Notaries Public and Other Challenges

 

A nice quiet period, allowing some time for a catch-up of business and maintenance issues disgracefully neglected over the past several years. Some of these have proved quite serious and difficult to sort out in retrospect. One was suddenly realising that I had never had a response to my insurance claim for flood damage in February last year. Fortunately, my tendency to hoard things just in case, allowed me to resurrect all this and the insurers have duly paid up. It was much the same reviving a bank account in the US that I had allowed to go dormant, which the bank then had handed over to the State of Rhode Island about the same time as the flood.

Claiming it back from them isn’t straight-forwards. One aspect that ruined a recent Friday was having to have one’s signature witnessed and checked by a Notary Public. They do quite rigorous identity checks, discovering whether one is a ‘sanctioned person’ or not, etc. These turn out to be as rare as hen’s teeth in rural Wiltshire. There was one in Devizes but she was on maternity leave. There were rumours of another in Malmesbury and a definite was known in Salisbury, so after a morning trudging around solicitor’s offices in Devizes, I sped down to Salisbury not realising my quarry was to be found in Castle Road not, as I had gathered, Castle Street – and of course neither of my phones would cooperate. With the help of some very nice people in an estate agent to which I resorted in sheer desperation I managed to locate and contact her and sped off again, leaving my bag (with documents, wallet etc) behind ! It all got done in the end of course, but with some stress !  I was struck though by how very kind and helpful everyone was to me. Perhaps they feared I might otherwise expire as well as perspire (it was a hot day) on the spot.

The other big event was chasing up my medical claim for the fun and games in Singapore in May. It was discovered that their portal hadn’t been able to open up one of the zillion forms they needed and no-one had told me. These people have to be constantly harried I realise, just the kind of thing I don’t normally have time for.

Anyhow enough of that. The other major consumer of time was dealing with the apple crop. ‘Cider to the power of Ten’ the Guardian has called it. Huge crops of apples a bit smaller than usual but much sweeter and juicier. I had major help from most of the family who produced a very efficient apple-juicing combined task force.

The process and the product were on an industrial scale. The result was 60+ litres and we only called a halt because I ran out of bottles and other containers (which included plastic boxes once used for fat balls for birds, milk and wine bottles intended for anti-mole garden edging purposes, and so forth). As much to the point, I and all concerned ran out of storage space. There’s so much in my main freezer (together with greengages, stewed apple and plums) that it started to flash over-loading lights, and still hasn’t recovered. So on top of everything else I had to move dangerous things like meat and fish out into the inside freezer plus two fridge compartments. And there’s still three trees completely untouched !  I have pegged old sheets under them so when the apples fall they can be hauled away straight to the compost heap. Eventually they will markedly improve garden soil, I hope.

Such tasks apart I enjoyed a

Church visit in Somerset with Wilts group, and have now got the hang of how best to avoid excessive rush and competition for often very limited parking space. It’s all about advance and careful preparation !  There’s a moral there somewhere I expect. I like supplying the magazine with photos. I thought this one of the great abbey church next to Downside public school was weird but spectacular, though I must admit entirely accidental ! 

I also like views through open doorways to another different world – like 17th century Dutch interiors. Nearly always there’s something not quite right about my pics – usually not handling the camera properly – so my challenge to Henri Cartier-Bresson may be a bit delayed.

Another treat was a consoling trip to the China ceramics gallery at the British Museum. I say consoling since I had got up at 0500 to catch the first 0615 train to London, only to park offsite (free !) get my oldie ticket in the machine ( for me a real achievement) and find the train was nearly an hour late. I caught the 0640 instead (surprised at the number of passengers) but missed the first 45 minutes of my session on the dark fleet. A light breakfast in the BM members’ room and several hours in the very well organised China gallery restored me and was a real delight. (It’s much better done than at the V&A). Dynasty after dynasty. Terrific. First potters 16,000 BC. Some of their ceramics were as thin as eggshells. Also glorious meticulous glazes like these Tang dynasty Buddhist ceramics 1200 years ago. They could well take back the world, I think. Food for thought. 

  

The final treat of the period was a flying visit from S and V. She is tackling the stone age at school and the intent was do some fieldwork in the Avebury area. Here she is doing some careful measurements at The Sanctuary.

.....And examining the

pagan offerings left in the centre of the stone circle. 

It’s the first time I have been there for decades and looking round the rolling scenery on a grey, damp and chilly day, I had one of those moments of euphoria thinking what a wonderful county Wiltshire actually is, even if Notaries Public are rather thin on the ground.