Eheu fugaces . . . labuntur anni

2005-09-09T19:39:00.000-07:00

Cast of Characters

Read Me

Betty

2005-09-09T19:38:00.002-07:00

March, 2006

I recently received this from Meg via the Yahoo group:

“I do not think I can make the reunion much as I should love to see you all again and revisit Bedford. Unfortunately it is the weekend before we have hoardes of Young Farmers descend on the farm for their annual county field day followed by a disco. The big "clean up" and setting up ought to be taking place with their help the weekend of the 6th. I shall have to keep the peace and calm shattered nerves! I believe Rosemary suggested our own reunion at another date.”

While that may be sad news to those hoping to see Meg in London, I was gratified that she sounds so energetic. When I last heard from her, in December, she noted she was happy to have received a letter from me, “Because I was in hospital having just had my knee replacement “replaced.” When I went for a check-up to my neuro-surgeon, I convinced him that his operation on my spine had not cured my knee. An x-ray revealed that the bottom half of my implant was adrift and so causing considerable pain. By then I had other complications to sort out, including anaemia and so I did not have the operation until August. I am doing so much better now, but the recovery has been slow. I had a check-up on Thursday and the consultant said he was happy with it and I must just be patient as far as the residual swelling and localized pain is concerned.”

The days following the operation turned out to be happy: ”I had just been home for four days when our third grand-child arrived. Clare, who married Osama and lives in Sudan, had a baby daughter, Safya." Osama was present for the birth, but had to return to Sudan to finish up his medical studies. You can just imagine how delighted Meg was to have her new grand-daughter in the house as she recovered and how much she appreciated her daughter-in-law Jill coming to help out. When Meg wrote she was looking forward to John and Jill and the girls arriving for Christmas. Clare and Safya were to go back to Sudan shortly after that.

Since we have rumblings of an auxiliary reunion in Meg’s part of the world, maybe she can organize another disco!

September, 2005

In the first edition of the newsletter, Meg recounted the tragedy of losing all their animals to Foot and Mouth and becoming a farm with two dogs and a cat. The bright spot had been the birth of Charlotte, their first grand-daughter.

In her Christmas 2002 newsletter, Meg described a trip to Australia for her son Richard’s wedding and the huge amount of work they faced when they returned home, replacing a milking parlour and renewing buildings. Then, of course, there was the challenge of building up a new herd. “It is good to hear the men discussing the different animals as they calve and as they get to know them as individuals—I suppose it is like a mass adoption! We do frequently wonder why we have bothered as the milk just about pays and we are bombarded by experts with little practical experience with all sorts of wonderful advice as to how to run successful businesses in all the spare time they seem to think we have.”

But she must have had a little spare time, as she went on to give details of her work with Partners and Parenting courses and with the Mothers’ Union, including hosting women from Zululand and feeding young people at an all night event in the cathedral. She added a note to say that during 2002, four children were born, one to each of Barbara (Taylor’s) children. Four new grandchildren to whom Barbara would surely have been a devoted grandmother.

Meg didn’t send me a Christmas 2003 newsletter, but she sent it a year later together with the newsletter for 2004. If she had thought things couldn’t get any worse after the Foot and Mouth disaster, she was terribly and tragically wrong. I think Meg must have needed every scrap of the delightful sense of humor and resilience she shows in her letters just to get through 2003. The marriage of her son Richard came to an acrimonious end and while they were still dealing with the fallout, their son John, together with his wife Jill and little Charlotte were in a serious car accident, just after leaving home in Sheering en route to the isle of Wight. John was airlifted to hospital and when Meg and Will and their daughter Clare arrived, they found that Charlotte was safe, Jill was bruised and bloody, but John more seriously hurt. The hospital (incidentally my local one when I was growing up in Enfield) failed to diagnose John’s broken neck and the damage to several vertebrae. Fortunately after his discharge John’s GP was sufficiently suspicious to send him to a neurosurgeon. The beauty for the reader who gets two newsletters at the same time is to learn that by Christmas 2004, John was back at work and coping well in spite of periods of pain and Jill and John had a second daughter, Erin. But the intervening period of time, which I read about in the space of a few minutes, must have been so very onerous and worrying for Meg and Will.

2003 still had surprises in store for the Messengers. While they were returning from John’s sickbed, a pipe in their underground slurry system fractured and let the slurry into the drains. As soon as they discovered it, they addressed the problem. Meg’s wry sense of humor came through again: “ . . . after 37 years without problems we suddenly became the ‘rich cattle barons polluting the crystal river’ and were featured in the local press, radio, TV and Ceefax, not just for one week but until an action group had been formed to protect the environment from the likes of us! The EA have been very helpful as soon as they realised we were as appalled as anyone at what had happened. There was another spurt of building to track down and effect repairs as necessary. We have had a huge bill for cleaning up the river, but we still have to hear whether we will be prosecuted.” By Christmas 2004 Meg was able to add, “Sadly many inspectors and advisors make much more money than the farmers or their workers and so it is little wonder that no one wants to get up early to milk cows, muck out and feed animals. So far this year we have kept our slurry under control even in this very wet season. Will and Rich had to pay over nearly another £6,000 when they appeared in court in the New year, in addition to the huge clean up bill that had already been paid for.”

In 2003 Meg noted that her daughter Clare was working on a Master’s degree in International Law and Human Rights at Lancaster University and by 2004 Clare had graduated with distinction and was working for Save the Children in Khartoum with the possibility of being assigned to Darfur. Osama passed parts 1 and 2 of the Royal College of Surgeons exams and was facing a complicated registration process in the United Kingdom. He had returned to Sudan.

One development that took place in 2003 and which hadn’t had a happier outcome by 2004 was Meg’s health. Her back was damaged by a fall on black ice in February, 2003 and in March of 2004 she had surgery. After that she had severe pain in her knee and then an infection on the operation site was detected which required two weeks in hospital, followed by doses of intravenous and oral antibiotics. Ever the philosopher, Meg wrote that the constant trips to Newcastle for treatment at least afforded the opportunity to admire the Roman Wall as they went!

The year ended on a happier note, when Meg and Will celebrated their Ruby wedding anniversary with a lunch at home organised by Clare and the rest of the family. Her 2004 newsletter ends, “Will and I did have a mini holiday—a weekend in Edinburgh–which was an anniversary gift organised by Richard and it included a visit to the Royal Yacht Britannia and a Cliff Richard concert. The latter was some experience as it was out of doors on the Esplanade outside the castle. I could not manage to sit through it all, but Cliff was really remarkable and brought back some wonderful youthful memories. Once again we really appreciated the thoughtfulness of our family.” A good note on which to end, except to say that Meg added a postscript, “I am tired of being told to take life easy and rest while everything is so busy around me.” Let’s hope that the next news from Meg indicates that she is back to her old busy self.

Dilly

2005-09-09T19:38:00.001-07:00

March, 2006

No word yet as to whether Dilly plans to attend the reunion. I received this from her in the Fall:

"Thank you I did get your email cyber news; alas; I am not as yet sufficiently proficient to respond on the website. My technical advisor only appears briefly and the last visit was changing my broadband server which took a bit of doing.

