Tuesday 27 December 2011

last blog of 2011

I have been trying to write this for days. One blog disappeared into the ether. Where do lost blogs and emails go I wonder? Christmas day started with breakfast with the Ditchling Quakers in the meeting house. Twenty of us at a long table. It was lovely. Then J and G went for a rough and stormy swim on Brighton beach with Santa lifeguards in attendance. For lunch here was a tasty nut roast and also a turkey that F won in a church raffle! It was a good day.    
This afternoon I went for a walk with my new Nordic walking poles (Christmas present from D and J) so I now have four legs instead of two. I strode along purposefully but still got a bit stuck climbing over stiles. Later I read all the round robin letters with care and attention. I tend to read them hastily when they first arrive. Luckily I do not seem to get the boasty sort about academic successes, mine were more about knee and hip replacements and memory loss.

Tuesday 13 December 2011

I have all these lists. But I am not actually doing anything, just putting it down on a list. Buy Pyjamas For J, Send off Parcel to R and L. Do Cards. In the meantime I just loll about, do the crossword, watch Strictly Come Dancing. I did have a busy afternoon on Saturday at the Meeting House in Brighton.  There was an All Faiths Event with Jewish people, Sufi,  Quakers, Anglicans, Muslim, well over a hundred came to that, in another room it was an Amnesty letter writing day with people of all ages plus musicians, singers. Upstairs there was a big crowd of Ethiopians having an English class, and there was an audition for a Shakespeare play going on too, plus of course all the usual 12 step groups for Al Anon etc. I was busily trying to steer them all into the right rooms and nor always succeeding, (some of the Ethiopians ended up at the All Faiths or letter writing).
Today it is the Nativity play at the Infants so that will put me in a Christmassy mood. 

Monday 5 December 2011

back to dizzy Ditchling

So much going on here in Ditchling, what with the traffic jams outside my cottage, the non stop social whirl of the Old People`s Christmas lunch last Saturday (delicious food, raffle, concert ,who said there is no such thing as a free lunch?) our choir`s performance last night (All That Jazz, Dancing Queen etc) and there will be carol singing outside the post office next Thursday too. It was so quiet in my sister`s village in southern Germany where I was staying last week, I found it quite eerie though it was beautiful as always and I love being there.    Poor sister J  had a terrible cough and had lost her voice so we couldn`t talk much. I read four novels on the trot. The best was Julian Barnes` Booker prize `The Sense of an Ending, a brilliant book about how our memories of the past are often distorted.  
I am on a course today: The Lone Worker. it is because I volunteer at the Meeting House at Brighton once a week, I keep thinking its the Lone Ranger and imagine myself loping across the prairie.

Friday 25 November 2011

Come fly with me....

Off to Germany today to stay with sister J, fitting in a visit to brother P. en route. Its always a worry to fly off anywhere, so many things can go wrong:the car breaking down on the M25, fog, snow, strikes, missing the plane, losing my passport, terrorists. Last time, niece K had to drive me through a blizzard to Munich to get back home at just this time of year. Apart from all this, I am looking forward to it.
I had a lovely afternoon with the Year 2`s at the Infants, getting ready for the end of term concert. The Nativity story this year, not Aliens like last time. A lot of boys put up their hands to be Mary, and girls to be wise men, shepherds and the Angel Gabriel.
So I have lots to look forward to this Christmas. There`s the school play, the Ditchling Old People`s Lunch (free), a Tea Dance in the Village hall where the Ditchling Choir are going to perform. Also breakfast with Father Christmas at the Garden Centre with grand daughter Tiger plus handcraft workshop, and  also daughter J`s puppet party which is always an Event.  

Saturday 19 November 2011

I want to take back what I said about the Occupy London Protest as I do think it is important they are there. I am always inclined to the view that you have to be actively doing something but that is not always the case, sometimes you just need to be.  
Stir Up Sunday is coming so I have assembled all the ingredients to make a Chritmas cake. My mother would get us to make a wish as we stirred so that she knew what we wanted for Christmas presents and also we wrote letters and put them up the chimney. Well I haven`t got a fire or a chimney and I need to get Grand daughter Tiger over to stir as I can`t do it all my own. My Brighton family have stuck lists of requests on the notice board about presents. They always put `nice socks, nice knickers, nice notebooks, nice chocolate. As if any one would try to buy nasty ones.
There`s to be an Arty Crafty afternoon today with the Quakers, so I am going to make some cards, I love messing about with glue, reminds me of the days when I ran a play group, I might even buy some glitter.
All this and it is still not even December yet. What am I thinking of?

