Notes From Retirement......................Where did the years go?: Busy In Framlingham And At The Planning Appeal In Woodbridge

The planning appeal by developers hoping to overturn the rejection of their plans to wreck our small Suffolk market town began last week. We've been to several sessions of the hearing. It's scary how a big shot barrister can manipulate words and intimidate those supplying opinions and being cross examined on the case. From listening to the Taylor Wimpey barrister you would think that Taylor Wimpey was some sort of charitable Robin Hood trying to build homes for the impoverished and disabled townsfolk of Framlingham but being impeded by idiots who think the green fields that would be forever lost actually have value. He also argues that the small town can easily cope with over three hundred new homes arriving at once on three separate sites. Money can't buy you love but it can certainly buy you erudition. Sad thing is that I am sure that the lawyer would make an equally compelling hatchet job on Taylor Wimpey if he were employed on the other side. I hope to be able to stand up and offer my own twopence worth before the appeal finishes. I don't care what the rules say or what the county's housing needs are, you can't increase a town by 30% almost overnight without it ending in tears.

When not at the hearing in Woodbridge we've kept up with the exercise classes. We also had a great evening at the Fram Soc book club on Thursday when our book was The Great Gatsby. It was a really interesting evening chatting about the book (which everyone loved). We've not been to the cinema yet this week but we've got another binge planned on Thursday with The Danish Girl and The Big Short in Ipswich.

On Friday we went to the official re-opening of The Castle Inn here in Framlingham. The pub was absolutely packed as new landlord and landlady Tony and Jennie welcomed locals with free food and drink samples along with some excellent live music. It's not easy running a pub today so I wish them every success in their new venture. The pub is in a great location so, if they make hay during the tourist season they've a good chance of making a go of it.

On Saturday we treated ourselves to breakfast at the fabulous Farm Cafe in Marlesford. The breakfasts there are magnificent and we managed to do the Saturday Jumbo crossword in The Times whilst I enjoyed a full English that included kidneys and black pudding (delicious). Marion had less of a blow out but she tells me that her chocolate croissant was equally delicious.

After years of wondering just what went wrong at Liverpool I finally saw a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel as I watched the Norwich game on TV on Saturday afternoon. Not only was it a fabulously entertaining game but we witnessed a manager who actually seems to "get" what Liverpool is all about. When I was a kid in the sixties I can remember Emlyn Hughes urging the team on when they were 1-0 down against Manchester City with a minute or so left. We won that game and that sort of spirit continued throughout the seventies and eighties but hasn't really been seen since. Jurgen Klopp appears to have rekindled it. I hope it's not just a flash in the pan.

I've been getting on well with my second novel. I'm up to 53,000 words now and have written 25,000 this month. If I can carry on at this rate I should be ready to start the editing process by March. I just hope that people like it.

We've been having some wonderful sunrises recently. They've been followed by mild days and with this milder weather I decided to have some time on the fields with the detector on Sunday.

I was back on a field that seems to have once been a tip of some sort as there is an awful lot of rubbish (as you can see from the above). But there were a few interesting bits amongst the rubbish.