I’m not very keen on heights.

Which is why I sent my plain-speaking-photographer-friend up a 120ft click tower in Ipswich’s Holywells Park this week.

We were there to have a look at the progress of a lottery project which will renovate and restore the stable block and orangery.

So as I looked after her bag, Lucy climbed the scaffolding to take a picture of the view.

She got her own back, of course.

“James,“ Lucy yelled, “look up or I’ll just take a picture of your bald patch.”

I rose above it and asked her what the view was like.

Lovely apparently. I took her word for it.

In other news I did announce to my parents that I would clear out their loft – an area full of 40 years of accumulated stuff.

Among the old curtains and bags of clothes I was hoping for a nice little Rembrandt or cash in the attic – literally.

No such luck.

But apparently, according to my mother, my high chair may still “come in” though unless I shrink considerably and develop a taste for puréed apple and custard I somehow doubt it and you never know when you might need a fondue set circa 1973.

In the end I took one look at the loft and decided it might be too much of an effort added to which mother said my Dr Who K9 toy had long since gone so there was no chance of turning it into something useful like a tank full of diesel.

My enthusiasm was somewhat waning, so I returned to my small flat with sea views (distant) for a weekend of light lunches – well, scampi – and full Englishes with the intention of walking it all off in due course.

In the end I cycled around for a bit instead.

On Monday I went to meet Ipswich vicar Andrew Dotchin, a man who has embraced social media as part of his ministry to the people of Whitton. (You can read all about him in the EADT on Monday.)

He also fought apartheid in his younger days in South Africa and has a few tales to tell.

An interesting man to listen to. And we soon discovered we shared a passion for savoury pastry...