Wednesday 9 November 2011

oranges and lemons

The title of this blog comes from the fact that I was around the square mile in London yesterday. I spent a bit of time at Occupy London, the protest camp by St Paul`s. I was not impressed. It was a damp drizzly day so that might have been the reason why there were hardly any protesters, just a lot of rather disconsolate looking tents. I listened to some young men (no women!) speaking on the steps of the cathedral, including a flamboyant clergyman from Wall Street Demo in New York, but they were simply urging everyone to go on the student march to the City today. It is all neat and organised but any clergy or Quaker presence seemed sadly absent.   A lot of homeless people have joined them, but there`s nothing wrong in that.
I went on a nice bus ride to Friends Centre in Euston Road afterwards. How I love my bus pass especially when in London!   As always when there I met up by chance with old Quaker friends and then later granddaughter M came from UCL which is just round the corner, where she had been busy making banners for the march today. Then we went to an Indian veggie cafe she has found where you can eat as much delicious food as you want for £4.50. We were joined by grandson M so we had a lovely time.  I am impressed by the way my grand children are so at home in London and know all the best places. Just as I used to feel when I lived there, oh Lord, sixty years ago.

Saturday 29 October 2011

I have survived the dog exercising quite painlessly. Perhaps my poor walking skills are all in the mind|? I enjoyed chats with all the other doggy walkers in the village and up on the downs, especially when I got lost.
Grand daughter M came today and gave me a first hand report on the Occupy London Protest. It is not true that they are all rich middle class kids who go home each night to warm beds and gravy dinners, leaving their tents empty. In fact M says that most of the campers are older people, not rabble rousing students and they have endless earnest meetings. I am a hundred per cent behind them and wish I could join them but have never been much of a camper, particularly not on the hard stony ground outside St Pauls.
It is White Night in Brighton, (the night the clocks go back) Cinemas, concerts, museums,clubs, even the Quaker Meeting House stay open till the small hours. Shall I go, or sit at home on the sofa and watch Strictly Come Dancing?

Sunday 23 October 2011

Dog Days

I am looking after Jumble while J and Co go off to Morocco for half term. He looks puzzled, lying in his bed in the cubby hole under the stairs. I have taken him out three times today, the first time before dawn. I worry that he is bored. It is like when the grandchildren come and feel I need to do cooking activities or cutting out and sticking. He does seem perfectly happy, in spite of the fact that I have been sternly told not to spoil him with titbits or treats.
I have a Kindle, sent from USA by son W as a birthday present. It is very light and thin, not much bigger than a postcard, and it seems unbelievable that I could read the whole of Dickens or Jane Austen on it, also the Oxford English dictionary,(which will be very helpful for the Guardian crossword)
I am listening to Poetry Please on Radio 4 as I write this. I think back to all the years and years I have listened to this programme on a Sunday afternoon and always intend to send a request and never do, perhaps I will today?

Sunday 16 October 2011

`summer nights` in autumn

Last night I went to a performance of Grease. It was a fundraising show done by the hospice in Brighton where daughter J works. (she was in it, as was seven year old Tiger)  The whole audience was enraptured. There was a standing ovation at the end. All this in spite of forgotten lines, long pauses, hardly any scenery, piped music, but the goodwill and spirit of it all made up for any shortcomings and to see those middle aged women and their children dancing away with wild abandon dressed as teenage American high school kids was sheer joy.  I loved it.   The sad thing is that the Day Unit of the hospice has had to close due to lack of funds which is a tragedy.
I am not so sure about the dog. A friend reminded me that at the end of say Downton Abbey at 10pm, I would have to put on my mac and boots and venture out in total darkness and maybe pouring rain to take it out for a walk.   In the meantime, J keeps ringing up with offers of free terrier puppies with adorable faces who need a home.  

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Well, my eighty first birthday has come and gone. I love the cards. I think of all the trouble people go to, firstly standing around in card shops shuddering at the jokey ageist ones, and trying to find something appropriate, then queing up for stamps, then writing a nice message and finally the trek to the pillar box. What a labour of love.   The theme this year seems to be the seaside and flowers, though one small girl did a picture of me riding on a unicorn.   It always used to be cats, but now sadly I do not have one.   Nowadays I also get texts, email, e-cards and facebook pokes and that is very heartwarming too.
I am thinking seriously of getting a dog. I am going to look after Jumble  when his family go to Morocco for half term. I will see how I survive doing two long walks a day. It might help the weight problem.

Sunday 25 September 2011

great again

I must amend my profile on this blog as I now have a second great grandchild. I feel very blessed.  I think there are more great grandparents around these days. He is called Marlo,as in Brando but without the `n`. It was a water birth so perhaps he will have the family swimming gene as well as a talent for playing Scrabble.
I have had two very different musical experiences during the weekend. On Saturday, I was at an all day singing workshop at St Bartholomews church in Brighton. There were 80 of us singing unaccompanied (part of Brighton Early Music Festival) and we sang the Victoria Requiem, written in 1604, finishing with a candlelit performance. I did not want it to end, it was sublime.
Then today, it was the Ditchling Village choir singing on Shoreham beach. It is spring tides so there was a great expanse of sand. It was a lovely sunny afternoon, and there were wet dogs and toddlers weaving out amongst us as we belted out La Mer, It Must be Love, Dancing Queens.  Our voices were carried away out to sea on the wind. I love contrasts: Requiem one day, Abba, the next. 

