Johnston Family

Eat your heart out, Hugh Grant, we managed five weddings and no funerals! Otherwise, a year of hats, holidays and hedonism, including increasing consumption of Danish pastries by one member of the family.

1998 went a bit like this:

January

Graeme’s Danish pastry consumption: low. Parties given/attended: 5 Theatre: 1, Concert: 1

Started the New Year with the appropriately named Jan and Ian Yule’s annual long walk and even longer lunch. Held our usual Alternative Burns’ Nite Supper, but for some reason can’t remember much about either. Work started on phase 1 of patio reconstruction.

February

Graeme’s Danish pastry consumption: low. Parties given/attended: 3. Meetings attended/minutes taken: 2. Exhibition: 1

A relatively quiet month, apart from the thud of bills hitting the bank accounts. Original oil tank finally gave up and new plastic tank installed. Fleur had MRI scan. Celebrated her 17th birthday fairly quietly, (don’t know what Rory did for his 20th) but we’re planning the big 18/21 bash for next year.

March

Graeme’s Danish pastry consumption: lowish. Parties given/attended: 2

Fleur starts driving lessons.

Air Miles made us an offer we could not refuse for a few days in Hong Kong. What an amazing place! So much to see, so little time! Ate in a wide range of establishments – one of the great breakfasts of all time at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, a supper in a chicken and noodle bar, and an excellent meal with Michael and Tina, a vegetarian lunch in a Buddhist monastery on Lantau, Henri’s Galley in Macao and the Mövenpick at the top of the Peak, managed by a friend of Michael’s. Very low cloud most of the time in Hong Kong so could see nothing at all from the Peak, and had to wait for ages for cloud to clear to see largest outdoor seated Buddha on top of man-made hill at the monastery. Rode the Star Ferry several times, travelled by ancient Glasgow trams (incredibly cheap), the Metro (spotlessly clean and cheap) and lots of buses and taxis. Managed to fit in a little retail therapy as well as sightseeing – but still more to do!

April

Graeme’s Danish pastry consumption: still lowish. Parties given/attended: 3 Theatre 1. Committee meetings/minutes taken: 2 . Weddings: 2, big hats: 1.

Rory home for Easter holidays. Fleur having acupuncture treatment for headaches. Michael and Tina (young friends) who live in Hong Kong, married in Las Vegas, honeymooned in New York and celebrated with a major party at Danbury Palace. The sensational cabaret was provided by a 6 ft black drag queen, Ms Teddi Bear, aka Danny, Michael’s former flat mate, and also best man at the wedding in Las Vegas. Did not have to wear big hat on this occasion, but needed new posh frock.

Managed to fit in day trip to France, but this does not really count as a holiday!

Fleur started placement at Danbury Park School for two days each week.

Original pool boiler died of old age, and new heating equipment installed.

Second wedding of the month – Mike and Sheila married at Danbury, in the sunshine, followed by reception at Danbury Palace. [Time I had a new hat.] Michael’s house now full of teenage boys and small cats and dogs.

May

Graeme’s Danish pastry consumption: lowish but rising. Meetings attended/minutes taken: 1. Parties given/attended: 3. Weddings: 1.

Swimming weather at last – at least one weekend!

Judith and Fleur had a lightning trip to Edinburgh to see Rory, Graeme’s mother, newest cousin baby Hannah, and to buy very big hat in Jenners. Back home next day joined by friends from Weymouth for wedding, at country house not far from here, of two old friends. Big hats and posh frocks! Three days later, persuaded by Twinning Association to have German family to stay – quite hard going as language problems, but very good weather made things much easier. Called Dorothy in as interpreter.

June

Graeme’s Danish pastry consumption: moderate (boredom setting in). Meetings attended/minutes taken: 2. Parties given/attended: 4. Weddings 1 Opera: 1. Exhibitions: 1

Phase 2 of patio completed this month. All that money spent, and hardly any swimming due to dismal summer weather.

Young friends Brad and Catherine married at Danbury. Poured with rain all day, and big hat suffered. However, great party afterwards.

Met school friend from Australia at Royal Academy summer exhibition. Recognised each other instantly after 30+ years! At last, a lunch party in the garden. Must start the pre-holiday diet – soon.

