Christmas Newsletter 2012
2012 has been another busy year for Anne and Alan
and their new family.
Our new family
Although not a lot seemed to have happened in
January, we were as usual going flat out, mainly thanks to the arrival of our
new family, who were previously looked after by the charity Cats Protection.
Three cats! A pair of youngsters, about two years old and an older male, about
thirteen. All had fallen on hard times and were in need of a home. We are very
lucky in that all have lovely characters and are very user friendly, and in
need of as much fuss as they can get.
Dexter (left) and Coco. Spot the difference!
They have settled down very well although, for the
first three weeks, the young pair felt that they were ‘doing porridge’ as they
were not allowed out. The boy, Dexter, was very anxious to explore outside. At
the cats’ home they were both let out of their pens each day and were used to
having a good run around. They made up for this by chasing each other up the
stairs and along the landing, then back down again at high speed. The girl,
Coco, is a bit smaller than Dexter but gives as good as she gets. Dexter and
Coco are (nearly) identical twins – mainly white but with ginger tails and
markings on their heads. After nearly a year with us, it can still be difficult
to tell which is which.
Rascal, the long hair, ginger, senior cat, is
totally bemused by all this hurtling around. We were told that he had always
lived indoors and he has shown little interest in wanting to go out. He sleeps
and eats for England and feeding time is quite a pantomime as he moves his way
along all the feeding bowls stuffing himself with the others’ food (which is
exactly the same as his), whilst they in turn pinch his. He seems to be very
much at home here and enjoys lots of fuss – you only have to look at him and he
starts to purr. He also loves grooming
– he is a stunning cat and looks gorgeous doing nothing! However, we
don’t think he has ever played with a ball and doesn’t know what to do, even
though he sees the others playing. Coco is superb at football and hares around
the kitchen. Rascal likes to play with string occasionally but doesn’t see much
point in expending his energy with silly games.
Rascal on his first day outdoors
Although well looked after by Cats Protection,
there have been a number of problems. The twins both had teeth problems (Coco
had two teeth extracted and the vet extracted £360 from us!). Dexter has been
diagnosed with a dodgy heart so it’s tablets for the rest of his life. We had a
worrying time using all conceivable ways to hide the tablets in his food
without success. He is now on a different brand, which is very tasty, and we
are much relieved.
Coco.
Dexter put us to the test recently by catching a
field mouse in the morning (we were finally able to rescue it) and then at
night, when I went to meet Anne off the bus, he followed me down the paths to
the railway bridge and, to my horror, disappeared through the railings onto the
railway embankment. Fortunately he reappeared after a few heart-stopping
minutes.
Dexter.
Rascal had to have a tooth removed but endeared himself to the vet and all the practice staff, particularly when he rolled over in the cat basket, kicking his legs in the air and being very silly – we think he was still high from the anaesthetic.
Freda
Christmas day 2011 was busy as usual with our
meals on wheels run to Auntie Freda at Bexhill. Now 87, she had been getting
much more frail and we have had to take her to various hospital appointments
during the early part of this year.
At the end of March, Alan was going to Germany for
a week. On the day he was due to go we had an alarm call at 12.30 at night from
Auntie Freda, the second in two days, as she had fallen over again. For the
second night running her neighbours were called out to rescue her so, as Alan
headed for Germany, Anne headed off to Bexhill. This led to the cats going to
the cats holiday camp for a week, whilst Anne stayed in Bexhill looking after
Freda, getting the doctor to check her out and supervising her move into
hospital. I came home on Wednesday the fourth of April, just as Anne returned
from Bexhill following yet another visit to see Freda and to report that she
seemed to be recovering. Alan was due to go down to see her the next day but
Freda died suddenly during the night.
Freda had named Alan as her executor. Luckily we had no plans for Easter as we had
to get the ball rolling with Freda’s funeral and sorting out her affairs. We
came back from Bexhill on Saturday with heaps of papers, which took two very
long days to sort through and filled three recycling containers! Her solicitor,
thankfully, has taken most of the burden from my shoulders. However, we spent
three full days clearing the house of her personal possessions – a sad
experience.
The pressure eased off once the funeral was over
and life is getting back to its busy norm but the Freda saga continued for the
rest of the year with residual paperwork.
Freda’s ashes were duly strewn at the end of August. Alan created two
templates – one of a cruise ship, as she loved cruising, and the other of her
name – an interesting twist as her last mortal remains spelled out her name for
all to see, accompanied by one of her favourite ships!
