Whoever said that being ‘retired’ meant we have more time have definitely got it wrong. As usual we seem to have had a very busy year, with a bit of a rollercoaster ride involved at times. I spent New Year recovering from my day surgery on the 29th December, where I had an Ablation to help my Pacemaker become more efficient (so far it is doing fine).
At the beginning of April I celebrated my 65th birthday and did not expect anything special as I was away at a book conference, however one of my friends had other plans. At breakfast I received a sash and badge, together with a tiara to wear in the evening; it was wonderful as everyone kept wishing me ‘Happy Birthday’, even our guest speaker in the evening.
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| Farewell to "Our Cyprus Home" |
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| A sunset at Aphrodite's Rock perhaps marks the end of our Cyprus association but we have every intention of returning for holidays. |
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| HMS Warrior in the foreground with the Spinnaker Tower behind |
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| The sun came out so a brisk walk along Southsea's promenade |
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| The Still & West where we had once courted ! |
We paid our first visit to Gibraltar in the early summer; it was only a three night trip but this was plenty of time to explore the Rock, including the various tunnels and the lovely beaches on the east side of the territory. What really surprised us was the change in visitors during the day and the evening. During daylight the town is full of people from cruise ships and across the border, however at about 6.00 pm the place almost becomes a ghost town. The visitors leave, the workers go home and there are just the tourists staying in the few local hotels. Still at least we were able to get meals in some quite good restaurants.
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| A refreshing beer having arrived in Gibraltar. (The nearest beer is Margaret's) |
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| Margaret strides down Main Street - busy during daytime |
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| Just one of the extraordinary views from the Rock of Gibraltar across the famous airport and beyond over the border into Spain |
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| We enjoyed meeting with family so much we forgot to take pictures. I did take this one though of the canal towpath in Skipton. Almost John Constable ? |
September saw both Stephen and myself have weekends away. He went to the Light Aircraft Association rally at Sywell; we have been before but it is something he really enjoys, so he treated himself. The following weekend I went off to Oxford. The main reason was a book launch for a friend of mine, but it also gave me the opportunity to catch up with the sights of the city. It was “Open Doors” weekend, so I managed to see into a couple of the colleges and the Sheldonian Theatre.
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| The view from our hotel room out to the Old Port Not visible, the fact that we were on the climb-out from the airport ! |
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| Margaret at Knossos; once a Minoan Palace The site was mostly excavated by Sir Arthur Evans who "re-created" some elements. |
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Each year celebrity authors visit Margaret,
In 2011 it was Henry Winkler (The Fonz), in 2012 Simon Mayo, in 2013 Sir Tony Robinson
2014 Michael Rosen, in 2015 it was Julian Clary and illustrator David Roberts
Then in 2016 Clare Balding, Sir Christopher Hoy & Chris Packham This year TV presenter and novelist David Baddiel, and Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE who consulted on and wrote the forward for "Starfinder for Beginners" |
Stephen and I do not go to the cinema very often, usually once every three to four years, but we had an afternoon out recently to see the new Paddington Bear film. We loved the first one and couldn’t wait to see this; it was great with lots of laughs as well as a few tears of joy at the end. The only problem with the cinema is the volume that they play the sound at !
As you can guess from some of my comments, I am still heavily involved with things related to children’s books. I have been all over the country to various conferences and have been to London on more than a few occasions for book launches and events. Last week I went to the Harry Potter exhibition at the British Library with about 10 friends and had a great time. I also helped at Bath Kids Lit Festival and visited both Hay and Cheltenham festivals. At the latter I ended up dancing on stage with Harry Hill (a very surreal experience).
As many of you know, for some years Stephen has researched and published a web site about his uncle who died during the Second World War. The web site, whilst attracting even more information, is not the permanent record that Stephen wanted. In consequence he has now published a book entitled “Stephen’s War”.
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| Now a permanent record of the sacrifice made by Stephen's uncle. |
It has been five years since Stephen needed major treatment for his myeloma. This summer it started to show signs of activity indicating the end of a long period of full remission. Accordingly he was withdrawn from the clinical trial. Happily he has not yet relapsed and seems to be in a period of plateau and as yet without symptoms. We are not letting this get in the way of our travels and we are off to Bruges in the spring and later in the year we would like to cruise along the Douro in Portugal. Hopefully next year our letter will be full of these escapades.
The boys are both doing well and Nick and Louise moved down toward Bournemouth during the summer. This is great for us as we can visit everyone at the same time. Finley is now four years old and quite a young man. Because he was born in September he does not start school until next September but he is doing well at nursery and enjoying everything.
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| No Christmas would be complete for us without attending Handel's Messiah. This year there wasn't a performance in Bristol. Margaret solved the problem by getting tickets for the Albert Hall. There were reported to be 500 choristers ! |
Do have a wonderful Christmas and we hope that the New Year will be full of happiness for everyone,
