18^th December 2016

Dear All,

Tuesday was a long day. It did not start well as we arrived at Addenbrooke’s before 7 am and the nurse greeted Kate with “it has been very busy on A & E and we haven’t any beds in J3” When the operating list was read out Kate was not on it and they eventually discovered that she should have been in a different ward despite her paperwork saying otherwise. When she arrived at the correct ward she was greeted with “You’re late”. Unfortunately she was the last on the list so had to wait until 4.40 pm for her op. She came out of theatre at 6.30. I collected her at 9.45 pm as they are keen to vacate beds but I think she would have been happier staying in overnight as she was feeling sick and delicate. She has been taking it “easy” since – or her version of “easy” and gradually improving every day. She will not know the next step until after an appointment on the 30th. The operation area is very sore so sometimes it is difficult to sleep the hours to which she is accustomed!

Friends and family have been very good with many phone calls, cards, visits and bunches of flowers. Esther even found a jigsaw puzzle with Wirksworth on it in an effort to encourage relaxing.

Before she went in for the op. Kate was determined to eradicate the remnants of our super strain of bamboo. This counts as one of my major gardening errors. It serves me right for nicking the original cutting from “Ormonde” in Ipswich when Jose was in residence. It proved to be the most vigorous strain possible and although we cut, sprayed, burnt and eventually dug up the main clump last year the runners had spread 15 feet in all directions. Kate decided that half the lawn should be dug up to physically remove these runners and she chipped away at this for several weeks. Several dustbin fulls have been despatched and hopefully the majority has now been eliminated. We now need to replace the lawn!

Just about done!

I joined the Thursday walk as Kate was happy to be left and friends called in anyway. The walk this week started at Balsham and took in Horseheath and West Wickham. It is an area of outstanding glutinous mud and quite a slog as our boots ended up like lead weights. The day started misty and the sun never really got going.

Near Horseheath

The final “Biographies” session took the form of winter readings and quizzes – I presented Tom Lehrer’s “Christmas Carol” – spoken not sung!

We hope to be off to Hove for three days from Christmas Eve and have been invited to spend some days with friends in their cottage in Norfolk over the New Year as long as Kate’s appointments and state of health allow it.

Meanwhile I hope you all enjoy Christmas:

“Christmas time is here by golly,

Disapproval would be folly,

Deck the halls with hunks of holly,

Fill the cup and don’t say “when”.

Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens,

Mix the punch drag out the Dickens,

etc – you know the rest?

Love

Mike & Kate

31st December 2016

Dear All,

Kate’s appointment went quite well yesterday in that the operation has been successful and the lymph glands were clean. She now has to have two scans (one for bone density), radiotherapy for 3 weeks and tablets for 5 years. It is quite a treadmill once you are on it, but there are plenty of reasons to be grateful.

We had an enjoyable Christmas at Hove. Esther had been down since the 20^th to child mind while Mary-Ann was working. Ben, as usual, cycled but with so much luggage due to Christmas presents that it took him 6 hours – the South Downs can be a challenge! Kate and I were staying in an “Air BnB” nearby which worked well. Albert still does not sleep for long periods partly due to persistent eczema but is usually cheerful in the daytime. He is standing but not quite walking yet. Amélie is showing signs of artistic talent and at Christmas was obsessed with a game on a tablet where she racked up scores higher than anyone else. Of course we did manage one game of “Skinny” but Albert was not an asset when we tried “Upwords”! After church we had a walk along Brighton front which was a bit like Piccadilly Circus!

  

On Boxing Day we had a leg and lung stretcher at Devil’s Dyke in bright clear weather with spectacular views along the Downs.

Devil’s Dyke

We decided to help Ben’s return journey by delivering his luggage to Streatham. The traffic was bad as we approached the M25 and continued into London on the M23 with warnings that there was a 90 minute delay approaching the Dartford Tunnel. We therefore decided to drive home through London with the help of the SatNav which we achieved via the Rotherhithe Tunnel (which was a surprise as we were aiming at the Blackwall Tunnel!)

I walked on Thursday but Kate rested mainly because her leg is playing up. We started at Walkern in Hertfordshire and numbers were down due to weather/distance/Christmas duties but it was frozen solid for most of the route and scenically undulating.

We are off to Norfolk when I have finished this letter staying with Ian & Felicia, who some of you met at my party.

Best wishes for 2017 – 2016 has some questions to answer!

Love

Mike & Kate

11^th December 2016

Dear All,

We were in Hove again this week; fortunately the M 25 was free flowing in both directions so the journeys were fine. Albert is gaining speed on all fours and zooms from room to room and up the stairs if not watched! We did some Christmas shopping in George Street and walked westwards along the seafront towards Portslade while he slept for much of the time. Amélie was in her school nativity play which we were able to view on Wednesday evening. Andy had described her performance “a bit like Lance Corporal Jones in Dads Army – a step behind the others and sometimes turning left when the rest turned right!” However she looked angelic as an angel!