Anne’s handbag
Disaster struck at Anne’s keep fit class, when her
handbag, left outside in an anti-room was got at. She lost her cash, credit and
other loyalty cards, a Kindle and her mobile phone. This caused many problems.
She was obviously very cross but it was really an event just waiting to happen
– the girls always leave their stuff there and they can’t exercise and keep an
eye on it at the same time.
Olympics
Olympic fever hit the streets during the summer!
We went to Croydon to see the flame passing the town hall. We saw the torch for
about three seconds, but not the bearer, who was out of sight behind the crowd.
We had a front position until the crowd surged forward to spoil our view.
We thought the Olympic opening ceremony was a
stunning event and were regretting not having applied for tickets but, by a
stroke of luck, a friend from the badminton club offered me a ticket for the
Badminton Olympics at the Wembley Arena venue.
We did try to get to the Paralympics and failed
but, on the penultimate day, we obtained tickets to get into the Olympic Park.
This didn’t allow access to the stadium or other venues but we were very
impressed by the scale of the park and how beautifully it had been finished. It
was well run, clean and attractive with many gardens and waterways.
We even held an Olympic torch.
Alan’s wanderings
On my birthday I was in eastern Germany on a rail enthusiasts
tour, which lasted for eight days. I had a great time but it was quite cold and
tested my endurance. However, there was lots of steam action, particularly at
the annual Dresden steam festival. My birthday was spent on a steam-operated
railway, which climbed through the woods and mountains to a ski resort on the
Czech border, followed by a second line in the afternoon. This was the only day
that was warmer and was rounded off by an excellent dinner in the old Chemnitz
town hall cellar restaurant with other members of the group.
These narrow gauge steam trains continue to run all year round.
Mechanical things
Boris, the Vectra car, has had another bad year! The fuel
pump failed and we ground to a halt on the motorway, a suspension spring broke
and ripped a tyre and the windscreen wiper mechanism broke. Yes, you’ve guessed
it, it was pouring with rain at the time!
Not to be outdone, two kitchen appliances -
washing machine and tumble dryer - gave up the ghost.
Alan gets his first ambulance ride
After a particularly strenuous day sorting out
Freda’s possessions we set off to a friend’s 70th birthday
celebration lunch. Alan was feeling ‘strange’ but did not want to cancel and
succeeded in passing out in the toilet, banging his head on a stone floor and
turning the floor a pretty shade of red! So, off to hospital in an ambulance
but clearly not regarded as an emergency and there were no sirens nor flashing
lights. After a couple of hours in Accident and Emergency and with a dollop of
glue on my head to seal the wound, I was sent home. Then, the fun began with sickness
and diarrhoea, and dizziness and spinning sensations making it difficult to
stand up and walk. I spent almost a week in bed, sleeping most of the time.
Gastro enteritis was blamed and I’m generally recovered, except the spinning
sensations occasionally recur – apparently caused by the inner ear being upset
by the impact when I hit the floor.
Alan goes flying
Alan’s birthday present from Anne this year was to
fly a Boeing 737-800 aircraft. A simulator, not the real thing! My simulator
experience was great, not that I had time to sit back and enjoy it. It was very
busy and mind consuming as I used all the real controls, rather than a computer
keyboard and mouse, and I learned a great deal about flying an aircraft. It was
interesting to use the different fail safe switches, which are designed to make
sure that you cannot accidentally put the aircraft in danger; also a Flight
Management Computer, which I haven’t played with before. We did a real time
trip from Gatwick to Amsterdam but, apart from take off and (smooth!) landing,
all I saw were the controls, gauges and flight displays. We then did a circuit
of Hong Kong from and to the old Kai Tak airport to test my landing skills
again and I passed with flying colours.
Not a simulator but the real thing. I'm in the cockpit of a VC10 - previous owner the Sultan of Oman! Now part of the Brooklands museum collection.
A three-day
trip to Penzance was exceptional, with lovely but much cooler weather compared
with the heat wave of the previous week. There was a lot of helicopter watching
- the service to the Isles of Scilly (the islands of St Marys and
Tresco) was due to close in October. I did two trips, the first to the
smaller island of Tresco, where I had a few hours to explore, this followed by
a cheaper 'scenic tour' to St Marys (where I couldn't get off the helicopter).
Flying away from Tresco.
The Cornish Coast - Land's End to the far left.
Welcome to the Isles of Scilly!
View of the island of Bryher from Tresco.
