2^nd December 2018

Dear All,

Yesterday was what you could call a full day with a Men’s Breakfast, helping friends move house, a little glazing, football, Over Christmas Market and grand switching on of the Christmas lights followed by a busy night on the streets.

The speaker at the breakfast, Ed King from Swavesey, has worked for the British Antarctic Survey for forty years, mainly as a Geophysicist measuring the thickness of the ice at the South Pole area. He has no doubts about climate change and has some amazing photos of life down under.

Stan and Maya, our Bulgarian friends, have been renting a house in Fen End and to their surprise it has been sold over their heads. They have managed to find another house in Kirby Close near the War Memorial and were enacting a DIY removal yesterday. I think I drove my car full about eight times before a white van appeared with a Bulgarian mate to shift the larger stuff. They have the heaviest suite I have ever encountered! Kate was helping unpack and started cleaning the old house which she claims probably hadn’t been cleaned while they lived there!

I decided to replace the damaged panes in the glasshouse as it had not been patched for a year or two – 5 panes in all 4 rectangles and a trapezoid. I had three quotes: £120, £87 and £60 the lowest from a recent set up on Over Industrial Site. When I collected them on Friday only one was the right size so I had to take them back and they were recut, Yesterday when I tried to fit them three were still too short!

I watched Over 4 v 1 Soham in the afternoon then on to The Green for a Christmas market and the switching on of the Christmas lights. Folk had complained that the old lights were a bit weedy so they raised cash for replacements so now we have coloured lights all-round the Green and serious flashy ones on the pavilion.

Over Lights

Street Pastors was one of those nights you remember, firstly it was wet before midnight but still plenty of people around as it was payday weekend and office party season. We had three difficult cases: we were called to Ballare to a lad called Chris who was sitting outside “owl eyed” staring like a zombie. We couldn’t get much sense out of him but the security guys found three mates inside who confirmed he was on Ketamine and Ecstasy, as they were but he “often got like that!” They carted him off but they had to get to Bishops Stortford. Next we found a large chap outside Lola Lo head down and uncommunicative, it turned out he was Dutch and knew little English. We gave him water and said we would return later. When we did he hadn’t moved and we tried to get him to the Nightlite café but he was too heavy and his knapsack weighed a ton. Meanwhile we found a girl crumpled on the steps closer to Lola Lo with her head between her knees also uncommunicative, drugged up and shivering. The security people at this club were spectacularly unhelpful and didn’t know whether she had friends in side or anything else. As they were due to close in 20 minutes we wrapped her in a blanket and hoped friends would come out and recognise her – but this did not happen. What to do? She had a phone with a flat battery but we found her driving licence with her address on it. We decided to frog march her back to Nightlite so we could pack up our base then take her home to Fen Drayton hoping her address was current. This we did and found the house, she had a front door key but it would not work as there was a key already in the lock indoors. Finally we had to bang on the door at 4.45am to try and rouse the occupants. Fortunately this worked and her sister took delivery of her!

On Monday we managed a swim before “Just Vegetating” which this week was “Minor Crops a” Kate produced Baked Celeriac in butter, Jerusalem Artichokes, Butternut Squash curry, Celeriac salad and Swede in garlic, honey & hazelnuts.

On Tuesday I spoke to the Cambridge U3A Garden group who meet in a Catholic church. Unfortunately there was a clash with a funeral so my talk was periodically accompanied by serious hymns!

On Wednesday there was a historic moment as the public phone box was removed from the corner of the Green. In the evening I was at “Royston Greenfingers club” for talk number 246!

Goodbye Phonebox

Our Thursday walk started at Rede near Bury St Edmunds. The forecast rain did not materialise but it was very windy which did not improve things.

The Plough, Rede

Near Somerton

Somerton

Kate leaping a stile

“Biography” subject was “Daisy Bates” who was born in Ireland but emigrated to Australia, married three times and eventually became a rather eccentric champion of the aborigines.

Love

Mike & Kate