18th August 2013

18th August 2013.

Dear All,

This week has seen quite alot of what my father would have called “shanking about” with two trips to Hutton, and visits to Cambridge, St Ives, Beccles and Hunstanton.

We travelled to Hutton on Monday to visit Esther in hospital and pickup her intended visitors: Mandy and Natasha from Derbyshire. Mary-Ann and Amélie were already there and stayed until Thursday to look after Esther. The operation seemed to be fairly quick and successful but left her very sore and tired. She has been warned that there may be some bleeding for up to 6 weeks.

 After op.

                                                              Sympathy

The pianist entertains

Entertaining folks from Derbyshire is never a light undertaking! We took them to Cambridge on the guided bus on Tuesday and after visiting the market tried punting which was an entertaining experience. We then caught the guided bus again to St Ives for a leisurely look round.

Punting

On Wednesday we drove to Beccles to visit Kate’s sister and her new granddaughter Mila – the product of the wedding we attended in Poland last year. James and Joanna were staying for a few days together with Polish mother-in-law and niece. The baby was fine while we were there but evidently cries all night. James has just been made redundant from the architects where he works but is hopeful that he can find other work quickly.

 New baby with aunt and mother

We returned Mandy and Natasha to Hutton on Thursday as they had train tickets from Shenfield. Mary-Ann and Amélie had done a good nursing job but left when we did so Esther has been on her own since.

It was the chapel outing to Hunstanton yesterday. We had been anxiously studying the weather forecasts all week but it was not too bad, a brief shower when we arrived, very breezy all day and sunshine by the time we left. We had a record turn out with 29 attending. Morning activities centred round the beach and in the afternoon some shopped, some rode the road train and others tackled the Pitch and Putt course. On the way back we stopped at Sutton for perhaps our last BBQ there as Kate and Gordon are putting the house on the market next week.

  Hunstanton

I had a dental check up on Monday and emerged with a clean bill of health – before splitting a tooth on Thursday! So it is back to the dentist tomorrow and a visit to the hospital for scan discussions in the pm.

Love

Mike & Kate