The best I can do for grandchildren so far is four Indian runner ducklings and I am not sure they are 100% runners anyway. However Bethia and James are buying a house they hope as the little church house that is rented for them is small and horrible; 12 foot wide and so pinched on every side.

You must be a dab hand now with all these babies; here we are breeding so slowly no-one knows any more how to manage babies and it is hysterics all round."

September, 2005

Perhaps you remember the lovely family photo and the photo of Little Yarford Farmhouse that Dilly sent for the Christmas, 2002 edition. She later sent this account, which though sadly out of date, seems so wonderfully “Dilly.” I can just see her sewing her wedding outfit the night before, and would love to hear her in person ranting about trees and people of the “other” political persuasion! “This has been the year we planted our trees (some of them); stirred up by Bethia, 30 or so abandoned their pots for the open ground; the holes were so big I had to climb right into them to shovel the soil out. My hip is still complaining. Brian, needless to say has spent all the year in the garden and with success. We had a lovely sunny weekend for our National Garden Scheme opening which cleared £1,000. It was all worthwhile and the plants made more than the cream teas.

Otherwise local politics have taken over the year with not one but two by elections. It is impossible to out do the Lib Dems with leaflets but we made a valiant attempt. We also found and ran with a little Survey on Crime. This was a huge success in terms of response and information. Apart from such mundane activities, I could willingly strangle such dinosaurs as Clarke and Heseltine. The freebie copy of The Independent I got at the Party Conference was so vicious about it as to make the event unrecognisable to such people as myself who were actually there, but perhaps I was concentrating more on the free food at the fringe events. But I will add The Independent to my collection of examples of compensatory myths.

Bethia is now in Plymouth and her great excitement has been the purchase of the end of an “L” shaped barn conversion, done by a small time fly-by-night developer just within the Dartmoor National Park (Mother, I do not want a smart flat on the Marina nor a Victorian Town House and no way a house on a housing estate). It used to have tractors underneath and dogs over – we are searching for the Devon dialect for a doghouse. The best so far is “tallet” – a hayloft over cow stalls. The water supply is private to about 5 households but we reckoned with the Dartmoor rainfall a borehole would never run dry. I like it but Brian doesn’t, as it has no garden.

Benjamin remains based in Carlisle with Operation Mobilisation and trips abroad to such hotspots as the Sudan. Apart from videos his main chef d’oeuvre has been kitting out or rather building a whole recording suite in a truck. It was finished just in time to hit the continent for the conference season. He came South in September to help Bethia who was house sitting, with a grand sort out and tidy up – and we came home to some space for a brief while

We spent the first half of September in the States, on the way to a family wedding via the Rockies. This meant flying to Denver and driving 2,000 miles round the Wild West. Had I known I was going to the Wild West I would not have gone - me and cowboys! However, it was fascinating, dinosaurs (bones), the Oregon Trail, wild life, deserts, mountains, the Indians (very, very sad), museums, art galleries and steaks so large we shared one between the two of us each night, but no cowboys!

My nephew Marc’s wedding took place in Omaha, Nebraska to the youngest daughter of an Irish American family. Weddings seem to be somewhat more formal and structured in the U.S.A. and this one was organised in great detail in the Roman Catholic cathedral, booked 15 months before, with flower girls, candle lighters, maids of honour in crimson and supporting ushers. The bridegroom’s mother was exquisite in silver lace. We all stayed in the same hotel with space and an ironing board for the silk jacket I was stitching to the very last moment. There was just time for the Art gallery of international repute but not the Botanic garden. We returned via New York and the generous hospitality of Michael and Doris in Peekskill. Our aim was the Botanic Garden (all 500 acres) which to my relief was closed on a Monday.”

Dilly’s activities abroad have not curtailed her political activities in Somerset. We exchanged e-mails around the time of the General Election and it was obvious she was campaigning vigorously, and a Google search on her name shows plenty of activity on the part of Taunton Deane Councillor Dilly Bradley, responsible for Culture, Art and Leisure, or, as she was described in an article, “Leisure boss.” I even found the following notation:

Councillor Dilly Bradley

Dilly is Member for Staplegrove. She is involved in the plan to make Taunton the ‘Tree Town’ of the Southwest. Dilly is a member of the LGA Rural Commission and has spoken up for rural life and businesses. She is a trustee of Relate and the CVS.

Does Brian know about this newfound appreciation for trees?

Angela

2005-09-09T19:38:00.000-07:00

March, 2006

Angela sent the following news in an e-mail shortly after the first on-line edition. Exciting events! Angela also e-mailed the Yahoo group last week to say she is "definitely going (to the May reunion), partly to meet Classicists but also to see Elizabeth Ellis, a Methodist and Botany student with whom I was friendly in my last year in Reid Hall." From the October letter: "I don't think I have told you previously that all our family is looking forward to our son's wedding in 2006. For some time Stephen had hoped to get into a relationship but nothing ever happened. Then just over 18 months ago through his work in the library and his interest in quizzes he met a final year student doing Religious Studies. They hit it off from the word go and became engaged in March this year. The wedding is booked for 5 August next year.

The photo I am attaching was taken at the end of our family Christmas dinner last year (as witness the remains of the turkey, and empty vegetable dishes!) by our future daughter-in-law. It shows, from left to right, grandson Andrew, Alan, granddaughter Claire, granddaughter Sarah, daughter Helen and me. This year's celebrations will be somewhat quieter for us as Helen and Family are going round the world between 9 December and 7 January and Stephen and his fiancee, who is also Sarah, are spending Christmas with her mother. We will be entertaining everyone in just over a week's time, though, as my birthday coincides with the start of October half-term."

September, 2005

Angela and Alan were two of the fortunate people who got to meet up Anne and Peter Moss. Turns out that one of the places Anne and Peter stayed was in the Yorkshire Dales, just half a mile down the road from one of Alan's sisters. Apparently the weather wasn't great for their meeting, but I think just getting together was the high point. (One of these days we will have to design a medal for long suffering husbands who put up with hours of, "Do you remember when?" ) By the time they met up, Angela and Alan already had tickets for a trip to New Zealand at the end of the year. Imagine their disappointment to learn that the Mosses were going to be in Australia when they reached Christchurch. In her Christmas card Angela described New Zealand as "a wonderful country." It seems that Angela and Alan are often in interesting places. Angela mentioned that they spend time with an old school friend who divides her time between Bognor Regis, a family house in France and an apartment near Tucson.

In the absence of photos, I again turned to Google and found this on the Rylands library website. We'd love more photos, Angela.

Rosemary L

2005-09-09T19:37:00.001-07:00

March, 2006

Again Rosemary sent an attractive Christmas card showing details of her garden shiny with frost. Her Christmas letter expanded the information she had earlier sent in an e-mail. Here's part of the e-mail message:

"Your email and path to cyberspace arrived just as we were getting ready to return to Malaika for the last leg of our summer cruise. Although I had a brief peep at the web site, it was very brief and I therefore put off responding till I had had time to explore and enjoy further.

