Dramatis Personae

For those unfamiliar with the intricacies of my family, here's a crib-sheet:
Fran: ex-wife, lives in Cambridge. Andy: son, lives in Bordeaux, France, with Séverine and Jake: grandson, aged nearly 1. Louise: daughter, lives in Cambridge with fiancé Andy S.
Chris: grandson, aged nearly 10, lives in Boscombe with his mother.
Andrew: my partner. Anna & David: Andrew's sister and brother-in-law. Christopher: Andrew's nephew. Anne & Peter: Andrew's parents

House

Following an offer to Malcolm from Oxford University, which he couldn't refuse, he and Danny are moving again (so soon!) from next door, though they have had a lot of trouble with inaction by Westbeech Properties, the sub-leaseholders of Raban Court (and the despair of solicitors from Cambridge to London).

Family

Happily, Fran's recent checkups at the hospital have all proved OK, so we're hoping that she will remain well.

Andrew and I stayed with his parents in Pocklington in August, and at the end of August they stayed with us and we went to see The Mikado in London with Jasper Carrot (who was pretty good). In October we stayed with Andrew's sister Anna in Fangfoss, to celebrate three birthdays: Andrew's, his nephew Christopher's, and his mother's.

Fran and I spent a weekend in Bordeaux in March with son Andy and his girlfriend Séverine, meeting our new grandson Jake (born in January), and our first grandson Chris (now 9) who was living with them but has now moved back to his mother's in Boscombe. Andy took us to the largest sand dune in Europe. My camera and wallet were stolen.

Fran and I spent a weekend in Boscombe in November, seeing our grandson Chris, taking him to the Tank Museum at Bovington and to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at the cinema in Bournemouth.

Louise has changed jobs again, and now works for B&Q. She and her fiancé Andy S. (there are altogether too many Andrew's in this family!) are planning to marry on 17 May next year.

In April Fran and I collected my aunt Pat from St Albans for a day out in Baldock, and in August we gave her a day out in Cambridge, including a self-drive electric buggy ride round the gardens of Anglesey Abbey! My aunt Joan has had more falls, but now has a date for her second hip replacement in December.

Travel

Another busy year! In January we visited Amsterdam (ostensibly to see how they were getting on with the Euro!), with a trip to Arnhem, where we walked across the 'Bridge Too Far' and across the flooded and frozen river meadows. In April I went on a work trip to Pisa, and on my free day was able to climb the Leaning Tower (amazing!), and look round the Cathedral, Baptistry, and Campo Santo.

Andrew went to Stuttgart in June to play badminton. I went to Tübingen for a conference in July, and spent my free day walking through the forest to the monastery of Bebenhausen. KLM airlines left my luggage in Amsterdam both on the way out to Stuttgart, and on the way back! (They delivered it fairly quickly, and eventually grudgingly gave me a case of wine in compensation.)

The long Jubilee Holiday in June was spent in Salisbury, where we climbed up the Cathedral tower and visited Stonehenge, Old Sarum, and Poole. Another trip to Amsterdam in October, with a visit to the lovely town of Amersfoort, and a (rainy) day in the Van Gogh Museum.

Golden Gate Bridge at Sunset

Our main holiday was in Santa Barbara (where we enjoyed the Summer Solstice parade) and San Francisco (where we watched the Gay Pride parade) in June and July, driving up the rugged and scenic coast of Big Sur. We were extremely lucky with the weather, which was hot and sunny. One day we walked right across the Golden Gate Bridge. A short trip to Yosemite Park gave us the opportunity to do a wonderful walk to the top of the Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls and gaze at the awe-inspiring scenery. Our friends Tanya and Bob made the holiday even more special by accommodating us at the beginning and end of the holiday, showing us round Berkeley and Mount Tamalpais, and taking us to two 4 July parties at their friends' (we waved Union Jacks at the Independence Day parade, which caused some amusement!) We ended the day watching the fireworks in San Francisco from across the bay in Emeryville. Pictures of that holiday (and previous ones) are at http://www.rabancourt.co.uk.

Andrew and I are going to Bordeaux for a long weekend at the beginning of January 2003; we have also visited Whipsnade Zoo, Willers Mill Wildlife Park in Shepreth, and the 'Body Worlds' exhibition in Brick Lane, London.

Exercise

I helped out on the tournament desk at the Goslings badminton tournament in February. My guided walk this year was called 'Exploring the M11 and M25 on Foot' (people thought I was mad, or joking!), and I surveyed most of it on a lovely day in April. The actual walk was on 4 May, and went from Epping, round the M11/M25 cloverleaf junction, and under the M11 into rural Essex -- we could hear the motorway most of the way, but could see hardly any roads at all. 26 people came and we had an excellent day, finishing with a good afternoon tea in an obliging café which stayed open for us.

I am still going to the gym in Baldock, not often enough (I have no willpower!) but it's having a good effect.

In July Tony organised punting on the Cam. 35 people turned up! Some of us honed our punting skills, and nobody fell in (accidentally).