On Thursday Philip was struck down with stomach pains so Kate and I had to lead the short walk with little notice. The walk started at Wicken and we were able to include a good deal of a previous walk which started at Burwell and took in Wicken Fen. There was more wildlife in evidence than often is the case on the fens, we saw deer three times, three raptors, a pair of egrets, 30 Konik ponies and flocks of lapwings. We did end up covering 9.2 miles which was a tad long for the short walkers!

Near Burwell

Wicken Fen

The subject of “Biographies” on Friday was Sir Richard Doll – had you heard of him? No neither had I! He was an epidemiologist credited with being the first to link smoking with lung cancer, asbestos to lung problems and radiation to leukaemia.

In the evening I had a Garden Club talk at Barrow near Bury St Edmunds – a small group but very friendly.

Yesterday I watched football in the rain before we attended the Over Pantomime this year it was “Dick Whittington” and was very good – Oh no it wasn’t – Oh yes it was!

Love

Mike & Kate

4^th December 2016

Dear All,

It has been a fairly normal week with swimming, church groups, 60s music, walking, Biographies, gardening and football. However we have also been entertained to two meals out, been on Street Pastors duty, helped friends move house and I attended men’s breakfast yesterday.

We have had a new kitchen fitted at chapel thanks to an anonymous donation and we added an industrial type dish washer fitted this week so we had a training session on Tuesday morning.

Before

After

Dishwasher Training

“60s Music” featured top sellers from 1966 which included Frank Sinatra, The Four Tops, Nancy Sinatra, The Kinks, The Troggs, Manfred Mann, Herb Alpert, The Beach Boys, Dusty Springfield, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch, The Who and Rolling Stones. Some improvement on the early 60s but still a few ropey ones!

Our Thursday walk started at Abinton Pigotts and took i Steeple Morden and Guilden Morden. The ground was still firm after a few days of -5°C and the sun stayed out so it was very pleasant and 48 turned out.

Near Litlington

A few walkers

A Touch of Frost

The “Biographies” subject was “Edward Lear” who although most famous for his nonsense poems primarily made his living from drawing and illustrations.

We had been invited out on Wednesday to Sandra Buchanan’s an ex walking colleague who fell and broke her pelvis at the New Year. She had a replacement and has started shorter walks again. Last night we were out again at Matthew and Rachel’s a young South African couple from church.

Street Pastors was fairly busy especially between midnight and 2.30 am with several Christmas parties in action and we were able to sort several “tired and emotional” folk. Most thankfully had supportive friends with them which helps no end. The worst case was on his own and had to be despatched to Addenbrookes as he failed to respond and his blood pressure dropped dramatically. I got to bed at 4.45 am and was up at 8.15 am for Men’s Breakfast where the speaker was John Searle an colourful ex professional poker player who became a pastor and started “AquAid” which supports a large number of projects in Africa particularly Malawi.

Stan and Maya, a Bulgarian couple from church are moving from Willingham to Fen End, Over this weekend. Kate helped with some painting on Friday and we helped move some furniture yesterday.

Love

Mike & Kate

20^th November 2016

Dear All,

What with one thing and another it has taken sometime to sleep patterns back to normal following jetlag and Street Pastors. The latest excitement was Kate going down with a severe bout of sickness which kept her in bed all Friday, which I followed by attempting the world diarrhoea record Friday night! On the bright side I am lighter than I have been for some months and I have learnt to spell diarrhoea!

I had another Garden Club talk at Fulbourn on Tuesday night then we drove down to Hove so were late arriving but naturally the roads were clear. Albert’s latest trick is tobogganing down the stairs at great speed on his tummy – nothing to worry his minders there! Amélie’s homework was to talk to an old person about the toys they had as a child, so I was able to fit the bill and help her.

On Thursday we met at Glatton near Sawtry for our walk taking in Denton, Stilton and Folkesworth. It was quite undulating and beginning to get sticky but a decent walk.

Near Glatton

On Friday I was kindly invited to attend a “Speed Awareness Course” at Huntingdon Racecourse having been nabbed on the way to Exmoor travelling downhill on a deserted road at 8.30 am on a Sunday morning on Thrapston by pass. Actually the course was excellent presented by a couple of comedians but imparting a deal of interesting information.

How many road casualties were reported in 2014? 194,477 (probably 750,000 realistically)

How many killed? 1,775

Which year was worst? 1967 – before seat belts and drink driving warnings

Which counties have the worst records? 1. Lincolnshire, 2. Cambridgeshire (rural road with dykes)

Where do collisions occur? Urban 71%, Rural 25%, Motorways 4%

And deaths? Urban 44%, Rural 50%, Motorways 5%

When were 30 mph speed limits brought in? 1935

How do you tell what the speed limit is? If there are street lights it is 30 mph unless there are signs overruling it then there should be repeaters on every street light.

