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.

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.

So really the all encompassing fast track medical degree has consumed all my time! The end of GEM exams in Feb were without doubt the hardest I have worked for anything, ever. Never has so much tea and so many biscuits been consumed for so few exams. I was probably looking pretty pale by the time we got to the exams… Anyway, after GEM the first clinical placement was a breeze, but now we’re into 4th year the pressure is on again. I’ve just started Psychiatry which is proving to be pretty interesting after just 1 week!

Done virtually nothing on the house, still need to finish off some light painting & decorating, tinker with some radiators — little annoying jobs I have managed to keep putting off… I did manage to re-landscape the front of my driveway to give me a double gravel drive — so there’s room for me, my lodger and a space to rent out.

My 5 chickens are all well – no fox encounters this year, however they did stop laying early this year – I think they were too enthusiastic last year as they only stopped for 1 week, so far they have had a whole month off and I’ve even had to buy my own eggs!

So – Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to you all
Rory

Rory’s top Internet find of the Year
TopCashBack link: www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/roryj
So being a penniless student, saving money is everything. This year I got £45 cashback on my home & contents insurance (and that was £45 off the the cheapest quote from the comparison sites) – oh, plus £1 cashback for just looking on the comparison site.
I also got £25 cash back for switching my gas & electricity via Uswitch – and I was going to switch anyway!
Similar story for car insurance, but my BEST effort this year was breakdown cover – annual cover with the RAC for £8 – so that’s their basic £28 package with £20 cash back!
So how does it work you wonder? Sign up for a free account via this
link and you get a £1 joining bonus as I’ve recommended you. Any time you want to spend money on the web, have a quick check in topcashback to see the companies listed there, some offer a percentage off, some a fixed amount – you just have to click through from the topcashback website to the retailer, so some information is passed to the retailer and they know where to send the commission! Topcashback then get the money, and you can have it sent to your bank account probably a month later!

Rory’s biggest net time-waster this year
Farmville!

Rory’s most satisfying DIY this year
Been a few jobs this year… Fleur & Keith’s decking (not the doors, I hate hanging doors)
Resealing the parents shower sealant – think I’m actually getting the hang of this one!
Fleur & Keith’s under-stairs office – or was that year before??
Obviously i’ve done no satisfying DIY on my own home this year that I can think of!

Rory’s best bargain of the year
I’m going to go for the £8 annual RAC breakdown cover again… although my TV from ebuyer is still a pretty good bargain.

Another age defying, action-packed year from the Johnston family, though the older members are starting to need ever longer periods of recovery time after each outing.

January involved lots of treats including two trips to the ballet for Judith with one each for Graeme and Fleur, and Graeme started the process of being prodded about by consultants following a small TIA last December; this eventually resulted in changes to medication rather than anything worse so he now has to take a daily dose of rat poison. He can now stop a rat dead in its tracks at ten yards with but a single sideways glance…

February was a wonderful month as we went to Orlando for two weeks with Fleur and Keith. We thought we had better take Keith’s sons (Keiran and Joshua) with us as well, just to add legitimacy to the trips to the Orlando amusement parks. This was their first long haul flight and their first experience of the land of Mickey Mouse; I think they liked it just a bit! (They also liked the extra week off school. Ed) We had a huge villa with surplus bedrooms, a swimming pool and a large games room. Best of all, we had lots of sunshine and managed a bit of shopping along with the cocktails and far too much food. Once home, our ‘Not the Burns Night Supper’ (same as any other Burns Night supper, but nae poetry, Ed) has become so popular that we had to hold two and we can see that growing to three quite soon. And, having finished the redevelopment before he went to Derby, we had the pleasure of seeing Rory’s Farnborough house on the BBC, featured on the ‘To Buy or Not to Buy’ morning TV show. It sold, thankfully, quite soon afterwards.

