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.