Jane Dallaway

Silent Book Club Hove

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 21:27:00 +0100

I’ve always been curious about book clubs and have tried a couple in my time. I love reading and I like the idea of a book club but I never really got on with the idea of a prescribed book. I’ve always enjoyed reading as an opportunity to follow my curiosity and read whatever appeals at the time. Interrupting that flow with a designated book has always felt a little awkward for me. Over summer I came across the idea of the Silent book club and that seemed like a much better fit for me. You turn up with whatever book you’re reading and you spend time in companionable silence with others reading your own book. No need to critique it. No need to discuss it. Just sit and read. I searched online and discovered an active Hove chapter (tho it now meets in Brighton actually).

As I approached the space I realised I recognised the building. It is where The Skiff used to be. First time I’ve been into that building for years. Really nice to see it in a different incarnation.

Being in a record shop meant we had some pleasant background music. And we had a barista on hand to make coffee for us.

I had an enjoyable evening and made progress with two books, one poetry based, one memoir, over the hour and a half of reading time available to me. I’ll be returning.

in the top 219%

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 21:22:00 +0100

Wait! What?

Today’s walk: From Champneys Henlow Grange to the fishing lakes

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 20:09:00 +0100

Our second walk from Champneys Henlow Grange, this time leaving the resort in a different direction. As we approached the public footpath we saw lots of people running past and quickly deduced, having checked our watches, that we’d found a ParkRun. We chose to head around the lake in the opposite direction. After speaking to a steward we learned they were doing two and a half laps of the lake, so as we walked around we started to see some familiar people, and lots of lovely dogs. This was a lovely walk, and it was nice to almost loop around the water.

Gorgeous to stand and watch the water for a while.

Having a weir almost in the resort makes for a gorgeous background sound.

Today’s walk: From Champneys Henlow Grange

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 20:08:00 +0100

My friend and I have visited a few Champneys over the past few years, and Champneys Henlow Grange was this year’s choice. It’s an impressive building. There are two walks available from the Gym Reception, so we decided to try them both over our stay. The first headed off towards the river and we extended it into the nature reserve.

After a summer that’s turned most green spaces sandy brown, it was a real treat for the eyes to see proper green again.

Fun owl carving, sitting right where we crossed a footbridge.

Today’s walk: Waterhall

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 19:34:00 +0100

Earlier in the year, I went to a Café Scientifique talk: “Wilding Waterhall: Working with nature to maximise biodiversity” given by Mike Luscombe, one of the rangers. One thing I learned that evening was that they’d created some named walks across the reserve. It’s been on my to-do list ever since, but the opportunity hadn’t arisen, or when it did, we had a problem with temperature or access.

Today, we managed to get there. We mostly followed the Buzzard Hike and were impressed with the size of the place. There is still plenty more for us to explore.

It is so easy for us to get to that I suspect we will return in autumn.

Exploring Royal Tunbridge Wells

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 17:05:00 +0100

Tunbridge Wells is one of those places that I don’t really know much about. When I worked in Crowborough 20 or so years ago occasionally I’d rush there and back in my lunch break if there was something I specifically wanted. But I’d never really spent any time there. I thought it might be useful to consider it an explorer day and plan accordingly. While doing some research I came across the Marc Chagall windows at All Saints, Tudeley and so decided to combine that into my day.

It was another beautiful sunny day and Tunbridge Wells seemed pretty busy, at least at the cafes along the Pantiles. I found a spot for a coffee and updated my notes before heading off for a wander.

I walked past the site of the spring which seems to be a bit of a ghost town.

