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Christmas Newsletter 2011

December, 2011

Let’s have a quiet year we said, full of good intentions; after all we are getting ancient.  As you might well guess, it didn’t work out exactly like that.  Over Christmas we watched an interesting TV programme about an exhibition in Florence of the work of Agnolo Bronzino, contemporary of Vasari, and decided that we just had to go, so at very short notice we found a cheap flight to Pisa and a wonderfully quirky hotel in Florence.  That gave us a couple of days of culture with added pasta, glorious.  But we also needed Sun so a few weeks later, despite the political unrest and man eating sharks, we took ourselves off to Naama Bay, Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt to a great hotel with few other guests.  Judith has now swum in the Gulf of Aqaba (not the entire length, Ed) to add to her diverse other accomplishments.  It was so good we want to go back in 2012, politics permitting.

Just to balance that up, weather-wise, we decided to have a few days in Stornoway in April as Rory was at the Western Isles Hospital for an elective in psychiatry.  In fact, the weather was particularly fine (i.e. not raining all the time, Ed) without a breath of wind so we had a highly enjoyable trip taking in the standing stones at Callanish, a broch at Dun Carloway, the beach at Uig where the Lewis chess pieces were found, and a mysterious new distillery in Harris – all this in Rory’s company as he somehow managed to get time off for the entire duration of our trip (he also managed to wangle free breakfasts at our B&B every day, Ed).  Just in case you are interested, the gift shop at Callanish sells the Best Tablet Ever!

In June we went to Benalmadena with Fleur and Keith for a week of lazing in the sun (or cowering in the shade if you are Graeme, Ed) with lots of cheap red wine and a Kindle, and in August we had our usual week at the Edinburgh Festival – a catchall term that, for us, really means the Book Festival, the Fringe, art exhibitions and anything else we fancy doing -pretending to be teenagers.  The only concession to advancing years on this occasion was that we flew up, but as always we had a great time meeting up with old friends, catching up with the family and rubbing shoulders around town with the good and the great plus a few actors and writers.

We managed another vegging out week in September at Denia, up the Costa Blanca coast from Alicante, and managed to get out in our hire car to explore the interesting paddy fields in the National Park area south of Valencia.  October took us to the border between Normandy and Brittany for a few days to stay with friends who have a house there, beautiful countryside but remote though we got to Mont St Michel in about ninety minutes.  In between, we managed a few trips around England – most notably visiting friends at Badby in Northants, Newmarket on a non-race day to visit the gallops, a trainer’s yard and the National Stud (but lunch at the Jockey Club was the best bit, Ed), and Ironbridge where we immersed ourselves in early Industrial Revolution stuff and acquired a bottom knocker’s sagger as an anniversary present; can’t wait to go back for more (Industrial Revolution not saggers, Ed, and aren’t some men easily pleased!).

Can’t imagine why but our children have become travellers as well.  In addition to joining us in Benalmadena for a week in the sun Fleur and Keith discovered the delights of Paris for Fleur’s 30th birthday where Keith organised a room with a view of the Eiffel Tower (must be a Euro millionaire, and where have all those year’s gone? Ed) and then visited friends in France later in the year; and for some unaccountable reason Rory went to Bulgaria to recover from his exams (it was very, very cheap, Ed).

One of the high points of our year was the news in May that Rory had successfully completed his finals.  Hence, in July we all went to Nottingham for the graduation ceremony presided over by a tiny Chinese gentleman who seemed to be a cross between Yoda and Professor Flitwick, so tiny in fact that when moving about he had to have an attendant (his Bridesmaid, possibly? Ed) to carry his train.  Anyway, it was a splendid occasion and we have the photographs to prove it, and we celebrated later in Derby in a very fine Indian restaurant.  So, the Young Laird is now officially a Doctor (the editor has a very tight, very pink “my son’s a doctor” T shirt to prove it, Ed, see pictures below), and he started his F1 year in the vascular wards in the main hospital in Derby in August; some months on he is now having to work a bit harder in the respiratory wards.  The pressures of examinations also led to the deferment of his birthday in February, which later became his ‘third of a century’ birthday!

In between all of this we managed to get a fair bit of work completed on the house – new flat roof in one area, new ceilings and tiled floors in three rooms, plus associated decorating; next year’s project is currently at the ‘thinking about’ stage.

