Fresh from signing off our book on Le Paradis I had lunch with co-author John Head and the other old farts. I walked home with John and he dashed indoors to bring me a facsimile of a newspaper article from 1976 that had been given to him by a mutual acquaintance.
And as I read it I realised it had a triple connection with myself. It was about an addition to St Remigius Church in Hethersett which took the form of a statue of St Remigius. So that's connection number one in that I live in Hethersett and edit the parish magazine and can often be found in the church and in the not too distant future hope to put together all the strands that I have on the history of the church.
Connection number two comes from the fact that the article was in Whiffler's City in the Eastern Evening News from March 4th, 1976. I worked on Whiffler's City from August 1973 to March 1974 - just two years before this article was written. That's connection number two.
The sculptor was Alwyn Partridge and the article states: "Mr Partridge, 49, who has been teaching sculpture at Norwich School for 14 years. That's Alwyn Partridge and not Alan Partridge by the way. I didn't know Alwyn Partridge taught sculpture. That would mean he started teaching the subject in 1962. That was just before I started at the school and certainly I wasn't aware of anybody teaching sculpture whilst I was there. Alwyn Partridge did, however teach PE. He taught me PE although I'm never sure that in those days you could teach PE. It usually revolved around either circuit training which I hated or running around a lot.
So I had no knowledge of anyone teaching sculpture at the school in those years. There's a photo of Alwyn Partridge looking very cool holding a cigarette in his right hand. That was cool in those days but wouldn't be considered cool today and I don't think the press would photo somebody with a fag today (although of course the word fag had different connotations in those days).
What price loyalty - well over £100 apparently. Received a message from RAC insurance yesterday to point out that my motor insurance is up for renewal at the beginning of April. They thanked me for being with them and said they hoped I would be happy with their new quote and "relax" (they always tell you to relax) I needn't do anything as the payment would be automatically taken from my account on the renewal date.
All very good but just one problem. Last year's charge was £178.76 and this year's £300.02. And to me that's an increase of almost 68%. So much for loyalty. So it's back to Compare The Market and another change of supplier.
Hope you enjoy the final tranche of photographs from our holiday in Madeira. These were taken the day before we flew home and were of our second visit to Funchal when we visited different areas from day one and found some very exclusive hotels and some delightful gardens.