Old Codgers re-united

 

The big event was a whole day in London. The opportunity for this was again provided by the IISS, who made things very easy by sending a car. They were also nice enough to agree that the return trip could be later in the evening. This meant I could attend a Kings' event in the evening which the absence of trains home would otherwise have been very difficult. I was collected at 0700 by someone seduced by their satnav into the village who I had to rescue and guide to me. 'Describe where you are', I say, 'Is Manor Farm on your left or on your right ?' ....and so it goes on. My driver was Rumanian and I could tell he was on the verge of panic. He was an interesting companion though with admiring views about being in the UK and absolutely no intention of going back, as far as I could see. Lots of reminiscences about Ceasescu and the old days.

Although, no Insulate fanatics were sticking themselves to the road, it still took 3 hours of so to get to inner London and I had to slide into my seat a few minutes late at 1000. The occasion was a meeting of the heads of the RN and the Indian navy and a discussion about the general situation in the Indian Ocean. I thought our man, Admiral Radakin, was looking pretty chipper - and so was not surprised to hear the following day that he had been promoted as the new Chief of the Defence Staff, which is pretty much as high as a military man can get. There were only about 12 of us involved, half in India and it was all very interesting and topical. Also a real bonus - lunch - with the nicest steak I've had for a very long time indeed. In fact the only steak I've had since before the lock-down.

I spent the afternoon working on the book (will it never end ? ) at the Army and Navy - again for the first time since the pandemic began. I really enjoyed this, knocking back the coffees. Being with people still feels unusual ! In the evening it was the 60th birthday party of my old King's War Studies  Department. For the occasion they had issues a little booklet and yours truly was one of the two old codgers who they had dug out as students from the old days.

The other was in the same year as me in the History Department. He went on to a great career and ended up running the History department at Leeds. We kept in touch and worked together on the old Journal of Strategic Studies. He was much brighter than me, but we both got a whole page in the publication ! It was all huge fun as I met a lot of former colleagues and there was wine and nibbles along with the speeches. the event was held at Bush House at the Aldwych, the old BBC home. It was the first time I had been in it since it was snaffled by Kings. Spectacular views of London from the roof terrace. And so home having had a great day.

The rest of the week was pretty busy too. I had another all-nighter in Singapore which went well but it immediately preceded a big events at Newport, so I got only about 4 hours sleep over two days. They say oldies don't need so much sleep - and I must say my experience seems to confirm that. I was fine.

But talking of Newport, a major impediment has occurred and I seem to be back in the toils of mindless bureaucracy once again - as I was at the beginning of this great adventure. The State Department renewed my work visa, but two weeks later revoked it as they had discovered that  I wasn't actually in the US, so now a new one has to be acquired and that took three months last time. So despite their lifting Covid regulations on November 8th it doesn't look as though I will be heading back until some time next year. My colleagues in the Department are furious but are pitching in to handle my car problem. This means emptying all the stuff I jammed into it as I left in a hurry at the end of June 2020 with the stuff in my office. But that all needs to be moved too as they are refurbishing the whole building. Then the car has to be returned to the dealer !  So complicated. I begin to wonder in fact whether I will ever get back for real ! Certainly not for a long time.

Otherwise a quiet period, flogging on through the book the eye firmly on the hand-over date at the end of the month. Beginning to batten down the hatches for winter, although it still seems very mild. In fact today, the last of the potatoes came up, the last of the apple fallers peeled and stewed and I picked nearly a hundred raspberries ! All-in-all I reflected as I wended my way home from a walk to the village shop that even if I am 'stuck' at home for the next few months, I'm pretty lucky to be where I am.

 

Monsters from the Deep

 

It's harvest time. This always keeps me busy and even though I am frantically busy trying to finish off this wretched book by the end of October I still find that I have to devote considerable time to picking things and digging them up. I'm sure it's good for me but it does take up an awful lot of time. I’ll be quite glad, actually, when it’s all over – and in fact I’ve noticed a big crop reduction in the last few distinctly autumnal days, so the end of the season is close I think. Much of the time lost  includes the extra preparation of things that don't come all nicely manicured as they appear in supermarket plastic bags. One unlooked for problem was the fact that my potatoes were badly affected by blight, although they looked absolutely fine from the surface. The consequent rescue work involved making loads of mashed potato and then freezing it, which they say you can do. This wasn't pleasant and if I hadn't been so anti-waste, I might have given up, cast them on the compost heap and got myself a nice clean bag of uncomplicated potatoes from Morrisons. 

