A Welcome Visitor, A Lovely Visit And Infinity Is Finally Here

I am seven chapters into my new novel so blogging has taken a back seat recently. Although Give Me Your Tomorrow has not brought fame and riches (yet), I've been encouraged by the feedback and I am still getting regular sales. The new book is a million miles from the beautiful Greek island of my first one. It's set in the present and is also far removed from 1969, the Apollo moon landings and the music of the Monkees and Tamla Motown that I wrote about last time. I'll update blog readers on my progress in future blogs but my target is to have it finished and ready to publish before Christmas (which means I will have to motor).



We had a very welcome guest last week. Jane, who has been Marion's dearest friend for well over thirty years, braved the vagaries of the East Anglian rail network and travelled from Liverpool to Norwich where we picked her up on Monday. She stayed with us until Friday and we were sad to see her leave. We all missed her husband Dave who was enjoying a golfing holiday in Portugal. 



Although the sun still hasn't really shown itself here this summer, the weather was fairly kind for Jane's visit and she and Marion visited a number of local attractions including the lovely gardens of Helmingham Hall. I know that Marion will miss the opportunity for their chats as she only has me to talk to for much of the time. 

I did my bit for Jane's visit and cooked one of my paellas using some great fish, prawns and lobster from Darren at Framlingham Market. On Wednesday I did some babysitting in Kent and took our granddaughter for a horse riding session. She loved it and was very confident on the horse. While I was away Marion and Jane went to The Station which served up yet another very good meal.

It would have struggled to match the meal we had on Sunday when we were invited by friends for lunch. We had some fabulous goats' cheese starters followed by a pulled pork main and strawberry tart dessert all accompanied by very generous helpings of very fine wine. Huge thanks to our hosts and their daughter for their great hospitality and a fun afternoon.

 While on the subject of food, I bought this very smart pair of chinos from Ted Baker's in London a few weeks ago. On the very first time that I wore them I dropped a tiny piece of lettuce onto my thigh. The lettuce was, regrettably, coated in olive oil and balsamic dressing and left two small marks. We tried to get the mark out the next day but it wouldn't shift so I looked up cleaning methods on the Internet. The good news is that the mark has now gone but the bad news is that there are now two huge faded circles that are a hundred times worse than the original stains. After one wearing they have been relegated to the metal detecting outfit drawer and I've ordered a replacement pair -a very expensive tiny lettuce leaf. 

With the weather overcast we went to Ipswich this afternoon to see Jurassic World on the IMAX screen. It's very much as expected with lots of great computer generated dinosaurs, a story line with all the blockbuster cliches and characters you could ask for and all the fun you would expect from a Spielberg movie. It has a 12 certificate so it is not as scary as it could have been. For me the best aspect was the IMAX amazing surround sound. It brings the film to life and totally immerses the viewer in the scenes.

I always like to be an early adopter of new technology so, when super fast broadband arrived in Framlingham a few weeks ago, we signed up straight away. A few days later and  it was up and running. I checked the speed and it was about 12mgps which is virtually the same as what it was before. During numerous calls to India I was told to be patient and give it time to get established. Two weeks later the speed did not improve. An engineer visited. He fitted a special filter onto the line and ten minutes later, hey presto, the high speed was here and the speed increased to almost the 30mgps expected. Compliments to the engineer. He was a great ambassador for BT.