Both were stunning flights, out over Lands End and back along the Cornish coastline. The journey time is 20 minutes each way with a turnaround of 10 minutes. No security checks whatsoever, just a TV safety briefing, jump on and you're off! The heliport at Tresco is a fenced off area of grass and a small building. There's a footpath across the landing area and barriers come down for the duration of the helicopter's visit.
Tresco airport and not a Jumbo Jet in sight!
Inspired by
the Sydney seaplane trip last year, I resolved to travel on the larger Cessna
‘Caravan’ seaplane, operated by Loch Lomond Seaplanes. This is the only seaplane
service in the UK and this otherwise normal small aircraft is fitted with large
floats in place of the normal aircraft wheels, although there are small
retractable wheels fitted within the floats so that an airport runway can be
used instead of landing on the water.
I went to
Glasgow by train and stayed the night, filling in the afternoon with a visit to
the new transport museum on the banks of The Clyde. In pride of place was a
South African Railways class 15F 4-8-2 locomotive (built by North British in
Glasgow), but there were other locos, trams, cars, ships and buses mounted
on walls and in street scenes. 2 hours there was not enough!
Hundreds of these locomotives were built in Glasgow.
The next
day, I took the train to Balloch on the Bonnie, Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond and
set off in the full, ten-seat aircraft, sitting in the co-pilot’s seat. The
weather was overcast so we flew to the west to find some sunny views of the
many islands and lochs to the west of Glasgow, cruising at about 1,500 feet and
140 knots and passing over the preserved paddle steamer 'Waverley', which had
just sailed from Dunoon, on the mouth of The Clyde. The trip lasted for 55
minutes and was superb.
The Caravan arrives for its next passengers.
The western coast of Scotland from the seaplane.
Then it was the trek home, leaving the very classy Cameron House Hotel on the loch side, where the plane is boarded and a long train ride via Glasgow and Edinburgh.
A weekend at Frankfurt airport was a fascinating
experience. One of the world’s largest airports, non-stop action can be watched
from a superb viewing terrace and it was interesting to see some of the latest
aircraft types that don’t yet fly to the UK.
A double deck Airbus A380 arrives at Frankfurt from Korea.
There’s many a slip
Anne ran for a bus (a rare event!), missed the
step (with her foot, but her shin caught it), filled the bus with blood so it
had to be taken out of service with all the passengers being thrown off, then
came home by ambulance - her first ambulance ride! It has taken ages for the
wound to heal.
Anne’s birthday
Anne celebrated her 68th birthday by
travelling on a route 68 London bus to Chalk Farm, a place we had wanted to
visit for many years. In days of yore, the 68 operated from South Croydon bus
garage to the garage at Chalk Farm and Anne always had a vision of a delightful
piece of countryside in north London, full of cows and sheep. In reality we
expected suburban grot but it was actually very pleasant (but no cows or
sheep!) and we had a good lunch there. We also visited Mornington Crescent and
the Lyttleton Arms in Camden. You need to be a fan of the radio comedy
programme ‘I’m sorry I haven’t a Clue’ to understand this - Mornington Crescent
is a silly game about London Underground stations and the presenter used to be
Humphrey Lyttleton. The last stop was
at the new Bomber Command memorial in Green Park.
Happy Birthday Anne!
Tribute to Bomber Command.
The Queen’s Jubilee
Rather than watch the Queen’s Jubilee pageant on
TV, we decided to go and join in with the fun. This was a mistake – we saw the
river when we crossed it by train into Victoria – the crowds on the pavement
were already ten deep at Battersea by 11.00 – and could not get near it again
until we left from Charing Cross by train later in the afternoon. Luckily as
the train crossed the river (a journey of 15 seconds) the Queen’s barge had
just gone by so we saw it, and in common with many other visitors that’s all we
saw!
Theatre and film
As great fans of the TV series Strictly Come
Dancing, we were delighted to see a live show spin off at the O2 arena, which
featured several of last year’s finalists. We also went to see ‘Midnight Tango’
performed by Flavia and Vincent, two experts in the Argentine Tango. Set in a
Buenos Aires bar, it was an excellent show, especially as there was no dialogue
– only music and action.
The Cornish comedian Jethro came to Croydon.
Whilst not to everyone’s taste he gave a marvellous performance, full of risqué
jokes and it was the best laugh that Alan had had for ages.
Then it was time for some culture and we saw an
excellent performance of Don Quixote at the Croydon Warehouse Theatre, where
the audience are close up and personal with the actors – no such luxury as a
stage here!
And then, to one of the highlights of the year –
Richard III at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre on London’s South Bank. Hard to say
what was best, the stunning performance or the theatre itself.