Thursday 22 September 2011

mums the word

We are all anxiously waiting for grand daughter S to give birth up in Newcastle (my second great grand child)  He is definitely on the way (it is a `he` apparently) For the last twentyfour hours S. and family members have been playing non stop scrabble with her and timing contractions. No one has had any sleep, so we hope that the baby will be born in the midst of a high scoring word like `equinox` which will give him a good start in life.
I started back at the school yesterday for my weekly bit of reading and writing with year twos. A lovely teacher again, how I marvel at these brilliant men and women who keep thirty or more children busy, quiet and interested. I am having the usual [problem with learning a new lot of names, there are: two Sonnys, two Archies, a Destiny, a Biba, and that`s just the start.

Friday 16 September 2011

season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, again

Somehow, it always seems to be autumn and the clocks will be going back before we know it. it is also the season for birthdays, masses of them, including mine and I have the usual dilemma, a party or not? It is such a worry. Last year it was easier as it was the big one.   We have daughter J`s this weekend and she is going to have a drumming party and we all have to bring something to bang on. Also eldest son will be here from USA and he is mad on dancing so we will have some of that too. 
We had a blowy writing session on Brighton pier. There are many notices about all the things you must NOT do, such as feed birds, jump off, fish, take dogs, drink alcohol, or go on the dodgems without a seat belt, but it still feels to me like a den of iniquity. The `amusements` and rides were very frightening, also the ``Horror Hotel`which is like a ghost train.
J and I went to see the new film, Jane Eyre.   J had never read the book so it was much more exciting for her as she did not know what was going to happen. It was very bleak on the moors and quite dark.  Judy Dench is a wonderful Mrs Fairfax, Mr Rochester sufficiently brooding and passionate, and Jane, just the right mixture of spiritedness and intelligence. I liked it.

Sunday 11 September 2011

Writing back

I miss my old writing group in Winchester. We met fortnightly on Tuesday mornings at each others houses, (with a tutor) and this had been part of my life for years and years. It was pure enjoyment.  Alas, I had found nothing similar round here, but daughter J has just started a small group and we meet in unlikely places once a week to write for a couple of hours.Last week it was the museum in Brighton, and next week it will be the Palace Pier. We also plan Macdonalds (where none of us has ever been) and J suggested a betting shop but I don`t think they would let us in.   I usually find museums a bit boring as the objects in them seem worn out with being looked at, but this was good.
Also last week I went to see half Russian baby Daniel born to ex residents from the Meeting House, their fourth. There were several other ex MH residents there too so it was quite a party and the baby was happily passed round and admired. it was a joyful occasion.  It is especially good when you are an old person to keep in touch with new babies They are so amazing.
Just been to the Ditchling choir after the summer break, we are going to go and sing on Shoreham beach next time at low tide. Strange!

Monday 29 August 2011

Blackberry time.

As I was cycling down the lane, I saw someone had put a bucket of windfall apples outside their gate and a notice which said `help yourself` so I did, and then I picked I blackberriess along the hedge when J and I took Robs to football at Saltdean.. So free buses last week and now free food .  I made some crumbles and put them in the freezer for Quaker `bring and shares` and I am enjoying the rest for breakfast.
I am just back from a weekend at Woodbrooke on U.A. Fanthorpe, the Quaker poet who died two years ago. It was such a treat to have a whole weekend listening to and studying her work and also it is an inspiration to do some more writing myself, which I intend to start tomorrow, I am all fired up.
Travelling to Birmingham was an ordeal. I am becoming a Grumpy Old Person on trains. I scowl at very loud mobile users (why not text instead?) I avoid babies, toddlers, and teenagers whose tinny music leaks from their ipods. On the 73 bus from Euston to Victoria which was packed solid, I looked out of the windows at people in Oxford Street frantically shopping at 7pm on a Sunday evening!  They should all be at home joining in with Songs of Praise, or something.

