Back On My Feet Again (Almost)

It's over a month since I last blogged. I signed off with a photo of a new friend who had taken up residence in the garden and added "He's cute but he won't be very cute if he eats any of  Marion's new plants."

I probably don't need to tell you what happened next. We got home from a visit to Scotland and not only had twelve newly planted roses been stripped of all foliage but...

... he now had a friend. Marion loves her garden and gardening and the loss of the roses (amongst many other plants) was a huge disappointment. Our gardener wired off the most vulnerable plants as we tore our hair out in desperation but the rabbits had arrived overnight and, suddenly, they were gone overnight and haven't been seen again since. I don't know what happened to them but the local fox seemed to have a particularly satisfied look on his face.

Time for a quick mention of our wonderful son Paul. He grew up making his own little video shows and games and it was little surprise when he ended up working in TV. He works in development and one of his many creations has just won a second BAFTA. Well done son.

It's now six weeks since I was taken into A&E in Ipswich in a wheelchair and it's been a very painful six weeks indeed. For the first three weeks I was confined to an armchair and then I gradually managed to get onto my feet using crutches. I stopped using painkillers after five weeks and, a day or two later, stopped walking with two crutches. I can now walk with a limp and have to use one crutch if walking any distance but I think I'm on the mend. I am left with a strange tingling sensation in my lower leg and the consultant has scheduled an MRI scan to see if he can get to the root of what caused the problem.

One thing I can manage is cycling. Although it is hard to get on and off the bike, once going, turning the pedals puts no pressure on the leg. I rode two or three times in Scotland when we went to visit the family (Marion drove most of the four hundred plus miles).

She isn't struggling with her legs!

We were blessed with glorious weather for our stay at St Andrews. We visited The Fairmont a few times. 

The views back to St Andrews are lovely.


A good place to visit for a meal or snack

We had a wonderful ten days. I was able to rest my leg and recuperate and, as always, it was lovely to see our granddaughters Rose and Melody. Buying the caravan eight years ago was a great decision. Without it we could never have seen our Scottish family as much as we have done.

After more than a month of my lazing about, we finally decided that I was fit enough to be more active. We had tickets for a show in London so it was a spur for me to get off the crutches and take the train to the city. 

I am always looking for street art in London. This mural on the wall of H&M in Covent Garden is a fine example.



We had a good light lunch at Temper in Covent Garden


Come From Away was our choice of show.

No I didn't use my phone during the show, I took this during the standing ovation at the end. And never was a standing ovation more deserved. We've been going to theatre and cinema together for over forty years and this was the best show we've seen in all those years (and that's saying something when you consider some of the stuff we've seen). It really is that good. It left the hairs on the back of our necks standing up and I would happily go back and see it again. It's the story of what happened in the tiny town of Gander in Newfoundland on 9/11 when US airspace was closed and almost forty airliners were diverted to this far flung outpost doubling the population overnight. 

Funny, poignant, sad, joyful and emotional are just a few words to describe this show. I struggle to find a superlative to do it justice.  

We've also managed a couple of cinema trips. Eight Grade  is a lovely coming of age movie with a captivating performance by the fifteen year old Elsie Fisher. 



And yes, Rocketman does live up to its near universal five star reviews - great stuff

This week has seen a visit from the Kent grandchildren Catherine and Teddy. The house becomes a playgroup as Marion keeps them busy with toys, books and making stuff. That's not to say I'm not involved but Nanny is certainly the centre of attention.

Theodore is learning to write - he's three.



Making table



My latest novel continues to be well received on both Goodreads and Amazon. It's currently on Kindle at a special promotional price of just 99p

If you aren't already aware, it tells the story of a man who makes an incredible find on eBay. Being laid up for six weeks I've had plenty of time to try and emulate Mr Prendergast but, just as Mr Prendergast finds, it's not always plain sailing.

