seasounds.mp3 simpy and I have just spent a great weekend in Hastings. Old school chum Christian and his wife Louise have lovingly restored an 1860s town house located on a hilltop with amazing views of the english channel by all accounts. The house is on 4 levels – Simpy and I took the top floor, all wooden floors so Simpy’s bed was a melange of beach towels.
Glorious late October weather took us around the clifftops and local beaches; also to Rye and Camber Sands, memories of a drunken lads trip 10 years or so ago.
No wind and the sea almost like a millpond. Check out the audio.
21 years ago today when mum died. Another lifetime ago. But not to linger on the tragically early death (she was 53 years of age); but to remember the woman. diminutive (4ft 11 inches), silver-haired in my lifetime (we’ll overlook the experimental brown hair dye in the mid 1970s), attractive face and, of course, a highly intelligent woman. Almost unique to be female and studying medicine at Cambridge in 1949. She met my father at St Marys hospital in 1953. They married in 1955. Four children: felicity (1957), Sue (1959), Caroline (1963), and the author (1967).
Wonderful memories of her racing around in Algy (the bright red Alfa romeo car) in summer a scary sight for oncoming vehicles – only her broad-rimmed straw hat visible above the steering wheel); her lecture about the perils of alcohol to 90 teenagers on our Italian orchestra tour of 1984 – 4 hours later she was carried in paralytically drunk by the boozey music tutors on the course…her frankly poor cello playing (used to make me kick in utero apparently, I am not surprised by this). But above all she was just a great mum. Full-time work as a GP, she still had time to attend all school concerts, would create clothes and knit jumpers and cook decent grub. She was tough and loved her children…she also loved my father to her dying day, the one real tragedy of her truncated life.
So on this benign autumn day my thoughts are of mum, Hendra Farm (her eventual home in Cornwall after separating from father 4 years before her death); of cliff-top walks, a christmas spent eating goose (and throwing it up a few hours later), of a free spirit who adored travel and just had this great spirit and zest for life. absolutely no doubt she was my mum.
Always love you. Richardxx
Hi everyone – glad to report that I’m back on 4 legs after a week off work. It all started when Rachel was wwalking me back from Regents park last Monday. There was a loud noise and I jumped into the air; upon landing my left front and rear legs felt odd, sort of twisted and sprained. The vet was worried it might be related to the tick bite I landed in France (possibly Lyme disease) back in July – see earlier entry on the dogblog for details. The vet shaved my shoulder and took some blood, but the results came back negative. I’ve been popping pills like mad ever since – antibiotics, anti-inflammatories – which I’ll need to keep taking until the end of this week. And no walkies off the lead until the weekend. And the weekend means having to make polite conversation with those country dogs in Dorset…oh well I spose it will be nice to see them. But I must resist chasing Spike, he is too fast for me and I do not want to make my legs sore again.
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