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Ridin on the Buses

My battered rust bucket of a car (bless it) has taken me many miles this August, up and down  motorways,to Stansted to pick up sister J and then to Yorkshire last week to Hebden Bridge.  J had a house swap with her flat in Germany which was a lovely house but the approach to it was up rough steps hewn into rock with nothing to hold on to. It was hazardous for two elderly women with dodgy ankles and knees, but the view at the top was spectacular.
We went to Haworth over the moors as I have long been a devotee of the Brontes .What a disappointment.    It was all gift shops,  huge car park charges and general air of tackiness, We never managed a glimpe of the parsonage or the graveyard as we could not cope with walking on the cobblestones up the steep hill (no doubt we were weakened by our experience of the steps at Hebden Bridge)
Then back to the Island for a tribal gathering for Julia`s birthday at Dimbola at Freshwater Bay. This was the home of the photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron, friend of Tennyson, and now a sort of museum. Robyn Hitchcock put on a concert of his songs and there were pictures by Charlotte Johannes and R read Julia`s poems. I went in the sea twice but had to be rescued ignominously by Bev when I couldn`t find my feet on the stony bottom. and was floundering about, perhaps my sea bathing days are over.
I came home from the Island entirely by bus (except for the ferry) It took hours and hours, all through bungalow land in Southsea, Bognor, Littlehampton and Worthing. But I read my book and did the Guardian crossword and it was entirely FREE with my bus pass!  But |I do not think I will try to do Lands End to John O Groats like that as I beleive someone has done. It was very bumpy.

Friday 12 August 2011

Back from the Island. It was the usual mixture of windy beaches, fishing rods tangled up with bikes by the back door, wet dogs, sand in the bath.  Yarmouth never changes with its lovely sunsets, smell of chips, walks `up the railway line` to Freshwater, and the lovely woods. There were four generations of us in the house, including great grandchild little Arthur.
I am ashamed to say that I never actually plunged into the sea, though I did manage the steep walk down to Compton Bay with its hundred steps and slippery bits.   It seems quiet and tidy here at home, but I am immediately back to watching TV and reading the papers about all the goings on in London and elsewhere.  I know that bit of Tottenham well where all the riots started.  I do not know what to make of it all. I feel so sorry for the people whose houses and shops have been burnt and damaged.
I have just been watching the Proms on television. It was the William Walton film music for Henry V with words spoken by the actor Rory Kinnear, wonderfully done and so moving, but utterly inappropriate to a peace loving Quaker, all that incitement to violence and mayhem.

Friday 29 July 2011

I

I went to London with my bike and to my enormous relief all the platforms at horrendous Clapham Junction now have lifts, so I did not have to do my helpless Old Person act to get a strapping chap to carry my bike up and down steps. Son C and family and I had a lovely ride along the Thames.  The evening ended with yet another birthday party in Hove where we had a raffle to raise money for the African famine, What a good idea, though Quakers are not supposed to condone raffles as they are classed as Gambling. Then the next day I went to a Silver Wedding party. I tell you, life is just one long party these days.
I have seven year old grand daughter Tiger staying, and while she is waiting for me to finish this and take her swimming she is going round my house with the Flash and a damp cloth cleaning all surfaces very happily. We went to a violin recital last night at the Unitarians and she sat remarkably quietly, though I kept thinking how utterly alien it must be to a a child her age to listen to classical music.
Next week there is the family exodus to the Isle of Wight. Will Istill be able to clamber down the cliffs for a swim at Compton bay I wonder?

Monday 18 July 2011

`My feet are the stuff of nightmares` was a headline in Saturday`s Guardian. How I wish I had thought that one up.  I am going to pinch it. The writer also said that her worst habit was tweezering her facial hairs in public. Well I have done that too and often long to do it to other people. Otherwise compared to the frightful transgressions of the Great and the Good, I lead a blameless life. Where is it all going to end I wonder as one by one they topple by the wayside.
I am just off up various motorways to Cirencester then Limpley Stoke near Bath till the end of the week, vitising old, old friends.

Thursday 14 July 2011

I could have danced all night.....

Nowadays, my social life consists mainly of eightieth, and ninetieth birthday parties, golden weddings and funerals, so it has been a nice change recently to have had a wedding and last Saturday, a retirement party, in Winchester which started off with a Mozart concert, followed by a delicious supper, and then dancing till nearly midnight to a very spirited ceilidh band. I was not intending to dance but couldn`t resist it.

The next day, son T and I went to a garden he found online called Houghton Lodge, just outside Stockbridge. It was simply beautiful and we were almost the only ones there. There was an honesty box on the gate and another one in the tea room which had an array of home made cakes! The river Test ran through the garden and there were three alpacas with surprised friendly faces.

I have been riveted by the news all week, how sarisfying to see the Murdoch empire crumbling. and that crew get their come uppance.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

How to Live..

`How to Live` is the title of a book I have been reading based on the Life and Essays of Montaigne. I know that sounds posh and pretentious, but this book is neither.  . The chapter headings are things like: `Do a good job but not too good`, and `Keep a private room behind the shop`, and `Be ordinary and Imperfect`and `Philosophise only by accident` He wrote one hundred and seven of these essays, and they are pure gold,. I recommend it. Also I have been gripped by a novel by Lionel Shriver So Much for That, which makes me so thankful for our NHS however imperfect it is, as this is about being ill in USA.   One of the really good things about retirement is that you can read in the mornings. Or afternoons.
Otherwise I have been cycliing round the country lanes trying to get a bit of exercise, which I get plenty of with all the fiendish hills. How I wish that everyone would take more to bikes. It is not nice when cars hurtle past with dirty looks at me wobbling along.