I then headed off to The Amelia Scott. It is a museum and library combined, which is an excellent idea actually, putting art with books. I was met at the reception area and handed a leaflet with a map of the exhibitions, and was warned that the upstairs ones were closed because of the heat. Some of the artifacts weren’t coping that well with the temperatures and so they’ve put them away for safekeeping. This wasn’t something that had previously occurred to me, but I guess up and down the country museums and galleries have been making difficult decisions, working out what could stay out and what had to be put away. What a responsibility. There was a useful little exhibition called Story of the Wells, which says

Discover how Royal Tunbridge Wells grew from a woodland spring into a celebrated spa town. It begins in 1606 with the discovery of the Chalybeate Spring by Dudley, Lord North. Trace the town’s transformation into a fashionable retreat, the elegant development of The Pantiles, the architectural legacy of Decimus Burton, and the invention of Subbuteo.

This was a useful exhibition and helped fill some gaps in my knowledge - like why is it Royal Tunbridge Wells?

I enjoyed the sign about the unavailable exhibits flagging it as a temporary migration.

After leaving the Amelia, and hearing someone giving advice to another group, I headed into the nearby Wetherspoons pub to see the Opera House. An elaborate drinking establishment. The advisor had mentioned that every now and again it is closed as a pub and reopens to host an opera. That must be quite something!

Having discovered that most of the cafes had closed by the time I got around to wanting lunch, I grabbed a sandwich from Gail’s and went and sat on the Commons to eat it before driving home. The Commons is a lovely space and I missed having Breezy with me to explore it more thoroughly.

An interesting day out. The windows at All Saint’s church, Tudeley were my absolute highlight.

Visiting the Marc Chagall windows at All Saints' Church, Tudeley

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 17:03:00 +0100

All Saints’ Tudeley is a quite remarkable place as it

is the only church in the world* to have all its twelve windows decorated by the artist Marc Chagall

*Despite some claims to the contrary, Tudeley really IS the only church in the world to have all its windows decorated by Chagall. The other contenders are the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem, but this is of course not a church, but a synagogue, and Le Saillant, Limousin, France, which is a chapel.

I enjoyed the pedantry there!

I was really lucky with my timing and the day as I got to see the sunshine pour through the windows at the South side of the church making playful patterns on the sills and on the floor.

I enjoyed seeing Marc Chagall’s signature on the glass.

I think this window was my favourite colours.

The light in the church changed tone and feeling as I moved from the south side, where the yellow windows are, and towards the north and east where the blue windows are. It’s almost impossible to capture that quality in photographs, so that’s something I’ll just have to remember. A beautiful place to visit.

Petworth House

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 18:05:00 +0100

A friend and I visited Petworth House today. She grew up near Chichester and spent most of her life in Sussex but had never been inside. Today I had the pleasure of accompanying her as we walked around. It is an impressive place. Some of the paintings are vast - my friend and I were chatting to the room volunteer who confirmed that the particularly large one we were looking at doesn’t get moved from its position, other paintings move around it.

The scale of the place is ridiculous. Just look at the height of this window!

There is an exhibition Expressions in Blue: Monumental Porcelain by Felicity Aylieff being shown there at the moment which adds something to the experience. Some of the pieces are plain blue and white, while others are covered in bright floral enamel taking their cue from Grinling Gibbons’ wood carvings in the Carved room. These coloured ones were our favourites. These over-sized ceramics were why I thought this might be a good time to bring my friend. She’s partially sighted and so the sheer scale of these were helpful for her to get an idea of.

The sheer scale of this piece in the stair well was incredible. I mean the staircase itself is incredible, my entire house could fit into that space.

Each of the rooms in Petworth has a set of red books. Each book is full of information about all the paintings and statues in the room. This allowed my friend to find a picture that she could get an idea of, and then I could describe it and read the information about it. I did keep being asked by other people to look things up for them so I’m not sure if people thought I was a volunteer, or that I just looked helpful!

After our recent trip to Parham House we were interested in finding portraits of people who had history with the house, and the Beauty Room was a particular highlight. The information panel explains how the paintings started off as full-length portraits of the ladies, but the 3rd Earl of Egremont decided he didn’t need to see their legs and so asked for them to be shortened. Fortunately, the workmen making the change decided to fold the lower portions behind the canvas rather than cut them away entirely. This allowed them to be restored to their former glory almost two centuries later.

