An unexpectedly tiring couple of days! Yesterday was my first visit to the solicitor who will be doing my will, which took quite a lot longer than expected. A brief after-lunch nap, and then the WGP Election Strategy meeting in the evening, which took over two and a half hours. Then walking back up the hill with Clare and chatting.
Today was an overdue visit to Specsavers to have ear wax removed. I’ve been almost completely deaf in my left ear for nearly three weeks, which causes very bad tinnitus. Frustratingly, I get the kind that sounds like almost-familiar music played on a poor transistor radio in an adjacent room! Left ear was touch-and-go whether she would actually manage to dislodge the accumulation, but after about 20 minutes she dislodged a massive wodge – about the size of three match heads – and then it was a quick finish off. The right ear had minimal wax, and took less than 30 seconds! I’m fairly convinced that it’s because of the recurrent eczema in my left ear that it’s always so much worse than the right one.
I last hd wax removal almost exactly six months ago, in June. After discussion, it seems sensible not to wait until severe problems set in, but to pop in for a quick look at my ears every three months or so … I’m kind expecting that I’ll need that ear done every four months or thereabouts. At £60 a time, sadly.
All of which has left me exhasted. The pre-Christmas crowd of shoppers in the city centre is not something I navigate easily, and two days on the trot was distinctly wearing. Still, good for my step count, I suppose.
Category: Out and about
Fishing
Last weekend was a trip over to Halesworth for a day’s fishing. Leaving home just before 11, train to Peterborough via Birmingham New Street, and met Geoff in the usual place outside Waitrose. The weather rapidly got extremely foul, very heavy rain, and it was a somewhat horrid drive, with Geoff’s BMW losing adhesion briefly a couple of times in unexpected/unseed pools of water on the motorway, despite 4-wheel drive. I was dropped off at Sim’s around 5pm, and we went out for a meal (with Geoff and Phoebe) at 8.
Saturday was up at 6am, to get to the lake for shortly after 7. It was still pelting with rain, which kept up until lunchtime, so I was glad I’d packed my “cag-in-a-bag” and waterproof cycling trousers! A very slow start to fishing – no bites for anyone until about 11. It then started to clear up, and there were sunny spells during the afternoon. Geoff, Sim, and I all caught a fish (in that order), though sadly Phoebe did not. We ended the fishing at 3 – too cold and damp to carry on for the extra hour until dusk (which is of course 15 or 20 minutes earlier in East Anglia than in Worcester).
Back to Oak Cottage for the evening. Charlie (dog) was being a real pest – barking at me at every opportunity, and being unexpectedly aggressive. I was initially slightly surprised, as he’d settled down with me fairly rapidly on my last visit a year ago, and then a bit pissed off. Eventually, I retreated to an early bed … needed, as I’d been up early! Fortunately, Charlie had calmed down on Monday, and didn’t bark at me a single time in the morning.
I had several short conversations with Anne – she’s much worse that she was last time I saw her, and noticeably vague and rambling, although quite cheerful. Dementia is clearly progressing quite fast, sadly. It’s taking a massive toll on both Sim and Phoebe, and I don’t think that the current situation is sustainable.
Monday was catching the 12.40 train. I’d decided to go back via Ipswich, rather than via Norwich which I’d originally planned, and Phoebe caught the same train on her way back to London. We had a long and serious talk about the situation at Oak Cottage, and of course some lighter moments. The rest of the train journey went a bit awry, with the cross-country train being delayed, so just missing the planned train at Birmingham. I arrived home about 8pm, and was pretty much of a write-off: The Burger Shop delivery for supper (which took ages to arrive), and Tuesday was strictly a “recovery day” of being unable to do much.
