Who's Who?

For those unfamiliar with the intricacies of my family, here's a crib-sheet:
Fran: ex-wife, lives in Cambridge. Andy: son, lives with Séverine in Bordeaux, France, with Jake: grandson, aged nearly 2.
Louise: daughter, lives in Cambridge with husband Andy Slade.
Chris: grandson, aged nearly 11, 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    New central heating boiler is being fitted just before Christmas.

Family
   In April Fran and I took Chris punting in Cambridge, then to Wimpole Home Farm.
   On 17 May Louise and Andy Slade were married at Cambridge Register Office, followed by a reception at one of their favourite pubs. Rather than the elaborate (and expensive) wedding they had thought of having, this was just a few friends and very informal. Louise is expecting a baby (boy) on 21 December, so Christmas may be a moveable feast! Andy Slade's job has moved to Amsterdam, so they are having to sell their house in Cambridge and start moving to the Netherlands.
   Andrew's grandma died in October (she was in her late 80s), and we went up to Howden for her funeral, then stayed with Anna and David for the weekend.
   Anne and Peter, in London to celebrate Anne's 65th birthday, met us and we took them to see Stones in His Pockets -- extremely funny and well acted -- then we all went to dinner at Brown's in St Martin's Lane.
   On 5 November we watched the fireworks with Fran on Midsummer Common in Cambridge, then took Fran out to dinner at the Arundel House Hotel to celebrate her birthday.

Travel and Entertainment
   Andrew and I went to Bordeaux for a long weekend at the beginning of January to see Andy, Séverine, and Jake. Andy took us to the huge sand dune again, and we all went to Saint Émilion.
   On the day of the "great snow" (30 January, when 2 inches of snow fell) I was lucky in that it only took me 5.5 hours to get home (2 hours to fail to drive out of Cambridge, the rest waiting for trains delayed by frozen points). The unlucky ones sat in their cars on the blocked M11 all night, and many cars were still there the following day.
   Andrew and I had dinner in King's College in February, followed by the Provost's Seminar on the subject "If it is Art, is it Art at all times and all places?" Interesting discussion.
   My friend Jim celebrated his 40th birthday in Amsterdam in February, so 20 or so of us joined him and his boyfriend Eean there and had a wonderful weekend, visiting a windmill near Amsterdam and making new friends.
   Andrew and I went to see a very good production of Arsenic and Old Lace in London; the Peter Lorre character (from the film) was played exactly as Peter Lorre did it!
   In March we gave a dinner to celebrate being in our house for 5 years. Malcolm and Danny, and Michael and Graham came and we all had a very good time.
   We accompanied Andrew's parents to Amsterdam in March (they had never been there before), staying in a different hotel than usual to avoid near-vertical stairs. We had a trip to the lovely gardens at Keukenhof, and looked at the Rijksmuseum and the Amsterdam Historical Museum.
   My excellent car clocked up 150,000 miles in April!
   In May I organised a guided tour of Watermen's Hall in London for 20 people, followed by afternoon tea at the Tower Thistle Hotel.
   Andrew and I visited Bletchley Park, where the German Enigma code was cracked during the war -- a fascinating place.
   I went to Stowe Landscape Gardens near Buckingham on a most wonderful sunny day in June -- very beautiful gardens and buildings.
   In July Andrew visited Finland, Tallinn in Estonia, and Riga in Latvia with his friend Peter. I retaliated with a short weekend in Amsterdam.
   On a lovely afternoon in August we walked round Anglesey Abbey gardens near Cambridge and had tea.
   In August we went to Graveley Maze (the first proper maze I've been in). Andrew found the way in; I managed to find the way out. The flower festival afterwards in Graveley church was beautiful.
   Our main holiday (September) was a wonderful rail tour of Germany and Switzerland, staying in a number of places (Berlin, Nuremberg, Munich, Chur, Brig, Interlaken) for 3 or 4 days each. We flew out to Berlin and back from Zurich, and had a Rail Pass for most of the other travelling. We made day trips to Dresden, Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, the woods near Berlin, the parade ground in Nuremberg where the Nazis held their huge displays, Bamberg, Garmisch-Partenkirchen (from where we went up Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze, by railway), Berchtesgaden (from where we visited Hitler's mountain-top retreat called the "Eagle's Nest"), walked from Arosa to Davos over a mountain pass, Zermatt, and -- the highlight -- the Jungfraujoch (almost 12000ft) below the Jungfrau mountain. We were amazingly lucky with the weather, which was very hot and sunny almost all the time; even on the tops of mountains it was hot enough for shorts and no coats. Pictures will be on our (new) website at http://www.rabancourt.co.uk/
   The Lord of the Rings exhibition at the Science Museum was very good in October; afterwards we went to a party at Ian and Richard's in Twickenham.
   My (4th!) visit to Amsterdam this year was a long weekend in October to celebrate Andrew's birthday, staying (as usual) at the Golden Bear. We did two long walks in lovely sunny weather, and having found a cheap offer went to Maastricht by train for the day.
   The former Clerk to the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames, whose biography I've been editing, invited me as his guest to dinner at the Fishmongers' Company in London -- the Lord Mayor and Prince Philip in attendance, of course! But I refused to eat oysters.

Health
   2002 ended very badly when I got a severe pain in my side on Christmas afternoon; I didn't know if it was indigestion (I hadn't overeaten), a heart attack, or my lungs. On Boxing Day it was worse, and we had to find the emergency doctor (in Stevenage), who diagnosed fluid on my left lung, and the emergency pharmacy (in Hitchin) to get antibiotics. Although the drugs soon worked, it was several days before I could walk any distance without having to stop and pant. Luckily I was sufficiently well to go to Bordeaux (see above).
   Then I had a cold, after which I had what doctors euphemistically call a "productive cough" for several months. No pain, no temperature, just lots of phlegm. My doctor said it was a "post-viral cough". I also went rather deaf (blocked inner ears) for a couple of months, which didn't improve my singing!
   Following some slight internal plumbing problems, the doctor referred me to the Lister Hospital in Stevenage, where they did most unpleasant things with an endoscope to see the inside of my bladder. Although nothing seemed to be wrong, they took a large number of blood tests and want to see me again next year.

