A Great Weekend Near Daventry And No Place For Old Men At Playgroup?

Today is Wednesday which means that we're back in Suffolk. We've had another busy few days in Rochester babysitting our lovely little two-year-old granddaughter. We took her to two groups this week. On Monday it was Little Stars playgroup. I was sitting on the floor there reading a book to Catherine who was alongside me when another two-year-old came along and promptly sat himself down on my lap to listen in. Years ago this would have been nothing to mention but in today's climate alarm bells rang in my head as I anxiously looked around to see that I had his mother's approval. It's not easy being a bloke in the company of children nowadays as that poor man who tried to visit a falconry centre in Somerset found out when he was refused entry on the ground of being a single male. 

There was no sign of his mum but as I as in full view of everyone I thought "what the heck" and continued to read. When I finished the book he ran off and chose another four and came back, snuggled onto my lap and listened intently as I read them all. It was perfectly natural to read to him and at the end of the playgroup his mum came over and thanked me for doing so. On the following day I was the only male again at the library's Toddler Boogie but as I was not the only grandparent I felt a little more settled. I really wish that men could be more accepted around children and feel more comfortable - perhaps so few go into primary school teaching for fear of the potential accusations.

Rochester was bright, warm and sunny again this week and I think this is the first year that I can remember seeing men out in the shops wearing shorts in November - but perhaps that's just a Rochester thing. 

The building in which the Gunpowder Plot was hatched

Before heading to Rochester we had a short break in Ashby St Ledgers in the midlands. No, I'd never head of it either but we were meeting up with old friends Dave and Jane Haworth from Lancashire and wanted a half way house. At just over two hours drive for both couples, this tiny village was just right and we discovered that it was the place where Guido Fawkes and his co-conspirators hatched their failed plot.

We stayed at the homely Olde Coach House which was pleasant, inexpensive and convenient for the motorway. The rooms were good and the staff were welcoming. Although the food was fine the fine dining menu which was promoted on their website was not available and we were left with homely but basic pub grub.

It would have been good if we could have stayed in the village's manor house but sadly Lord Wimborne owns this place. It was wonderful to catch up with Dave and Jane's news. It's been many months since we last met up and I hope we don't go that far in between meetings again.

November may not be the best time to promote what is essentially a summer read but I thought I would have a look at the results of the giveaway that I did on Goodreads.com last month. I sent out twenty copies of the novel with a personal letter with each. I heard nothing directly from any of the recipients but three rated it (one at 4 stars and two at 5 stars) and two of those also reviewed the book positively. As the exercise cost over £230 including the books and the postage it's a fairly disappointing return as Goodreads suggested that fifty percent might review it. Perhaps they are just slow readers but a quick email saying "thanks for the book" would not have gone amiss. It's early days to see the effects of the free download but as that cost far less, any result will be a good result. 

We've now got a few days in Framlingham before heading back to Rochester. We've got plenty going on - there's rarely a quiet moment. 

Raving Loonies In Rochester (And On The Apprentice)

We're back in Framlingham after another stint of childcare in Rochester. We're getting into a routine now which will make it easier for us until the situation is resolved. We've got the suitcase ready and waiting early on Sunday evening and have most things packed in the car before we go to bed so as to ensure that the noise in the morning is minimal - I am sure that our neighbours won't appreciate too much door slamming at 5.30 a.m. 

This week the local Rochester playgroup was holding  a wellie walk so we had a very enjoyable trip to nearby Shorne Woods just outside Gravesend. Our granddaughter is always fascinated by throwing sticks into water and this activity kept her amused for ages. She had a good tramp through puddles and mud in her wellies before playing on the excellent playground. The weather was very kind and the whole group enjoyed two or three hours in pleasant autumn sunshine.

Back in Rochester things are hotting up for the by-election and there is a very strong UKIP presence with plenty of men who should know better wearing lurid purple fleeces and carrying placards. We even saw a dog dressed in a ridiculous UKIP coat. He and his owner looked as if they were canvassing for the Monster Raving Loonies and not a supposedly credible alternative to Labour or the Conservatives. And yet all the polls suggest that they will win. Let's hope it's just typical by-election madness.

My novel's five day free stint on Amazon certainly got it noticed and there were hundreds of downloads during the giveaway. As Lord Sugar rightly says on The Apprentice it's all about margins and any fool can be a successful salesman if he or she gives the goods away - so how can it be justified?