We actually got back in early October but to mountains of new or just unanswered post, the garden crying out for attention, fruit needing picking and then making into jelly or some other concoction. You may therefore understand that it has taken me a while to get down to going on line and enjoying some more news and dealing with your letter.

We have had a good summer and I am delighted to report that my back troubles now seem behind me and it is lovely just to do things and not have to wonder whether I will make it!

We had ten weeks or so on the boat: the first part was in the early summer, when we did the Thames ring again but making a detour onto the river Lee, passing the place where the Olympic Village will be, up to Hertford and then up its tributary, the Stort, to Bishop's Stortford. We locked onto the Thames at Limehouse, so went up under Tower Bridge and past the Tower, the Houses of Parliament et al. to Teddington, where the river ceases to be tidal, and then up to Oxford. The second leg in late summer was up to the Shropshire Union and then the Llangollen Canal to Llangollen. We continued up to Ellesmere Port on the Mersey estuary, before returning to base. We had twelve lots of visitors on the first trip and three lots of staying visitors on the second, as well as the odd day visitor, so we had a very sociable time.

Other highlights have been a two week trip to India in Feb/March with Brian and a few days in Paris, doing the Art Galleries and gardens with my friend, who went to Verona with me. Anyway more of all this anon (reminds me I also got to a play at the Globe just after the 7/7 bomb attack) - for the moment I must do something about supper."

September, 2005

Rosemary is someone who puts a lot of time and effort into creating original Christmas cards. I look forward to receiving them and obviously her house and garden lend themselves to the lights and decorations of that season. Keep them coming, Rosemary.

In July of 2003, Rosemary wrote, “ I have been hoping to find something out about Elisabeth Oakley. All the old Solicitors' Directories I have managed to look in have shown no reference to Elisabeth and I have gone back to the early nineties. . . So I am beginning to wonder whether I was imagining seeing her in London. I am wondering whether I can make any enquiries at the law Society but I'm not sure it would help.

I have had a very busy year. At the beginning of February I went to Alpe D'Huez skiing: it was a bit of a mixed bag because of the weather—huge amounts of snow—and some old and some more recent injuries, but at least I proved I could still do it and we did have some sunshine as well. At the beginning of March we went to China. Brian had always wanted to sail up the Yangtze River and as the Three Georges area was due to be flooded this summer, under the Three Georges Dam Project, we decided to pull it to the top of the list. As well a three-day trip up the gorges in warm sunny weather, we went to Beijing and to Chien to see the Terracotta warriors and before leaving Beijing, we had a brief trip to the Great Wall, which we saw in light snow! All in all it was a very interesting trip and I certainly feel more interest and understanding of the country and its people.

Then there was the boat Spring repaint (we had a week of wonderful weather before Easter and completed the work in record time), then, after Easter, a shake down cruise to Coventry with old sailing friends; we moored in the middle of the city and walked to the cathedral and had a rewarding time looking at the building and its many chapels. I love the glass and there is a wonderful atmosphere but I still don't like Graham Sutherland's tapestry. Spring is always a lovely time on the canals with the lambs and baby ducklings—there were some very small ones—and we were reasonably lucky with the weather.

The 10th of May saw us on our way to Cornwall: friends Brian had made working on the Thames and who had been on Malaika our first two years, invited us to join them at Minack, where they were renting part of Minack House, in the grounds of which the Minack theatre was built. On the 1st of June we left to start our summer cruise - this year almost two and a half months non stop save for only two very brief visits home to satisfy insurance requirements. If you add to this trying to get the garden into shape and one’s affairs generally in order and also finish the computer course I had been doing over the winter, it meant that a number of things just didn't get done!

Shortly after leaving work, I had joined the Aylesbury Vale branch of NADFAS—the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts. People I met there introduced me to a government sponsored Computer Course run by City and Guilds— the particular centre being in Marlow. As well as the core subject of IT Principles, which is compulsory, I did Desk Top Publishing and Internet: because of various blips in their organisation, I had to do the last module, Internet, in about one month flat in May. All in all it made for a very hectic spring and early summer. Anyway I have passed all three modules, so can forget about it for the time being.

This year's cruise is the northern canals. We travelled north up the North Oxford, the Coventry and the Trent and Mersey. We then had a new diversion, the Macclesfield, which lived up to its reputation as a delightful canal, and then the peak Forest Canal, which is a bit like a rural backwater but very attractive. The canal was only reopened last year and goes from Manchester to Huddersfield and includes the Standege tunnel, the longest and deepest on the network. You go through on a British Waterways boat and the narrow boats get towed behind. It was quite and experience. Malaika got a little scratched but not too badly. The eastern side is just one lock after another, so I walked virtually the whole way down into Huddersfield! Fortunately the weather was nice so it was very pleasant. We were planning to come back over the Rochdale Canal, another newly reopened one, but unfortunately they have been plagued with gate failures this summer and it was closed, so we had to make a detour and pick up the Leeds and Liverpool, going west to Wigan. The Leeds and Liverpool is a very interesting canal with some unusual locks (several locks are combined in one staircase, so that the top gate of one lock is the bottom gate of the next going up hill and vice versa going down; there are two rise, three rise and at Bingley even a five rise lock). There is also some very scenic countryside, as it skirts the southern part of the Yorkshire Dales.

We then set out to do the L and L from west to east, which is the way we originally planned to do it. From Leeds, we went east and then up the River Ouse to York and onwards to Rippon, our most northerly point.”

Rosemary’s 2003 Christmas letter was lovely: she expanded on the China trip and included some photos, which I can’t reproduce here. I include just one paragraph to illustrate that Rosemary too would make a great travel writer: “The highlight of the Yangtze cruise has to have been our trip along one of the side gorges, the Shenong Stream. Early morning muster for transfer to a ferry and then peapod boats—long and thin like peapods, canoes might be the nearest comparison—without engines. We were eight to a boat and hauled up the stream by four Chinese men in trunks and tee shirts roped to the tow rope; they variously scrambled along the shore, waded through the ice cold water or leaped on board, when neither was possible, and used iron tipped poles. This Gorge had steep, almost vertical sides, softened by some greenery and was very narrow and scenic, much more as I had imagined the Yangtze to be but on a smaller scale. In places the towing team had to drag the boats over the shingle—the water level was so low. Once we turned, we shot like a cork out of a bottle.”

In the last couple of years, Rosemary had made a couple of trips to Italy: one to Rome “not Brian’s idea of a holiday but it gave me the opportunity to rediscover “my classical past” and explore Roman Rome.” In 2004, Rosemary went with a friend to Verona and indulged in her love of opera, architecture—and food and wine.

The 2004 Christmas newsletter was again full of interesting sagas of canals and waterways. Rosemary also mentioned that she had kept up her Practicing Certificate and had been doing some part time work. Unfortunately severe pain alerted Rosemary to some physical problems and “a day trip home from Lancashire to see my osteopath revealed three misaligned discs and a lesion and a torsion in my sacroiliac joint. The condition has improved but is not beaten yet.”

Hope the news is better and that there has been the opportunity for more travel. Keep us informed.