We also got up to London a fair bit for exhibitions and shows, usually accompanied by a meal; our highlights were the Canaletto exhibition (lunch at Albanach), Wicked (lunch at Fortnums), Royal Hospital Chelsea, Cause Célèbre (lunch at Zucca, supper at Meza), Royal Academy Buyer’s Day (lunch at Quaglinos), Medieval Altarpieces at the National Gallery, Harry Potter in 3D IMAX format, the Degas exhibition followed by the Buckingham Palace tour (lunch at Fortnums), the Wallace Collection (afternoon tea at the Mandeville), the Private Eye exhibition at the V&A (cocktail party at Coutts) and the Wizard of Oz so not entirely highbrow stuff (loved the Harry Potter, Ed, as well as the wedding dress at the Palace).  We also did quite a bit of NT Live which provided us with inexpensive access to culture, notably Derek Jacobi’s King Lear, Rory Kinnear’s Hamlet, James Corden in ‘One Man Two Guvnors’, Simon Russell Beale in ‘Collaborators’ and Zoe Wannamaker in the Cherry Orchard, and the editor, lucky girl, managed to snag the last ticket on a coach trip to see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition having left it too late to book at cheap rate…

We are still active on the local U3A front where we organise events as part of its Social Committee and attend lots of special interest groups.  When we joined we were clear that we wouldn’t let it dominate our lives but some weeks it is a close call.  This year’s highlight was probably the Cutty Sark dinner, for which most members dress appropriately; Judith was of course appropriately elegant (but her other half roughed it as a disreputable Scottish pirate, just an excuse for lots of Yo Ho Ho’ing plus shivering of timbers plus non-stop taking of wine with all and sundry, Ed).

Archie (a.k.a. Andrex Cat) has become a ferocious hunter, and he does like to bring his little ‘finds’ home to play with.  So we are frequently to be found playing ‘catch the mouse’ around the house and reckon that we get a bit more than half back outside in a functional state (i.e. only a bit chewed, Ed).  We managed to intercept the rabbit before he could get it inside but he did manage to get in a slow worm (easy to deal with as they are slow, Ed) and a grass snake which was taken back out writhing around a spaghetti fork (so I want a new spaghetti fork for Christmas, Ed). Amber is an old lady now but she can get quite interested when Archie catches a mouse for her.

So there you have it, a snapshot of our somewhat chaotic but rarely dull life at St Martins during 2011, though in the interests of brevity (some hope, Ed) we have left out cinema trips, Rotary activities, local events, local theatre and parties; perhaps we will slow down in 2012 (even less hope, Ed, unless the money runs out).  We hope that this letter will find you all well and fit, and we wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous year in 2012.

Dr Johnston with his adoring family, or something like that…
Now that’s what I call a T shirt…
How proud are we?  And, yes, the old guy has managed to fit in a haircut since the picture was taken…
How old is that girl?
Archie, contemplating his next assault on the local wildlife…
Categories
Christmas Letters

Christmas Message 2010

After last year’s bumper crop of foreign trips we had intended to do much less this year but that good intention didn’t really work out (not my fault, Ed). March saw us in Las Vegas proving to ourselves that our first impressions of the place in 1975 still held good, might try again in another 35 years or so. April and May were much better; we went with Fleur and Keith to Washington followed by Williamsburg and then Philadelphia which we reached by driving along the Blue Ridge Mountains, all quite wonderful and conceived as part of Keith’s 40th birthday celebrations. These seem to have gone on and on and on throughout the year, having started in February with an 80’s themed party at St Martins graced by the presence of Freddy Mercury and Brian May (the Salmons)… In June we took Rory to our time share in Benalmadena for a week of vegging out, timed to coincide with the completion of yet another set of examinations, and from that point on we were at home until August and our annual trip to the joys of the Edinburgh Festival. We gave ourselves a slightly longer trip this year with two overnight stops on the way north in order to visit Castle Howard and Bamburgh Castle, and an extra day in Edinburgh that proved conclusively to us that can no longer cope with eight consecutive days of fringe performances plus the book festival plus catching up with old friends. Are we getting old or what? In October we gave ourselves a few days in Madrid in order to visit a couple of galleries (Thyssen Bornemisza and the Sorolla House) that we were unable to fit in last year, and as before we enjoyed the tapas bars and draught vermouth. Later in October we joined a cruise to the Canaries on the Independence of the Seas out of Southampton to help celebrate Graeme’s sister Karen’s 50th birthday (she doesn’t look a day over 40, dammit, Ed). There were eleven of us there, ages from about thirteen up, and we had a splendid time doing not too much during the day and getting back together for dinner. We went ashore in most ports to potter about (he means recreational shopping, Ed) but had a pleasant excursion in Madeira where we were obliged to descend from the mountaintop (hyperbole, Ed) in a wicker basket propelled at great speed down a very shiny tarmac road. Finally, in November, we managed a quick trip to Paris to celebrate Judith’s birthday and visited a huge Monet exhibition at the Grand Palais.

