Finally Back Parkrunning!

On the road again. This time Jane and I visited one of our daughters, Sarah’s, home Parkrun, Harleston Magpies Parkrun.

It is a quaint little course, described as twisty, spread over two fields just over the border, in Suffolk, from the Norfolk town of Harleston.

First chap to look for, on this day in particular, was the appropriately named Richard Midwinter; we were to get quite sodden during the morning, my VI Guide for the course. Richard proved to be a most adept escort, his hands were full thanks to, if memory serves me correctly, 43 corners, talk about an understatement of the word twisty!

It was a huge privilege that the Event Director, Tom Pullinger, and the day’s Run Director, Don Bennett, sought me out before the start to make sure I was well catered for. Indeed I was, and we had a terrific morning.

It was a delight to be joined by our daughter, Sarah Taylor, and her partner, Aneurin Palmer. The rain did not abate during the morning so we all suffered for our art. I am pleased to report that both Sarah and Aneurin will be returning to Parkrun again, when they will be joined by our son, Will, a veritable veteran of Parkruns. We will be back.

Jane and I have been invited to Sarah and Aneurin’s for Christmas so, as we were in the area, we went to view the Dove Inn at Alburgh, booking ourselves in for two nights. After Parkrun, we collected A and S’s hound, Bella, before searching out the wonderful Broken Egg café. The other three all had cooked and plated breakfasts but I chose a filled bap. Trouble is, mine was about half the price of the others so I was concerned whether it would offer enough sustenance. On reflection, it is not seemly for a 64 year old to ask a young waitress how big her baps are! Never mind, you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, can you?

White Cane Ratings*
Car Park: very good; free - 🦯 🦯 🦯 🦯(4)
Welcome: very good; friendly - 🦯 🦯 🦯 🦯(4)
Atmosphere: good - 🦯 🦯 🦯 (3)
Course: good; very twisty - 🦯 🦯 🦯 (3)
Marshalling: good - 🦯 🦯 🦯 (3)

*These ratings are how the event suits a blind person, and are my opinion only; they are not scientific. Whatever happens no-one must be put off by me. The best way to learn about something is to try it for yourself.

A Visit to Sir Winston Churchill’s Country Home...

What a joy it was to visit Chartwell House, the country home of the great Sir Winston Churchill and his family, now held for the country, in perpetuity, and cared for, by the equally as great National Trust; annual membership for me is about ninety quid a year, which also allows entry, free of charge, to any companion I wish to accompany me.

I am not sure that anything, these days, offers better value. Anyone who wishes to visit an NT site just get in touch and I will be more than happy to tag along. All you have to do is buy me a piece of cake, preferably coffee and walnut, and coffee, or chocolate! Cheap at half the price.

Winston (me and him are now on first name terms) purchased his country pile in 1922 for £5,000. I am not sure whether you would agree with me or not, quite often when you visit houses of significant historical importance, they feel far from homely. This, in my opinion, is the exact opposite. It feels like, if you got shot of the tourists, it is just about ready to move into.

I could never aspire to living in such a grand dwelling but I thought that Winnie, attired in silk pyjamas, cigar and whisky in hand, would walk through and greet us at any moment. Alas, he did not. I could just picture him and Clemmie, Lady Clementine to the rest of you and, of course, Cat to him. He was Pig to her. I like the idea of nicknames for each other, a great idea.

All the room guides were most welcoming and were happy to spend as much or as little time with you as one required. I learned so much about one of our nation’s real heroes. He, almost alone, carried the weight and expectations of the entire population on his shoulders. You need to remember that many other politicians, friends and foes, wished to appease Germany and sue for peace. He refused and the rest, as they say, is history, glorious history.

If I thought the house was great, the gardens were nothing short of spectacular. They are particularly large by everyday standards, but as the backyard of such a super-statesman, they were splendid in their ordinariness! This most beautiful piece of horticulture is set in around 80 acres of land with breathtaking views over the Kentish Weald. Highlights include the water features, Lady Churchill’s Rose Garden, the orchards, the walled garden and the Golden Rose Avenue.

I loved every minute of our visit to Chartwell and cannot wait to return, hopefully in 2025.

This ends our short trip to Kent. From the historical Chatham Dockyard, to the very friendly people at Whitstable Parkrun, my ever so chatty VI Guide, the tunnels in the White Cliffs of Dover and the home of one of my historical heroes, it was brilliant. I can’t wait to go back.

