March
We went
over to broadband (ADSL). Since the
local exchange had been enabled in September, Teresa had been considering the
options, complicated in our case by wanting to network our two computers (plus
possibly Jay’s). For a long time we had
thought that wireless networking would be best, but it would have turned out
much more expensive. We decided that
wires would be cheaper and more reliable, and, as the main runs are out of
sight in the loft, hardly any more obtrusive.
Teresa also successfully
completed a project to build a new computer for Jay. Here is the finished product:
It became the fastest
computer in the house, so Jay was a very lucky girl. Thanks to our broadband connexion, Jay’s computer also had
always-on Internet access, and was networked to our computers so we can share
files and resources. A specially smart
feature was the illuminated cooling fan at the side.
On Monday 14, Teresa and
Helen had a day together in Oxford – a convenient half-way house: less than an hour on the train for both of
them.
Teresa near the Radcliffe Camera
Tuesday 15 was the first
day of the Cheltenham Festival, the steeplechasing event of the year, expanded
to four days this year, with the big race – the Gold Cup – on the Friday.
Tuesday was also Jay’s
orchestra’s spring concert, in the Pittville Pump Room, right next door to the
race-course. We parked early to avoid
the traffic and didn’t move until after the concert. The orchestra was fine, the main work being Mendelssohn’s
‘Reformation’ symphony with the famous setting of Luther’s hymn ‘Ein fester
Burg ist unser Gott’.
Pittville Pump Room
On Saturday 19, a bowling
friend had asked us to join him for his local village quiz. We found ourselves in a very strong team of
six, and, to our delight – and our friend’s – we managed to win, just beating
the previous year’s winners. Teresa did
especially sterling work on a word puzzle round which we desperately needed to
get right to avoid being pipped at the post.
Dumbleton Village Hall – venue for the quiz
Teresa’s birthday on
Thursday 31. Helen was home for a few
days, and the celebration included a Chinese meal, quite a few cards, flowers
and several boxes of chocolate!
We also went to a local
quiz at the Mount Inn, Stanton, for the Stanway Cricket Club. We missed out on the top positions, though
finishing respectably enough to have a few kick-self moments. But we were lucky in the raffle, and came
home with the splendid prize of a mortar and pestle. Since Teresa and Helen proved so good at the food and drink
round, this seemed no more than poetic justice, though it may also have owed something
to Roger’s uncanny fortune in his bowls club raffles, from which he regularly
returns with a bottle of wine, and, even more impressively, once with the
coveted scented cushions!