What do motorcyclists call their SMIDSY club? Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You.

If you stop at a certain distance at 30 mph, what speed would you be impacting at the same distance if travelling at 32 mph? 11 mph. I could go on!

Last night we had a Street Pastor’s Drug awareness training session from “Inclusion” a national organisation that works with folk affected by drugs, alcohol and mental health. We can now tell you the effects of Amphetamones (Speed), Methamphetamine, Cocaine, Crack Cocaine, LSD, MDMA (Ecstacy), Floral cannabis (Skunk), Resin, Spice, Methedrone, Heroin, Ketamine, Rohypnol (date rape drug) and their combination with alcohol.

Love

Mike & Kate

13^th November 2016

Dear All,

Where to begin? American is another country – they do things differently there! We started in Los Angeles after an almost 11 hour flight. We did not rate LA too highly as it is so large and constipated by traffic jams. We had a tour round Hollywood which seemed a bit run down and then travelled to Venice Beach and Santa Monica and had a paddle in the Pacific. We opted out of the full tour of Universal Studios but did a short one when we picked the others up later. Instead we found a Nature Park in the hills above the city which demonstrated the local flora and fauna.

Hollywood Boulevade

Next stop was San Diego which was better, especially Balboa Park, where we could have spent longer, and then onto Coronado Island where only millionaires can afford to live. Later we had a boat trip round the bay taking in the Maritime museum, sea lions, pelicans and considerable military presence.

San Diego Bay

Next day we drove inland to Arizona passing close to the fence on the Mexican border and travelling through acres of desert eventually arriving at Scottsdale on the outskirts of Phoenix staying at the marvellous Carefree Resort surrounded by impressive specimens of cacti and spotting a Javelina (no we hadn’t heard of them either – it is a bit like a wild pig but in fact a peccary).

Saguaro Cacti

Sedona Red Hills

We got up early next morning to explore the area before departing to Sedona to explore the Red Rock area by jeep. This was a really rough ride in spectacular scenery.

We stopped that night in Flagstaff and departed next morning for our first look at the Grand Canyon at Tusayon and Grand Canyon village. We visited three different view points on the south of the Canyon and as someone said “photos make it seem incredible but the reality is better”.

Grand Canyon South

 We travelled next day on Route 66 stopping at Seliman to visit the famous barbers shop before proceeding via the Hoover Dam to Las Vegas. We had a night tour of Las Vegas including Freemont which is like Sodom and Gomorrah rolled into one.

Our highlight was probably the next day when five of us rose at 4.30 am to be driven to Bolder airport to take a flight in a small plane to the Grand canyon west, picking up a helicopter to touch down on the floor of the Canyon swapping to a boat for a trip up the Colorado river. Back at the airport we picked up a bus for another three viewpoints including the “Skywalk” which is a bit scary - looking down from the glass bottomed walkway!

Grand Canyon Guano Point

Back in Vegas we toured round some of the hotels by day, some of which are mind blowing. Our verdict on Las Vegas was “great to see it once, but will not be in a hurry to return!”

Las Vegas

Next day we drove through the Mojave Desert on the way to Selma where we stayed before visiting Yosemite National Park where it had rained so the waterfalls were running.

Yosemite, El Capitan

Our final stop was San Francisco which was our favourite city by far. We were staying near the Fishermans Dock and Pier 39. We had a tour round Chinatown, Golden Gate Park and Golden Gate Bridge before taking a boat trip round the bay and Alcatraz. After we took in the Aquarium and the Crooked Street before dining in Chinatown. On our last morning we explored the city via a cable car and street car visiting Bloomingdales, Maceys, the Railway museum and the farmers market.

Golden Gate, San Francisco

On the plane home we were able to watch the election result in excruciating detail before eventually arriving home at 2 pm on Wednesday. Our planning had not been ideal as I had a garden Club talk at Shepreth on Thursday night and we were on Street Pastors on Friday night. Our time clocks are still adjusting!

Esther is back in Bulgaria helping with OT training this week and Ben is running in the Athens marathon.

Love

Mike & Kate

23rd October 2016

Dear All,

It has been an “interesting” week. Kate was called back after a mammogram as they had found a small lump and she had to endure a painful biopsy. Unfortunately we will not get the result until after our holiday. Then on Friday I was delivering my contribution to the “Biography” group subject “Angela Merkel” when I had a funny turn and cannot remember what happened. Evidently I went back to the beginning three times but eventually finished the talk. I have been checked over and nothing was amiss except high blood pressure. In the evening Esther phoned to report she had been violently sick and was covered with spots as a bad reaction to an antibiotic which she had been prescribed for an ear infection.