Tuesday 28 June 2011

Coming Down to Earth Again

Just about back to normal after all the wedding excitement, though we all keep emailing and face book-ing each other saying how wonderful it was. It knocked spots off the Royal Wedding.
I had a lovely retreat day with Ditchling Friends on Saturday at the Blue Idol, an oddly named Quaker meeting house at Thakeham about fifteen miles away. No one knows why it is called that  There is a particular quality of peacefulness there which just does your soul good. (And we had the usual Bring and Share lunch which Ditchling Quakers excel at and which is always a gastronomic treat)
I went to see a terrible film last night called Bridesmaids which was praised in the Guardian, Observer, Front Row etc.  It was about six really silly women.  It is good to see a bad film sometimes as it shows just how good our film society is in Ditchling Village Hall which always shows winners.
Yesterday I did my usual stint with the Infants at St Lukes. The class teacher is a joy to watch. She speaks very, very quietly to the children and listens attentively to everything they say.  It is inspiring.

Tuesday 21 June 2011

I am still in an euphoric state after my grand daughter`s wedding last weekend, a three day event. The party took place up in the wilds of Northumberland in a Harry Potter style castle, which was until recently a boarding school .So we slept in dorms in rows, though there was not much sleep as we danced the night away (even I with my dodgy ankles) with amazing live music from talented friends and relations.All my ten grandchildren were there plus one great grandchild and another imminent. What a treat.
(Also I was glad to be away on Sunday as it was the London to Brighton bicycle race which goes past my cottage like a swarm of angry wasps)
Today I went on An Outing with the Ditchling Old Folk to Battle (1066 and all that) I have decided I am not really up for coach outings yet, kind though everybody was. There was a raffle in which everybody won a prize. I was very glad that I did not win the Liquorice Allsorts

Sunday 12 June 2011

A Life of Grime

I had intended to spend the afternoon going round all the village gardens in Ditchling which are open today, but it is deluging with rain so I stayed in and gave this cottage a jolly good clean. It always surprises me how dirty it gets with just one old person living in it. Anyway I am now enjoying the pungent smell of polish and bleach instead of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding which was the smell of Sundays in my childhood. I have been thinking a lot about these early experiences as I have finally just about finished my so called memoir, but I am still trying to think of a snappy title. They have all been used up by famous people, yesterday I was reading Alan Bennett`s which is called `A Life Like Any Other which it patently isn`t while mine is
.
Yesterday, the Ditchling Village choir gave a free concert in the Dome in Brighton, in the cafe foyer. Most of the audience just sat eating their paninis and ploughmans whilst reading the Guardian as we belted out Mamma Mia and Only Fools Fall in Love etc, but all of us choir hugely enjoyed ourselves.

Only a few more days and then the Darling clan will all migrate up to the North for grand daughter F`s wedding, so we are prowling round the charity shops for our wedding finery, well some of us are.

Sunday 5 June 2011

Bright Star in Ditchling

Another film in our Village Hall, Bright Star, which is about John Keats. I have seen it before,and though it does not match up to my idea of my hero, it is a beautiful film visually, and has some good moments. The next day I took the bus into Brighton and spent a happy time in Waterstones having a free read of Andrew Motion`s biography. (It is a brilliant shop with three floors with lovely sofas and good coffee, cappucino with a pattern of leaves in chocolate on the froth).   I was glad to read that Fanny Byrne married someone else after three years of grief and lived until she was in her eighties, but wore Keat`s ring for the rest of her life.
Seven year old grand daughter Tiger phoned me from Isle of Wight where she was for part of half term and asked if she can come for a `sleepover` tonight. I asked what she was doing at the seaside and she said she was selling stones. Apparently she collects pebbles from the beach, paints them and sells them. She should be on the Apprentice.

Tuesday 31 May 2011

Bank holiday blues......

I always feel, that everyone but me is having an uproarious time on Bank Holiday Mondays. A chilly grey day, and daughter J, one grand daughter, Jumble the dog, and I went to a village fete and mingled with crowds eating hot dogs. We stroked well groomed lambs,llamas,donkeys and ferrets in pens in the car park, listened to an elderly jazz band, then a lively skiffle group. I always long to have a dance but know I cannot due to dodgy knees and feet.
I have put myself on a strict diet regime on account of aforementioned knees,but in spite of son T mending the bathroom scales (I wonder why they broke?) the weight stays obstinately the same. On the plus side, I am reading an absorbing novel by Margaret Forster about grandmothers: Isa and May, but lying on the sofa reading is not conducive to weight loss. Perhaps I will have to get a dog and walk for a few miles each day like all the other Ditchling -ites.

Sunday 22 May 2011

seventysix trombones...........