Oh, and in case anyone wonders why the vape remined in my mouth, there were no accessible pockets in either the cagoule or the trousers! And when playing a fish, there are no spare hands to pull up the cag and pull down the trousers to get at jacket or trouser pockets, and the only place to spit out the vape would have sent it into the water (risk of pollution / explosion!).
catch-up
Ten days ago was over to Malvern to meet up with my old schoolmates – 60 years to the week since many of us started at MCS in the Second Form. Unusually, the meetup started on Thursday night, as the tour of the Morgan factory had been organised for Friday morning (it doesn’t run at weekends). As Malvern is so close, I cauht a cab to the Premier Inn where we were all staying – about the same price as a cab into town, two stops on the train, and a cab to the hotel.
It was great to meet up, and there were a fair number of partners, some of whom I hadn’t previously met. About 20 of the ex-MCS mob attended – not bad from a 6th form of only about 60. The tour of the Morgan Cars factory was fascinating – the mix of old craftspersonship and new tech for the bought-in aluminium main chassis (bonded, not welded).
Friday afternoon was tea at Tony and Sue’s house, which was great, with vast quantities of cake.
Then home on Sunday late afternoon, and all day Monday, leaving at 0600h for our annual trip on the Norfolk Broads. We’ve moved back to September this year, after three years of trying midsummer, so it was fairly cool in the mornings.We’d booked a larger boat, as we’d hoped that Phoebe could come, but in the end it was felt better that she stay at Oak Cottage to look after her mother.
As in the past, the thermal underwear came out for the trip … and will probably now be in use until April. I had a good first night and following morning, several perch up to about 3/4 lb, and a couple of dozen roach varying from minuscule to medium. Sim didn’t catch anything there, though Geoff had a couple of decent fish. The second evening, Sim was jigging a lure for large perch, and the bait was taken by a reasonable pike! Otherwise, not all that productive, fish-wise.
Simon sadly fell in on Thursday! The first time we’ve had “man overboard” in 29 years of boating on the Broads. Geoff and I managed to haul him back on board – quite an effort, as the back of the boat is quite hight above the water, and soaking clothes add a lot of weight. Fortunately, he didn’t seem too bad for the experience. Sadly, in his fall he managed to break my ledger rod, and to lose his glasses. That all meant a trip to Wroxham on Friday. We were happy to pay for mooring in a very congested part of the Bure. Angling Direct was within a hundred yards, for a new rod, and better maggots, and Sim got the off-the-peg reading glasses he needed. A stocking-up trip to Roy’s supermarket for essential milk, and we were were tempted by bacon baps (Geoff had sausage). I’ve only visited Wroxham once befrore – an overnight stay when I was a day late joining the others on the boat, as I’d had Family Court stuff with Maurice about his kids … about ten years ago, I think. I’d forgotten how nearly everything is “Roy’s” … supermarket, hotel, and much else.
Back home late Saturday afternoon, and Sunday was a recovery day. Today (Monday) has been doing the backlog of Green Party printing – people didn’t exactly manage to get stuff to me before I went away. Folding will be tomorrow …
I did manage to make decent contact with UAL (Up A Level), and have fixed an appointment for Thursday morning for them to visit and talk about loft conversion. I’m behindhand on my target of 2 vegetarian days a week – down to an average of 1.96 – due to shared meals on my assorted holidays. Last night was mushroom and leek puff pastry parcels with spinach, and tonight will be mustardy cauliflower cheese with fried tofu. As tofu is tasteless, I marinaded it in Green Tomato Churney 2004 for five hours, which hopefully will do the job!
Moving… emotionally and physically
Last night was probably the last time that I’ll walk on the Common. We moved to Green Mount when I was 7, and I’m now 70, so that’s some kind of symmetry, I suppose. After a showery day, in early autumn, the atmosphere was suitably mildly melancholy. The bracken, twice my height when I was a kid, and with taller plants still reaching above my head, is turning colour. It’s still too early for spectacular fungi, but rainwashed haws and the gorse added splashes of colour. Windfall wild apples, smaller than golfballs, stand out against early-fallen leaves, and early acorns are falling, though most are still on the trees.