Frances

2005-09-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

March, 2006

Frances continues to be a good e-mail correspondent.She’s kept me abreast of her travels to visit friends. Her recent news wasn’t so good:

“Twisted my ankle quite badly a fortnight ago, indoors fortunately, but foot very purple still, and I have to wear atubi-grip to keep the swelling down. It has cramped my style somewhat as I cannot drive or walk any distance at the moment. Am reading lots of trashy books and doing sudokus.”

Frances had been gung-ho to attend the reunion, but today’s e-mail was not so positive:

“Having just received the details about the reunion, my reaction is to wait for a later one as 37.50 seems too much to pay for a buffet lunch on top of train fares etc. I know they have to charge for the use of the college, but even so! Other people I was going to see also think that, so am not the only one too mean to pay out!”

September, 2005

Frances is another excellent e-mail buddy. Over the past three years I have enjoyed following her daughter Katie’s exploits at Royal Holloway, and have been so happy to get just a little news from her about Sheila. In fact, Frances and Sheila have attended a couple of Classical Society meetings together, have met in Salisbury and have chatted over lunch. The above photo (and I apologize that I can’t improve the quality) was taken in September 2003. To the right of the couch we have Frances—who appears not to have changed one bit!) holding her granddaughter Ruth. Next to Frances is her husband, John, and beside him are his son, John, and grandson, Jack, who were visiting from South Africa. In the foreground is Frances’ daughter, Nicky, and her daughters, Rebekah and Sarah. Nicky and Steve had a son this year, William, and in June Frances labelled him “a sweety.” Behind Sarah is Katie.

Frances kept me up to date with Katie’s academic work, following her career from research in Dubai to her degree and career plans. In early December, 2003, Frances, together with Nicky and the two older girls, went to visit Katie in Dubai: “Dubai was fantastic, what an experience for an old granny! The sun was shining, the sky was blue, there were some amazing buildings, and it was so good to see where Katie had been living and working. Not a place I would like to live for long, but I can see what appeals to Katie. She has met such a wide variety of people whom she never would have come across in London, and has had a really healthy outdoor life-style to go with it. She will find it very difficult to adjust to living here again, I think. She has applied for a post-grad fellowship, which will give her the opportunity to publish some papers, do some seminar teaching and workshops, go to Singapore uni for three weeks to do the same, and generally give her time to look around for further jobs.” Frances later told me Katie got the fellowship, and in June she mentioned that Katie was off to Singapore, then Melbourne, Sydney and Bankok.

Although Frances did not give me this information, Google is my friend, so you can go here to read about Katie and then find out more about her research.

I know that in the recent past Frances has taken trips to Scotland and Devon, and at one point, she was talking about coming here to visit. What about it, Frances?

Marion

2005-09-09T19:36:00.000-07:00

March, 2006

I am awaiting a report from Marion on the vacation she took in Switzerland, Absent the words, here is a photo of her relaxing above the peaks and looking like she is really enjoying her ride on the trotti-bike.

Marion is still "sitting on the fence" as far as the reunion goes. Maybe she needs some coaxing to put down her hoe and make the trek to Bedford.

We spent some frustrating times trying to get her Christmas card to cross the Atlantic electronically. She had devised something cute and complex, but our applications were not talking to each other and we had to resort to . . . the mail!

September, 2005

Marion has been great about keeping in touch with me via e-mail. Having said that, I must admit that this year I kept her e-mails in my in-box, ready to put them in a folder when I began this undertaking, and one day in a fit of absentmindedness, I wiped them all out. So I apologize, Marion, for not passing on your more recent news (and losing your wonderful photo of your wall) and will do better with my new set-up.

I also rather imperiously demanded second copy of Marion’s delightful Christmas, 2003 newsletter because I had mislaid the first, promptly found the first and still didn’t get my act together. Marion is most skilful with her computer. I get photos from her with e-mails, she puts out great newsletters and if you got a Christmas card from her last year, you know she created that too! I especially loved the photo on the back: her trusty bicycle. Marion is not going to be parted from that means of transportation: “I definitely have no plans to get a car again. I gave mine up mainly on environmental grounds and I can hardly complain about the nasty, smelly, congestion-causing vehicles if I run one myself. Anyway, cycling is much better. You see the countryside and don’t have parking problems. It is always possible to use public transport when cycling is impractical. It may take longer but time is not usually crucial when one is retired.” Marion astounded me in a 2003 letter when she described a round-trip of 27.3 miles to keep a lunch engagement with a former colleague. At a time when she was already having knee problems! And she talked wistfully of enjoying a book entitled “Greece on my Wheels” by Edward Enfield “because his cycle tours of Greece, round the Peloponnese and in Epirus, included so many places with which I am familiar. Oh, to have trusty knees so that I could follow in his wheel ruts!” Her knees must be pretty trusty, because in her 2003 newsletter she writes of a trip to Harwich, “I covered about 32 miles that day.” And a photo of Marion in her Christmas, 2004 card shows her atop Snaefell in the Isle of Man in July of that year. I sit with my map of Britain and follow the route of her trips. No M4 for her!

I rely on Marion for some of my nostalgia fixes. After my second newsletter, I had a great letter from her, writing about her Christmas traditions. She still uses the same recipes for Christmas pudding and cake that her mother did. She also sent me her marmalade recipe and I regret to say that’s another item on my “yet to do” list. Marion wrote, “Another of my 'traditions' is to make marmalade about the end of January when the Seville oranges are in the shops. I have recently made 20 pots, which should last me till next January at least. 'Proper' marmalade, on the bitter side (I always add an extra lemon), is an essential breakfast ingredient so far as I am concerned.”

And of course she can always be relied on for vignettes from nature: “Recently we have seen some snow even here in northeast Essex. It didn't last long, of course, but I always feel the old childhood excitement when I see it falling, especially if the flakes are big and fluffy instead of that silly seedy stuff. I woke one morning to a white lawn and by afternoon most of it had melted and as I walked round the garden (just looking at things, as I like to do!), I found a violet in flower. There are plenty of snowdrops and winter aconites but even some daffodils have buds showing already. Global warming is certainly confusing the plants!”

Life in Essex is certainly more interesting for having Marion to chronicle it. Let’s have more.

Susan

2005-09-09T19:34:00.002-07:00

March, 2006

“Raining old women and their sticks!” What a wonderful phrase which appeared in a lovely long letter from Susan last November. When she wrote, she and John had just returned from a holiday, a cruise on Minerva II, the new Swan Hellenic ship. There were excursions to museums and sites and “one of the different trips involved a fairly strenuous walk in the Troodos mountains of Cyprus. We were told about the island’s history and natural history. What’s more, we were encouraged to pick and eat the figs, grapes and other fruit which dangled temptingly over the garden fences.”

Susan went on to say that one of the guest speakers was John Barron, and his wife joined the ship halfway through the cruise. “He asked to be reminded to everyone who was in our year at Bedford. He spoke of his Bedford days with great affection and expressed sadness that the college was no more. He commented that, "if the principals of Bedford College and Westfield College had been able to exchange a civil word with each other, Bedford might have survived through a giant protest against the closure”. His first talk, which I attended, was like being in a ‘time warp.’ It was entitled ‘A Brief History of Greek Sculpture.' The talk interested Susan’s husband who is interested in sculpture “from an engineering viewpoint. ” They also visited Tiryns, Messene and Santorini.