A twenty-first party on a Friday night – and the flight from Copenhagen was late for the first time! But we got there for the last half!

Fleur passes driving theory test. Rory went to jitsu grading in Huddersfield, and horrific tales emerged of fights with real knives and sticks, bruises, black eyes, sprains, cut heads and bloodstained gi’s (those white pyjamas). However, Rory now light blue belt, and healing well.

July

Pina coladas/seabreezes/strawberry daiquiris/s*x on the beach: not counting!

We are now getting the hang of holidays, and set off for Mexico (before the crowds) for hot sunshine, air conditioning, white sands, wonderful pools, non-stop cocktails, great shopping and the “seven shades of turquoise” Caribbean – not remotely like Ullapool on a wet early closing day!

The principal cultural interest was Chichen Itza, vast Mayan ruins in the jungle. We all climbed El Castillo. It was bad enough going up, but coming down was worse.

Indiana Johnston and his son went riding in the jungle and fought the mozzies, while F and J worked hard on their tans, and cooled off in the air-conditioned shopping malls. The World Cup finals were on at this time, but some of us managed to avoid them completely.

Graeme had to be restrained from buying very large, very silly big hat. Judith bought only one, very restrained, sun hat.

Arrived home from holiday to find water dripping through ceiling of dining room from minor catastrophe in bathroom above. Fortunately the insurance company was happy to pay for carpet cleaning, ceiling and room redecoration, and the large wooden rhino from Zimbabwe has now been french polished (a world first?)and restored to original condition.

Rory eventually managed to get a holiday job in Brentwood, but had to buy a suit, a couple of shirts and ties, as not all dad’s ties were acceptable! He took over mother’s car and thrashed it up and down the A12 for nearly three months – car aged at least five years.

August

Parties given/attended: 3. Danish pastry consumption: moderate (post holiday blues). Exhibitions: 2.

Graeme and Fleur went up to Edinburgh and Fleur had to cope on the return with vagaries of Air YUK for her first solo flight. But she is now a seasoned traveller and went up to Edinburgh again to stay with Samantha and her brood.

September

Danish pastry consumption: moderate. (Graeme’s office in Copenhagen, “Banking ‘R Us”, now offers day long running buffet.) Weddings: 1. Meetings attended/minutes taken: 1. Big, big, big party.

At the beginning of the month Judith became an academic landlady for a short time, and looked after a young Finnish couple, the female half working at Anglia Business School, until they found somewhere to live in Chelmsford.

Fleur back to college and placement at Danbury Park School on alternate weeks. Was heard to remark that she could not miss any college, it was so much better than school!!!!!!!

Young friends Rosie and Phil married at Little Baddow on another very wet day. Big hat, posh frock and large umbrella needed again. But a very happy family occasion, lots of kilts and dancing into wee small hours. (Am I getting too old for all this? Nah!) Rory seen on dance floor for first time in life. (Veil best drawn over his eightsome reel.)

Mid September saw our Silver Wedding party which we shared with lots of old and some newer friends. Samantha (one of our bridesmaids), her husband Neil and two little ones made the long trek south to join in the fun. A memorable occasion for us. Went right over the top with balloons and streamers and narrowly avoided ending up with two silver wedding cakes. Appreciated the mountain of cards, best wishes and presents. The magician (an old friend from Coutts) was quite a hit.

The opportunity arose for a short break in Spain at a friend’s timeshare apartment, so Judith took off for another little holiday. Managed to break a tooth one morning, but no difficulty finding an English speaking dentist on the Costa del Sol as there are so many geriatrics there.

October

Danish pastry consumption: high. Meetings attended/minutes taken: 3. Parties given/attended: 3.

Rory returned to Edinburgh for third year of four (so far). He has moved into the Jitsu Flat in Marchmont with two girls. Allegedly going to work hard this year.

Judith managed to find time for another little (but exhausting!) holiday, and joined the oldies from the art class on a trip to Merseyside to visit the galleries of the North West. Took in the Lady Lever Gallery, the Walker, the Whitworth, the Tate, Salford, and quite a lot more – a pre-Raphaelite heaven.