This morning was wrestling the second batch of furniture and family archive stuff from Green Mount over to Worcester. Not as easy as it sounds: the tall chest of drawers had to be partly dismantled in order to fit down the narrow spiral stairs. The van driver, who’d done my first batch of stuff back in February, was patient and helpful! Most of the stuff is now ensconced in the storage unit on the other side of the Severn, but I have a large landscape painting to hang, once my back has recovered enough to handle picture-hooks and stepladders.
catch-up
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were all about IT. I’d finally given up on my Thinkpad T460s – neither touchpad nor trackpoint would work, though it did respond to an external mouse. It’s a known problem, and may be related to obscure driver issues. So, a Thinkpad L13 was bought (second-hand, of course). It was only available in a 128 memory size, sadly. A suitable M2 memory card was bought, and a clean install of Windows 11 was done. Then the current verion of laplink was bought, which transferred all data, but not actual programs. And then all relevant programs were dwnloaded and installed, which in general was fairly straightorward.
The exception was Musikcube, by far my favourite media player as it’s without bells and whistles (though sadly does not handle .flac files, so I have to covert them to .mp3 manually). Version 1 is massively obsolete (discontinued around 20 years ago), and version 2 is command line only. In the end, a trawl through the 2006 snapshots on the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive located an installer for it.
Also a major Windows 11 problem with the (obsolete) “Mycloud” external drives. Due to changes in security, the only machine able to access them was the old T460s. A 6Tb hard drive has been bought, and all the data is being transferred. I’ll need to think about backup for this at some point.
Wednesday was over to Green Mount, to re-light the Aga after it had been out for the chimney to be swept. I also checked the number of boxes and other stuff, so I could book a van to transport to Worcest – now booked for 11th September, the day after Sim’s stuff is taken to Oak Cottage.
The journey was horrible! Rail replacement buses from Shrub Hill to Moreton in Marsh, and when the bus was just about to set off it was announced that the connecting train had been cancelled, due to an overnight incident. 90 minutes pacing up and down at Moreton was not enjoyable. I cancelled the cab I’d booked, as due to the delay Jane was able to collect me from Hanborough.
Thursday was an admin day, as my back was very not up to doing anything (Wednesday had been over 13,000 steps, even after I’d removed spurious steps clocked up by the motion of buses and trains). Van booked for 11th as above, old guest bed put on freecycle, attempts to book van to take stuff into storage in Worcester for next week (awaiting confirmation), “confidential document desruction” sacks ordered for Green Mount, and the usual end-of-month financial stuff.
Today (Friday) has seen the discovery that the guest bed won’t fit down the stairs without complete disassembly, which was done. It barely fit in the back room to re-assemble (coffee table and piano stool put in kitchen, armchair moved to give more space), and then the headboard had to be removed again to get it to by the front door. Collection hopefully about 6pm today.
more tired than I’d expected
Yesterday left me physically (nearly 11,000 steps, and two train journeys) and emotionally exhausted.
After sorting the orchid patch at Green Mount, I went for what may be my last walk on the Common. A wild playground when I was a 7-year-old, with bracken towering above my head and almost never seeing anyone else using it, it’s been tamed over the last 63 years and now resembles a park, with well-used pathways and wooded areas replacing much of the bracken and gorse. So many memories … the concrete path, done in two stages 1966-67, with the half-completed stage leaving it abruptly terminating in a muddy puddle for many months. Orchids, fly agaric toadstools, the omnipresent gorse and bracken, the ponds with newts (maintained a couple of years ago by local wildlife interests), bluebells now in the cleared areas, birds too numerous to mention but memorably one year a nightingale nesting low in a gorse bush, cowslips, germander, primroses … the memories come tumbling out. Currently, its the time of the windflowers, great sheets of them dancing in the cleared areas.
Unexpected stroll
I was in the middle of sorting out the front room for the imminent arrival of batch 1 of stuff from Green mount when I got a Facebook message from Clive Brown (former Outer) saying he’d be in Worcester that afternoon. I haven’t seen him for a couple of years. A rapid juggling of priorities, and I met him at Foregate Street station. A stroll through to Elgar’s in Reindeer Court (one of the former coaching inns) for lunch, then a womble round the Cathedral (sadly, no access to the gardens). Then a walk past the St Andrews spire down to the river, across the bridge, back across Sabrina bridge and up alongside the railway / the Butts, ending with a pint (Clive) and coffee (me) in the Crown (another of the old coaching inns). A very pleasant couple of hours.
