Monthly Archives: December 2010

News on Andy

Excuse a second post, darlings – I’ve just had an email from Sue, who has been speaking to Gill again.  Andy is a lot better now – God knows how useless that hospital must have been in Madeira, because it’s taken the NHS one day to have him sitting up and eating a light meal, and off all the drips he’d been on for nearly a month.  They have found that he had a slight stroke and they’re doing further tests – there is an implication that the illness caused the stroke, not the other way round, but we’ll see.

Z’s Christmas spirit has come early

Two weeks to go, and the first gives me a full diary and the second an almost empty one.  This is brilliant.  I’m feeling that I’d like to frame it.  My intention is to do all my remaining business work this weekend, as far as possible, do the rest of the shopping on Thursday when I’m going to Norwich, and actually save that last week for remorseless jollity – well, actually it’ll be used cleaning the house, but my standards are terribly low nowadays, so it won’t take more than a couple of days to do that.  I’ll probably use a shovel.  If the snow returns, I’ll build another snowman.

I haven’t felt so relaxed about it all for years.  It must be not making those damn holly wreaths any more.  I have been on various websites ordering various presents and, apart from that one Norwich visit (I have a dental appointment and am also meeting the Sage’s sister for lunch) I will not shop anywhere but Yagnub.  I have even wrapped one gift, for Phil’s parents, and given it to Weeza as they are visiting them in Lichfield next weekend.  One or two to be posted, the others will be done in the final day or two, because that’s far more fun.  Also, one doesn’t have the nuisance of forgetting exactly what is in the parcels and having to unwrap the ends to check.

I think I told you that Phil has a new job? – he has left his old one, yesterday (office party too, which is a good one so he was glad not to miss it) and starts in Great Yarmouth on Monday.  He’ll have a longer cycle ride, but a shorter train journey, and also a cheaper one.   Dilly’s tenant has left the Norwich house and she and Al are getting it ready to be let again – good job he has time on his hands, this would have been impossible until January if he still had been running the shop.

Latest news from Gill is that Andy has to have all the tests re-run that he had in Madeira.  Standards don’t seem to be very high there and they give no useful information.  Furthermore, he has bedsores as well as thrush in his mouth, so even nursing care isn’t up to scratch.  Gill very much wants to see her friends and is coming to church tomorrow and then to Sue and Barry’s for lunch.  We were decorating the church today, which is very early, but it’s the village school’s nativity play and carol concert on Tuesday.  I’ll be playing the music, and have been brushing up on carols.  I must remember to speed up my playing – I like playing fast (yes, darlings, and loose) but it depends on who’s in the congregation – as a rule of thumb, the older the average age of the congregation, the slower you have to play.

Z is listening to New Orleans jazz

This has turned into a surprisingly wasted evening.  The Sage had a meeting, so I cooked dinner early – earlier than I’d intended, in fact, because I thought it was 6.30 when it was only 6 o’clock – and I thought I’d do things while he was out.  Instead, I was asleep by 6.45.  And I woke a couple of times, unable to rouse myself, and zonked out again.  I slept for an hour in all, and was still incapable of movement for a while after that.  I can’t remember the last time I had a reasonable night’s sleep, and I suppose it caught up with me.  I’m afraid it’s scuppered my chances of sleeping much tonight, too.

Anyway, the bank teller was extremely helpful this morning, and she’s a PCC secretary herself so she caught on to the situation very quickly.  And there’s quite enough money in the account, Gill had underestimated herself – she’d actually topped up the money before she went away, and had forgotten.  No news today, I called round this afternoon with a letter explaining the money situation and knocked on the door just in case she was in, but she wasn’t.  I won’t bother her for a bit, I may see her on Sunday and, if not, I’ll speak to her then on the phone if I can.

I have to get a speech written for Monday evening.  I’ll haul out last year’s and rejig it a bit.  It’ll be fine.  It’s the school prizegiving – my job is, largely, to do a bit of a recap, with thanks, for the year, and I like to speak to the pupils directly – I do write it all out, because I’d be bound to leave someone out, but I try to not actually read it, but sound natural, if I can.  I can hear the difference in my voice when I come to a bit I have to read out.

Another funeral today, someone in the village who has been severely disabled by a stroke for some years.  He was never reconciled to his situation, and very angry with life, which rebounded somewhat on those looking after him.  I don’t think he was the easiest man, even before that, but a very honest and intelligent person, well read and knowledgeable.  I sat on my organ stool for several minutes after the service, because two women were standing in the aisle, the older one comforting the younger one.  Eventually, they went to sit in a pew to talk, so I left them.  They were family, I suppose a stepdaughter or a daughter-in-law and a granddaughter.  I’m fond of Harry’s wife, I will call and see her.  In fact, before he was ill, she used to come to church regularly and the Rector says she may well come and join us again.