Kate travelled to Hove on Tuesday by train as I had a talk on Wednesday. The journeys to and fro went well despite the threat of strike action on Southern Rail. The highlight of the trip seems to have been Kate pegging washing on the drier and Albert watching then taking his own socks off and arranging them on the rail!

My talk on Wednesday was to Newmarket U3A and this week I have to address Cambridge U3A Gardening Group.

Our Thursday walk started at Monk Street and took a wide circle round Thaxted. It is still dry underfoot, most fields are ploughed and drilled but there are some very lumpy seed beds.

Monk Street

Boyton End

Break time

Cutlers Green

We had a work party at chapel yesterday removing the kitchen cupboards as we have been donated a new kitchen. It was quite hard work especially removing the vinyl floor covering which had been stuck to the floor.

Mary-Ann, Andy, Amélie and Albert are flying to Budapest today for a couple of days.

If all goes well we fly to California on Thursday after spending the night in a Heathrow hotel.

Love

Mike & Kate

16th October 2016

Dear All,

It has been the start of the new U3A term this week, Kate has enrolled for a course on “Joints, Muscles and Nerves”, I am back on “Biographies” and we are both going to “60s Music” as well as “Rambling”. We are not teaching “Just Vegetating” until after Christmas as we plan to miss a couple of weeks in the USA this term.

“60s Music” is headed up by Rob Turvey who some of you may have met at my 70^th. It is nostalgic trip but amazing how many of the records don’t seem to sound quite as good as they did then!

Q. What was the best selling record of the 60s?

A.” She loves You” – The Beatles

Q. What was no.3 on the list?

A. “Tears” – Ken Dodd!

The topic of “Biographies” was Brendan Bracken. He was quite an influential politician but I had never heard of him. He was born in Ireland, ran away from school at 14, sent to Australia, conned his way into teaching jobs, became an MP then Churchill’s private secretary in the war and Minister of Information after the war. He was a Jeffrey Archer type of character who was always stretching the truth and claiming things that were fantasies.

I had a garden club talk in Hitchin on Wednesday night talking about “Costa Rica” and Thursday missed the walk in favour of visiting the seed trade open days in Lincolnshire accompanied by David Cook and Lawrie Gray. We managed 6 out of the 7 sites mainly featuring new varieties and developments in Brassicas. The main trends were developments in long stemmed broccoli to replace Tenderstem and the reintroduction of Collards.

Collards

Calabrini long stemmed broccoli

New purple cauliflower

Sakata display

New Beauty Heart Radish

Elsom’s Kale trial

We were on Street Pastor duties on Friday night and it was fairly busy with new students and the continued increased presence of street life folk. The two low points were finding a young couple of street people in a doorway who had been urinated on by a drunk and a boy who had only been on the streets for a couple of weeks – he had gone to sleep and someone had stolen his shoes. “Jimmy’s” the Cambridge night shelter is full every night and the excess have to rough it, but folk come in hoping for easy pickings from tourists as well as access to the night shelter facilities.

We both had ‘flu jabs yesterday, (me for the first time) and helped Gillian & Richard Law celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary at the Crown in Girton. We are out again lunchtime today joining the leader of “Biographies” David Miles-Dinham for his birthday.

Love

Mike & Kate

9th October 2016

Dear All,

We have been down to Hove again this week entrusted with looking after Albert for the first time now that Mary-Ann has returned to work. Before we left on Tuesday, Kate’s sister Sue and husband Bill called in on the way to a reunion at Stratford upon Avon. On the way down we stopped for a walk at Devil’s Dyke on the South Downs from where the views were excellent.

Albert is having to adjust to Nursery so is understandably a bit clingy, but was fine once Mum was not around. We walked along the seafront away from Brighton towards Portslade and had lunch at a seaside restaurant owned by Fatboy Slim. After we sat on the beach and moved a few tons of stones! There was one hardy soul swimming and another optimistic topless sunbather. Amélie seems to be coping with school quite well and is very good with Albert.

View from the South Downs

Devil’s Dyke

Keen Gardener?

Hove Beach Activity

Our Thursday walk started just up the road at Dry Drayton and took in familiar places: Bar Hill, Lolworth, Boxworth, Knapwell Woods and Childerley Hall.

The Black Horse, Dry Drayton

Later in the week it has been fund raising. On Friday it was the annual quiz for Over Day Centre. Kate had compiled the questions and there over 50 attending. It seemed to go well and my job was easier as we had a working sound system so less shouting.

Last night we attended a concert at Little Paxton in support of CEEM and Moldova. The music was from “Damascus Road” a local St Neots group and there was an excellent curry midway.

Keen gardeners amongst you will know that autumn digging has begun and it is time to plant shallots, garlic, and broad beans for over wintering.

Love

Mike & Kate