White Cane Ratings
Attraction: excellent; brilliant room and garden guides - 🦯 🦯 🦯 🦯 🦯 (5)
Accessibility: good - 🦯 🦯 🦯 (3)

Kuala Lumpur - Part III

By this stage I need to advise that Jane had already lost one pair of reading glasses, leaving them on a hop-on-hop-off bus in Singapore and, now, having lost the screw holding one of the arms to the frames of the second pair, lost the screw to the other. If she needed to read anything she had to hold them like opera glasses.

Eventually she taped the arms to the frames with Sellotape. And they still let us fly business class. Trouble is, standards really are slipping now. We were also sharing a phone charger! This really is a first-world problem when you both want the same charging cord. So, grudgingly, the shopping malls were beckoning, no, demanding, my presence.

I recall they occupy the first six floors of the towers and, despite my reticence, I was most impressed. It was nearly empty. We found an Apple shop and got a second charger. We never quite found the right glasses shop. It was nice to stroll, at leisure, around this amazing complex. I have never seen anything like it before. My shopping experiences to date have been restricted to the town or city centres of Colchester, Ipswich, King’s Lynn and Norwich. The latter, in my opinion, offers the best choice of the four but is still nothing compared to KL. For the avoidance of doubt here, when I refer to KL I mean Kuala Lumpur not King’s Lynn!

The food was all on one level and after what seemed an indeterminate time wandering from eatery to eatery we eventually settled on a chain specialising in Malay cuisine. It was delicious.

Then we found the main attraction of any city or tourist hotspot, the obligatory hop-on-hop-off. Shall we just say here that some are better than others.

Until today the worst one we had ever been on was in Larnaca, Cyprus. Looking back, we boarded in, I think it is called Athens Street, and before we got to the end of the road the commentary had played itself all the way through. We were then entertained by about three Boney M songs on a loop. We were left trying to work out where the Roman this was or the Greek that was, so on and so forth. I didn’t mind “Rivers of Babylon” back in the day but by the time I had heard it for the 41st time that afternoon I didn’t care whether I ever heard it again. And, pray tell, WTF have the rivers in a far off Mesopotamian city got to do with Cyprus? I think, on reflection and as I write this, Larnaca still takes the biscuit. In KL the commentary was inaudible and we were forever stuck in traffic. The only saving grace was that, despite being on the top deck, we had cool air comforting us.

Back to Kuala Lumpur. The following day we booked a private tour. Once again, the traffic really thwarted us. We took in a few of the minor attractions. The bird park, although on the edge of the metropolitan area, was among the best I have ever been to. However good it is, though, you have to remember that the birds are still captive. I am sure butterfly gardens are important but how and why I am not totally sure; leave that one there, shall we. It holds the same allure as going to watch “Out of Africa” again. I am never going to get the time back that I spent at either!

We stopped at one or two other places as well before, finally, getting out at the War Memorial. This is undergoing some sort of refurbishment and was surrounded by construction barriers prohibiting entry. Even so, there were people wandering about around what was, ostensibly, a building site, so when in Rome, and what have you, we joined them. All I can say is that it will probably be better when it is properly open. I could also imagine the United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive suffering an apoplexy.

On the way back to the hotel our driver warned us that we would probably be best staying there for a couple of hours for our own safety.

“You what? Why?”

It turns out that we were staying a stone’s throw from the diplomatic quarter. Well, of course, it was Friday which meant that everyone was now spilling out of their mosques. This is when the Israeli-Gaza thing came unbelievably close. I don’t pretend to understand the politics behind the troubles except that, to me, it underlines the futility of war. What on earth is gained by raining bombs down on each other? What is more, it is the most innocent civilians who, in the main, have no interest in fighting battles, that end up suffering.

Okay. So we went to the 51st floor for a drink. It was happy hour. Oh well!

White Cane Ratings

Faces Suites Hotel: poor; almost inaccessible thanks to technology - 🦯 (1)
Shopping at Petronas Towers: excellent; even to a non-shopping fan - 🦯 🦯 🦯 🦯 🦯 (5)
Tourist bus: average - 🦯 🦯 (2)
Bird Park: good; not sure I get them though - 🦯 🦯 🦯 (3)
Butterfly Park: poor; I will never get that time back - 🦯(1)
War memorial: poor; dangerous - 🦯(1)*
*I think this will be excellent when finished.