And the title – well, that’s what I am doing.  Nothing too demanding, tonight.

Wave A Knee Em Pea comes up trumps

Gill phoned this evening at about 5.30.  She was on her way from Stansted with her step-daughters; by the time she reached the hospital, Andy was due too.  I may have mentioned that she is PCC treasurer; the reason she phoned was, having been away a fortnight more than expected, she is concerned that the current account could be overdrawn or nearly empty, various regular standing orders having been paid out.  Although I’m not on the PCC, I’m regularly available to sign forms and cheques, so I’m still a signatory.  I’ve said that I’ll go in tomorrow, find out the situation and pay money across, either from the deposit account or, if they won’t let me do that without a second signature, from my own account.  It’s typical of her that she is dealing with this sort of matter when she’s got far more important problems.  She also remembered the rota, so I’ve explained that I’ve dealt with that already.

I didn’t ask a lot of questions, but she told me how she finally found someone to help her.  Her brother in law is a political journalist, and has the private email of Gill and Andy’s MP.  Gill wrote an email explaining the situation on Tuesday and, half an hour later, he was in touch to say that the insurance company and the hospital had agreed to alter their attitudes.   Good for him to drop everything and deal with it at once, disgraceful that he had to intervene – and that they capitulated so quickly indicates that they were just being obstructive without sound reason.  It wasn’t that the hospital didn’t have a bed, just that they didn’t want to guarantee it, I suppose, in view of the cold and icy weather.

Next week is filling up rather rapidly.  I must start Christmas shopping sooner or later, I suppose.  Although there’s plenty of time, still more than a fortnight to go.  One doesn’t want to rush into these things.  In fact, ‘start’ is misleading, isn’t it.  I’ve already got Zerlina’s present, and Pugsley’s.  Almost done, then.

QuiZZical again

I was wondering, what do you do if the phone rings just as you are about to eat your dinner?  I mean, it’s on the plate in front of you, it’s too late to put the dishes back in the oven to keep warm.

The obvious alternatives are –

a) leave it.  They’ll ring back if it matters
b) leave it to the answerphone and phone back
c) answer, explain you’re about to eat and offer to phone back or ask them to
d) let your dinner get cold while you take the call
e) eat as you listen, while the caller listens to you chew

Tonight, I’m drinking Seville orange vodka and feeling warm.  I don’t think I was quite the thing, yesterday.

Tomorrow, I’m going out for a Christmas lunch.  Probably it will be my only turkey/Christmas pudding combo this year, as it’s not our choice for Christmas day (no one in the family, that is) and I’m not booked for any other organised festive meals, that I remember about right now.

Z judges by appearances

Just starting with an update about Andy and Gill – the insurance company finally agreed to pay up for the air ambulance.  Gill had to contact her solicitor, the Consulate and her MP to get results, however.  She had to sign a disclaimer, too – not because there is a pre-existing condition that they hadn’t declared, but in case there’s something that the GP knew about but hadn’t flagged up to them.  The next problem was finding a hospital bed.  Neither of the two nearest hospitals here have a vacant bed in Intensive Care.  I don’t know what’s been sorted out there, whether he’ll go to a different hospital or whether they’ll sort it out when he arrives or what, but the return flight is now booked for Thursday.  Maybe there will be a bed locally by then – I’d have thought that the problem with a high dependency bed is that you can’t always tell when it’s likely to be needed or for how long.  Anyway, a couple more days and at least they will be back in this country.  We can only hope that the cause of the illness is soon found and can be treated successfully.

I arrived back home after lunch today and sat down in the drawing room to read the papers.  After an hour, I realised I was extremely cold.  The room wasn’t that cold, must have been me.  In the end, I went and had a hot bath, and it took me about twenty minutes in it to warm up.  Very odd.  I’m okay now and don’t feel as if I’m coming down with anything.  Actually, it was really cold this morning, I think it was the coldest night yet.  It took me four attempts to defrost the windscreen, as it kept freezing over again, and this was at 10 am.  The chickens are quite all right, and we are getting the odd egg again – that is, one on Saturday and one today, which isn’t that much between 30 of them, but shows willing.  The cock pheasant is often to be seen keeping watch across the field, standing on a pile of logs.  He’s a very good guardian.  We’re going to have to get another cockerel next year, or at least some eggs to set under a broody hen, as many of them are getting a bit elderly, we keep them for their natural lifespan.  It will put the pheasant’s beak rather out of joint, I’m afraid.

I’m sorry, this is no end dull tonight.  I feel dull, boring and slightly irritable.  This last isn’t like me, but I’ve had to make an effort to be polite and patient with the Sage all evening and he\s done nothing wrong – well, not a great deal…  I will be in a meeting with someone who may well be pretty irritating tomorrow morning, it’ll be quite in order for me to be sharp if necessary, but not bad-tempered, obviously.

