1996 has been a year of considerable change for the Johnston family.
First there were four…
Graeme was “persuaded” (not very difficult) to take early retirement from Coutts at Easter, so “trust me, I’m a banker” gave way to “trust me, I’m a pensioner”. Being a househusband was fine for a while, but he eventually felt the need to look for another job. Judith enjoyed coming from home from work to a cooked meal but this only lasted for about three days! (That’s enough husband-bashing — Ed.)
Early in the year Cambridge sadly decided that they could manage without Rory’s expertise, so he looked at other universities as far away from home as possible, and decided on Edinburgh -not a bad choice as there is a very indulgent granny and a battery of aunts, uncles and friends as a support system.
We celebrated Rory’s 18th birthday in February, closely followed by Fleur’s 15th. Where have the years gone? These days, i.e. now that Rory has a driving licence, mother’s car is no longer disdained as an old rust bucket, but has become a desirable means of transport. In the spring we took the above mentioned rust bucket on Le Shuttle to France for a shopping trip. The anticipation was dreadful, but everything went well, and the claustrophobic was converted! Of course, this was before the recent fire.
Fleur’s knee had been troublesome for quite a while and was now getting worse. She was almost a regular at Casualty and the phone calls to be rescued from school were becoming more frequent, so it was eventually decided that she should have arthroscopy (“kneehole surgery” to us) after the end of term. Work experience in the summer term was spent with the infants at her former primary school, moving her experience up a level from the time she had spent working at the University crèche the previous summer. After the operation she was able to get to the infants’ sports day on crutches.
By now Graeme was negotiating for an EU-funded consultancy job which would involve spending considerable amounts of time in Moscow or Kiev; and also with IBM, to be attached to their banking and finance group. This would mean working in the UK’s major financial centres -or so we thought! He also became a director of a small theatre company specialising in youth education for local authorities: “trust me, I’m a thespian”.
Then there were three…
In this busy summer Rory left school with a very creditable haul of five A levels (2 As, 2 Bs, and a C), and tried hard to find some holiday work, but nothing much doing, except a few shifts at the regional Post Office sorting office, almost until the end of the holidays, when a temporary office job finally materialised. For over a month Rory was big in drains and sewers…
After a joint family holiday at a castle near Turriff, Aberdeenshire, with 14 assorted Johnstons aged 10 months to 75 years, Graeme started work with IBM at the South Bank: “trust me, I’m a technologist” .After four days there, the major financial centres began to emerge as Leeds, Dublin, Halifax, and Skelmersdale(!), closely followed by Madrid, Jersey and Copenhagen. Thailand and Ecuador are currently being added to the list. Graeme is at present based in Copenhagen Monday to Friday, unless somewhere else outside the UK.
Not to be outdone by Fleur, the junior cat, a feline Gazza, limped home one day with a snapped cruciate ligament. He too had surgery, not as dainty as Fleur’s, but he has made a far better recovery. Fleur’s footballing career may be over before it has really begun.
Rory went up to Edinburgh University at the end of September to study Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science for the next four years. Judith drove him halfway, to rendezvous with Graeme, who was working in Leeds, and said goodbye to her firstborn in a windy, rainswept services carpark off the A1 – not a great moment. Graeme installed Rory and all his computer kit in a university flat which he shares with five other nerds (sorry, young men). He took his refereeing kit and whistle with him, but has admitted that it is too cold to run about in shorts, and has taken up jitsu (The Gentle Art) instead. He has just achieved a yellow belt II, and claims he can break your arm in three different ways!
Then there were two…
Someone said that once the menfolk were out of the way, Judith and Fleur could do girly things like go to slushy movies together – but tastes are so different that there have not been any mother/daughter outings – except shopping! We joined Graeme in Leeds at half term for some intensive retail therapy, especially at the new Harvey Nicks store.
Having been the “temporary help” at the Danbury outpost of Anglia Polytechnic University for three years, Judith was persuaded to join the permanent staff, and go legit. Not a great job, but with lively young people, and only eight minutes door to door. Some of the myriad of other jobs have had to be dropped, but she still looks after the governors of the two primary schools in the village. The office has recently installed the Internet – not just for Judith’s and Rory’s benefit, although she is now known as E-mail woman! We get more literate communication from Rory now than ever before.
Soon we shall be four again – even if only for a short time over the festive season.
With all best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.
Graeme & Judith ([email protected], [email protected])