Immortality

2024  has been a bit of a wake up call already. When your hero's or peers start to curl up their toe's it brings home to you the fragility of life. I remember Franz Beckenbauer strutting his stuff in the great German football team of the late '60s and early '70s as he brought a new dimension to defensive football in the same way that Johan Cruyff was later to do with Holland's brand of total football. His death announcement was soon to be followed by that of JPR Williams, one of the hero's of the Welsh rugby era which spanned the 1970s and into the '80s. He was only a few years older than me and I could easily have played against him had I been a slightly fitter rugby specimen.

I have always said old age comes with unwanted gifts, and we cannot be too complacent as we just don't know what is around the corner for us.

It was re-enforced yesterday when I received a call out of the blue from Ian Ruddick, the brother of Steve. Steve had sadly died at his flat in Thailand a few months ago, and Ian was clearing the possessions from his brothers house in Croydon where he found a letter unopened which I had written to Steve in 2019.

We had lost contact with each other around 2010 and little did I know that he had upped sticks and moved to Thailand after various trauma's in his life in the UK. Steve and I were thrown together in 1971 when I moved from Plymouth to college in London and he did the same from Newcastle. We shared a bedsit in Stoke Newington, North London and then a flat in Northcote Road in Clapham before girls got in the way and we moved into our own places. We regularly met up and exchanged stories until the phone calls and and face to face meetings stopped, and only recently when the Antique Roadshow came from Clissold Park, just across from said bedsit, did I mention to SWMBO that if anything did happen to him  hopefully Ian would be in touch. Little did I know that events had overtaken that conversation and a close friend had already been taken from us.

So 'live for today' becomes even more relevant as our life's breath decreases by the moment. So book that holiday, buy that gift and tell people how much they mean to you before it is too little too late. 

Cheers Steve, and Haway the Lads!

End of year review

 Why do I not get the time to post so often? I really don't know, but better late than never. 

SWMBO and I finally made it to Prague for a weekend break. Luckily we were there before the shooting incident. I had been there before on a golfing trip, and had always promised SWMBO that I would take her, so this was a delayed birthday present.

We did the touristy bit, walking past the castle and the cathedral down to the Charles bridge and then into the Old Town, and saw the Jewish quarter and New Town section with the astronomical clock, bu the main reason for choosing December was to experience the Christmas atmosphere and the festive markets.

What a disappointment that was. While we did get some snow, the markets were really all food stalls and very tourist oriented, so our objectives based on Christmas tree decoration shopping and so on were not forthcoming.

The only major item we did buy was a 'undertaker' Crombie style long black coat which will keep me warm through the Winter months and help hide my captains red jacket until it needs to be exposed at the next formal dinner. 

We had a good central hotel, and ate well on one night, but the other restaurant choice was poor. So much for Tripadvisor reviews!!

Anyway, we returned safely  to tackle our 'big' Christmas. 20 people including children sat round the table this year including the addition of Nick who had recently proposed to Emma so we have  a wedding to look forward to in May. It all went rather well, as i kept my humour and SWMBO got lots of help in the kitchen. I still show people the scar I have from the blister while peeling about 60 potatoes, and making 90 pigs in blankets.

Luckily we did not host Boxing Day, we are on the rota for next year for that one, but it will only be a small Christmas with maybe 8 sitting down next time.

We then spend 'Twixtmas' in Scotland at St Andrew's and stayed at the Fairmont hotel. Its about ten minutes outside the town, and bills itself as a 5 star establishment. Sadly it is not in the Turnberry or Gleneagles class, so we had a few issues which we needed addressing, and would be reluctant to recommend it for anybody thinking of using it in the future. The 'Old Grey Town' though was wonderful and we ate and drank very well, using the hotel courtesy bus given the Scottish zero tolerance to alcohol as far as drinking and driving is concerned.

One pub even put the Southampton v Argyle game on for me, and even the locals thought we wuz robbed.

We got back for dinner with Rebecca on New Years Eve and then went home to watch the local firework displays from the balcony.

So that's 2023 put to bed, although I still have a fair bit if repair work to do in the garden as a result of the various storms which swept the region during December,

So a belated ho ho ho! and Happy New Year to all my readers, onward to 2024.

Thea Collins

While busy consigning one family member to the English Channel, it was lax of me to fail to mention the replacement who arrived all worm and cosy in August.

While focusing on the loss of one family member who was very elegantly deposited in the English Channel, I failed to record the arrival of our seventh grandchild, to take her place.n She popped into the World in the middle of August all fairly easily it seemed to me, although her mum might disagree.

 Thea Collins is our seventh grandchild, and the first born to Kieran and Hannah. She is now about three months old and came round for her first swimming lesson this week. I wonder when she will start playing golf!!

Its becoming quite a recreational time for the family at the moment. Maxine, Emma, Ava and Nell have just completed 'the couch to 5k' programme at Birkenhead Park running club, Emilie is winning prizes at her local swimming club, and Nell is the first name on the team sheet for her school year swimming team.

Her first outing resulted in a narrow defeat to a boy in the match against Kings School, Chester. No disgrace there.

The activities have, however, come at a cost. Currently we have Archie and Emma on crutches. Archie fell out of his tree house when one of his swinging ropes snapped. He had just had a boot put on to a lightweight plaster and hopes his foot will be repaired in a few weeks so he can start games again next year.  Emma broke the bottom of her Tibia when she jarred her foot while on said 5k run. She is a couple of weeks behind Archie but hopes to get a boot too.

Her disappointment and frustration were tempered however, when Nick asked her to marry him!! She said yes, while at York Minster, the exact same place as Kieran popped the question to Hannah. Small world eh!

My golf is awful at the moment, and Tim is training as a personal trainer in Geneva, so the amount of athletic exertions seems to keep on coming. It will soon be Christmas and I can replenish my supply of sports socks and golf balls.

Ho ho ho!

Sherford

It is usually straightforward leaving the A38 at Plympton and driving through the lanes to Plymstock, but not now!!

It has been a while since I was in the area, but I was startled to find a new town had sprung up in the countryside outside Elburton. It is a complex of mock Georgian style apartments and town houses together with more modern houses and flats.

There are two schools, a coffee shop and a 5G sports field which we could make out, and many of the farmers fields bordering the development are fenced off presumably for more expansion. There are at least three major construction companies involved in the building work with presumably many sub-contractors working along side them.

It has been compared with Poundbury, the new town championed by The King when he was Prince of Wales, and the word is that it is a pleasant place to live albeit that it is still a work in progress and the infrastructure is a bit slow in keeping pace with the house building.