Christmas 2011

This year we will be staying at home in Sutton Maddock and are looking forward to playing host to Shiona's brother Stephen for the immediate Christmas period.  We will collect him from John Lennon Airport, Liverpool, following a flight in from Poland, although he is currently working mostly in Spain.  Let's hope that there are no snowy problems to upset the apple cart, and that schedules run smoothly.  On Christmas Day, we will all be going out for lunch at The Horseshoe Inn, courtesy of June, and won't have all that frazzle of doing all the preparation and then the clearing away afterwards.

June

June still lives independently in her bungalow, handily just 10 miles down the road in Oakengates.  This year she has had a second cataract sorted out, and has even had a dose of botox - but not the cosmetic variety!  Patch has been with her a year now, and quite clearly knows which side his bread is buttered; he is having the time of his life.



Sundry Trips & Stuff

Over 50 years since we had each last been there, we took a weekend at the Welsh seaside town of Tenby.  Hardly changed at all.  Although it rained most of the time, we both enjoyed it hugely, and will go back to visit again long before the next 50 years have elapsed.  If you should ever find yourselves going that way from the Midlands, drop in for a snack or similar at The Honey Cafe, Bronllys, near Brecon, a delightful, old-fashioned tea room with an outstanding range of cakes & pastries.

Shiona took herself off to visit Charles' place at Highgrove, and had a good time seeing how the other half lives.  Alan took a rain check on that one.


Ken Dodd came to sleepy old Shifnal to do one of his famously long-lasting turns in a local hotel's function room.  Alan missed that, too, but not by design this time; he had a parish council meeting the same night, and, as clerk, duty had to prevail.

You may have watched the Songs of Praise 50th anniversary broadcast on TV from Ally Pally (Alexandra Palace, for overseas readers).  A few weeks before the event, we had seen that tickets were available on a first-come-first-served basis.  Not expecting to be successful, we had a go for a couple and were surprised to find that some were left.  Quite a long drive down there and back, but well worth it.  After all, Leanne Rimes and Andrea Bocelli for twenty quid between us can't be bad, even if we were in the next-to-back row!

In the first week of December, June treated us all to a 3-night weekend in Norwich, a most attractive city, especially the cathedral quarter, which I'd not really explored previously.  June took along her power chair to give her the independence she doesn't have when she has to rely on us to push.  She left us for dead a couple of times on the slopes, when she clicked it into high, and we trudged along trying to keep up.  We are now thinking of other cities of the same ilk, which we don't know well enough.  Lincoln, York, Cambridge, Ely head the list at the mo.

Shiona also did her annual girls-only weekend in Stratford - becoming a definite fixture, that one.

Work Things

Shiona is waiting to hear if she will get VR; the service is being restructured and her role does not feature in the new Telford & Wrekin layout. Along with many others, I should add; exactly who is going to do the work which still remains to get done? Anyone's guess. We should know something soon after Christmas, and she hopes to finish at the end of March 2012, making 37 years' unbroken service! She is looking to find something part-time so that we can continue to put food on the table and still get a holiday or two.

Walking

Looking into the Monsal Head Tunnel from the viaduct

We, especially Shiona, continue to do a lot of walking, sometimes with, and sometimes without, the Wolverhampton branch of the Ramblers Association.   The best walk of the year, however, was with Shirley & Paul's Chesterfield group along The Monsal Trail in Derbyshire.  You may have seen the Julia Bradbury TV programme 'Railway Walks' a month or 6 ago, where this walk was featured.  The railway line in that neck of the woods, passing over the Monsal Viaduct and through 4 tunnels, had been closed since Beeching, but was re-opened as a walking & cycling trail a year or so ago.  It benefits from a smooth new surface and even lighting in the tunnels (perhaps to prevent accidents involving cyclists unable to see walkers in the dark) which enables you to see the detail of the very impressive brickwork.  Although there was a nationally important cycling hill-climb ending at Monsal Head going on very close by, Alan was very well behaved and didn't dash off to watch that instead.

