And another little bird told me some sensitive types were shocked by the piles blog; well, sorry for that, but my point is that we can't halt the march of time, and we are all getting older. As well as the aforementioned problem, I now have hair growing out of my ears, as well as my nose. In short; I'm getting old. So are you, but we can make sure things are not as bad as they might be. Don't strain; eat fibre.
And so on to the weekend............
As you know, Mother has been ill. Or is ill. was ill. So, I had to go up to Suffolk, as the dutiful son, and being her last blood relative and the such. And being the first weekend of the children's summer holiday, and so many families travelling to or from home, airport, mistresses and so on, that the roads would be busy. The queue for the tunnel began at the end of the A2, but it moved and within half an hour i was in Essex, and the queue going south was 12 miles.
Up the M11 past Stanstead, past Cambridge and then up the A11. And then the good road ran out, and I was stuck in the 5 miles of single carriageway for over an hour just to get through the lights at Elvedon. And then back on the good road to Norwich, and the hospital and the meeting with Mother.
She had maintained that she had had a minor attack, and now felt fine, but had to have an angiagram to make sure. But was waiting, still. we talked some, it was tough, too much water had passed under the bridge for there to be much warmth. And then she was called for her test.
I had two hours wait and so headed to the cafe for coffee and a magazine to read.
Time passed.
At six i went back up the ward to see her, and she was in some pain. She had to have four stinks inserted, one in each leg and two in her upper body. Turns out she had been lucky. Before the test I had said that it was me or the fags; she chose the fags. In the wake of the procedure, she said that she would give up the weed and change. She was groggy, and so I left her to recover.
I drove to Lowestoft, made sure the cat was fed, and then headed out to visit a mutual friend to convey the news. and then on to the Blue Boar in Oulton village to meet James, and old friend, and for a drink and a chat.
I had a beer, and another, then we shared a selection of 'nibbles' from the meu, before heading back to Mum's to raid her drinks cabinet. It has stuff from the 1990s; bottle of Bacardi which only Dad used to drink, we chose a third of a bottle of Grant's whisky, and then moved on to the Southern Comfort. We talked, the cat played and was generally cute.
When we stopped talking, it was half two in the morning, and James had trouble getting a taxi to take him home. and I crashed out on the bed.
Morning came way too soon, it was ten past seven, I had had ten hours too little sleep, or that's how it felt, and I got myself going, had a shower, fed the cat, emptied his tray, and packed. And after giving the cat a farewell tickle under his chin, I was off.
To Bungay, to pick up another old friend, and head off to Norwich to see the football. On the way I had to drop a bag off for Mother, and he mood seemed less conciliatory than the night before. Oh well, it's her lookout, I'm afraid. I bid her farewell and we drove into the city and breakfast.
I had realised I had not had a meal as such for 36 hours, and was hungry. and so once in Norwich and out of the bus station the first shop we came to was a cafe. We went in and ordered the biggest breakfast they did and sat down to watch the world go by outside on Surrey Street.
Breakfast came, it was huge: three sausages, three rashers of bacon, mushrooms, beans, tomatoes, two fried eggs three slices of toast. I felt hungry, but it beat me; but not Andrew who demolished the lot, and thought about my offer for him to finish my two rashers and one sausage.
We walked through the city centre, passed the market and down the narrow network of lanes and alleyways down to the river, over the bridge to the Ribs of Beef pub, and the second hand camera store next door. The camera store had no macro lenses, which was just as well as I couldn't really afford one if they had. we went in the Ribs for a quick pint, and then it was time to head down to meet our friends down in the street of bars near the football ground.
A few years have gone by since i did this on a regular basis, and the thrill of it kind of waned. Drinking lots, rehasing conversations on subjects that have not changed in a decade, getting inebriated to the extent that the game would have been a blur.
It was time for the game, and we walked to the ground and took our seats just as the teams were coming out of the tunnel. It was a pre-season game, and this was just for entertainment and getting the payers match fit. Norwich were playing Everton, who are a Premier team.
It was a good game, with tackles, unusually for a friendly, were flying in. City gave Everton a two goal start, thanks to poor defending and goalkeeping. In the second half, City pulled level, but then Everton just did fancy things with the ball, and scored twice.
Andrew and I left ten minutes early and then back to the car. I dropped andrew back in Bungay, and then headed south down towards London and the tunnel and Kent and home. I drove moderately, and time passed. I listened to Radio 4, I am middle age after all, and laughed at the 'humour'.
As i arrived in Kent, the sun set and I pulled over in Dartford to take some pictures of the bridge and traffic; and then back in the car and down to Dover and home.
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