8 July 2014

On the 8 July 1984 my son was killed in a car accident.  He was a back seat passenger in a car which was overloaded with youngsters and went out of control.  The other youngsters all survived with minor injuries.

He was 17 years and 9 months old when he died and even though it’s now 30 years since his death, he will always be loved and remembered by his family and friends.

A walk on the outskirts of Norwich city

Although I’ve lived in Norfolk for nearly forty years I’d never turned left down a lane on the outskirts of Norwich, which had intrigued me for many years.  I think at one time it was signposted to Eaton village but then become a ‘dead end’ road with access for cycles and walkers only.

I met a friend in Norwich today, intending to go for a walk at Whitlingham Country Park but when we set off I turned in the wrong direction!  I could have easily found my way back to our original destination but then my friend said she knew of a walk by the river and to my delight she directed me down this little lane which had intrigued me for so long!

There was a small car park so we got out and it was a journey of discovery for me, with the network of footpaths through fields and marshes, alongside the river (we debated which river it was and she felt it was the Tas whilst my instincts told me it was the Yare *)

Masses of butterflies and damsel flies were on the thistles and nettles along the footpath, which meandered by the crystal clear river. 

We came to a junction and my friend suggested we have a look at Keswick Mill which was well worth the detour.  What a beautiful spot just outside Norwich although the occasional train, probably heading towards Ely, and the distant hum of the by-pass told us that civilisation was only a short distance away.  Keswick Mill

Back up the path, across the railway line and we walked past Eaton Vale scout and guide activity centre and then on to the road which quickly led to Waitrose where we stopped for a welcome cup of coffee.

Back down the road, off to the right and we were back on to the footpaths and then it was a short trek across the slightly damp and marshy fields to the car park.

What a revelation for me and I really enjoyed it.  Will certainly be going again.  

Thanks Hilary!!

• I checked on Google Earth and it was the Yare, of which the Tas seems to be a tributary which runs south

How long will I live – do I want to know?

“Steve Webb, the pensions minister, says Government wants to provide pensioners with rough life expectancy guide to allow them to make better financial decisions.”

Won’t the Government be concerned that they run the risk of being sued if people die before the forecast time?  Not by the person who has had their life cut short, obviously, but by the family members who had certain expectations for their relations.

I was a bit bored today so decided to take a test on how long I was expected to live and it came out at 94 years, possibly 99 years!

A bit scary actually, but I’ll try and achieve it!

Oh how we laughed!

A good friend and I had lunch together last week and, as it was a nice day, after lunch we decided to drive to a pretty nearby village.

Before getting to the village we saw a sign advertising eggs for sale so drove up the lane to the farm and were met by an elderly chap and his four (or maybe five) dogs.

He told us that his wife dealt with the eggs and went off to ask her if she had any; in the meantime we noticed a box by the house wall with some cauliflower bits in it.

When the chap returned to say they had sold out of eggs, my friend asked him if he had any 'caulis'.  His response was “no, they’re spaniels”.  I don’t know how we kept straight faces and my friend spluttered “I know they’re spaniels, I meant cauliflowers”.

We’re still laughing about this, nearly a week later.

 

An electric shock

When we first moved to our current house, which is ALL electric, I researched the best deal for paying for power and decided that the StayWarm system was a good option.  The criteria were as follows:

• You or someone living in the house is over 60
• Less than 4 people living in the house
• There are no more than 3 bedrooms
• You take both gas and electricity from E.ON StayWarm
• You pay by monthly Direct Debit

We could not use electricity to heat a swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna, greenhouse or workshop, none of which we intended to do.

The rules at that time stated that we could use as much electricity as we needed!  Woohoo, no worries!!

The ‘set rate’ was not supposed to be based on usage and started to rise slightly each year, which was fair enough and we were happy for around 10 years.  Talking to other people on our small estate it appeared that we had a good deal.

Now, whether StayWarm decided that we pensioners were abusing the rules or just decided to change the rules I don’t know but suddenly the rate quoted for the next year increased dramatically so I called them and asked for a quote for going back to a standard rate.  Bearing in mind that the latest StayWarm quote had been around £110 per month I was very surprised when I was quoted around £20 a month.  I realised that we wouldn’t be able to use as much as electricity as we wanted but, to be fair, we had never really done that, always trying to be thoughtful about our usage.

I queried the new low amount with the adviser at the time and she reassured me that this was the correct rate so I told StayWarm to get lost and changed to a standard rate around October 2012. 