Susan and John’s non-classical trips last year included France and Cornwall, for a visit to the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

Life wasn’t an unmitigated pleasure for Susan, who had to deal with “two noisy Welshmen down a very deep hole” fixing a burst underground pipe . I had to deal with something very similar and I can imagine Susan’s annoyance as they trampled over her yard while exclaiming, ”Can’t be ‘elped, luv.”

Susan has been continuing her Welsh studies, both by visiting her brother and his welsh-speaking neighbors in “in deepest Caermarthenshire” and deciphering Deeds and Indentures for a local history club project tracing the history of local farms.

On top of all that, Susan’s family keeps her on her toes. Jonathan and Polly were, at the time of Susan’s letter, working to restore their Victorian house in Swansea, prior to the arrival of their new baby, bringing Jonathan’s contribution to Susan’s grandchildren to four. Nick and his partner, Jo, are working on a flat in a Georgian house in Bristol, where they discovered two rooms behind what they thought was a solid wall! Jeremy and Paula, together with Paula’s daughter, round out the family gatherings. Susan gave a graphic description of a trip Polly and her daughter Ellie attempted to make to Oxford on July 7, and the confusion with transportation, even as far away as Swansea.

Susan and John met with Anne and Peter when they were last in England. I don’t know what plans, if any, Susan has for the reunion.

September, 2005

Susan made the fatal mistake of writing a wonderful long letter and sending photos just too late for the last up-date. So after such a long interval the faces in her photos must be a little older and the news must be a little out of date, but I am delighted to pass it on and hope that Susan will be prompted to write again and send more pictures of her family.

She also sent a marvellous memento: a Bedford prospectus listing the courses we may have/should have taken. Good to see those course titles and faculty names again! While on a reminiscing note, I know that Anne (Burt) and Peter Moss visited Susan and John in Wales last year. I didn’t realize until Anne and I were talking when she was in Detroit that Anne and Susan had at one time been roommates.

The first photo, taken in 1996, shows Susan’s husband, John and their son, Nicholas, on the latter’s graduation day (remember Susan saying, “the second followed his father’s interests and became a materials engineer?”

The second photo was taken at Jonathan’s wedding to Polly in 2001 and shows John, Nicholas, Susan, Jonathan and Jeremy.

The third photo, taken in 2002, shows Susan’s striking granddaughters, Harriet, Ellie and Charlotte. Harriet and Charlotte are equestrians, and Susan also sent lovely photos of them on horseback. Susan was delighted that Charlotte earned an “A” grade in Welsh in her general Certificate of Secondary Education. She must have completed her A levels by now and we hope to hear more about her plans for higher ed.

I loved Susan’s account of the trip to France she made for the Grand Prix, a 65th birthday present to John from Nick. After a train ride from Nice to Monte Carlo, John and Nick went to watch “trials and various races”, while Susan and Nick’s friend Jo found their own amusement: “the only suitable simile for entering Monte Carlo while a race is in progress is ‘It’s like entering Pandemonium.’ The roar of the car engines as they speed around the track reverberates off the hills and is deafening. Earplugs are ‘de rigeur! I simply couldn’t believe that people would pay to endure this form of torture, but they do and in large amounts. It’s the modern equivalent of chariot racing. Jo and I escaped up the hillside away from the smell of oil and gas fumes. We sought out a quiet cafe—empty except for a couple of like-minded females, because ‘tout le monde masculin’ was watching the race. We enjoyed a glass of wine before indulging in some civilized shopping, making a point of avoiding those establishments which had installed a television showing the race.”

Susan’s sense of humor did not desert her when she and John went on a cruise to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Beginning at Thessaloniki, where they visited the tomb of Phillip of Macedon, they moved on to Delos and Mycenae. “The climb to the Acropolis at Mycenae was daunting, but we made it. An added dimension for me was the abundance of wild flowers; autumn crocuses in shades of lilac and white, yellow sternbergia, purple mandragora and cyclamen. These last were growing plentifully on top of the walls in and around ancient sites.

The number of places we visited reads like a roll call from Greek history. The climb to the Acropolis at Athens was child’s play in comparison to Mycenae. On arrival, we noticed a ceremony, complete with Greek soldiers marching smartly along in national dress—ballet-like skirts and shoes with red pom-poms. It’s almost as mad as bearskins! It was the Greek equivalent of V.E. Day, hence the speeches from local politicians (as usual) and the celebrations. The Parthenon is being restored for the Olympics and had more scaffolding than usual, and general chaos abounded. So you will not be surprised to know that we got lost. We separated from our party and followed the exodus signs down the wrong side of the hill, coming to a complete stop just in front of a workman’s trench at the bottom. I tried, in my primitive Greek, to find the way back. ‘Kalimera’, said I, ‘Touristi?’ ‘Acropolis?’ With a jerk of his thumb, one indicated the other way up the hill. John had his doubts about my linguistic skills and so we continued down the hill, until suddenly a bus passed us, containing the aforementioned soldiers in national costume, standing like a row of skittles in the aisle (of the bus), unable to sit down because of their skirts! A truly surreal sight.”

John and Susan went on to visit Corinth, Crete and finally, Ephesus. “The size of the complete site is enormous: so far only one fifth has been excavated. We, once more, left our party and explored. The Library of Celsus was magnificent, but unfortunately the Turks decided to have a sound system with, as they thought, appropriate music, so we sought peace at the theatre where St. Paul preached. It is built into the hill and had superb acoustics. Altogether a memorable holiday. "

Equally amusing was their 2003 trip to Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen and St. Petersburg “whose newly restored opulence was overwhelming. Palaces, gardens and churches had been restored for the tercentenary. At the end of May, when we arrived, the celebrations were beginning, the population (or much of it) was dancing in the streets and red, white and blue flags were unfurled everywhere. They were preparing to welcome President Putin back to his birthplace.

As often happens, there was one idiosyncratic character on board. A bagpipe playing Scotsman. Fortunately (for music lovers) he was forbidden by the Norwegian captain to play his pipes on board. Not to be outdone by this edict, he played on the dockside just before the ship left port. At St. Petersburg, in full piper’s regalia complete with sporran, he marched up and down alongside the ship, unaware that he was being followed by a very lean and mangy German shepherd dog that matched his step and the rhythm of the pipes, five paces behind him. As the final chords died away, the dog sat down and howled. Even the Norwegian captain, watching from the bridge, raised a wry smile.”

Susan’s wonderful descriptive writing isn’t reserved for exotic places. I loved her description of her part of Wales in winter, “We continue to enjoy walks along the marsh road which leads to the estuary. The winter migrating birds have arrived and, at night, when the tide is high their calling can be heard from the house-curlews, oystercatchers and redshank. It’s an eerie sound, but fascinating.”

I think there is always room for a humorous travel writer, Susan, but for now an update on your family would be wonderful.