March seemed to involve a great many convivial lunches, most of them mega-calorie. We travelled up to Derby to see Rory and Kathryn and inspect progress on the house there, and they managed a brief holiday in Las Vegas. We also fitted in the ‘From Russia’ exhibition at the Royal Academy and the ‘First Emperor’ exhibition at the British Museum, both very special. Judith acquired a new laptop with go faster stripes and has been using it to research and make contact with school friends from a few decades ago; the inevitable consequence was more lunches…

We calmed down a bit in April but had the joy of a friend’s daughter’s wedding reception in a giant marquee just the other side of a carefully maintained hole in our back garden hedge. This proximity allowed Judith to change into a second outfit during the course of the evening. (Only necessary because a certain husband managed to tip a spectacular volume of red wine over the first one, Ed). We also travelled to Paris with Judith’s WEA Art History class but went off piste by spending a most enjoyable day going round the Palace of Versailles.

May saw us away in Tenerife with Fleur and Keith for a vegging out week, sun and sangria and a big bag of books. We got home in time for the local Open Gardens event, a brilliantly hot day with gardens at their best and the village teeming with visitors, probably the best weather of an otherwise dismal summer.

In June we managed to see ‘Gone with the Wind’, a fairly short-lived musical that would really have been better without the music but it did have an amazing 180^o set; it lasted a bum-numbing 3+ hours (and that was the honed-down version they created after a considerable amount of adverse audience feedback, Ed). We also took in Buyers’ Day at the Royal Academy and the Tutankhamun Exhibition at the 0² Dome, excellent even though some of the exhibits we saw last time round in the 1970’s were now too fragile to be brought over. Finally, we enjoyed the Lion Dancers (and free beer, Ed) at the Tai Chi centre in Maldon, a bit exotic for a sleepy seaside town but great fun.

July was memorable in lots of ways but not for the weather which was dreadful. At the Rotary Club President’s night we met up again with Deniz, the belly dancer we sprang on the unsuspecting attendees at Fleur and Keith’s wedding reception. Little Baddow held a summer fete in torrential rain but the run up to it was enlivened by a village scarecrow competition. So, for weeks before, we had scarecrows in various guises and costumes appearing in front gardens, behind trees or on street corners. We had a kilted scarecrow (not ours, Ed), a skiing scarecrow, traffic speed checking scarecrows at each end of the village, a chef, a mandarin, well over thirty in all. Unfortunately a few got vandalised or stolen and after one was spotted being bundled into a black car that took off at speed, the owners were expecting a ransom demand… Judith at last managed to escape the workplace shackles by being made redundant (but was out at a party within an hour, Ed). From this point on she could have become a lady of leisure but over at Fleur and Keith’s house many projects awaited; Rory came down from Derby and contributed a few frenzied days of carpentry and plumbing, after which Graeme took over as chief carpenter (to everyone’s total amazement, Ed) and Judith resumed her role as chief painter and decorator. Theatrical highlight of the month was a day we spent at the National Theatre enjoying the ‘Wizard of Oz’ matinee followed in the evening by ‘Never so Good’, the story of Harold Macmillan’s political life, an enthralling tour de force by Jeremy Irons.

Early August saw us in London to combine a visit to the War Cabinet rooms with a reunion lunch and then it was time for our annual trip to Edinburgh. We travelled by way of the Bowes Museum to see the famous silver swan in action and had an overnight stop near Alnwick. Edinburgh gave us the usual opportunities to catch up with family and friends, a joy as always. The Edinburgh Book Festival was excellent and we enjoyed seeing John Prescott, Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith; Judith found herself sitting beside the last named at another show so now we are old friends and have to call him Sandy (dreadful flirt, that girl, Managing Ed). Ticketing for the Fringe was beset by computer problems so we spent much time retrieving tickets that hadn’t arrived or getting cash refunded for shows that had disappeared into the ether, but as always we found good things to see, notably Simon Callow who performed Dickens monologues, Kit & the Widow, Lunch with the Hamiltons, Pam Ann and the Great American Trailer Park Musical. We also met Louis de Bernières at Valvona & Crolla’s, before trying out VinCaffé, their newish restaurant, and awarded ourselves a day out to lunch at the original Loch Fyne seafood restaurant before visiting Inverary Castle. Back home, we were delighted that Rory was able to come down for a few more days to do electrical and plumbing jobs both for us and in Fleur and Keith’s house; they now have a working alarm system plus fully functional radiators and we have a wonderful ceiling fan in our bedroom just in case the hot nights ever return. Rory also started on the process of purchasing the house in Derby from Kathryn, the first indication, later confirmed, that they are likely to be parting company.