Yesterday I went to man the reception at the Brighton Meeting House as I often do on Saturdays,and there was a trombone concert on there, part of the Brighton Festival. What a wonderful contrast to the usual silent meeting!  Of course there were not seventy six, but quite a lot and they made a lovely sound. 
I have been away at Woodbrooke again, that Mecca of all Quakers, up in Birmingham. I had extraordinary journeys there and back. In all but one of the four train journeys, and four bus rides, my fellow travellers embarked on their life story without any encouragement from me. On the 73 bus from Euston to Victoria, a distinguished looking elderly woman begged me to join Dignity in Dying, thrusting phamphlets into my hands, on another, an actor learning his lines confided his hope and fears. Whoever said the British are reseved?   The time at Woodbrooke as was good as ever. I tried not to look forward to the delicious food too much and concentrate on the course, which was learning how to be a Quaker Clerk which I am rather apprehensive about taking on.
I keep thinking I would love to spend a day at the seaside: sit on a deck chair on the beach, have an ice cream, go for a paddle,eat sandy sandwiches, but I never seem to have the time. I am very busy in my retirement.
 

Monday 9 May 2011

I have been back in Winchester for a few days. Sandra in the checkout in Sainsburys threw up her arms in disbelief when she saw me `Vicky Darling what are you doing here?` she cried. Then Barry in the paper shop did the same. I got hugged fit to bust all the way down the High Street, which was heartwarming, but tinged with guilt because of all the people I did not have time to see. Then there was a big picnic with lots of old but much younger friends in the evening on the water meadows, in the rain, but they lit a fire, something in all the fifty five years I lived in Winchester, I never dared to do. It was really lovely
Son T mended my car radio and did my income tax and fed me with veg from his allotment, so all in all it was a very good visit..
I am just back from helping in the Infants, doing a bit of Reading and Writing and also I learned about George the second and the Prince Regent, (the class teacher is hot on history) and also a great deal about hedgehogs that I never knew before.

Monday 25 April 2011

Oh to be in England now that April`s here....

Ditchling is stunning in the wonderful sunny spring weather with blossom and bluebells and baby lambs gambolling. On Easter Sunday, we did the egg rolling down a grassy hill in the village.  Eleven of us,family and friends, rolled our coloured hard boiled eggs down with whoops and yells.. It is strangely satisfying.  It must be some throwback to an ancient fertility rite in the dawn of time. We used to do it down St Giles Hill  in Winchester.    The picnic afterwards (with HB eggs of course) was good too and only slightly marred by three very inquisitive cows who seemed to want to join in.
I can`t make up my mind about the Royal Wedding. The media are in a frenzy which is irritating and the Royals have such a bad track record with marriage, it does seem a bit unnecessary.  . But it is an excuse for a day off for everyone and I shall go to J`s street party in Brighton which will have a tug of war between the royalists and the republicans and also a slap up tea.
I have decided to make a fresh start on my `memoir` I finished it but I do not like it`s tone!  It is too serious and worthy.

Friday 15 April 2011

carpe diem

A very fit and healthy looking (close) friend has a rare form of cancer, it is so odd that these things can happen out of a clear blue sky. It has shaken us up and into a world of hospitals, surgeons, operations, drips, drugs. The realisation that all this can be waiting round the corner at any time is unsettling, and reminds me to `seize the day` and make the most of every moment. Which I have been doing, as I have had visits from my dear family who have been flocking around during the last week, squeezing into this small cottage. And it has been sunny and springlike too.
I have seen two good films: Nowhere Boy about the Beatles , tragic in places but also inspiring which was at Lewes film club in a converted church, and `The Secrets in their Eyes `  in Ditchling village hall film club.   It s marvellous to see these good films in unlikely places. Both films were totally absorbing and stayed with me for days afterwards. `Secrets` was in Spanish with subtitles, which was far easier to follow than the muttering in Liverpudlian of the Beatles film.

Sunday 3 April 2011

I have lots of worries over various friends` healths at the moment. I am conscious of the fact that no matter how healthily you eat, however many fish oil capsules you swallow, or teaspoonsful of Manuka honey, or swim early morning lengths, or go for bracing walks, your life can change dramatically overnight. `Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune` it says in the Desiderata, but I am not sure how to do that.
On a lighter note, I have just been to a lovely multi racial one year olds birthday party in Brighton which ended up with a bit of singing. And yesterday I was in Winchester at a sale in aid of the earthquake disaster fund, and there were my Japanese, Italian, Russian, Latvian, Chinese ex residents and friends (and English ones too!) and it was so good to see them all again.  I ate sushi and noodles and got kissed in triplicate-once on each cheek and once more for luck. 

Sunday 27 March 2011

sheep safely grazed......