Anne

2005-09-09T19:34:00.001-07:00

March, 2006

I am still awaiting an up-date from Anne, but I include here the wonderful news that Anne and Peter will be in London en route to Portugal just in time for the reunion. In fact they will have to leave for Portugal on the 7th, but they will be spending the nights of Friday and Saturday at the Euston Premier Travel Inn.

Anyone trying to contact her should know they are in Australia until March 20th.

September, 2005

Many of us are beginning to see signs of Christmas, and our thoughts are turning to cold and varying amounts of ice and snow. So I thought I would start this account from Anne in the Southern Hemisphere by quoting the beginning of an e-mail I received from her in late 2003: ”Christmas isn't far away and the strains of Silent Night are heard in the shopping malls while the spring sun shines outside. There's a lot to do in the garden nearer Christmas, so I try to avoid extra cooking at the last minute. Otherwise I get hot and bothered in the kitchen while the temperature goes up outside too. The blossom and flowers in parks and gardens have been lovely again this year, and the weather has let us do a fair bit in our own garden. We're planning a few days away in early December, and then we'll be at home over Christmas and in January.” Anne followed this up with a letter in January, detailing how her Christmas turned out: ”We had a good day ourselves and the weather was really beautiful—28˚C with a light breeze. It was my turn to play for the service at our church and after that Peter and I took a picnic lunch up to a ridge on the hills at the seaward side of the city, where you get a view of the city on one side and of the sea on the other. We came home in the middle of the afternoon and prepared the main Christmas meal for the evening. This included a bit of variety with plenty of fruit and salad…On January 1st we had a picnic too.”

January of 2004 saw the long-awaited visit by Betty and her friend Pam, which you can read about on Betty’s site. I assume Peter was the one pressed into service to take this photo of Anne, Betty and Pam. Then it was Anne’s turn to travel extensively. We were so happy that Anne and Peter fit us in. They had a crowded schedule, but they broke their trip between LA and Ottawa by spending a couple of days with us. The weather was pretty nice for May, although it was too early to indulge in some of the summer pursuits that make Michigan enjoyable. Many years ago we used to take visitors to the Ford factory, but tours had been discontinued. They started up again just three days before Anne’s arrival, so we took the Mosses out to Dearborn. In the old days there was heat and factory smells and noise: now it is very multimedia and pristine walkways take you on bridges above the line. But it was fun, nevertheless, and we amplified our history lesson of the interdependence of Detroit on the car industry by taking them to the lakeside estate of Edsel Ford, not far from our house. I was pleased that both our daughters who live locally were able to meet up with Anne and Peter. We certainly were sad to see our visitors depart and envied them their trip to England. “…we could hardly believe how good the weather was. (We realised that it was 20 years since we had been to England in the spring.)” The weather didn’t hold up when they met up with Angela and Alan. “This latter meeting was on our only rainy day, but we still did the walk we had planned in the morning as it was just drizzly and didn’t rain hard until later. It was of course really lovely to see both couples (they had crossed over to Wales to see John and Susan earlier)…Speaking for myself, it has made a difference to me to be able to re-connect with that part of life and see you and others again after so many years.”

After England, the Mosses traveled to Finland for another dose of history and the experience of “twilight all night after the sun had eventually gone down (very late) and to hear seagulls calling and squawking at 2:00 a.m.” Again it was an odd experience for me, on a baking hot day in July, to read Anne’s note, ”We’re back to winter clothing and morning frosts, but this is a very moderate sort of winter!”

Anne and Peter have done a vast amount of traveling, attending conferences on Peter’s specialties, Timber Engineering and Earthquake Engineering. I heard first hand accounts of Singapore and Malaysia as well as the North American and European conferences. Unfortunately, they were in Australia when the Pearsons made their visit there.

A welcome card from Anne in April of this year indicated they would be staying closer to home this year. That should give Anne time to work on her garden (she seems to specialize in vegetables) and enjoy her book discussion group, now in its sixth year. She added, “I’ve been playing for more services this year, at church and in a couple of rest homes, because two other organists are affected by serious illness, either themselves or in their family.”

Here’s another photo from last May. It was a delight to see you both, Anne. I hope your life is tranquil and that we will meet up again soon.

Sheila

2005-09-09T19:34:00.000-07:00

In my notes on Frances, I mentioned that she and Sheila have met a few times in the past three years. Sheila lives in Salisbury, not too far from Frances in Southampton. I know that Sheila has had many demands on her time, taking care of the welfare both of her mother and her aunt, which has necessitated many trips to Kent. We don't want to add to your burden, Sheila, but if ever you find yourself with a little leisure, don't forget there is a group of people here who are longing to know about your adventures since 1962. With this new set-up, you can even do it in installments.

Beryl

2005-09-09T19:33:00.001-07:00

March, 2006

It has been a quiet few months for us. Ernie is now fine: he still has two heart conditions, but the consensus is that his heart muscle strength is above the threshold where he needs a pacemaker and any electric shock treatment for the arrhythmia would require follow-up use of drugs, and he is already taking a bunch. So he is being monitored and insists on working with sharp and heavy tools— not the best hobby for anyone on blood thinners.

There was a family wedding in Chicago in January, which served as a kind of family reunion. Mary Ann is Ernie's younger sister and her daughter Megan was the bride. It will never be possible for all the cousins to get together, but there is always a cross section at events like this and I was happy that four of my children were there.

After a period of very little happening, there are three events scheduled for spring, all around the May 6 period. So I am regretfully not planning to come to the reunion. Rosemary’s offer sounds most tempting, and I think the autumn would be a possibility for me.

I love to hear from everyone. Opening the e-mail every day is always an adventure.

September, 2006

I have a headache. A chronic headache, brought on by too many days and nights spent huddled over this computer. As I explained elsewhere, up-dating this web site will be a cinch. In many cases, however, putting together your prior submissions has been tantamount to reconstructing ancient history and writing a dissertation. And I have no degree to show for it!

I hope that my Christmas newsletters and my correspondence last November after Anne’s visit filled you in a bit about life in Michigan. It has been pretty routine. Since the Christmas 2002 up-date, I have had five new grandchildren. In 2003 Theodore was born to Andrew and Marcie (and there is a new baby due in the middle of October this year.) Caroline was born to Liz and Jeff in January of 2004, followed by Henry in April, 2005. Kate and Ron finally got a girl, Eleanor, born in February of 2004 and Frederick was born to Al and Gody in April of 2004.

Most of you know that we cancelled our plans to come to England because of the postponement and eventual cancellation of my nephew’s wedding. This news coincided with the diagnosis of Ernie’s heart problems. We are still working on getting a second opinion, but in the meantime, the blood thinner that he has been taking resulted in an impressive hematoma after he dropped a board on his hand. We are set for surgery about the time I get this thing unveiled and I will fill you in later.

In the meantime, let me direct you to two websites. This one contains a lot of photos, but needs a bit of up-dating (bookmark it anyway) and this one keeps you up-dated, sorta, on our activities. .

Keep your material rolling in!