September saw plastering work being carried out on a number of interior walls in Fleur and Keith’s house, followed, after a decent interval by all hands to the painting pump so that the house could be ready for new carpets to be laid. We were all delighted with the transformation (and very glad to get to the end of that long running piece of work, Ed). We drove up to Derby again to see first of all the Joseph Wright of Derby paintings in the municipal museum and then the work that Rory had been doing to his house; great progress internally but stunning outside. He has built a conservatory, terraced part of the back garden, wood clad the garage, put in decking and steps, and the overall result is, as they like to say on TV, a Wow! factor. And there are chickens! Monica, Phoebe and Rachel have a fine coop with carefully protected run, which blessing they are repaying with eggs at the rate of three a day. Next day we took Rory to the nearby Sudbury Hall where we were fortunate to be able to join a weekly tour led by Curtains the butler who stayed beautifully in character throughout. During the rest of the month we fitted in a trip to Sonning to see Plaza Suite at the little Mill theatre restaurant, and a two night trip to Cambourne from where we drove to Burghley to visit the house. We also managed a day in London to go to Buckingham Palace to see the State Banquet exhibition (stunning, Ed). In the midst of all else, Fleur’s car started to display alarming tendencies to cease functioning in heavy traffic, and that led to a rethink about their vehicular requirements. The end result was that they replaced both their cars with a large, 7-seater Zafira, now known to the family as ‘the bus’, which will allow them to take all of their children and aged parents out for the day once in a while (hint, Ed). And to end a slightly full month a local friend of suitable ethnicity decided to celebrate his 60th birthday with a ceilidh in the village hall, in the middle of which we were all flabbergasted to see a pipe band march in. (Well, an eight piece pipe and drum combo though that’s still pretty good for deepest, darkest Essex, Ed). Even Graeme was forced to join in the jiggin’…

October was, thankfully, a little less frantic though Judith treated Graeme to a birthday day out in London (Apsley House followed by afternoon tea at the Lanesborough) and then the Royal Academy kindly gave us a places on a private tour of the Byzantium exhibition led by the curator. We also took in ‘Female of the Species’ which beautifully rubbished Germaine Greer to resounding cheers from the audience.

November saw us back in the groove, however, with Graeme taking Judith to London for her birthday – lunch at Fortnums, Byzantium exhibition again, Coutts cocktail party and a last trip to see Spamalot (thanks, Karen, for the theatre vouchers, Ed) before it comes off early next year. We had a second overnight trip to Cambourne so that we could go round the Fitzwilliam, a day in France with Fleur and Keith and a wonderful day in Richmond with lunch at a trendy French restaurant followed by ‘Calendar Girls’ after which Graeme got to chat up three of the stars (now who’s being a flirt, Ed). Later in the month, after Kathryn had moved out we took ‘the bus’ up to Derby packed with stuff Rory had stored in our attic. Amazingly we got in a wardrobe, two tables, two sacks of logs, bedding, towels, food parcels and a large assortment of other essential items; we also got Judith in, tucked into a little padded nest in row two…

December, and we have almost run out of steam; we know that we are fortunate still to be reasonably active and we are doing our best to make the most of that while we can. Already, we are well into the Christmas party round, which starts early in this village so that everybody can find a slot, but otherwise we have managed only to fit in a day at the Imperial War Museum and a couple of dinner parties. Christmas is almost upon us, and this year’s letter has to come to its end. So, wherever you are, do go out and enjoy it, but first let us wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous year in 2009.