Graeme’s Business Analysis team in Copenhagen woke up to the fact that they were into their third winter in Denmark, and arranged a great party to lighten the Scandinavian gloom. It was billed as a tuxedos, ball gowns and tarts’ trotters event (and that was just the fellas!). Graeme found his dinner jacket had mysteriously shrunk whilst hanging in the wardrobe. IBM kindly flew Judith out to Copenhagen for a long weekend. Those young people (and some of their older colleagues) certainly know how to party! Inordinate amounts of champagne were consumed.

November

Danish pastry and Swiss chocolate consumption: high (despite October’s dinner jacket fiasco). Concert: 1, Theatre 1. Meetings attended/minutes taken: 2. Exhibition: 1. Dinner parties given/attended: 3.

Must go on diet to get into new LBD for 30 year reunion party of organisation where we met. We were younger and slimmer in those days! It was good to see old friends again.

Graeme had a short visit to gnomes of Zurich, and enjoyed a scenic train trip from Zurich to Lugano.

December

Danish pastry consumption: high, supplemented by Danish chocolate, Jule beer, etc. Concert: 1 Parties – several (losing count).

The party season gets under way. Anyone who thought life in a small village was quiet and sleepy has never lived in Danbury/Little Baddow. The Christmas tree goes up very soon, and rent-a-mob will be round for drinks shortly.

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Graeme’s mother has sampled a variety of hospitals in the Edinburgh/Linlithgow area this year, but is currently very well, and now has eleven grandchildren.

The acupuncture and drug therapy for Fleur’s headaches has been moderately successful. Driving lessons have now resumed after long break in the summer, and the little red car now wears L plates again.

Haven’t seen much of Rory over the year, and the e-mails have gone a bit quiet, but we have learned how to access the Jitsu Club chat page to find out if he is still alive.

Plans will be laid over the holiday – not only for the millennium party, but for a combined 18th and 21st celebration in February.

Graeme now moving to IBM’s Böblingen (near Stuttgart) development laboratory in January. Serious Danish pastry withdrawal symptoms expected.

With all best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Graeme & Judith ([email protected], [email protected])

1997 has been a more settled year for us, although we are settled in different places; Graeme mostly in Denmark, Rory in Scotland, while Fleur and Judith still live at home in deepest darkest Little Baddow.

Graeme has settled into a regular pattern of weekly commuting to Copenhagen, with occasional forays to Leeds, Halifax and Pudsey. His collection of Airmiles, SAS and Forte Bonus Points is reaching embarrassing proportions, but there seems to be no time to spend them on holidays. [At this rate, Venice will have sunk by the time we get back there. Mrs Ed.] The threat of Caracas seems to have receded for the moment, and there is a faint possibility of an assignment in Edinburgh next year, so fingers crossed.

He has just returned from Copenhagen bearing a silver cup for winning the go-karting championship, much to the chagrin of his younger and fitter colleagues. Perhaps they didn’t realise this is his normal driving style! A once in a lifetime chance to stand on the podium and spray people with champagne – at least it wasn’t a waste of good champagne!

Judith is still pursuing her career in doing not very much at the university, and is continuing her art history course to relieve the tedium. She has recently become a Friend of the RA and zooms up to London at the drop of a hat just to be able to walk in at the front of the queue – as well as to visit the exhibitions. A few more galleries are on the hit list, and we are beginning to run out of wall space. [Just Judith rearranging her assets. Ed.]

We haven’t seen Rory since August. He returned to the frozen north shortly after our holiday to earn loadsamoney working for brother-in-law Neil, in order to finance his mobile phone habit.

This year’s flat, situated in the West End of Edinburgh, between the police station and the massage parlour, is allegedly far less grotty than the previous one, possibly because there is a Japanese girl in charge. He shares with two astro-physicists and two girls who are doing business studies and economics. Judith is the only one who has seen neither of these flats – perhaps it’s just as well. Maybe one day……

Rory is now a green belt in jitsu, and is going for purple very shortly. He may well need all these self defence skills as he is the club treasurer. In spite of the cold, he has signed up with the Scottish Football Association and reffed a few matches for the City of Edinburgh Men’s League. These guys are gorillas with shaven heads, at least ten years older, and much, much bigger than Ninjaboy. However, Rory has his whistle and his red card to protect him. They haven’t beaten up the young English ref yet, but it’s early days.