Yesterday I received a letter from EON asking me to ring them urgently which I did only to be told that we had been on the wrong rate for the last 15 months and had been charged at the NIGHT rate instead of the day rate!  The only explanation they could give was that a new system had been installed at EON and when the information was transferred it got in a muddle!  The adviser assured me that we would not be back charged for the difference and the direct debit would not change immediately as we had over £250 worth of credit!

From this week we will be charged at the correct rate – time to turn down the radiators, or maybe time to move house?

The photo has no relevance apart from being the view of the sunrise from the bedroom window.

NB It's now July 2014 and we are still on the low amount!! 

Christmas card 2013 survey

CATEGORIES

RELIGIOUS  -  4

SCENERY  -  6

ASSORTED ANIMALS  -  10 (includes 2 x kittens, 1 x blue tits, 1 x polar bear, 1 x teddy bear, 1 x various birds, e.g. partridge, swan etc, 1 x pigs)

FATHER CHRISTMAS  -  5

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS  -  5

BOATS  -  3

CHRISTMAS TREES  -  6

ROBINS  -  1

WORDS (e.g. “NOEL”)  -  6

There were also 4 electronic cards which, although nice to receive, are not the same as being able to put them on the mantelpiece.

4 handmade cards this year 2 in the Boats category, 1 in the Scenery category and 1 3-dimensional card which I put in the Father Christmas category and was very impressed with so have attached a photo

Big Storms

After the Big Storm forecast overnight and today (27/28 October 2013) I started to think about other big storms I had experienced.

The most scary was probably the 1987 Hurricane which hit around this time of year (a bit earlier I think).  We lived in Norwich then and were suddenly woken early morning by our open window being blown off its catch and crashing wide open!  Being woken like that was frightening and disorientating and initially we didn’t realise what had happened.  We did realise quite quickly when we heard the noise, first by the wind in the huge oak tree in our garden and then by the noise in the house.

Our big concern was the oak tree as if it came down it would be straight on to our roof!  Clothes dragged on quickly and ran downstairs.  Our cat had come in through the catflap with her hair standing on end but because the wind was rattling and clattering the chimney lining she was petrified and tried to rush out again.  I had to grab her as I thought she’d be safer with me than outside.  The wind was so strong by now that she could have been blown away.

I can’t remember how long it lasted but was probably only a few minutes and was so hard to believe what was going on.  When it stopped we took stock and thank goodness there was no damage – the sturdy oak tree had remained standing.  We debated whether to go in to work and decided to have a go, obviously cautiously.  One of my staff rang to ask if I could pick her up as she was scared to drive.  There were one or two trees down on the journey across Norwich but only about six people made it in to work – many of them being stuck in the countryside because of blocked roads.

The following spring, we were in awe, as we travelled south, to see the line of fallen trees through the forest around the Newmarket area.

The next memorable storm was in November 1993!  We were on our boat for the weekend and having moored at Womack Staithe and gone for a walk, we decided to go to Ranworth for the night. We moored side on to the left of the dinghy dyke and settled down for the night.  We woke to strong winds on the Sunday which gradually increased during the day to force 9/10 (that’s what it felt like anyway!).  There were one or two incidents on the moorings of ropes being broken, boats crashing together with broken windows etc and when one boat tried to leave the moorings, even on full engine power they couldn’t pull away!

Although we should have been home that night, ready for work the next day, we knew there was no way we would get off the moorings.  The waves across Malthouse Broad were so strong that the water was coming through our hopper windows!  All the extra fenders we could find were put out, ropes checked and adjusted and we settled down to sit it out.  We were prepared for some night navigation if the wind dropped but it didn’t, keeping us pinned to the quay all night – we didn’t get a lot of sleep!  At 5am we decided the conditions had improved enough to allow us to get off the mooring and in a carefully planned manoeuvre we managed to get away!  Phew!

It was with some anticipation that I waited for the storm to hit today and having heard from family in Kent that it had been horrendous, I was quite concerned.  The media were hyping it up of course, with trains being cancelled and advice on travelling being given.  Everything moveable in the garden was put in the garage, all windows securely shut and we waited!  And waited, and waited …. around 9 am the rain started lashing down and the tall trees started bending and I thought “here it comes” but by the time I’d got my camera set to video, it had gone!  I’m sure we were very lucky in south Norfolk as I understand there has been some damage in the rest of the county, but it did turn into a bit of a non event.  Thank goodness!!