Well, as you can see from this screen shot, during the free period the book reached number six in the holidays category. By reaching this level it appeared on the front page of the listings in that genre and consequently was seen by far more people. Okay they were able to download it for nothing (and I know that may be galling to those who paid) but as a result of their downloads there is now a link beneath my book quoting "readers who bought this also bought ......" and a long list of books. Consequently, beneath those other books will be a link which reads "people who bought this also bought ...... " and, amongst the many titles will be Give Me Your Tomorrow . Since it returned to full price, sales have been encouraging. What really matters now is if those free downloaders now read the book and leave a positive review - we'll see how it looks in a couple of weeks.

The Goodreads giveaway of twenty paperbacks is also starting to bear fruit and I now have two five star and one four star review on that site. 

It's really time to get stuck into the new novel now and I'm doing my best to get it moving although time is in such short supply. It was never like this when we were working.

Having mentioned The Apprentice earlier I must say that last night's episode was an all time low for the show. Tasked with producing an amusing viral channel on YouTube the team's attempts were beyond derision. Lacking humour, skill, script and just about everything else I'm surprised that Lord Sugar didn't simply sack the lot and start all over again. If he does invest £250k in one of them at the end of the process, that's a quarter of a million quid he'll never see again.

Finally a word of praise for the wonderful Mary Beard. She's very active on Twitter and her tweets and blogs are always amusing and entertaining. What's more she's prepared to interact with her followers. I've commented on her tweets several times and she has always responded. Yesterday she was criticising some crassly sexist advertising in the Vauxhall Corsa brochure. She made a very good point that this sort of stuff (a leggy young woman draped across the car interior) is inappropriate in 2014 but in doing so, I felt she managed to give the manufacturers (and the page in question) more publicity than they would otherwise have had - so win win for Vauxhall. But don't stop doing it Mary, you're one of the characters who make Twitter worthwhile.

Grandparenting In Rochester

We've spent another busy week in Rochester helping out with our granddaughter during a temporary childcare crisis. It wasn't as tiring this week as we stayed in Kent and the driving was limited to one early start on Monday (although torrential rain at around 6.15 a.m reducing visibility to next to nothing and flooding the A12 made it a pretty hair raising journey). We enjoyed looking after our special little two-year-old and we're off there again tomorrow for a couple of days. The town is going to be very much in the news for the next few weeks in the run up to the by-election and it becomes overrun by politicians. We've seen a number of TV News crews and photographers there but haven't spotted any big names as yet. 

I'm becoming quite an expert in toddler activities. We visited Little Stars playgroup, Toddler Boogie at Rochester Library, Toddler Shake And Boogie at Chatham Library and another playgroup run by King's School in Rochester. Men are conspicuous by their absence at all of these events and there has only been the odd dad amongst the mums and grans and no other granddads. It's a pity in these days of gender equality that more males don't participate. I'm sure that Paul, who often takes Catherine to these kids' clubs, would welcome a couple of blokes to talk to.

It must be confusing for the children attending these activities as each group has its own version of songs like The Wheels On The Bus and Row, Row Row Your Boat. I'm getting the hang of it (even the politically incorrect version with Mummies on the bus going "Chatter Chatter Chatter")

We got back to Framlingham in time to take an elderly woman on her regular Friday afternoon shopping trip as part of our participation in the Framlingham Hour Community. It's a great scheme as there are plenty of people living on their own (or with disabled partners) here and simple things like shopping can present them with tremendous worries. 

Yesterday we had a day to ourselves and enjoyed breakfast and the The Times Jumbo2 crossword at the Lemon Tree (didn't finish it this week as we didn't know a Belgian composer) before Marion went to the hairdressers and I had a couple of hours out with the detector.

I tipped this lot out of the bag when I got home - that's two trips worth as I didn't have time after the last trip. And no, the detector doesn't pick up golf balls, it was just lying on the surface of the field. Here are some of the better finds from the two trips.

A Medieval Silver Penny Heavily Clipped

A Medieval Silver Farthing - Damaged

Another Medieval Penny

A Charles I Rose Farthing

Unidentified Probably A 17th Century Trade Token

There were not very many artefacts but I have found seven early hammered coins in four short visits to this very small field so I look forward to trying it out again when the crop which covers ninety per cent of it is harvested (I have been searching a set-aside strip).

I am pleased that the novel is still selling and I now have ten reviews in total on Amazon and Amazon.com. I spent over £118 posting twenty free copies to the winners of my Goodreads giveaway last week but have not heard from any of the recipients as yet and hope that the copies arrived safely. It would be great if all twenty read the book and leave constructive feedback. If I hear nothing it will be a disappointment. 

Busy Days

It's been a hectic week with little time for blogging. We've been helping the Rochester branch of the family with babysitting duties due to the temporary absence of the regular carer. It's wonderful to be able to see so much of our two-year old granddaughter - she's a little angel and has been great company. On the negative side, the five a.m starts are not ideal.

