Fakenham town centre, from which I began to think I would never emerge. Road home was slow again, with long queues, until we reached the NDR. Discovered (via text) \u2013 that Bridget had come and cleaned \u2013 thought she was coming the next day as usual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Des and Chris are in Suffolk for a few days. Had a fairly \u201ceasy\u201d tea of eggs and mushrooms before Dot left with Janet for orchestra: we\u2019d discovered on the way home that Silver Road was partially closed, but thought we\u2019d worked out a way of them getting there.\u00a0 In fact it did work, but they had to come back via Mousehold Avenue and Gurney Road. Watched <em>Ludwig<\/em>, which continues to be excellent.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thursday was again dry and mild. Wrote my sermon for Sunday while Dot went into the city to buy a present for Bridget and David\u2019s 20th wedding anniversary. Got a call from her some time later to ask whether she should buy a coat. She tried FaceTime so that I could see it, but it didn\u2019t work \u2013 signal not strong enough. So I went into the city by bus to have a look. Didn\u2019t like it at first, but it looked so much better on that we eventually decided to buy it. Also bought a heart-shaped dish for B&amp;D and some fruit from the market, then walked home together. Was quite tired afterwards and lay down after I\u2019d finished the sermon. Felt a bit cold and discovered the window was open. Contacted Oliver earlier to get Amy\u2019s address, and have sent her a birthday card. After supper watched a fascinating documentary called <em>Helljumper<\/em> about individuals evacuating people from the front line areas of Ukraine, and one in particular who died doing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Friday &#8211; Bit cooler, but still dry and quite pleasant. Sue and Roger Eagle came with us for lunch at Gem. We met them in the station, because Sue\u2019s legs are a bit dodgy &#8211; she\u2019s waiting for an operation in a couple of weeks. Dot walked to Gem with her, and I went with Roger in car to park at ours. Very nice lunch &#8211; we all had cocktails, then I had battered prawns followed by pork belly. Turkish tea to finish. Restaurant pretty full. Had quite a long chat at home about books and other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After they had gone we had street meet &#8211; Des and Chris back from their Suffolk break, Jonathan, Mark, John and Mary. Lot of talk about solar panels and such things, which wasn\u2019t very interesting. Later had cheese on toast and watched quite a bit of TV, including first two episodes of <em>The Tower<\/em> and a good<em> Sounds<\/em> piece on the song <em>Diamonds and Rust<\/em>. Also end of cricket, losing to Pakistan.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Saturday it rained at first, but was dry by the time we went out &#8211; caught the bus and then walked to Salvation Army Citadel on St Giles to hear St Gregory\u2019s Orchestra play to raise cash for Ukraine. Dylan Latham (again) played violin &#8211; this time Beethoven\u2019s Concerto in D. Saw Graham and Janet, Neville and Mary, Matt and Amanda and Les Pye and his wife, as well as Mary Cozens and the dreaded Georgina. Nice venue: good view from upstairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walked home and bought a sandwich (among other things) from Tesco Express. Dot walked down Prince of Wales Road and I walked through the Close. Needless to say, she got home way before I did. In the evening we gave Eleanor a lift to the RC Cathedral narthex for Bridget and David\u2019s 20th wedding anniversary. It was a ceilidh with buffet food. Sat with Claire and spoke to one or two other people , including Ros, the woman training to be a priest at Christ Church, who seemed pretty anxious. Watched a bit of Match of the Day, including Spurs\u2019 4-1 win over West Ham. Earlier City drew 1-1 away to Stoke after being all over them in the first half. I rewrote the end of my sermon. Sent Amy an electronic card and transferred her some money.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sunday was <strong>Amy\u2019s 20th birthday<\/strong>. She is at Southampton and very quiet, though she sent a message thanking us for her card and gift. Pretty miserable day in Norwich, weatherwise. Very grey, with rain showers, which we largely avoided. Drove to church as usual. Bit of a panic when Carrie, who was leading, arrived very late. Was about to take over\u2026 anyway, did a sermon which got a lot of favourable comments. Took Ray home as usual. watched a fair bit of TV including last two episodes of <em>The Tower<\/em>, which were very good. Later some football and the first episode of Leonard Cohen drama, <em>So Long Marianne<\/em>, on ITVx, which was ok but spoiled by too many adverts. Also another documentary on the Yorkshire coast which had quite a lot on Scarborough and Whitby. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the evening went to Taiz\u00e9 service at St Luke\u2019s which was a bit disappointing in terms of the music, which was too complicated. But that\u2019s just my opinion. Had long chat with Debbie Sands, whose husband died not long ago. Also Vicky and her mother. They didn\u2019t die; they were just there. Also Ros from Christ Church, who I keep running into. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today (Monday 21st) is a little better than yesterday, in that it&#8217;s dry, though very overcast, a little windy and not too cold. I have just taken the car in for servicing and MOT, and had a chat with Ingress, the receptionist, who we&#8217;ve known for a long time. She&#8217;s aways very helpful. Walked back &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/?p=6672\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Getting together in Gander and elsewhere<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6674,"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672\/revisions\/6674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog360.back2sq1.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}