These three eBay buys arrived within a few days of each other. The large meat platter was by Minton and would retail with a top dealer for around £500 -bought for £47. The flowery jug and saucer (and a teapot) were fine German porcelain whilst the fabulous cups were beautifully hand painted and gilded and had survived for two hundred years.

I even asked the sellers to charge more if they wanted to use more packaging.

I think that my packing should get my sales to their destinations safely in one piece.

An exciting few days lie ahead.Tomorrow it's the Champions League Final and Framlingham Liverpool supporters are joining us for the match. I've got champagne on ice and hope that that's not tempting fate.

And on Tuesday we'll be back to London to "welcome" the orange baby to his state visit. 

I'll let you know how it goes.

Just When It Was All Going So Well

2019 has seen us enjoying a charmed life - it started with those wonderful three weeks  in Bequia and continued with lots of cultural activities, a break in St Andrews and a fantastic trip to London for Marion's birthday. 

I suppose that all good things must come to an end and, sadly, April has seen a setback to those good times. But more of that later.  

I love a bit of theatre so I enjoyed collecting the new car from Jardine Motors in Ipswich. They really made an effort in turning the collection of the car into an event.

The collection concluded with an unveiling ceremony.

And I have to say that we were very pleased with the result.

I know that this damages our green credentials but we do over twenty thousand miles a year and need something comfortable. Driving to St Andrews is over eight hours so factoring in recharging stops for an electric vehicle just doesn't work.

The new vehicle arrived just in time to use it to collect Sarah and her girls who had enjoyed  a short break in London and were coming to Framlingham for a couple of days.

We met at the Natural History Museum and had a great day in London before catching the train back to Ipswich before the drive home.

The museum is great but the crowds were enormous. 

Until we discovered the new cocoon wing of the building and had it virtually to ourselves.

After the girls' hectic time in London we planned a peaceful few days in Suffolk.

Rose and Melody were delighted with the Harry Potter LEGO set we bought from Bill Bulstrode and I was impressed that they managed to put it all together between them with no adult assistance at all.

Framlingham Castle is a great spot to enjoy a bit of spring sunshine. 

I had to chuckle when this turned up on my credit card bill. After the Barclays "Framlington" sign fiasco a year or so back you would expect the castle of all places to have the right details on their card machine.

And then disaster struck. Disaster may sound too strong a word but I got up from watching TV and couldn't walk. An absolutely excruciating pain shot down my right leg and I thought that my hip replacement had failed. I went to bed hoping that it would correct itself overnight but by morning it was far worse. We had arranged to drive the family to Peterborough station for their train home to Scotland but that was out of the question and we hastily rearranged train tickets from Ipswich, dropped everyone off at the station and drove straight to A&E. When we arrived I couldn't stand to get out of the car and someone kindly brought out a wheelchair and helped to manoeuvre me into it.

I remained in the wheelchair for most of the day but finally was given an X Ray. I made a right show of myself in the X Ray room as I screamed in agony. 

The X Rays showed no problem with my hip and the doctor's examination (more screaming I'm afraid) concluded that I had had a muscle spasm which would ease in a few days. They gave me Diazepam, painkillers and crutches and sent me away.

We were due to have our Kent grandchildren stay for four nights and didn't want to miss that. They duly came, and we loved having them stay on after their mum and dad went home but I was no help at all and Marion kept them entertained while I languished on the sofa. She must have done a great job as Catherine handed us these notes before they went home.

Easter came and went with little improvement. I did manage to get out on Saturday and enjoyed a nice lunch at The Crown with friends but walking from the car park to the pub on crutches took it out of me and most of Easter was spent like this. 

Being laid up doesn't give you a lot of options on things to do so, apart from reading, I've been doing Mr Prendergast's hobby of looking for bargains on eBay. Perhaps I will find my fortune one day (read the book - see link at the right of the blog) like Mr P but I just enjoy spotting stuff.