My friend was particularly taken with the ancient statues deciding that she could find a space for one in her garden. We did chuckle about how the roman artefacts might need to earn their keep were we to get hold of one for her, perhaps holding a trowel and a kneeler in their hands!

Hand OA: one year on

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 10:01:00 +0100

This morning, I did my usual check of the “On this day” view in Diarium, and found that this day last year I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my finger.

The diagnosis was via email:

Thank you for having your tests. Just to let you know your blood test has come back normal, which is reassuring. The X-ray shows osteoarthritis in the joint. There is some more information via this link https://versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/osteoarthritis-of-the-hand-and-wrist/. Any problems let us know

Oh! That was kind of unexpected. I’m not old enough for osteoarthritis, am I?

The first thing I did was make an appointment with the GP. Or I tried to. It took me a couple of days ringing at 8am to get one two weeks later. When I finally saw them it was useful to get an overview of what this meant for me. And they booked me a same day appointment with the physio. The physio was excellent. Reassuring. Helpful. Giving me links to exercises to start doing. And diagnosed my thumb with osteoarthritis as well, which made sense. I’d had an ache in that joint for a while but put it down to mouse and keyboard work. And actually it’s the thumb that has given me the most problems to manage over the year.

While waiting to see the GP I’d started doing what I always do when something new happens to me. I read. I found arthritis charities in the UK. I learned about the different types of arthritis. I found some books and read them too. Over the course of the year, these are the books I’ve read that I’ve valued the most:

Treat Your Own Hand and Thumb Osteoarthritis by Jim Johnson - the most specific book I’ve read, with useful and realistic exercises and a helpful background into the bone structure of the hand
The Pain-Free Mindset: 7 Steps to Taking Control and Overcoming Chronic Pain by Dr Deepak Ravindran - an excellent book about pain, and how to live with it. I started running experiments after reading this to reduce and work around any pain I have
One Step Ahead of Osteoarthritis: Stay Flexible and Keep Moving by Frances Ive - the first book I read, and more general than just the hand. Gave me the first ideas about supplements, and gave me further reading

In November I started symptom tracking using Bearable. It’s a good looking app, which helps when I’m using it every day, multiple times a day. It’s also really configurable, letting me track all sorts of things, from pain, through supplements, to exercises tried, to suspicions I have (eating sugary snacks makes my hand hurt, which is sadly true). It has reports which are helpful, but I’ve never quite found the time to explore and configure them as well as I’d have liked.

Earlier in the summer I made use of my Claude subscription to analyse the data in full. I got a CSV export from Bearable, explained some changes I’d made in the tracking period, and let it go. It found some correlations that were actionable. Really helpful. Obviously what works for me won’t necessarily work for others, but tracking and analysing feels worthwhile. I’ve tried different experiments over the year, and Bearable with Claude have helped me work out if they’re helpful or not. It also let me put together a report to take to the physio at my appointment last month, setting out what I’d tried and found beneficial, and what I’d discarded. My main limitation is trying not to run too many experiments at once, so I can actually see what’s working rather than muddying the results with several changes at a time. My next review of the data will be at the start of September, when I’ll pick the next experiments to try.

There’s still plenty on my list to work through, and new research on OA management keeps emerging, so I don’t think I’ll run out of things to try any time soon.

I’d rather not have hand osteoarthritis, but my focus now is managing it, and keeping as much strength and mobility in my hand as I can. I’ll continue to run experiments, track and analyse the data, to keep working towards my long term goal of living independently into my 80s.

WalletWallet

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 19:44:00 +0100

WalletWallet was mentioned in Dense Discovery this week and since learning of it I’ve already added three different passes to my Apple wallet. Mostly for applications that can be a bit sluggish to start up and give the relevant QR code - PureGym I’m looking at you!

It’s exactly the kind of obvious-once-you-see-it idea that Dense Discovery is good at surfacing.