I am just back from the Lake District.The secret of holidays in beautiful places is to stay with lovely friends like M and D who have recently moved up there, as they know all the good places to visit. The countryside was  simply stunning, the sheep safely grazed, the valleys were exalted and we lifted our eyes up to the hills, all this plus more daffodils than even Wordsworth encountered.  We did a bit of circle dancing, a bit of singing over the washing up, and we spent time in nearby Dent where theTerrible Knitters of Dent used to hang out  (who kidnapped children apparently and coerced them into endless knitting,with a special wooden gadget tucked into their skirts)   We had poetry with breakfast and the sun shone all the time. What more could anyone ask?

Tuesday 22 March 2011

For all the saintly cats who from their labours rest........

There has nearly always been one, two or sometimes three cats in my life and I have been remembering them all: Brian, Pudding, Percy, Pussy Willow, the list goes on and on, Sadly Daphne breathed her last yesterday, peacefully after a short illness aged eighteen. Shirley is still going strong with J in Brighton but she is the last of the line.
The remote turned up mysteriously on the dresser in Brighton. Strange!  But I seem to have got out of the habit of watching TV and also the search for it has meant that I had the most colossal spring clean so it was probably a Good Thing.
Spring seems to have arrived, its lovely here in Ditchling, but I am off today to Kendal to stay with D and M . Shall I take my winter woollies?  What a worry.

Thursday 17 March 2011

a mystery

I have lost the remote from the TV. I have searched the dustbin, recycling (several times) beds, cupboards, pockets, drawers, fridge, down sofa and chairs. The trouble is, in such a small house there are not many places to look for things. I have made frequent supplications (in triplicate, as instucted) to St Ann  and St Anthony who have both always obliged in the past with specs, keys, purses. The only visitors have been friend J with Madge and Dotty two small dogs who all swear as to their innocence. I tried to buy a replacement in Curry`s but the instructions are gobbledook. I can`t settle to anything until I find it. Oh dear.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

censored!

I did a daft thing today. The censor form arrived on the mat. I will be efficient, I thought ,and set to work straight away filling it in, first in pencil, then black ink as instructed. I had a few problems with religion, Am I a Christian? There was no space for Quaker. And how do I describe my last job in one line? But I did it neatly,sealed it up and popped it into the post box over the road feeling self righteous. Friend K came for the day `You should n`t have done that` she cried `It has to be done on 27th March, you have committed a heinous offence!`What will happen to me now I wonder?
I have been over-run with viruses, they kept popping up all over the place. I had the helpful bloke who sorted out the mango and apple juice on the keyboard recently, here nearly all day. They were talking viruses in the afternoon.  All well now I hope but it was a nasty experience. 

Saturday 5 March 2011

Oh who would o`er the downs so free ,Oh who would with me ride?

I had begun to think that my cycling days were over, as i could not tackle the gentlest of hills and felt wobbly. But I took my trusty Swiss bike (given to me by Swiss Heidi from the writing group many years ago,and which has taken me from Le Havre to Rouen, over the Pennines and various other epic routes) to the excellent James in his small shed at Hassocks station) who admired my stainless steel spokes and chromium handlebars and worked on it all day. The result: I can now ride like the wind up and down hills and do not feel wobbly any more.   All it needed was a bit of oil and some TLC    And that`s a lesson for life.
I have just been on another train trip, this time to Bath staying one night at Limpley Stoke en route. No wartery disasters this time. It was lovely chuffing through beautiful countryside, and staying in houses with lovely views and kind friends. I went to a talk at the Bath Literary festival on poor Virginia Woolf. What a sad life. Must re-read some of her novels now with new insights.

Friday 25 February 2011

water, water, everywhere......

i went to Newcastle by train. In the loo, I rested my capacious handbag on the side of the washbasin and this activated the hot tap so that my bag immediately filled up with hot water!  This wrecked: my mobile phone, address book, diary, purse (all the money stuck together) book of stamps, novel (from the library) sandwiches, gloves, make up bag, cheque book, and elderly persons railcard. And the handbag will never be the same again either.
However I had a lovely time there with my dear family in great comfort in B`s new house, but my visit was not without adventure as B`s car broke down on the A1M and I had to climb over a high fence and cross a waterlogged brambly field in the pouring rain to get to the Park and Ride into Durham to meet grandson M who has recently gone to Uni there for lunch.
I was only home for one night and then was in Brighton all week holding the fort with family, dogs and cats while J and D were away. So I am now back in Ditchling trying to master new mobile phone, and copying out addreses and things into new diary.  

Sunday 13 February 2011

scenes from village life

Because I was at Old Persons Heaven in Hassocks last Monday, I missed the Monday Club at the Unitarians. They had the milkman as their speaker and someone told me that he was the best speaker they had ever had as he had led such a fascinating interesting life, well that`s Ditchling for you. Last night it was the Village Choir Concert plus other local musicians. The hall was absolutely packed, a complete sell out and Herbie Flowers our local entrepreneur was wonderful. The air was electric.
I now have my new hearing aids, I must be careful I don`t jump in the swimming pool with them in.they are so light and small.   I had lovely visits from old friends last week, on Thursday and Friday, life here is a social whirl.     