Owain & Libby

Libby, on the right, (8+) is hale & hearty, as ever, and continues to be an absolute poppet.  Owain is getting to be a decidedly wobbly old chap (12+) now, and often gives us cause for concern.  The kitchen counter has become a small pharmacy, as O regularly takes Prednisolone, Tramadol & Magnacare (aka Wacky Baccy).  We believe it is a combination which makes him leaky, so we are constantly chasing (actually, chasing is probably not the apposite word, because he is not fast enough now) him round with mop and kitchen roll.  He is the main reason for choosing the wood-effect floor in the dining room (see separate story), rather than yet another carpet for him to spoil!  Libby doesn't take any medicines, just everything else edible, especially when you are not looking.

Scotland

The Glengarry Castle Hotel, Invergarry

Two visits to Scotland ths year!  One vacation was planned right from the first, and we did our usual springtime visit in mid-April.  The second was a tad spur-of-the-moment.  We had decided to have the dining room floor relaid with Amtico-lookalike wood-effect boarding.  When the time came to actually book the work in the diary, during October half-term, it became plain that there was no way we could stay in the house while the work was going on.  The programme required 2 days of preparation work, one day fallow while some sealant or other was going off, one day of laying the boarding, then one day staying off it.  Many of you will know that our dining room is a thoroughfare from the kitchen to everywhere else in the house.  Thus we abandoned ship and let them get on with it.

One of the highlights of both stays was the rail journey from Spean Bridge along the final and most scenic section of The West Highland Line to the port of Mallaig.  (No, we didn't take the steam-train option; it was out of season.) On both occasions the weather was very kind, and the views stunning (a much overused word, but justified here).  As an aside, let me tell you that, if you want to taste haddock & chips with a flavour like you've found nowhere else, then head for Mallaig.

We also found (at long last!) a jewel of a B&B for stopovers on the journeys to Scotland & back.  For those of you who trek the M6 often, perhaps take a look at The River Garth Guest House, a mile or so south of Penrith on the old road at Eamont Bridge.

Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Appeal

This year we moved to a different warehouse in Telford, and had many more volunteers helping out, right from the start of the despatch operation in mid-November.  It was a good job, too, that so many new folks turned out, because, despite the UK's economic gloom, the number of shoeboxes passing through our hands actually increased to 8748.  Partly this was due to the fact that the Telford collection area had been reworked for 2011, losing most Shrewsbury postcodes and gaining many Stafford ones instead.
Alan spent most of his time either in the warehouse cartoning the boxes or out in the van collecting great piles of boxes from schools, churches, youth groups, etc.  As you can see, there were some very large numbers to be collected.  The truck came to collect the 8748 on December 1st, and then went on to the Shrewsbury depot to collect theirs also, before setting off to Dover for the onward journey to the children of Kosovo.  Al gets a bit part in the background of the video; he's a stacker in the back of the truck.

Spain Cycling

Riverfront homes, Girona

For the summer holiday, we rented a rustic villa for 24 folks just 9 ks from Girona in NE Spain. We had the fortnight of the last week in July and the first week in August. You will not be too surprised to learn that it was mainly a cycling group, and comprised Brits, Americans, Dutch, French and German riders & other halves.

Alan, in convoy with Pete & Alison, drove down through France, having picked up Forest & Dawn, 2 Marylanders, at LHR Terminal 5. Forest was a fellow rider on the 2008 USA Coast-to-Coast, and the two of them were embarking upon a first trip to Europe. Shiona, not having as many days' leave to play with, flew into and out of Girona from East Midlands Airport, thereby saving 4 travelling days in total.


As you see from the picture of Shiona taking a breather at the viewpoint on the very top, it wasn't all cycling.  One of the very best days was spent climbing a Pyrenee at Queralbs.

Osor, half-way up a 25-kilometer climb to St Hilari, with its exquisite pastry shops.

(Click: Further photos courtesy of Lauri from Iowa)