On the plus side we get to see sunrises like this.

But on the negative side there's a huge traffic build up at the Dartford crossing as early as seven o'clock. We arrive in Rochester way too early but if we left Framlingham any later we would be way too late - it's amazing what a difference a fifteen minute delay in leaving can make. We're off there again on Friday and next week we're staying all week so we will avoid the early starts and long drives. 


Being with a two year old can be a lot of fun. We told her parents that we would look at some new shoes for her. "Something plain and sensible" were our instructions. 

These were her idea of something plain and sensible! Suffice to say she ended up with a very nice dark blue pair. 

While we've been back in Framlingham we've been keeping very busy. We've taken up spinning classes at Fram Leisure up at the college. We've got Becky, who is a great instructor, to keep us going and the classes provide forty five minutes of intensive exercise. Spinning apart, Marion's redesigning the garden planting and has bought two trees and lots of shrubs and climbing plants which she's managed to find time to plant . She's got plans for another few dozen plants but they may have to be delayed until spring.

We even managed to get to Cineworld in Ipswich to see Boyhood which we missed first time around. It's a unique piece of cinema being filmed over twelve years. We experience the life of  Mason (Ellar Coltrane) as he grows from five to eighteen. It is a warm and fascinating piece. With each of the cast ageing as the film progresses it removes the need for unconvincing make up or different actors and I imagine that the script was a work in progress throughout the twelve years as the director Richard Linklater (whose daughter Lorelei who plays Mason's sister Samantha and also grows up on screen) could never be certain how his cast's circumstances would change over more than a decade. There are some wonderful and very real performances especially from Ethan Hawke who starred in Linklater's "Before" series of films. Not a great deal happens but it is an extremely likeable and real depiction of a modern multi-parent family life - a must for any cinema lover.

I also found time to get out with the detector at the weekend. Although this group of finds doesn't look particularly exciting they include a medieval silver penny and a medieval silver farthing plus one particularly fascinating coin.

This is a Danish silver Skilling of Christian IV dated 1620. It's in very good condition and it's intriguing to find a Danish coin from this period here in Suffolk. I did a bit of research and local dignitary Sir Robert Hitcham, who was around in the 1600s was Attorney General to Queen Anne of Denmark. Could this coin be linked to that connection? We'll never know for sure but I doubt that many Danes were visiting here in the 17th century.

I'll leave you today with a final reminder of my Goodreads book giveaway which finishes on Friday.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Give Me Your Tomorrow

by John Brassey

Giveaway ends October 10, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Still Keeping Busy

You know how it is when you speak to retired people and they tell you that they don't know how they ever found time to go to work? You probably raise your eyebrows yawn and think to yourself  "yeah sure". Well I'm afraid that it's exactly how things have been for us recently and we've found ourselves writing "to do" lists to make sure that we've not forgotten anything - writing this blog features somewhere towards the bottom of those lists.

On Friday night we went to The Lemon Tree here in Framlingham for an evening meal for the first time since it reopened. There was a wide selection of tapas on offer and we really enjoyed the meal which put an emphasis on local produce. The Lemon Tree is not opening every night but look out for the adverts for when it is open and give it a try. We think you will enjoy it.

I did some more detecting on Tuesday morning. I've not had time to sort through all the finds yet - it was mostly buttons - but I did find an interesting little silver coin from the reign of Elizabeth I.

Son Paul wasn't working yesterday so we headed down to Rochester on Tuesday evening and spent a night there. The weather on Wednesday was glorious so we took advantage of it and drove a few miles down the road to farm attraction Kent Life near Maidstone. It's a good family day out and we had a lovely day with Paul and our toddler granddaughter. 

There was plenty to see including animals like these rare breed pigs.

As well as a petting zoo, donkey rides, big playgrounds (both outdoor and indoor) there were museum exhibits explaining the history of hop farming and farm life in the early to mid 20th century - we both remember many of the featured exhibits like outside toilets and tin baths and it was a little disconcerting to find that things from our own past have now become museum pieces.

At lunchtime we left the farm museum briefly and walked along the banks of the Medway where we had the only poor experience of the day. We went into The Beefeater pub for a snack but having spent a lot of time scanning the menu and queuing to order we were told that the menu wasn't being served in the area we were sitting in and we would have to order from another menu or wait half an hour to go where that menu was being served. It was a case of very poor management and we ended up back at the museum cafe after a wasted journey.

On Monday I had a fascinating day out at the Clarke And Simpson weekly auction at Campsea Ashe. There was a huge crowd there and the auctioneers were running three auctions simultaneously in different rooms. I bought three or four interesting bits and pieces.