It's hard to believe that these fabulous hand painted porcelain cups and saucers (listed as Two Pretty Cups And Saucers With Flower Design 0.99p) were made c1790 in a factory that enjoyed the patronage of Marie Antoinette. 

And I just couldn't resist this enormous tankard made c1835.

I'm back to A&E tomorrow. I'll have been in pain for two weeks. It's certainly not as bad as it was on day one but if it eases at the rate it has been doing it's going to be a few weeks before I get the chance to drive that new car. 

At least I've got a new friend who has started wandering around the garden. He's cute but he won't be very cute if he eats any of  Marion's new plants.

Sofa So Good

I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog but whilst we were away in Bequia in January and February we had our lounge decorated and new curtains and blinds fitted. Angie from Ashby Designs has done a great job and the room is starting to look very good. We've decided not to rush the room so still have no pictures up and accessories like rugs and occasional tables aren't yet on order but we need a new sofa after using the current ones for about ten years.

The internet is great but we didn't want to buy a sofa without looking at it beforehand so, in the last couple of weeks, we've been looking around and have visited Westfield and Norwich without any luck. We finally found a couple of sofas that we liked on the websites of Camerich and Sofa.com and headed into London to check them out. Both were perfect.

We opted for Sofa.com purely because it was easier on their system to use our designer's fabric. The alternative involved shipping fabric to China and fairly long delays. On the plus side, furniture in Camerich's own fabrics can often be delivered almost immediately. The sales people in both stores were excellent.

I mentioned Bequia at the start of this post. We've had withdrawal symptoms and checked out the availability for next January/February. It is already booked up so we've made a reservation for January 2021. I know there are thousands of other places that we've never been to and life is short but we love Tropical Hideaway and rather than chance somewhere new and be disappointed we know that will be something to look forward to that won't let us down.

We've met some wonderful people in Bequia and are happy to call a number of them friends. 

Steve and Chris Clarke run an art gallery in the beautiful village of Corfe Castle. We got on like a house on fire sharing their love of art, snorkelling, humour and politics. We arranged to meet up with them for lunch in London this week.

They recommended Gauthier in Soho. You may have seen Alexis Gauthier on the recent series of Masterchef. The restaurant is outstanding and we enjoyed a fabulous lunch. 

We had time to catch an exhibition before catching the train back to Ipswich. Steve and Chris suggested the Martin Parr Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. It was another inspired choice.

As someone who enjoys photography but mostly uses an iPhone I found this exhibition an inspiration. These Brexit themed photos were just a few of the many highlights of a superb exhibition. If you get the opportunity to visit don't miss it.If you are not familiar with Martin Parr, he does all the BBC indents with groups of people (wheelchair basketball, Indian dancers etc etc) and these are included in the show.

In other news, we've got a new car to pick up on Saturday. We've gone for a 4x4 this time. We're getting older and the last Mercedes, though beautiful and stylish, was quite low and difficult to get into. The 4x4 (another Mercedes) is a lot higher and, though not quite as stylish,  has easier access for a couple of old fogies.

You can't beat the view from the garden when the oil seed rape is in flower.

Speaking of the garden, our super robotic mower "Mo" expired. We had the mower for six years (although it was replaced under guarantee after two) and it did a great job but one of the penalties for being an early adopter of this sort of hi-tech equipment is that early models soon become obsolete and finding spares for Mo was nigh on impossible. So we've gone for Mo mark 2.

It's made by Flymo and does exactly the same job at half the price of the original. Apart from the somewhat garish colour, it looks like it's going to be a hit. At least Flymo parts should be easier to source than OleoMak's.

I mentioned my eBay trading in a recent blog. I've had some successes (the beautiful Spode cup and saucer sold very well and a Belleek pedestal bowl also flew) but a fair few have resulted in a break even after costs (including the outstanding pearlware jug I had high hopes for) and I will have to be more discerning in my buying in future. Oh well. It's been fun.