Within the UK we fitted in a trip to Southampton in January where Graeme was to be a witness in an eBay fraud trial; sadly, the perp changed his plea to guilty just before G. was due to step into the witness box. In March we visited the young laird in Derby, in May we had a wonderful trip to Sissinghurst where we stayed at the Sissinghurst farmhouse now managed by a friend of a friend and in September we stayed at the Bear in Woodstock so that we could visit Blenheim Palace yet again.

The bulk of the year, in between holidays and trips, has been consumed by building projects both at our house and at Fleur and Keith’s. We had thought it might be efficient to use the same builder for both so that work could move between the two houses as it fitted the builder’s schedule; in the event, not quite true. At St Martins the swimming pool had come to the end of its life and as we found out once it had been emptied it was much more comprehensively bu**ered than we had known. Demolition started in February and we were out of the ground with foundations complete, concrete floor beams laid and the last vestiges of the pool hidden under tons of hardcore the same month though there was about a ten day window when, for a suitable consideration, we could have disposed of bodies in the deep end. A month later we had the bricking complete and the side windows in place; if only the builder had ordered the correct roof that might have been there as well… The delay occasioned by that allowed work to start at Edmund Road on the construction of a porch plus a fair bit of internal work at which point Fleur and Keith found themselves living with a large hole between their living room and the street. From then on the work continued slowly and fitfully in both locations, the mess and lack of progress at Edmund Road eventually persuading Fleur, Keith and Indie the kitten to move in with us for a month. On one occasion Judith returned home covered in plaster from a ceiling that had collapsed on her, possibly due to over-vigorous painting (could happen to anybody with muscles, Ed). To be fair, our builder has strengths that we appreciate; he is tall enough to work on ceilings without using a stepladder, can leap buildings at a single bound and he is extremely flexible about the work so that he was able to take on board numerous scope changes (he means afterthoughts and additions, Ed). So, we now have several new doors and windows, rebuilt fences, wraparound terraces at St Martins (one is helipad size, Ed), six large raised flowerbeds, a raised vegetable patch, a new shed, a small greenhouse, new paths and new turf at both houses. The work at Edmund Road was completed in September, and at St Martins more or less in time for our annual Christmas party, and we are now going to take a bit of a break from projects (that’s what you think, Ed).

We got up to London a fair bit, as always, the theatre highlights being ‘The Habit of Art’, ‘Warhorse’, ‘London Assurance’, ‘The 39 Steps’, ‘The Power of Yes’, ‘La Bête’ and ‘Yes, Prime Minister’. We also fitted in a few art exhibitions – the Scottish Colourists at the Fleming, van Gogh, Sandby and the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, and a visit to Anita Klein’s new studio south of the river (yes, we can slum it as well, Ed). We also went up to London to meet up with Rita and Terry Holliday for a long lunch for the birthday boy (Terry), really enjoyable as we had not managed to get to Weymouth this year as we had intended (hopefully next year, Ed).

Our University of the Third Age (U3A) activities are growing, with one or both of us involved with a number of specialist groups – Meteorology, Maritime, Wine (naturally, Ed), Family History, Local History and Arts; Egyptology awaits. We have also been co-opted on to the Social Committee so we get to organise other events as well and Judith is now able to whip up coleslaw for 120 at the drop of a cabbage. For example, the day we got back from our cruise we went to their Halloween Party, Judith as a glamorous witch with long purple hair, Graeme as a Cardinal (well, you never expect the Spanish Inquisition do you? Ed), and we acted as quiz masters for their annual quiz at the town hall.

Like everybody else we have suffered the snow, ice and freezing fog during December. In addition to the power cuts we had long brownouts that had us running on greatly diminished power and these comprehensively finished off our broadband router so that we had no internet access for over a week – serious withdrawal symptoms for both of us – and, more importantly, the dishwasher, but we managed to get that replaced and installed in only three days. Consolations through all this misery were a fine family lunch at the Great House in Lavenham and, due to the advent of NT Live, the opportunity to watch the Rory Kinnear Hamlet at the Olivier Theatre from the comfort of the Odeon cinema Chelmsford.