Exercise
    My guided walk this year was called 'To the Woods!!!' and traversed the green spaces of south-east London from Abbey Wood to Elmstead Woods. I surveyed the walk in two halves, making notes. Sixteen of us did the beautiful walk itself on 5 July and despite lots of rain in the preceding weeks the weather was fine and the ground dry. It was supposed to be 9 miles, so after 12 miles rebellion set in and we stopped at Grove Park. We even fitted in afternoon tea in Eltham.
   Andrew has now joined my gym in Baldock, so we encourage each other to go along; it's having a good effect.
   I went on Jill's walk from Wimpole in May -- she's much better than me at getting the distance right!
   In May, while Andrew was on retreat at the Temple, I went to the Lake District for a week, staying in Youth Hostels this time (after camping last year in awful weather). The main hostel was Black Sail Hut, in the wilds of Ennerdale, inaccessible by road. The weather was just as awful, but at least it was possible to get dry and warm in the hostel, and the other occupants were fun. I climbed Pillar (892m = 2990ft) and actually saw the view for the first time before the rain swept in again. I phoned Andrew from the summit -- mobile reception was very good up there! On a walk through the forest I saw a red squirrel for the first time in my life.
   In July I went on two nice evening walks round Baldock, one of them following the route of the bypass on which work had just started.
   On an exceedingly hot day in July Andrew and I had afternoon tea at Dorchester (Oxfordshire), then walked along the Ridgeway to Wayland's Smithy and the White Horse, before attending an excellent concert by the Ionian Singers in Dorchester Abbey.
   Tony again organised punting on the Cam in July. 50 people turned up! Several of us swam in the river at Grantchester.
   Andrew and I went on the Pride march in London in July, but not to the festival afterwards in Hyde Park.

Friends
   In June we had dinner with Malcolm and Danny (our former neighbours who now live in High Wycombe), and next day with Alan and Johnna Kay (last time we shall see them in England, as Alan is being relocated to Montana in the USA).
   Peter Bowler came to dinner in July.
   Richard Holland visited in August, just prior to his emigrating to Australia, where he is now settled in Melbourne. Sunday 10 August was the hottest day ever recorded in England (and our region was even hotter than the official temperatures).
   Hilary and Rosemary invited Andrew and me to dinner in Cambridge, before they returned to Tuscany.
   I stayed with Jim in Birmingham for a couple of days in August, and we had lunch at Tanworth-in-Arden.
   In August I managed to reunite Peter and Sheila (from Belfast) with Quentin and Jenny (from Australia) -- the first time they've met for more than 30 years. Our Rambling Club friend Mollie (who I haven't seen for 35 years) brought Q & J over from Bedford. We had a wonderful lunch, tea, and chat out in the courtyard.

Work
   In February I lectured to the University's Heraldic and Genealogical Society about the Alumni biographies project (see below).
   My maiden speech at the University's Senate House was during the March discussion on "Reform of Governance". Just 51 words, 4 of them in Latin -- "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"!
   On 22 July I celebrated my 'half life' at the place where I work (exactly half my life, to the day -- almost 29 years -- working there).
   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!

Music
   Just before Christmas 2002 I sang in the usual Christmas concert at the Royal Albert Hall -- Part I of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, plus carols.
   We went to see Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker in London - very good, and marvellous sets.
   Andrew and I went to concerts celebrating the anniversaries of the death of Elizabeth I and the coronation of James I.
   In addition to my usual choir, I also sang with Choir 2000 near Cambridge, to help them out with Orff's Carmina Burana, which I know very well. The two performances were extremely good.
   Choir 88 (in which Fran sings) visited Baldock in June and sang a very good short concert in the courtyard, with all our neighbours and several friends as audience. Following the concert we had an excellent party out in the courtyard.
   In the summer I sang with CUMS in a marvellous concert in King's College Chapel -- Walton's Belshazzar's Feast and a nice piece by Copland. I have now resigned from CUMS because of some stupid politics that is being played by the Committee, so this year is the first time since 1955 that I haven't sung in a December concert.
   Andrew and I went to hear Fran singing in Haydn's Paukenmesse with Collegium Laureatum, and I went to concerts in Cambridge: string quartets in St Edward's church, Bach violin sonatas in the United Reformed Church, and an orchestral concert in the Corn Exchange.
   I took Andrew to Cambridge Corn Exchange to see Verdi's Rigoletto performed by the Ukrainian National Opera Company -- a very good traditional performance, with clear surtitles.

Genealogy
   In July I took the plunge and began a course for a Higher Certificate in Genealogy (by correspondence and email) from The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies. This is so that I have something useful (and possibly lucrative) to do when I retire. I've started putting out feelers for taking early retirement at age 60 (2005) but it doesn't look promising. I attended a weekend residential course at the Institute in Canterbury in October.
   My professional service is called Abacus Genealogy Research and already has its own web site.
So, if you've always wanted to know why you had three grandfathers, or whose daughter your auntie Cecilia really was, or if you're a long-lost branch of the Rothschild family, just contact me -- a snip at £40 per day!

You can email me at JLD1@cam.ac.uk or at john@rabancourt.co.uk.
Our new web site is at http://www.rabancourt.co.uk/ and my web page is at http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/jld1/