Poetry, Cinema, Fine Dining, Theatre, Fine Art And A Momentous March - Just Another Retirement Week

We're cramming so much into our retirement that I sometimes worry that we'll burn ourselves out. Last week was hectic even by our standards.

We started on the Saturday evening with a delicious home baked pizza cooked by good friends before walking with them a few doors down the road to FAYAP where Slice Of Life Fram were putting on yet another of their brilliant cultural events.

Luke Wright was performing his show, Luke Wright Poet Laureate and what a show it was! We've seen Luke two or three times now and we would happily go and see him again. He is a major talent and very funny with it. If anybody had told me a few years ago that I would be attending regular poetry evenings I would have scoffed - not any more. 

I hadn't realised how tall Luke is until I uploaded this photo of him with Marion at his signing session after the show.

Sunday was relatively quiet day at home watching football on TV and putting into place my final plans for a special surprise day planned for Marion's birthday on Tuesday. 

Tuesday soon arrived and I woke her up at seven thirty with a card instructing her to pack an overnight case.

Our local florists Callendars didn't let me down and delivered these flowers for Marion bang on time at nine thirty. It was then time to drive to Ipswich and catch a train to London. 

We often walk past Ottolenghi when we arrive at Liverpool St and walk into East London and Marion always says how much she would like to eat there. So it was an obvious choice for me to book for a very good birthday lunch.  

I've started looking up a lot more when in London and loved these pottery plaques depicting bakers that I spotted above Honest Burgers' Liverpool St branch. I've walked past this place loads of time without noticing them. Seems that they were installed in 1926 when a bakery opened on the site. They weren't the only London artworks that I noticed for the first time but I will save those photos for a future blog.

From Ottolenghi we travelled to Premier Inn at County Hall before walking along the South Bank to the National Theatre.

Marion has wanted to see Follies for ages but, as I'm not a lover of musicals, she told me not to book it. She was delighted when we turned up at the theatre and I have to say that, despite my dislike of musicals in general, this was a spectacularly good show.

The final surprise of the short break was a trip to the Royal Academy on Wednesday to see The Renaissance Nude exhibition. The RA has assembled a quite spectacular display of works by notable artists (mostly of the 1400s) from all over Europe to produce a fascinating display.

We loved Get Out, so when we saw that Jordan Peele's new movie was out we went on Friday to see it at Cineworld. 

Us is an extremely complex horror film about the arrival of zombie like doppelgangers in a California resort. With plenty of shocks, a lot of humour and a mind boggling plot which I still don't understand, it's very entertaining but I challenge anyone to explain what exactly is going on.

On Saturday we drove to Stratford and had a look at some furniture in Westfield before catching the tube to London to join in with over a million plus like minded protestors in the march to put it to the people. I blogged in the days following the referendum that the electorate was lied to and I feel exactly the same today. Now that Vote Leave has been fined, I am surprised that there are still people who believe that it was a democratic and fair vote and I hope that the politicians see sense and give the public the final say. Whatever the outcome we can accept that next time everyone will know exactly what they are voting for.

Ready to March

Some Framlingham friends waiting for the march to begin.

From the march we went to Rochester and spent the evening with our Kent family before driving back to Framlingham on Sunday lunchtime.

Quite a busy (and quite exhausting) week. This week promises to be a bit quieter but you never know what's around the corner in this retirement lark.

Visiting Family And Family Visiting

When I last blogged we were about to leave Scotland for the long trek back to Suffolk. This time the journey was even longer than usual as we detoured to Southport to collect my mum for a few days stay with us.

Our last few trips to Scotland have been blighted with bad luck carwise and we were hoping that this journey might be uneventful after two punctures in January.  

Our hopes were not to be and we returned to Framlingham with a huge windscreen chip from a stone that flew up at us on the A14.

We're missing these two who we joined at the Dundee Ice Rink before heading home. (I've never been to an ice rink before and had no idea how cold it would be - duh!).

We also had two visitors to see us off from the caravan site as we left at the crack of dawn.

The political situation is impossible at the moment. I thought I'd got a good score on Words With Friends with "BREXIT"

But, as WWF clearly (and rightly) tells me. BREXIT is not a valid word.

I spotted this amongst Sarah and the girls' huge collection of children's books. What happened to The Gruffallo?

Mum has been enjoying her ten days with us. She's heading back to Southport on the train tomorrow but we've tried to keep her entertained.

She has certainly kept us entertained.