Rory has continued to pass exams and progress through his degree course; at time of writing he is acting as a sort of junior GP at a medical practice somewhere north of Derby, and after Christmas (so long as he doesn’t fall off his snowboard and break something, Ed) he will have a few weeks of general surgery. His finals are in March, and from April he will be off to the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway as part of their psychiatric team for a couple of months. We should mention that he has managed to find time to help out with building jobs for us during the year, in particular he laid the wooden floors and fitted a door at Edmund Road and put up the greenhouse at St Martins, all very much appreciated.

You will be pleased to hear that Archie, our new(ish) male cat is thriving; early in the year he became ‘Andrex Kitten’ so that now we need to keep all possible sources of toilet rolls well locked, and in March he discovered trees, though thankfully that phase lasted only a few weeks. Indie, Fleur and Keith’s feisty female tortoiseshell cat, has taken over their house and on Christmas Eve will be joined by Angus the kitten, aka the Ginger Ninja. As they will all be staying with us for Christmas it may well be that Amber, our senior female tabby cat, will want to leave home…

We hope that this letter will find you all well and fit, and we wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous year in 2011.



Categories
Christmas Letters

Christmas Newsletter 2009

This has been the first full year of Judith’s retirement, other than some invigilating at Anglia Ruskin and other occasional jobs around the university, so we have been free to travel and travel we have! In January we needed sunshine (who doesn’t, Ed) so we flew to Paphos for some R&R (and new specs for Judith, Ed) and took the opportunity to visit the Turkish north as well. In March we scratched a long felt itch by travelling to Egypt for a wonderful week of Nile cruising followed by a week of lazing on Crocodile Island, a few kilometres outside Luxor, plus a quick trip to Cairo to see the Pyramids. It was a truly memorable holiday. May saw us in Jersey, revisiting old haunts in a sit up and beg Smart car; amazing just how much you can cram into one of them when you try even though it’s a bit like driving a lawn mower. In June we took Fleur and Keith to our timeshare in Benalmadena for a week of R&R and then stayed home until August when we had our usual week of being teenagers again (yet again, long may it continue, Ed) at the Edinburgh Fringe. In September we managed a few days of culture and tapas in Madrid and discovered the joy of draft vermouth and black sausage from Burgos, and in October we scratched another itch by fitting in a trip to Istanbul to see the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Topkapi Palace. Finally, we took the Little Baddow Luncheon Club to Paris in November to celebrate three 65th birthdays and visited Le Train Bleu for dinner, totally over the top (including price-wise, Ed) but great fun.

We managed a few UK trips as well, notably Derby to visit Rory, Constable Country, Cragside in the Coquet valley, the Henry Moore Foundation, Hampton Court, Bath for Christopher Salmon’s wedding ceilidh in the Pump Rooms, and Oxford to visit Blenheim. We got up to London quite a bit as well, enjoyed tea at the Ritz courtesy of Fleur and Keith, a wonderfully generous treat, and visited the Plinthers in Trafalgar Square a few times. We also enjoyed lunch at the Fishmongers’ Hall to celebrate Judith having given 75 (few more now, Ed) armfuls of blood, a really great milestone.

In between times we had our bedroom and ensuite remodelled, a major undertaking involving just about every trade you can imagine though it went smoothly and quickly once it got started. And we managed a good many theatre trips, most notably ‘Carousel’, ‘Woman in Black’, a backstage tour of the Royal Opera House, an evening with Jonathan Miller (clearly topping up his pension fund, Ed), the quite wonderful ‘Pitmen Painters’, ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’, ‘La Cage aux Folles’, ‘Phèdre’ (through a live link to cinemas in a number of towns, we saw it in Colchester, Ed), ‘Dreamboats & Petticoats’ and ‘Alls Well that Ends Well’. We were also at the first night of ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ though that proved to be a complete disappointment but counterbalanced by a great evening when old friends Fascinating Aida (Jesus Saves, but Tesco saves you more) hit Chelmsford. We managed to fit in a few art exhibitions and spent more of the children’s inheritance than we care to admit though we tell them that we are really only exchanging one kind of asset for another. We especially liked the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy and no, Graeme will not be allowed to have a cannon firing splodges of red wax at the lounge wall even in the name of Art (spoilsport, Managing Ed).

