Coffee at the Maltings
Benjamin Brittan is a wonderful composer who's work I would like to know more of. Peter Grimes is the only opera I've really got to know a bit - and I have enjoyed it.
This morning I've cycled to Snape Maltings, the concert hall and Arts centre Britten set up.
Today, I'm heading for Ipswich.
3.30pm: Here I am in Ipswich. I'm chilling out in Christchurch Park in the hazy sunshine.
It was a beautiful ride through quiet roads in the Suffolk countryside. As I lived in Ipswich for 18 years, I used to know these country roads well. A trip down Memory Lane. Woodbridge and the Tide Mill all looked the same.
But as I approached the BT Research Centre at Martlesham Heath, I realised a lot had changed. I couldn't recognise the roads and the area easily. It is all different from my day. Much busier and more developed.
I worked at the BTRL for most of the 1980s as a graphic designer. It was the period of my life when my son was born and I got Triratna activities going in Ipswich - which was to eventually become the Ipswich Buddhist Centre.
I cycled the long road from BTRL to my old house (which I bought in 1983) in Spring Road, Ipswich - a nondescript-looking terraced house on a now busy road. So much of significance happend there.
I last cycled down that road 37 years ago. I distinctly remember my last shift in early September 1988, when I rode out of that place for the last time.
I was glad to go. I was never really a corporate man. But I now realise I could have had a career in the NHS. Nursing would have been a vocation, I believe now.
Spending time with Buddhasiha this evening has been excellent. We were in his topfloor flat overlooking Ipswich. We are old friends and worked together for years. We caught up properly on the goings on in our lives.
I am fortunate to have such friends.
As today was only about 30 miles in total, I don't feel tired at all. My body has got used to this big ride.
Tomorrow is the last day of this tour. It's 53 miles back to Cambridge....
Woodbridge Tide Mill
British Telecom labs where I worked in the 1980s and from whom I still receive a small pension
173 Spring Road - which I used to own
The Ipswich Regal - where I once saw Van Morrison and also Don McLean
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