Anyway.  Hm.  I’ve been reading the Forsyte Saga (I typed Sage, couldn’t help it!) on my phone the last few nights.  When awake in the early hours, I tend to read something I’ve read before, that’s quite easy to keep track of and not overly demanding.  Of late, this has included Sherlock Holmes, Mark Twain and Jane Austen (I note that I wrote the character rather than the author in the first of these, but then he was the common character in all the books of Conan Doyle that I read).  Rereading a book always gives a different reaction in some way, I find, or else I notice something new – I was struck, as I hadn’t been when I read it before, years ago, by the statement that “Soames was a great novel reader”.  He’s not been mentioned picking up a book to read for pleasure, only his reaction to those he has read – which seem mostly romantic ones, and that seemed a bit unlikely.  Just coming up to the Bosinney/Irene crisis.  I was unable to watch the tv dramatisation of a few years ago, because the girl who played Irene looked so wrong.  It wasn’t only that she was dark-haired rather than blonde, but that she was too thin – I dunno, I don’t quite know why it jarred so with me, but now I do reread it, I see that thinness is often referred to disparagingly, and it’s quite clear that Irene’s figure was both full and slender, not at all angular.  Of course, the girl may have been splendid in the part.  I’ll never know.

Z huffs and she puffs and – a candle is burning

I was pottering about relaxedly this morning when I remembered that I was supposed to leave the house by 9 o’clock.  I did, shame there wasn’t time to wash my hair, but it took me several more minutes to de-ice my car.  Freezing fog, although it wasn’t so cold in Norwich, but the frost hadn’t lifted by the time I arrived home at lunchtime.  I say lunchtime, but I only had a few minutes and ate a couple of biscuits, there being nothing useful in the fridge and no time to cook.

The Dragon’s Den thing was jolly interesting.  Each group had 5 minutes for a presentation and came back at the end for questions – ideally, we’d have asked them as we went along, but the teacher wanted to be quite sure that there was enough time for all the presentations, and we did carry on for a couple of minutes past the bell, so it was just as well.  Not surprisingly, the ideas were good but some of the financial matters hadn’t been fully thought through.  For example, I asked if public liability insurance had been costed for the indoor bike track and it hadn’t.  And only a couple of them had allowed for time for the business to build up, most of them assumed that the world would beat a path to their perceived gap in the market.  There were two that did stand out, one because of the excellent presentation and the other because it actually was a good idea and we could genuinely see it possibly being a goer.  The second half is next Monday, postponed from last Friday; fortunately, all of us can make it.

Roses’ comment about the baby being a Taurus made me think – all three of my children’s other halves were born in September, as was I, but Dora is the end of the month.  I got quite interested for a minute, thinking they have all the star sign as I am and if that meant anything, but she must be Libra.  Actually, though, if it comes on its due date or around it, the baby will be Gemini, like the Sage.

The most pleasing thing of the day was when I arrived home to find a John Lewis bag in the hall – the new electric blanket had arrived.  We’ve been jolly cold, the storage heater in the hall has blown its fuse and we haven’t got round to turning on any heat upstairs.  There has been ice on the inside of the bedroom windows.  We hope we’ve got the fuse mended now and we’ve got the blanket too, so I’m hopeful of comfort, whether it’s with sleep or without. I was pleased with the service, I ordered it on Thursday afternoon, by the way.

I’m afraid there’s no good news about my friends stuck in Madeira (the Portugese island off the African coast, Dave, not the fortified wine).  He is still critically ill in intensive care, they think they’ve tracked down a kidney infection, but I don’t know if that has caused the problem or has resulted from it.  They haven’t got a specific diagnosis or a reason for his illness.  And the insurance company is ignoring medical advice to airlift him back to this country and the family is having to take legal advice.  We’re extremely worried, and desperately sorry for his wife, too.  They are Andy and Gill, spare them a thought and good wishes please.

And – the result

It was not an early favourite, but C proved the popular vote in the end.  So that’s it, Dilly will have to have a baby in the summer.

Fortunately, she is.

Moving to Norwich wasn’t much favoured.  No, they’re not.  They’re staying here for now, and whilst we’ll completely understand if they ever decide to move, we love them being here.  And it is a great place to bring up children, with freedom to roam and explore, always someone on hand to look after them, and jolly good local schools.  B – a puppy was a popular option, but it’s me who wants a dog.  The rest of the family wants me to have a dog, rather in the way I love being a grandmother – the pleasure without the responsibility.