Then home, to more sorting out and the much-delayed Warndon newsletters.
And then, an evening watching the live-feed of the extraordinary meeting of Worcester City Council about Local Government Reorganisation and the transition to Unitary authorities. The Chairing by Mayor Mel Alcott was rather poor, but the discussion was constructive and well-thought-out on all sides (apart from one attempted question from Alan Amos!). After an extended break of nearly an hour, the Council reconvened to approve a motion that got supported nem con (a couple of abstentions on one clause), which is almost exactly in line with the position that Worcester Green Party adopted at our own additional Business Meeting a few days ago.
Exhausted and relieved, an early-ish night, going up around ten and asleep before midnight, having clocked up 10,900 steps during the day.
Green Mount
Wednesday 9th was a flying visit over to Green Mount. The British Heart Foundation can apparently only visit on Thursday mornings, between 0830 and 1200h, so I was best placed to deal with them. Preparation involved sorting the “rehoming” list so that it was arranged by room.
I screwed up on the trains! The first one I caught turned out not to stop at Hanborough station – unheard-of! I havered between carrying on to Oxford and catching a cab, or getting off at Charlbury and waiting half an hour for the next train … as the rain had stopped by then, I chose. Charlbury. As so often, the train was delayed by having to wait for a train from Oxford to come off the single-track line, but fortunately only by five minutes, so I was OK to catch the bus from Hanborough station to Freeland turn (the request stop at Cuckoo lane having been abolished some years ago).
Walking across the Common in the damp dark brought back all kinds of memories! I don’t think I’ve done it since I left school in 1973, though it was a daily part of my childhood. Now massively overgrown, and at this time of year the concrete path rather slippery wit fallen leaves, with a cloudy sky (and only tje first night of the New Moon anyway). Still it was something I was glad to do, a part of wrapping up my emotional engagement with 62 years of history in the village.
Up at 0700h on Thursday 10th, so as to be vaguely together for BHF. They arrived about 11, and were both reassuring and competent, so all good. Jane gave me a lift to Hanborough station after lunch, so I was home by 1500h. Exhausted, I slept for a couple of hours, and then for eleven hours overnight (not waking until gone 1030). The cold-type virus (covid test is negative) that I’ve had for over a fortnight is lingering, and leaving me very easily tired.
So this was posted on Saturday 12th, a chilly and rather overcast day, where I’ve largely been sitting in front of the fire. I did manage to label and put away this year’s batch of green tomato chutney, but have been otherwise inert.
RSV stuff
I was on the clinical trial panel for trials of the RSV vaccine, which has now got approval. They’ve now unsealed the blinded list, and (as I thought) I had received the placebo both times. So I’ve now been given the opportunity to have the vaccine for real, as part of followup study (I think to see for how long it remains effective).
So, over to Birmingham today, to see the hunky Dr Peter Keighley and the team. The usual mountain of paperwork, chat, a quick physical, and then the jab. Followed by a compulsory sit under observation for 30 minutes – I suppose it’s necessary, but I was starting to get antsy about catching the train. The 1556 is about the last train that there’s the slightest hope of getting a seat on – and I did catch it with 4 minutes to spare. Usual rush-hour buses in Worcester, but I did get the last seat on the #35, so home about 1700. So far, my arm isn’t objecting to the jab, but it’s early days …
Election day – i
Back home on the patio for a much-needed coffee after a couple of hours outside the rather breezy St Barnabas polling station. Sunny spells means that people are much more cheerful than the rather vile weather we had in May! Calls of “hello” from passers-by on the other side of the street and suchlike are always encouraging.
I’ll put in another couple of hours this evening. Most of Worcester Greens are over in Herefordshire, to support Ellie Chowns who stands an excellent chance, but I’m not up to a full day’s activities there.