I particularly like this colourful bowl and stylish tankard. I'll have to make sure that I don't go too often or I'll end up with a house full of clutter. I've put another five bits for sale on eBay today. I really enjoy doing it but it takes up too much of that precious time that's in such short supply and I think I will have to give it up.

Tonight I've been busy making pasta for tomorrow night. Okay it doesn't look like the neat stuff you find in a packet in supermarkets but I'm hoping it's going to taste much better.

Next week we've got a V.I.P guest. My Mum is visiting Framlingham for the first time. We're looking forward to showing her around our new home, new home town and new home county. We've plenty planned including a meal at the Crown and trips to Ickworth, Aldebrugh and Southwold.

A Long Weekend In Suffolk

We're in Rochester as I write. It's probably the last time that we will be here on child minding duties for some time as our third grandchild is due in the next couple of weeks and, as he or she will be arriving in Scotland, we'll be heading off to St Andrews very soon. We'll miss our regular visits to Kent - it's been wonderful seeing so much of our family over the summer months. 

We spent the Bank Holiday weekend at home in Framlingham. After a pleasant Saturday morning exploring the market and stocking up on some foodie treats at Leo's Deli, Hall Farm Butchers and Darren the fishmonger, we spent a bit of time enjoying coffee in The Crown where attempting the Times2 Jumbo Crossword has become a bit of a Saturday ritual. Needless to say I didn't manage to finish it again this week. I've only completed it once without cheating although I get close most weeks.

The weather was not too wet after lunch so I walked down to a local field to try my luck with the detector. I found stubble almost a foot tall which is not the easiest of conditions to detect on but I was very lucky and within a few minutes of arriving managed to find this.

I know that it doesn't look much but it is a silver annular brooch and dates from around the 12th century. Although the pin is bent it is in good condition and, as silver over a couple of hundred years old, it falls under the Treasure Regulations and I have reported it to the Suffolk Archaeology people in Bury St Edmunds. I thought that it might signal an afternoon of finds but I found little more of great interest although plenty of buttons and the usual stuff kept me occupied.

Sunday gave us the chance to get back out on our bikes. We headed off to Iken church. Standing on a promontory in the Alde Estuary, the ancient church is in a remote and idyllic spot.

It's an atmospheric old building and we loved its thatched roof - not something you see very often. We headed back to Framlingham via Tunstall Forest and Great Glemham after passing a handful of beautiful thatched cottages near Iken. It was another enjoyable ride without too many climbs and with just enough miles to makes us feel we'd done something but not too many for us to regret having done so.

Marion spent yesterday tidying the garden while I had a few more hours with the detector. No more finds - that silver brooch was a real stroke of luck. 

We'll be spending the rest of this week preparing for Scotland and hoping that the new baby does not arrive early.

Too Busy To Blog

When we were working and bumped into a retired friend or acquaintance they invariably told us how they were rushed off their feet with "not enough hours in the day" - you know the sort of thing. We would brush this off with a wry and knowing smile whilst thinking "of course you are rushed off your feet. You've got twenty four hours in every day and absolutely no work to worry about." But now that the tables have turned and we are in their shoes, we are the ones who are claiming there is too much to do and not enough time to do it in. So few hours that I've been unable to get time at the laptop to write for over seven days - my longest blogging absence since I started writing this almost three years ago.

So what has been taking up all this time? I hear you ask. Well our schedule for the last seven days went like this. 

On Monday we drove to Rochester to help out with a little childminding for a wonderful little granddaughter. We took her to the enormous shopping mall at nearby Bluewater where she had a whale of a time checking out the toys on offer while we bought some bits and pieces to keep in Framlingham when she visits.

On Tuesday I took advantage of the fine weather and headed down the road to search some local fields with the detector. There's nothing particularly exciting in the day's finds but there are a couple of late medieval studs amongst the usual mixture of buttons, buckles, shotgun cartridge cases and musket balls. It was the first time in my twenty odd years detecting that I have been able to walk to a field near home instead of driving the once obligatory four hour round trip in the car. When I got home I completed the preparations for a talk that I'm giving on the hobby to a local Rotary Club.

Wednesday saw us driving back down to Rochester for another child minding day. This time we visited the village of Upnor on the Medway near Strood where we enjoyed some excellent fish and chips in the Tudor Rose pub before taking the baby to the castle - an old Elizabethan fort run by English Heritage. 