I’m not going to put on hold the getting of another dog.  I have been there, and I wish I hadn’t, although there were good reasons at the time and, in fact, in view of my hip problems, it was just as well we didn’t get one earlier.  When Chester died, I meant to get another dog the next summer, but them Al and Dilly got married and held their reception here, so it wasn’t a good time to have a puppy.  And then Squiffany was born the next year and Weeza and Phil got married and had their reception here.  Then a possibility of getting a puppy fell through, and after that I felt it wasn’t fair to an elderly Tilly.  But, whilst I completely agree with what Pat said about the problems that arise when you have a puppy and a small baby at the same time, I can’t wait another year, and it won’t be me looking after the baby and they won’t be living in the same house.  But I’m not doing anything about it right now, not unless opportunity strikes.

They have been talking about possibly having another baby for a while – I didn’t ask if a decision was made, of course.  But I’m really pleased.  They’ve had the first scan, so know that it’s not twins and that all seems fine.  It’s due at the end of May.

As for D, which was also popular except with Blue Witch, who pointed out the pitfalls – well, I haven’t asked what their longer-term plans are.  Dilly does love teaching, and has appreciated the individual impact she’s able to make with her one-to-one teaching, which she’s doing both privately and in schools at present.  Al certainly isn’t going to try to make money out of the bees and growing vegetables, BW is right – a lot of work for little profit and not many people can live from it – I know someone who does, but the chap who supplies the shop’s honey expanded his hobby in retirement, so doesn’t rely on the bees to live.  I don’t know whether or not he’ll get a job, and I don’t know whether or not Dilly will carry on working.  I haven’t asked, it’s not my business – which is to support their decision.  Of course, if asked for a view I’d give one, but I’d only dive in with a point of view if I really felt strongly that there was a pitfall not to fall into (like, trying to earn a living as a beekeeper, perhaps!).

As for option E – thank you, Rog.  I wondered what the singing was from next door.

QuiZ

Today was very jolly.  Weeza, Phil and Zerlina and Ro all came over for the day.  We had lunch – lamb chops, chipolatas, baked potatoes, carrots, peas, tomatoes and mushrooms, followed by chocolate pudding (the sort that inverts itself and ends up with the sauce underneath; it went down very well) and enjoyed each others’ company.  Well, I did.  Either everyone else was very polite or they did too.

Ro is going to London next week to see Zain.  I’ve lent him my Oyster card and we had a look to see how much it cost to go out to Zain’s place.  I have assured him that he’s welcome and I don’t want him to pay me back, it tops up automatically, but he wanted me to check how much credit I have at present so that, if he uses it a lot, he will have the option to pay me rather than feel guilty.  Then I recommended he pre-book his railway ticket.  We had a look and he was a bit dismayed to find that it would be £43.80 return to Zain’s station.  I suggested it might be cheaper to go to Liverpool Street Station and then use the Oyster – well, yes.  He could get £10 single tickets, with £2.something off-peak and £4.something peak rate – he’s likely to use one of each.  A no-brainer, as the young people say .. or said back in 1995 or something.  Anyway, he said he’d book tonight.

Dilly and Al had an announcement, and herein lies the quiZ.  What do you think they have told us?

a) Al has a new job and they are going to move to Norwich next year, where they already own a house
b) They are going to get a puppy after Christmas
c) They are going to have a baby in the summer
d) Dilly has a full-time job starting after Christmas and Al will stay at home to be a bee-keeper and market gardener and househusband

Of course, all of these could be true.  But not all of them are.

The dragon waits with bated breath

Yes, the school was shut today.  It was the difficulty the bus company is having, getting pupils to school, apparently.  Hard to tell whether it was the right decision, there was freezing fog this morning, and snow in the night but none since.  I haven’t been out at all today in fact, though the Sage has.  I’ve been doing stuff in the house, very slowly and lazily.

Tomorrow, Weeza and co and Ro are coming over, which will be excellent.  I did see Ro on Monday when I gave him a lift from work to his home, but I haven’t seen Weeza and little z for a couple of weeks, and Phil for longer.  I don’t somehow think that Phil will bike over.  Ro will be driving Dora’s new car for the first time and he enquired carefully about the state of the roads.  I advised him not to drive down Church Road, which is still very icy, but our road is all right.  Dora, I think I mentioned, is visiting her brother in Thailand and she has lent him her car.  He hasn’t driven it yet, he relinquished his parking place at work when he moved to Norwich and he walks the mile and a half.

He phones sometimes on the walk – a friend was saying the same thing, her daughter has a 20 minute walk home from work so she knows when to expect the phone to ring…

I finally caught up on blog posts.  And then again today.  And just looked again and there are another 20 – who said that blogging is a diminishing pastime?  It’s no good, I’m not deleting any blogs from my list, I don’t mark any that I don’t like.  And now I have facebook too, not that it takes extra time because I only use it on the phone when I have a few minutes.  But it’s all that I feared all those years ago, when I resisted the siren call of the internet.  Our village didn’t have broadband for years, so it didn’t get out of hand to start with.  Now – well – it isn’t so much that I can’t do without it.  It’s just that I don’t.  And I don’t want to.