Wednesday 9 February 2011

There is a place just up the road from Ditchling in Hassocks run by Age Concern which is an Old Persons Heaven. I go there once a month to have my feet done by a kind and gentle chiropodist, but I can also have: a tasty lunch, waited on by women like Ethel and Doris who are older than I am, (the chef is a Sumo wrestler ! ) there are free paperbacks on offer, an excellent charity shop, I could do Keep Fit, have a Sing Song, go on an Outing, play Scrabble or Bingo, all is provided by the cheerfulest kindest men and women you could hope to meet.    My neighbours at lunch were all in their nineties and enjoying life. What a treat.

Friday 4 February 2011

The dreaded talk was over in a flash, I think it was OK,  and I loved my trip to Woodbrooke, the heartland of the Quakers, once the home of the Cadbury family and presumably built on the proceeds of chocolate. Everything there is good and wholesome, and as the Q`s would say, `in right ordering`
I came back in time to go to another film in Ditchling Village Hall, they are all winners. This was `Departures`
a Japanese film about a cellist who lost his job and became a mortician by mistake. I feel I want everybody to see it as gives a completely different view about death and the way we deal with it.
I have been travelling a lot on buses lately: twice lately in central London, in Birmingham and often in Brighton of course. I love the camaraderie and talking to the mothers and babies, and all the feisty old people with their big shopping bags and determined expressions.

Monday 31 January 2011

I could have danced all night....

Just back from a couple of days at Winchester. Went to two parties both with dancing, not so good with my great big clumping shoes but I managed and enjoyed it.. One guest joined in with gusto at ninety five. I went around visiting all my old mates, including one in hospital. The hospital where I worked for thirteen happy years, is sadly changed, with disembodied voices telling you to wash and spray yourself with disinfectant as you cross the threshold, and grisly notices everywhere about vomiting and diarrhoea.
It was the Ditchling Choir practice yesterday afternoon. We have a concert coming up at the Village Hall. As there are over eighty of us there will not be much room for an audience. We are singing  It Must Be Love, and La Mer and songs from My Fair Lady etc. It is the most enjoyable choir I have ever been in.
On Wednesday I am going to Birmingham to the Quaker College there to Give a Talk I must have been mad to agree to this, I am scared stiff.

Thursday 20 January 2011

keeping up appearances

I have started volunteering at a local primary school to help with reading, I had to squeeze my bottom on to an infant chair, and revisited Mr Gumpy`s Outing etc with one finger following the words. It is a miracle to see children experiencing the transformation of squiggles on a page to language, especially children who are not used to speaking English at home.
Otherwise it has all been high maintenance, keeping myself and car in running order: first an eye test and new specs, then the hearing aid place where I was enclosed in a sound proof booth, then the foot specialist ( no operation after all, just changing to even huger shoes),  followed by excruciating and tickly dental hygienist, then Thai massage (present from J which was lovely), finally two new tyres, and exhaust for car. All in just over a week! 
I had J`s Impro group round on Monday night, we played acting games and had a laugh which was very therapeutic. Who needs television?

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Back to my old routine at last with my usual music group on Monday morning.   I had not touched the cello for about a month so it did not sound too good. Still I always find it enjoyable to play a few sonatas with two or three other people and it seems to make certain bits of my brain work. 
I went to the cinema on Saturday to see `The Kings Speech` Colin Firth playing King George VI with his terrible stammer. It was such a sensitive and heart warming film, I cried and that to me is the acid test, crying and keeping awake.
I also read a brilliant book by Kate Atkinson: Got Up Early Took My Dog, just couldn`t put it down and felt so bereaved when I finished it. I have now started on Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell which is monumentally long. Looks good.
Today I went to a hilarious exercise class.  You have never seen such a collection of unfit creaky old people but we had lovely music, and we joined in with the songs while we heaved ourselves around. If You Were the Only Girl in the World etc.  I loved it, I think I will go again.

Friday 7 January 2011

Went to London yesterday to meet grandson M`s on his twenty second birthday.  I took the train to London Bridge. I used to cycle round that area, but I hardly recognised it. It was horribly changed, huge space age buildings, all glass and steel. I felt like a country bumpkin, overawed and jostled, and getting wet feet as I stumbled into huge puddles, it was deluging with rain. We met at the Tate Modern, grand daughter M from UCL as well and we had a nice birthday lunch, and then whizzed through a few galleries at top speed, Bridget Rileys etc and then gazed at the huge expanse of sunflower seeds on the ground floor. I felt a bit overwhelmed by the huge noisy gangs of badly behaved schoolkids, but that is what oldies like me always say.  I got soaked to the skin as I walked back to London Bridge, but I am very glad I went, I love being with the grown up grandchildren, and the others too of course.