Rory managed a couple of days with us in Edinburgh during our Fringe week; that gave us the opportunity to do a few shows together and fit in an extra family party courtesy of Samantha who is always ready to party… Otherwise, it was great to see all of the family and we spent more time than usual at the Book Festival; also marvelled at the extent to which the city has been dug up to install a single, ridiculously expensive tram line that nobody wants but which the outgoing Labour administration locked the City into contractually when they knew they were going to lose office.

As a special Fathers Day treat we went with Fleur and Keith to our first Twenty/20 cricket match at the county ground in Chelmsford; great fun in wonderful weather (enhanced by the Pimms tent, Ed) with Essex hitting their largest total in this year’s competition and winning well; we will be back next year. We have at last joined the local U3A and are easing ourselves into their various groups having started well by winning their annual quiz. We do Meteorology (can’t beat a good ‘ology, Ed), Wine (no surprise there, Ed) and Judith has started Family History as well.

Graeme got put on a mostly vegan diet by our home-grown family ‘doctor’ though it doesn’t apply during holidays or for dinner parties (might explain the abnormally high number of trips this year, Ed). The immediate consequence was a useful loss of weight that took six inches off his waist measurement and reduced his shirt size from extra large to medium; sadly, the cook (on much more exercise and exactly the same boring diet, dammit, Ed) did not experience the same result.

Rory is now more than half way through his medical degree. He has had long spells with Paediatrics and Obs & Gynae and is currently enjoying psychiatry; that means that on his next visit we will all be subjected to searching analyses and our every twitch carefully documented. He has a new girlfriend, also a medical student, and his newsletter is already on the family website. On trips home he has fitted in some great work on Fleur and Keith’s garden enlarging the decking area plus lots of internal work as well. It is all greatly appreciated though really we would just like him to come home and relax.

The big news of the year was Fleur graduating BA (Hons) with a strong 2.1, only two points short of what would have been a brilliant first from Anglia Ruskin. We celebrated just as soon as we knew, and then last month, full of parental pride, we enjoyed a splendid time at the University for her Graduation, front row seats courtesy of her Godfather, Mike Salmon, former Vice-Chancellor, and continued the celebrations into the evening. It was a huge achievement as she completed the three year degree while holding down a demanding job at the University and looking after Keith along with two not so small boys for half of every week.

A bit unexpectedly, we celebrated our wedding anniversary by being BBC extras at Jimmy’s Farm for his recent TV series on food science; we could be seen on two of the four episodes and Graeme was featured on the TV advertisement for the series. We were there the week before for the annual Sausage & Beer festival, and the week after for their version of a Harvest Festival (cooking and music) but had to sit in the marquee for the entire afternoon so that Judith could see James Martin the celebrity chef (twice) (but absolutely worth it, he is seriously tasty, Ed).

In October Graeme turned 65 and there was just a bit of partying… We all went to Chester for a family party, courtesy of Karen, followed next day by a cholesterol-busting Neil Sutton fry up brunch. There was a splendid gift in the form of an antique claret jug, sourced by our antiquarian friend Max, much appreciated and many thanks again to all who contributed to the ‘fund’. Even more amazingly, Graeme got called into the front garden one evening to find a silver stretch limo loaded with champagne waiting to take us all, including Keiran and Joshua, to the dogs at Romford; this was a shared gift with Keiran who became a teenager just as Graeme was getting his old age pension. Great fun. Graeme followed that by having a small operation to remove titanium clips from his chest, left over from his bypass operation, which were trying to fight their way out (but, naturally, he retrieved the clips afterwards and they may feature soon on eBay, Ed).

Our big sadness during the year was that George, our much loved senior cat, had to go to the great cattery in the sky; he is sorely missed though we now have a highly affectionate but hyperactive young cat called Archie who, once he settles down, will be a great compensation (if he survives that long, Ed, two vases broken so far and he is still growing). We had to board Archie out for a weekend with Fleur and Keith and, straight after, a lovely new kitten called Indy arrived for them.

December has been the usual frantic round of getting ready for Christmas in between parties (and power cuts, Ed) but we are now more or less in shape for the fun to come. We hope that this letter will find you all well and fit to face the rigours of the party season, and we wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous year in 2010.