On the other hand, he does admit to getting beaten up three times at week at the jitsu club – mostly by the girls! According to received information, half these girls want to mother him, and the other half want to kill him! [For those with the technology, have a look at www.ed.ac.uk\~radj and links, for fairly recent pictures too!]

He says he is working hard now, but won’t comment about any social life – so we must draw our own conclusions!

Fleur had her knee operation repeated and this time it was much more successful, although obviously there is still residual pain. However, she did manage a triumphant rounders season, and only got concussion once.

She left school in the summer with a good clutch of O levels and has moved on to Chelmsford College to take a two-year CACHE NNEB Diploma course. She has made lots of new friends and is enjoying life. At least two days a week are spent at the Anglia University crèche where she enjoys looking after the babies and toddlers. She is also developing a thriving baby-sitting business. However, she is still a dedicated Manchester United fan. (But, then, nobody’s perfect. Ed.)

Driving lessons will start in about three months – so clear the streets!

Our senior ginger cat, Baggins, became ill in the summer and had to go to the great cattery in the sky. Not long afterwards we acquired a very lively tabby kitten called George. His footballing skills are excellent, and he is driving poor old Thistle demented as he wants to play all the time. Having used up most of the Hobbit names, it seems we are now embarking on a dynasty of footballing felines.

As we were no longer restricted to school holidays, we took an early holiday to Turkey – our first ever family package holiday. It was an “interesting” experience, but after we had changed hotels (boy, has Graeme learned how to complain since he joined IBM!) everything got better. Eating, drinking and doing nothing featured heavily on the agenda, but we did manage to take in a few ruins and buy lots of fake designer t-shirts. It was very hot, but the drinks were cold and kept on coming, and the swimming pools were not too busy at that time. But it must be hell during the busy season.

Rory caused quite a stir one morning by saying he had been for a run along the beach before breakfast. This is not Johnston behaviour! Even Judith was forced to play tennis on three mornings – before it got too hot. Fleur trounced Rory at tennis, but he said he had the sun in his eyes – his excuse. And Graeme went potholing by mistake, but that is too complicated a story for this newsletter. We all returned rested, relaxed and with varying degrees of suntan.

Fleur and Judith flew out to Copenhagen for a few days in the late summer to share Graeme’s humble executive suite at the top of the Royal Hotel. The highlight of the trip – for some – was the Lindt chocolate shop on Strøget, but we also trekked round lots of castles and galleries. Over the weekend we drove round Zealand and visited Karen Blixen’s house, Kronborg Castle (Elsinore), Frederiksburg Castle and saw the Viking longships at Roskilde. The roads are excellent, but the speed limits are way too low! Some of us like herring for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but it’s probably just as well for Fleur that McDonalds has made inroads into the Danish fast food market.

More recently, Graeme and Judith had a long weekend away – on their own! – leaving Fleur in charge of house and livestock. God knows how many people came to the party, but all was in order when we got back. We visited old friends in Weymouth and Devon, and came back laden with goodies from the Dartington Shop (now so much bigger) and the Fossil Shop in Lyme Regis, last visited on our honeymoon twenty-four years ago.

It has been another good year for parties in the garden. Judith and Fleur have seen lots of George Clooney movies, but as Graeme is shattered at the weekends, there haven’t been quite so many candlelight suppers or theatre visits this year.

This year’s visitors included Allan and Louisa from Zimbabwe. It was great to see them again. The fish restaurant in Maldon was pleased to see all of us one evening; and quite surprised to see all of us again (plus Louisa’s son who now lives in London) the following evening! They probably laid a special table for us on the third evening. We’re hoping to go back to Zim again next year and look forward to seeing all relations and friends out there, plus the more recent additions.

Graeme’s mother had a mild stroke earlier in the year, and spent a few days in hospital, but has made a good recovery. She has gained another grandson, and her eleventh grandchild is due in the spring.

The travellers are due home shortly, and we can “spend time with our family” once again. It’s the usual routine: Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve, joined by one or two friends, and then a complete veg out for the next few days, interrupted only by those vital drinks parties with friends and neighbours all round the village. Why does Christmas always come at such a busy time of year?

With very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Graeme & Judith ([email protected], [email protected])

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])