On Thursday it was an early drive to Ipswich to catch the train to London where we had an appointment near St Paul's to see Cumberland Place our financial advisors. When we sold the business we handed all the proceeds over to them and they manage it for us. Everything seems to be going well and we've done a lot better than if we had put the funds in the bank despite the uncertainties of stock markets over the last couple of years. After overspending so much on the house in Framlingham our advisors reckon we should cut back on the big withdrawals a bit now but we've no major purchases planned in the near future so that should not be a problem. So, barring catastrophe, we should have more than enough to see us through our retirement and leave a bit to the family.

On Friday we had some time in Cambridge with the family before spending the weekend with them in Framlingham.

I did the modern day equivalent of killing the fatted calf and bought a beef fillet from Hall Farm butchers on the market square and made Gordon Ramsay's Beef Wellington recipe (download it on the BBC good food site). It's a foolproof recipe and the meal turned out very well.

For once, both ovens plus the steam oven and the microwave all got brought into use. We're looking forward to having more guests as we really enjoy using the kitchen and realising its full potential. It was a short stay and Paul and Josephine still have plenty more to see in future visits. They packed up on Sunday and we drove back down to Rochester where I'm now writing this. We're doing another day with the baby today but heading back to Framlingham this evening to get ourselves straight. We've got three days at home ahead of us now but no doubt we'll find plenty to do to fill in the time.

A Few Hours In The Fields

Ever since we moved to Suffolk I have been itching to try the metal detector on the fields near our house. I've had a few detecting hours with a friend on fields near where he lives but those near us have been full of crops until this week when the harvest got under way. A local farmer has kindly given me permission to try his farm and I hope to get some time out in between child minding visits to Rochester (I am writing from the Premier Inn there this evening). 

This was the result of just over two hours with the XP Deus. There's quite a lot of rubbish there but there are four or five buttons, a lead weight and an old coin.

I haven't managed to identify the coin yet but it is a medieval silver hammered penny and will date from around 1200. Hopefully I will be able to get a positive i.d in the near future. I'm pleased to have found this coin as it shows that the field was in use hundreds of years ago and it could well hold more coins and artefacts from the last thousand years. I'm looking forward to trying again before we head up to Scotland for the arrival of our third grandchild in September.

I also found this decorative cast shell. I don't think it is particularly old but it will look good in the finds cabinet.

Today we headed to Tunbridge Wells to meet old friends Wyndham and Lesley Westaway. We met them in 1986 when we lived in Edenbridge and our children became friends. It was great to hear all about their family - a lot has happened in the ten or more years since we last met. Although we are not exactly on their doorstep now, we are a lot closer than we were in Southport and I hope that we are able to catch up with them again soon.

A Strawberry Surprise And A TV Disappointment

As one who enjoys his food I've moaned a fair bit over the last twenty years about "what happened to the strawberry?". Fifty years ago when I was a kid they were a delicious summer treat and I can even remember them being quite tasty when we tried out pick your own with Sarah and Paul in the eighties. I think we should have weighed in the children before and after the picking in those days as telltale red smudges around their mouths hinted that not every "that's a booty Daddy" strawberry found its way into the baskets. Nowadays the enormous fruits we find in the supermarket and invariably shipped in from Spain taste of just water and the only way to remove the husk and leaves is to use a knife.

So I had a very pleasant surprise yesterday when I bought a couple of punnets of local strawberries from the Framlingham Greengrocer. Out popped the husks with a simple tug and I was transported back thirty years. It would have been too much to ask for them to taste like they did in 1983 but, amazingly, they did. It's a pity that I bought them to make strawberry smoothies but I'll try and grab some more soon before the season is over. 

I was looking forward to Count Arthur Strong's transfer from Radio 4 to BBC2 - I loved the radio show and I'm a big fan of Graham Linehan who has brought the Count to television. I desperately wanted to enjoy it and have sat through three of the five or so episodes broadcast so far. I sat through them out of a sense of fan loyalty - last week's about a riot raised a smile or two - but even the most ardent fans have a limit and, whilst last night's episode was billed by Graham Linehan on Twitter as his favourite, I had to switch off before the end. Why? It simply wasn't funny. In fact it was quite dreadful and totally predictable - in a hospital waiting room Rory Kinnear's character says to Arthur something like "you can't act - nobody would believe you were a doctor" and we all know what is going to happen by the end. The plots are clever but the hilarity from the studio audience makes me wonder if they were watching something else. I have no idea how a second series has been commissioned  -although reading Twitter I appear to be in a minority. Disappointed. I think I'll start a movement to bring back Jam And Jerusalem the female (and more up to date) equivalent of Last Of The Summer Wine and, in my opinion, cut off in its prime.

Today we're in Rochester again for a spot of child minding. On Monday we took granddaughter Catherine to the swings near the castle. If it stays dry today we may head out to look around Upnor - we haven't been there yet.