Rosemary T

2005-09-09T19:33:00.000-07:00

March, 2006

Life has been joyful for Rosemary since we collectively heard from her in September. Timothy’s fiancée, Naz, finally told her Moslem parents about him, and the wedding just took place in Cardiff. To quote Rosemary, “The wedding went extremely well and we moved from a fairly frosty reception at the parental home by Naz’s three brothers to much friendship, laughter and a visit to Timothy and Naz’s new home after the Nikah and reception on the Sunday.

All our family went out of their way to build bridges, and the Immam was a delightful, frail, elderly man with a lovely sense of humour, so that helped a lot. Naz looked stunningly beautiful in a fuchsia pink and pale turquoise, beaded and embroidered wedding dress." Rosemary, this just begs for photographs!

This happy occasion took place right after the birth of Rosemary’s long-awaited new grandson, William, to her daughter Naomi in Huddersfield.

Rosemary is clearly busy. She wrote of a Burns Night Supper and Ceilidh she organised (for 160 people) and of her plans to go as a delegate to the Camillian Conference in Rome. Sadly she will be unable to make the reunion on May 6, because she is part of a group hosting a cultural exchange visit with the emphasis on disability, part of a Grundtvig programme. She also very generously offered to host an alternative reunion in Hexham. That sounds most attractive.

September, 2005

I have an overactive imagination, so when Rosemary told me some time ago that her son Matthew had met a girl from Michigan at Durham, I had visions of a lovely wedding in Michigan, with Rosemary and her family flying in and lots of parties! Alas, that’s not how the world works, the romance is over and I must come down to earth. It would have been nice.

Rosemary has been wonderful about answering my questions. I asked about Hexham. Here’s her reply. “It is the most desirable place in the country to live! A market town of about 12,000 people, full of historical and beautiful stone buildings. Our house is quite central. i.e. walkable distance to the town with its library, cinema and theatre, and shops. Loads of wonderful gift shops—you can get just about anything you might need in Hexham, although people used to large shopping centres trail into Newcastle or the Gateshead MetroCentre and probably end up buying in Hexham. Newcastle and Gateshead are going for European Capital of Culture bid for 2005. Hope we are successful. Just come and visit! Hexham Abbey was founded in 675 AD and Hadrian’s Wall is very near. Have I convinced you?"

This spring, I asked for an update on her children. I remember the oldest so well from visits to Cincinnati. Jonathan, Melissa and Naomi are married. It sounds like Jonathan hosts many family get-togethers. “Susan (his wife) is very good at it though.” Timothy is “engaged to Naz who is Moslem and dare not tell her parents about him. She lives at home in the same city, Cardiff, so it is a clandestine relationship. Francis and Fran have been going out for nearly ten years; they don't live together because they both like their jobs, and their jobs are in different parts of the country! Francis may be the one to move if he can find a suitable job. Simon is two thirds through his first year of teaching, but has been somewhat unsure that it is for him. Partly I think he is suffering from a kind of bereavement of student life, so I hope that he will give it one more year.” As for her youngest, Matthew, he “is nearing the end of his second year of Physics at Durham. He is enjoying it, but finding revision for this year's exams very hard. He has to decide whether to do a three year or four year degree. At the moment, he thinks he will do three years and go for mega bucks as a computer programmer.”

I also asked for details of Rosemary’s grandchildren. She filled me in: “Jonathan and Susan have three children: George 11, Daniel nearly 9 and Fenella nearly 4. Melissa and Jamie have four children: Alicia 11, Emily nearly 10, Harry nearly 8 and Benjamin 5.”

After providing me with all this information, Rosemary didn’t have much to say about herself, except, “With all these projects that I am involved with, I am very busy. It is the homeless people one which has caused huge headaches for the past year; it was staff, and now it is service users! Oh well!” If you Google Rosemary, you will get an idea of her undertakings. Perhaps you can give us some background and details of your work, Rosemary, as an up-date.

Audrey

2005-09-09T19:31:00.000-07:00

March, 2006

It has been great to receive a couple of letters from Audrey. She wrote at Christmas to say that she had met up with Betty for lunch, the first time they had got together in fifteen years.

Audrey was on a trip to visit her children on “the mainland.” Tim is now in the Dental School at Sheffield. Before he left home to start his new life, he and Audrey spent six days climbing in the Lake District. Martin is a banker in Hull, working on “doing up” his warehouse apartment in the city center, all “glass and stainless steel and leather”, according to Audrey, who has enjoyed helping him out. Audrey’s oldest, Julia, is coming to the end of her Ph.D. work at Manchester. The topic is Water Resource Management. Take a look at this interesting site. She and Audrey visited Dublin on the occasion of Audrey’s 65th birthday.

Audrey also went traveling with Rob last summer, visiting her brother in Hampshire, her old classics master (still umpiring hockey and doing Italian degrees at 81) and friends from Kenya and New Zealand.

I take leave of this part of Audrey’s life by quoting verbatim from her letter of October, 2005:

“I have just begun a two-week residential care job for a man of 100—ex naval officer from Kent—banned from Care/Nursing homes for “attacking a worker.” The pay is extremely attractive, but not much else about it is: just pull on the rubber gloves, reach for the bleach and think of the money . . .All night long (despite sleeping tablets) he traipses from bed to bathroom, tap-tapping with his stick like Blind Man Pew in “Treasure Island.” “Ahoy there”, he bellows to summon me and I’ve just delivered the 5th mug of tea.”

Audrey leads an active and interesting life!

September, 2005

When we collectively last heard from Audrey, she was chronicling the career plans of her children, planning more long walks and generally anticipating with horror the coming of hip replacements and botox.

I am happy to report that she warded off the latter developments and had great success with the former. “Tim and I kept to the plan of walking the entire Pennine Way, from Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders (270 miles.) Took 19 days, an unforgettable experience of fun, challenge, comradeship and sense of satisfaction.” That was, I think, in 2003. In 2004, “Tim and I did a 200 mile coast to coast walk in the summer: good fun and a good bonding exercise. I shall be sad when these adventures come to an end, as I fear they shortly must as he branches out”.

When Audrey wrote the above at Christmas 2004, Tim was having interviews in Dentistry. The previous year, Audrey reported that he “did impressively in his GCSE’s, gaining 11 A grades, of which six were A*.” Audrey was especially proud of her role in Tim’s A* in French: he was drilled by her in grammar, and those who knew Audrey’s attention to detail will find his result no surprise.

Julia, Audrey’s daughter, is moving through a Ph.D. at Manchester University in Natural Resource Management (water) and she spent some time in Pretoria, studying the 1998 Water Act and its implementation in the Transvaal. In one of her earlier reports Audrey had talked of a “memory lane” trip with Julia around the old Bedford haunts. She attempted something similar “in Manchester, where I grew up: it wasn’t a huge success. No good pretending it means anything to your family: indeed I think it can shatter illusions they may have created. As for myself, I feel I’ve done with it now, and the way is forward, not retracing old ground. A sobering day, it was.”

Martin, meanwhile, “is in the latter stages of HSBC Executive Banker training, currently in Malta. (Lucrative, but oh so BORING.)

