24th January 2016.

Dear All,

On Monday Kate and I accompanied Esther to Rochester to buy a car that had been adapted to take a wheelchair. We visited a company which specialises in these adaptations and after a couple of test runs chose a 2012 Peugeot Horizon.

We had lunch in Chatham Docks where there has been a great dockside development for shops, restaurants etc round a packed marina – not quite like Pepys day!

Peugeot Horizon

Chatham

On Tuesday we had an afternoon swim as we had missed out on Monday and later heard that John Blanchard, who took our wedding service had died.

I had to get a mugshot on Wednesday as I am due for my first pictorial driving licence when the 70^th rolls up. I also managed to book Moldova flights for the next outing departing on the 27^th April on “Moldovan Air”. The price initially doesn’t seem too bad - then you add seat booking and luggage and it mounts up. The same evening we heard that the Moldovan Parliament had been invaded by an angry mob still upset about the disappearance of an eighth of their GDP from the national banks.

Our Thursday walk started at Rushden near Baldock and headed for Sandon. Fortunately the ground was largely frozen as when it was reccied it was extremely soggy and hard going.

Rushden

I had to stand in as chairman for “Biographies” this week as our leader was having hospital treatment. The topic was “Alistair Cooke” the journalist, not the cricketer. He had a remarkable career as a theatre director, actor, magazine editor, theatre critic, film critic, film researcher, author as well as radio and TV presenter. He was a friend of royalty, presidents, film stars – Charlie Chaplin was supposed to be his best man – but failed to turn up. He wrote for the Guardian from 1949 to 1972 and presented “Letter from America” from 1946 to a month before he died in 2004 – 2,869 episodes! His private life was not so happy – a divorce and difficult relationships with father and children.

This was followed by the first session of “Visual Perception and the Brain”. Seeing is not believing, the brain does a lot of interpretation. In the lecturer’s final examination he was given: “I open my eyes and my occipital cortex is stimulated and I see a world of objects – how might these facts be reconciled?” He showed some remarkable visual tricks so it should prove to be interesting.

Friday night was the annual U3A Rambling New Year Social at Newnham College. It is always a good event as participants have to bring a dish each and a certain amount of competition ensues so that the quality of the food is always excellent. The entertainment featured a poem and a few songs and I presented the Review of the year. Philip having his legs straightened featured heavily.

Love

Mike & Kate