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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.