And Audrey? Well, she wouldn’t be Audrey if she weren’t looking around for some new challenge. There’s Interior Design, “We have had an extension built on to our Manx stone cottage (circa 1870) and it’s been fun co-coordinating the fitting out (on a budget of course, but the result is looking very stylish.)” As of a year or so ago, Audrey was working three days a week and there was “swimming again—lunchtime pensioner rate.)” And last Christmas Audrey, together with Julia, was making her own Christmas cards. So what’s the latest, Audrey?

Betty

2005-09-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

March, 2006

I haven’t heard much from Betty since September. She, too, reported happily on her lunch with Audrey in Manchester.

As for the reunion, she is not sure of her plans, for the nicest of reasons: “I may be with Joanna and second baby in Dubai.”

September, 2005

"Joanna is very happy in the ex-pat scene. She works hard and plays hard … She will spend Christmas with her man-friend and another couple skiing in Lebanon.” That’s what Betty wrote for the Christmas, 2002 update. By January, Joanna was engaged and in March, Betty wrote of her plans to attend the wedding in Dubai and again enjoy the wonderful sunshine she had just experienced on a Caribbean cruise. The wedding took place at Easter. Clearly the bride looked beautiful and Betty made an elegant mother of the bride, but “What a disappointment the weather was for us. True English grey skies and gusty swirls of winds! For months I had been saying to people here, ‘the one thing I don’t need to worry about is the weather in Dubai. It will be sunny every day.’ Well, the worst tropical storm in thirty years blew up the evening before the wedding. Trees were blown down and roads were flooded. The reception was rapidly transferred from its idyllic setting around the pool of the Ritz Carlton Hotel to a beautiful suite of rooms indoors. In spite of the beastly storm, the wedding, meal and party all proceeded beautifully”.

In July Joanna and Ian were back visiting Betty in Lancashire and when they visited again in July of 2004, Betty wrote “I am feeling very relaxed and energetic after waving goodbye to my daughter, her hubbie and daughter Maddie Elisabeth…It was really lovely to see them again, particularly little Maddie, now 8 weeks old.” There have been more visits from Maddie, and Betty got to see her on her own turf in Dubai shortly before Christmas 2004. Betty clearly loves being a grandmother, so I was happy to get an e-mail from her at the beginning of September with the news “I am going to be a grandma for the fourth time at the end of March next year. My daughter is delighted to be expecting again.” And of course, she has Oisin and Amber closer to home when she needs a grandchild-fix.

Betty has been great about keeping touch via e-mail, and I have heard of a number of trips she and Jim have taken. There was a second Caribbean cruise, trips to the Lake District, Norfolk and other domestic locations, but Betty’s longest trip was to New Zealand in the company of her friend Pam in January of 2004, where they met up with Anne (Burt) and Peter Moss. That was shortly before the trip Anne and Peter took to the states. There is a photo of Anne, Pam and Betty on Anne’s page and I give you Betty’s account of the meeting: “Anne and her husband had arranged to meet Pam and me at our hotel in Christchurch. I knew I would recognise her immediately, as I had seen from her photo in your newsletter that she had not changed one iota! I knew her at once. She very kindly said I hadn't changed either! (Thanks for your tact, Anne!). Anyhow, to get back to the important details—Peter and Anne took us back to their home for a delicious lunch (very tasty quiche home-cooked by Anne), then took us for a very informative and interesting tour of the historic beginnings of Christchurch. Fascinating to learn of the very hard life endured by the earliest settlers, particularly the women. Later we were taken on a panoramic tour of the Port Hills, from where we could see the whole of Christchurch, and beyond, and then on over the top to the coast and the pretty, little holiday spots which reminded me of the little south coast holiday places in England. Then back to our hosts' home again for another lovely home-cooked meal.

Most important of all—the chats and catching up on people we both remembered from our days at Bedford College. We had some lovely heart-to-heart talks, then and a week later when we met again, just before we flew back home.”

Thanks for being so good about keeping in touch, Betty. Now I can do photos, let’s have some more. Especially Maddie, who delighted Betty “peep(ing) around the bedroom door early in the morning—so long as it wasn’t too, too, early!”

Diana

2005-09-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since we heard from Diana. At last sighting she and Colin were living in Bridgend, Glamorgan. It is of special interest that their daughter, Sian, has become a distinguished classicist. See Sian's biography

It would be so nice to get an up-date from you, Diana.

Read Me

2005-09-09T12:49:00.000-07:00

March, 2006

There’s a NIKE ad which proclaims. “Do it.” So instead of sitting around proclaiming that I am “going to up-date the site”, I have!

Obviously the big event for us all is the May re-union. Some people are all lined up to go, which is wonderful. Some can’t, others are still deliberating. Those of you in the Yahoo group have seen Rosemary’s offer to host a reunion later in the year. Think about it: it is such a generous offer. Scroll down to STOP PRESS for a list of up-dates.

September, 2005

I've been talking about this for a long while, and I think we are finally there. The format isn't exactly what I want, but it is close enough.

I have posted all the information and photos I have received since the last major up-date, which I am ashamed to say was Christmas of 2002. So some of the news is pretty old, and I hope it inspires some of you to send in some more up to date information. The whole beauty of this set-up is that I can up-date each person's page in a matter of minutes, rather than waiting until I have enough information to justify setting up a newsletter and mailing it. You should be able to click on the link to each name and be taken right to the latest news. Ideally, I would have gone back and put in all the submissions from the first two newsletters, but the formatting problems I described earlier make that incredibly time consuming or maybe impossible.

I should also add that although this is a public document, the odds of anyone you know finding it are pretty slim. I have been running my own private blog Amen with a T for a couple of months now. Not only has it not been "discovered": even the people I have told about it don't read it.

Even so, I have been protective of your identities and no identifiable information will appear. So if you get a new address or e-mail address, either send it to each other or e-mail me and I will get the changes out by e-mail or regular mail. As always, I will edit the information you send, but if ever there is something that you write to me personally which is not for public consumption, either by this group or the "blogosphere", please indicate your concerns.

Obviously I am hoping that those people who do not regularly access a computer will start to make regular visits to the library to follow up on the growth of this endeavor. I have announced this both by e-mail and regular mail in case you do not open your e-mail on a regular basis. I will also provide print-outs to anyone unable to read this on-line at home or the library and can send copies of the paper issues to anyone who has lost hers.

Where applicable I am adding links directly to other sites. Follow them up and happy reading.

Note, too, that it is possible for you to click on the "Post a Comment" link at the bottom of every page and leave a message. You will have to register and sign in to Blogger to do so, but it may be fun.

Beryl

STOP PRESS. You will find up-dates from Angela, Anne, Rosemary T, Marion, Dilly, Audrey, Betty, Frances, Rosemary L, Meg, Susan and me.

My reporting pulled together a wide array of e-mail, hand written letters, etc. If I have left anything out, please let me know. And keep the photos coming.

Navigation note: until I can figure how to put links in the sidebar, you can go from one entry to another most easily by scrolling to the bottom of a page and clicking on “home.”