Christmas 2014

It’s late November and Granny, aka Heather, has already spent nigh on three days wrapping presents. We’ve ordered our Christmas bird (partridge in pheasant in duck in turkey) for the Christmas family gathering. A few new ornaments have been purchased to augment our classic late 1970s baubles. The late November days are grey and misty. So it must be time for our annual Christmas letter – our 22nd.

Did I say “Granny”? Yes, Jo gave birth to Wilfred Jack Samuel on May 4th. He’s a very happy, very engaged little chap. Jo and Ben are terrific parents. They had a busy spring. In addition to Wilf they moved house within Walthamstow just a few weeks earlier. And Ben turned 30. The Metzler piano Heather’s mother, Alice, bought for us is now nestled in their dining room. Wilf shall not escape practice. We spend the odd day over there to see the lad and his parents.

Kate and Pedro are engaged. The marriage date has yet to be determined. If they manage to buy a new house they may delay the ceremony due to cash flow. Or not. Kate has joined Hiller and Knowlton after a multi-year mutual stalking. They’ve been on the Garden tour of South Africa and are off to Lapland. Heather and I went to Lisbon with them and met Pedro’s family. Pedro also corrected our initial, not so good, impressions of Portuguese food.

Heather retired at the end of July. She loved working with the children. She liked her colleagues. She grew tired of the NHS’ increasing demands to demonstrate her value. When the expectation is that one spends more time on planning, reporting and following up than actually performing the role life becomes frustrating. Now she has time to walk the dog, knit and have the odd lunch out with friends or even me.

I met Heather through Chris Thompson, a university colleague, in 1973. He and I shared flats a couple of times. Whilst I may not have been the greatest flatmate ever Chris probably has more similar attitudes to mine than anyone I’ve ever met. We reconnected on Facebook a few years back and still got along. Heather and I were very pleasantly surprised to be invited to his wedding to Louise Florent in September. I think he was surprised, hopefully pleasantly, that we’d come to Bronte Harbour, near Toronto, for the ceremony. Louise and he offered us a room to stay – and Chris then asked me to be Best Man. I got to stand up front with a silly grin planted on my face as the very happy couple married over a very nice meal indeed. I’d never made a Best Man’s speech so decided short and not too humourous was the safest course of action. Mark Hauser’s official photographs are here and mine are here.

Anne-Marie, the friend Heather originally emigrated to Canada with, and Jim were also invited to the wedding. We spent a few days afterwards with Annie, Jim, Mia and baby Aria. It’s always good to see them.

After Toronto we set off to Chalfont, outside Philadelphia, ostensibly to farm sit for our American ex-Richmond friends Barb and Terry. In the end they left us alone for only about 18 hours while we got ten days room, board and local tours. (We did manage to introduce them to ex-Herbert Smith, now Bucks County Rupa (Rohini), Ram and little girl Jia. They seemed to enjoy each others’ company so maybe they’ll keep it up.)

Then, just a few weeks later, we returned to Chalfont for the wedding of their daughter, Whitney Young, to Terry Fitzgibbons. It was fun to have a reception set in a barn and catered with street food. We bolted on a few days in Philadelphia, a city we’d never been to before. We liked it – a very pleasant mid-size city.

I’d already blogged about our 2013 Malaysian Christmas. We also had a long weekend in Guernsey. Next year we know we’re off to Vietnam, Cambodia and the Mekong Delta. Who is to say what else will take our fancy?

Work in the house this year has been dedicated to clearing Kate’s and Ben’s rooms. Oxfam was delighted to receive a score of boxes of books. Next year we’ll put secondary glazing on our lovely, but cold, Victorian windows, update our bathroom to a wet room and, finally, cover the upstairs floorboards. We’d ripped up all the carpet in the house when we had two long haired dogs and never quite got around to finishing the job. 2015 for sure.

As for Elmo, he continues to delight us every day. This year he has learned how to fetch with the help of homemade liver cake.

For those, admittedly few, who look forward to reading what theatre we have seen try this.

We hope all our family and friends enjoy a pleasant holiday season and a happy 2015.