We went to see two films this year: ‘The Artist’
we thought disappointing, given all the hype and ‘The Best Exotic Marigold
Hotel’, which we thought was great.
Oh, and we went to a barn dance at our local
church hall – great fun!
Trains and ships
A railway highlight of the year was ‘Railfest’,
staged at the National Railway Museum in York and featuring a large collection
of steam locomotives. A somewhat gloomy day, but otherwise an excellent event.
The world steam record breaking locomotive Mallard was for once parked outside
the museum and visitors were allowed to climb into the driving cab. I was able
to sit in the driving seat, from which the record speed of 126 mph was achieved
in 1938.
Mallard at 0 mph!
Alan has been on three main line rail trips this year; firstly with 6024 ‘King Edward I’ to Cardiff, then to Canterbury with 60163 ‘Tornado’ and finally to Eastbourne and Hastings with 34067 ‘Tangmere’ in cold and frosty weather, which produced wonderful smoke effects. As usual, the steam galas at the Watercress and Severn Valley railways were first class.
King Edward I at Bristol.
Tornado at Headcorn, on the way to Canterbury.
Tangmere is serviced at Eastbourne.
The P&O steamship company celebrated its 175th anniversary by sailing their complete fleet of seven cruise ships out of Southampton in line and half a mile apart. I watched this amazing sight from the entrance to Southampton Water. Weather wise, it was very poor, but this was another once in a lifetime event.
Four of the seven ships in view.
Keeping fit
While Alan is out train riding, Anne likes to keep
fit and gets a lot of pleasure from Line Dancing, where she has made many new
friends. She goes to a slimming and keep fit class and, this year, has joined a
Pilates class.
Anne took part in the Race for Life charity run.
Weddings
Two weddings this year – one in Macclesfield near
Manchester for Kirstie and Matt and the other in Sussex, where Gemma and Luke’s
reception was held in a fabulous manor house hotel.
Visitors from abroad
John and Sandra from Canberra were here, with
their granddaughter Brooke. Following a coach tour of the British Isles. They
stayed near us for a couple of days so Alan took them on a tour of Sussex and
they were very impressed by our lovely countryside, villages, pubs, Brighton
and Eastbourne.
Sandra, Brooke, John and Alan's sister Sheila at Cuckmere Valley in the South Downs ...
... and in the lovely village of Alfriston.
Spectacular Sussex coastal scenery - Seaford Head to the left
and the famous Seven Sisters.
Holidays
The arrival of the cats has meant that holidays
have been limited this year. Apart from the trip to Germany, Alan went to Wales
for a week, taking his sister Sheila to Snowdonia and staying in a
self-catering cottage. Anne’s sole trip was a weekend break in Glasgow.
Snowdonia is beautiful when the sun shines!
... but frequently it looks like this!
We had booked a time share week in Scotland for October but had to cancel it as Alan got a painful condition in his right foot, which has made both driving and walking very painful. He still has the problem, which might eventually disappear of its own accord in the next nine months!
A time share weekend in Bath took place over a
glorious weekend. The city sparkled and was full of atmosphere but due to
Anne’s encounter with the bus and the needs to look after the cats, she had to
return home early. The countryside around Bath is splendid so Alan was able to
take a steam train trip to the Quantock Hills and Minehead.
Poulteney Bridge in Bath. There are small shops on each side of the bridge.
Meeting with the Lords
Well, not quite. Their Lordships had packed up for
the day. But, to make up for our Scottish holiday cancellation, we went to
dinner at the Houses of Parliament. This was a fund raising event for a
childrens’ charity. We met in the cavernous Westminster Hall, scene of many
historic events including the laying in state of the Queen Mother.
Big Ben, towering over the Houses of Parliament.
We were taken on an excellent guided tour around
the richly decorated building, first to the House of Lords – a stunning
chamber. Here you could see the Queen’s seat, from which she declares
Parliament open, and gives the annual Queen’s speech. The chamber was breathtaking.
Then onto the less glitzy House of Commons and learning about the protocol of
the daily debates, followed by St Stephen’s Hall where King Charles I was tried
and found guilty. Seven years previously he had burst uninvited into the House
of Commons. Seven years later, the House had got its revenge!
The tour over, we were escorted to the Strangers
dining room for a champagne reception and then next-door into the Members’
dining room for a superb dinner. This was a most entertaining evening – if you
are in London a tour of the House is highly recommended.
So, that’s it for our year. We end by wishing all
a very Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year!
Anne and Alan