            Less of a trial were my carrots, which attracted a certain amount of ridicule from a recent family visit. They looked huge from the top but when I dug them up from ground, that seemed to have set like concrete, they were the most extraordinary looking things one can imagine. All points and growths, nameless horrors, that required massive surgery to make them fit to eat. They end up as cubes, and on the plate don't look right at all. But I have to say that the taste is spectacular – much, much nicer than their hygienic, properly shaped Morrisons equivalent.

            An additional harvest time accompaniment that I could seriously do without is a plague of fruit flies. Tiny little things that can apparently get into anything. I daresay they are too small to do much harm but I hate the way a little cloud of them appears whenever one leaves anything tasty around for more than a few seconds. I take a malevolent pleasure in sucking them up with a hand-held vacuum cleaner.

            Another diversion of precious time was a necessary trip to Salisbury. It was at a time of petrol crisis when I don't have much fuel in the tank, but I felt I had to go all the same. Irritating, because the evening before the crisis blew up I thought about getting some petrol on my way back from town and didn't want to take up the time. It was a classic example of saving time now but probably losing a lot more later on. Anyhow I went into Salisbury, parked in the Cathedral close as I always do, took advantage of a free pot of tea from the refectory for breakfast and thereafter had a very nice day. I collected my camera, expensively repaired since that disaster in Sussex, and took in Aunt Ethel's clock which I had knocked over and upset when I was trying to stop it chiming twelve times. This was once when I was in the midst of a broadcast to the world. I got some shopping had some cappuccino,  reading improving material on my little laptop, and had time for a quick poke around the Close and the Museum.

            The Close is a place of recurrent memory since that was where I went to school. One of my best University friends was Dean there. Amazingly, I, of all people, was several times given the Close as my round for the extra Christmas postal service when I was a student. An extraordinary coincidence. The round couldn't possibly have been given to a more grateful recipient who had no way of influencing the decision. Some of the residents got to know me, including a couple of Bishops, as I remember. I distinctly recall being given some seasonal sherry and mince pies here and there ! And I was being paid for it !  I also remember buying old history books from a stall outside Beaches’ iconic book shop, just the other side of the main gateway, for a penny or two, and reading them at various stopping places I found, Sadly Beaches is an up-market pizza restaurant now.  

            Much later, a retired Admiral who I knew rented a strange but charming building in the Close and I visited him a few times. More recently still the Salisbury Cathedral library was where I unexpectedly found the book that set me off on my current academic project. I went back to read it a few days later but arrived in the middle of a city-wide electricity failure. They kindly diverted me from the Library to the Treasure building where in some strange way there was electricity, thereby notching up yet another building in the Close that I have been inside ! The whole place is full of happy and fun memories. I didn’t know Ted Heath who lived at Arundells so that’s one building I haven’t been to. They do tours these days so I can repair that deficiency, although it would feel like cheating.     

            Otherwise, it’s been a quiet couple of weeks. But there’s always something happening. One morning it was spotting a new fungus growing at the base of a dead chestnut tree I hadn't seen and which got bigger each day.

On another one of my walks around what I fondly call the estate I almost trod on a woodpigeon, sitting on the path. I got close and personal and took a picture. It looked exhausted, so I wondered if it was an off-course racer, but there was no ring. I left it to recover, A few hours later, though, there was sadly just a pile of feathers. Sic transit gloria mundi.  Not in fact that woodpigeons are that glorious. They are a real pain in the veggie garden, but sad all the same.

          

  Team Powell have been hit by Covid at long last. No doubt through the school connection. The Pandemic  certainly hasn’t gone away. So far wooziness, tiredness and loss of taste and smell. Hopefully it’ll be on its way out soon. Just like Harvest time.....