Hot, hot hot!

Amazing weather for well over a week.  Really hot by our standards and high humidity.  Lethargy inducing!  I have been suffering from a combition of swollen ankles (heat and medication side effects) and nasty insect bites...despite regular spraying with Oh So Soft the Avon product that miraculously protects against bites....most of the time!  What an attractive description!

Never mind.  It's been a great weekend.  A barbecue on Thursday at Wood Hall, the Vice-Chancellor's official residence just outside Norwich, to celebrate graduation and a chance to meet some of the honorary graduands including Ian Collins of whom more later.  Apparently, seated at the table I decided not to sit at,  was Anne Enright the author of a book I greatly admired and enjoyed (The Gathering) despite the general thumbs down from the rest of the book group.  What a wasted opportunity.  She was inches from me!   I sat with Ian Collins and Joachim Jacobs.  Ian writes about art and in addition to being an arts journalist is also the author of several books on art and artists and is a great friend of our neighbours Keith and Nicky.  Joachim is a landscape architect.  Both of them are good party throwers...or should that be Keith and Nicky who are the good party throwers??  Anyway, on Friday there was an excellent gathering to celebrate Ian's honorary degree with much drink, fabulous food and speeches.  Also a piper (that's on the bagpipes) to pay homage to a Scottish artist who has just completed some windows for the cathedral in Norwich and who also happens to have a flat in the same block as us at the Barbican!  Small world etc.  Also in attendance some renowned authors whose books I haven't read so I hesitated to get into conversation with them!

Lunch in the garden

Norfolk cheese

On Saturday we had a very enjoyable visit from a young couple who have a blog about their Edwardian house which they are gradually doing up.  They bought a piece of Liss Bros Ltd furniture, which is how we got in touch.  Long story, but all this googling around produces some interesting connections.  Anyway, they had been nearby on holiday for a week and dropped in to see us and have lunch.  We talked houses and much else...they served the soup and cut the bread and it felt as though we had known them forever!  He's a radio journalist (news) and she is a jazz singer and also has a job in London to which she commutes from Luton. 

In addition to tomato soup we had a plate of Norfolk cheeses.

On Saturday afternoon I helped a friend open an account for online grocery shopping but completely failed to get her TV logged on to the internet. It took an 18 year old to manage that!

And then on Sunday, as if we hadn't done enough, we had our monthly cinema club outing to see Chinatown...that great classic with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunnaway.  An excellent film...and then eight of us went back to Keith and Nicky's and helped them shift some more of the party left overs, which was no hardship at all.   And then to bed!!!!