In May, while Andrew was on retreat at the Temple, I went to the Lake District for a week, camping (the only tent on the site) by the side of Ullswater. The weather was appalling! First it tried to drown me by raining solidly for two days, then it tried to blow me into Ullswater (I had to buy more guy-ropes and pegs to hold the tent down). Despite the weather I climbed Arthur's Pike, but it was awful on top. Almost on the point of coming home, soaked, I decided to stay another night, and then came one of those days that make you glad to be alive -- sunny, clear, warm, so I climbed Place Fell at the head of Ullswater (straight up the side -- very hard work), down into Patterdale for a well-earned pint of shandy, and back along a beautiful (and very crowded) path round Ullswater. I left a day early and came back via Aysgarth Falls in Yorkshire. It was lucky I came home early -- ten tonnes of shingle were delivered for Raban Court and four of us spent a day shovelling and barrowing shingle to re-cover the courtyard.

During Andrew's next retreat, in September, I again went to the Lake District, staying on my usual site at Grange-over-Sands (again the only tent on the site) in fairly good weather (though somewhat overcast). I climbed Coniston Old Man and had excellent views and a very good walk.

Friends

Tanya and Bob from California stayed with me in March (Andrew was in Yorkshire), and we visited Bernard Shaw's house in Eyot St Lawrence, and Osterley Park in west London.

I have spent two excellent weekends with my friend Jim in Birmingham (a very good host). We met Richard Holland (from Dubai) in London. Andrew and I stayed with friends Jim and Pete in Wells-next-the-Sea (Norfolk) in September, and we visited Walsingham. Hilary and Rosemary from Cenno in Italy came to dinner in August with John Henderson, who first introduced us to Cenno. In October we had dinner at Canary Wharf with Scott and Milton from San Francisco.

Thanks to the school reunion web site: http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk, I made contact with a couple of old friends from Loughborough, and have met them to reminisce.

A number of deaths have marred the year. On 9 March my oldest friend (since 1956) Tony Baxter died, following a second stroke. Fran and I attended his memorial celebration/service in Bristol, and I told an anecdote about him. On 2 September Andrew Holme (a friend originally met in one of our choirs) died after a long illness. And at the end of September Micheline, wife of my Wallingford school friend Frank Rice, died in France.

Work

My main work continues to be the conversion of the brief biographical details of the 150,000 people who have ever been associated with Cambridge University (1100--1900) into a database which can be searched and sorted. This will be of enormous value to historians, to the Cambridge colleges (who cannot at the moment find, from the existing printed biographies, all the men who held college office), and to genealogists. The project will also add the details of the women who were at the original women's colleges (Girton and Newnham) from their beginnings in the 1870s until 1900 -- the printed biographies were for men only!

Having been at the top of my salary scale since 1989, I applied for and (thanks to some excellent references from colleagues) was awarded a discretionary payment equivalent to two years' normal annual increments.

Music

In January we repeated last November's concert (Poulenc's Gloria and Duruflé's Requiem, with Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony) at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford. Because of work commitments I missed the 'Opera Gala' in March, but sang in the glorious Dream of Gerontius by Elgar in June. In November the choir took part in a performance of Mahler's Symphony no. 2 ('Resurrection'), in which the second basses have a range from bottom B flat to top G! In December we sang Brahms' lovely Requiem in King's College Chapel. Just before Christmas I'm singing in the usual Christmas concert at the Royal Albert Hall -- this year we're doing Part I of Bach's Christmas Oratorio.

Andrew and I have been to performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida, and the Messiah. I attended a concert to celebrate the 60th birthday of Tim Salter, conductor of the Ionian Singers.

Genealogy

I have managed to use the on-line 1901 Census at the Family Records Centre a couple of times (despite its catastrophic failure just after its introduction in January). Although it suffers from 10 to 12% inaccuracy of transcription, it's very easy to use, and you can view the actual census pages to check on exact readings of difficult handwriting.

Despite this, I still haven't managed to find the birth record of my maternal grandfather William Henry Hickling -- in 1901 he was in the Boer War, so wasn't listed in the Census! In addition to my own family, I have researched the family of my friend Frank Rice (who, living in France, has no access to the British records).

And out of interest I have been trying to research my adoptive family of Dawsons and Greenwoods, though I've failed to find the birth record of my adoptive grandmother Florence Greenwood. The Dawsons came from the village of Buckminster in eastern Leicestershire (almost in Lincolnshire) so I spent an afternoon looking round the graveyard in Buckminster and the neighbouring village of Sewstern.

One Sunday in September I walked about 8 miles round the streets of Leicester, visiting the areas of my childhood (in Spinney Hill Park, where I used to play, I was the only non-Asian, and there are mosques all round Leicester). It was very strange seeing Mayflower Junior School, where I started almost exactly 50 years ago! My first school, Moat Road Infants, looks much as it did when I left in 1952. The first house I remember, in Gedding Road next to the Home for the Blind, has been replaced by a row of smaller houses. I also took photographs of the houses in which my Dawson and Greenwood adoptive ancestors lived (though one has been pulled down).

I am helping with the transcription of the indexes of births, marriages, and deaths 1837--1900 for a project called FreeBMD, which is making the indexes available online (free). I am also helping to merge two handwritten indexes of Essex marriages, and to check the transcriptions of Essex births, marriages, and deaths from microfiched Parish Registers. Partly through work and partly through my own genealogical interests I am on the steering committee of a group called the Thesaurus of British Surnames. I've written some articles about the accuracy of the 1901 Census, and about the university alumni project.

You can email me at JLD1@cam.ac.uk

My web page is at http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/jld1/