The PPP on the CLS Shooting Brake ran out and it has gone back to Mercedes. I was sad to see this go as it's probably the nicest car we've owned. Sadly the model has been discontinued and we've got to try something new. The new car is scheduled for April (Brexit permitting that is).

We bought Mum a jigsaw puzzle to keep her occupied on rainy days. It was a daunting task for her but eventually, with a bit of team effort, we made it.

We took Mum to a couple of films while she was with us. 

Instant Family was pretty lightweight and a bit corny but its heart is in the right place and it is indeed, as the poster says, a feel-good movie for everyone.

Coincidentally, the other film we saw also has "Family" in the title. Fighting with My Family, the true story of a wrestling family from Norwich, is a lot of fun and a fascinating story too. Stephen Merchant's directorial debut is very well done and, judging by the old home videos in the end credits, it seems to be very close to the real story. It was also good to see Norwich take a leading role in the film.

I mentioned in a recent blog that I'd been doing a bit more antiquing. This pearlware jug in perfect condition c1840 is my favourite buy. I found it in a Dundee antiques centre. It's a shape that I've never seen before and in perfect condition. It's up for sale on eBay and I'm hopeful of it realising a decent price.

This rare Spode cup and saucer c1815 is also in perfect condition. It turned up on eBay and is a very collectable item.

Another eBay buy was not such a success when the seller of this ornate cup and saucer thought it was a good idea to post it without using a box. I must confess though that a recent parcel I sent out turned up in Japan in pieces. That's only my third delivery failure in twenty years on eBay. I packed it well but had to keep to weight limit so not well enough.

Finally, this fabulous hand made and hand decorated porcelain vase from the 1990s arrived today. This is one to keep and not for selling and shows what amazing bargains can be picked up on eBay.

Back In St Andrews

With the Carribbean fast fading to a distant memory we've been keeping busy with more usual winter pursuits. I enjoy occasional visits to watch Framlingham Town (The Castlemen) who play just five minutes away from our house. I would love to go more often but I don't want to overdose on football and only go during weekends when Liverpool are not on TV. I enjoy trying to take photos of the matches and it's easy to get very close to the action. My last visit was to the 1-1 draw with Wroxham. I missed both goals due to the phone going onto screensaver (duh) but got a few nice shots.

Goal-line clearance

The day after the match it was time to head up to St Andrews where we had promised Sarah that we would do a spot of babysitting while Duncan was on a course. We had a good (though foggy) drive and settled into a four day stay at the Premier Inn as the caravan site closes for February every year.

The fog was still about when we reached St Andrews

Not wanting to hang about in the Premier Inn all day we went on plenty of walks into town and enjoyed coffees in the Cafe above the Golf Museum. Their cappuccino coffee is way too milky but the cafe serves great home baked scones and the views in the sunshine are the best in town.

Over the past seven years I've taken so many photos of St Andrews there's nothing left to photograph so I've been trying to spot some different angles and viewpoints. I liked the shadow in this one although I should have avoided the people.

Experimenting with the phone's portrait mode.


I never tire of the cathedral.


Portrait lens experiment again.


The lobster pot was far more popular on Instagram but this is my favourite photo of the harbour.

Sarah managed some time away from her busy yoga and parenting schedule and we had a lovely few hours at the Botanical Gardens.

We also found time to visit the Dundee University Botanical Gardens. Both gardens are well worth a visit.

We got to see Rose and Melody after school.

We had a game of Junior Scrabble with them and I couldn't help noticing this similarity in both colour and style to the hotel logo. As the Junior Scrabble dates to the 1990's perhaps a young designer grew up with it. 

Sarah and Duncan have been reading Swallows And Amazons to the girls for their bedtime story. I was so pleased to hear that they share my love for this classic. They are so into the novel that they recreated Wild Cat Island in Lego.

We've managed two visits to the excellent Dundee Contemporary Arts  where we had an nice lunch and watched two poignant films.

If Beale St Could Talk is another look at the inequality experienced by black Americans. It is beautifully filmed and acted.

Capernaum is an amazing tale of refugee life. It's both heartbreaking and (at times) funny with unknown child actors completely stealing the show. If you think Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen had it bad you would not believe the incredible hardship endured by these kids. Although it is fiction it has an air of absolute reality.

I've also managed time to do a bit of antique hunting. I think I may have made some good buys but there's no telling until I've put them on eBay. I'll let you know in my next blog.

Off back to Suffolk now. We're collecting my mum en route to give her a few days break.