Having nothing better to do on New Year's Eve 1998 we decided to finish the kitchen completely, and did all those little jobs that are 'just waiting for a suitable moment'. During the good weather in April, and the extremely hot weather in July, we painted the outside of the house, though I must admit that I chickened out from standing on a ladder in the road to paint the overhang! As our neighbours have also had the outsides of their bits painted, the property looks tremendous.
But there's still the bathroom . . . In July we chose a suite at Do-It-All. They told us that they don't keep them in stock, but that delivery would be 4 to 7 days from ordering. Our builder allocated the first week in September to do the work, and on 23 August we ordered the suite. Ten to fourteen days delivery!! So our builder built us a porch outside, and hung the original stable-door opening outwards, and we waited. And waited . . .
On 9 October we went in and complained to the manager of Do-It-All, asking for our money back until the suite arrived. He said he would look into it. Lo and behold, on 11 October it arrived! But our builder had no time . . .
Eventually, he found a gap starting on 18 November. I planned the wiring for the kitchen (to be done while the upstairs floors were up), and on 18 November the old bathroom was removed. So on the two coldest days of the year so far, we had no hot water or central heating. While putting pipes under the floor, the builders discovered why the floor bounces so much - the joists aren't resting on much, and one was broken. The floorboards were also mostly rotten. So regretfully we opted for a chipboard floor (as it's to be carpeted anyway). We've done some tiling, and await the installation of our shower.
The Baldock Museum held an exhibition on 'Six of Baldock's oldest houses', which included ours. We found out that it was originally a coaching inn called 'The Talbot'. Later uses included a butcher's, and a malting owned by Mr Ind of Ind Coope fame. At the exhibition we met three women who used to live in the property, and two of them are the little girls (in a photograph we have) watching an AA scout direct traffic on what was then the A1 in 1925!
On 2 July a very major thunderstorm with fan lightning caused the courtyard to flood as far as the first door. During the visit of the council to see the problem on 5 July there was another thunderstorm; later an even bigger one, with all the water pouring off the road into the courtyard because both drains in the road were blocked (and had been for months!). Three of the properties were slightly flooded. The road drains were cleared at midnight that same night, with about 2 feet of mud and dirt dug out of each.
We spent the weekend of 29-31 January in a seventeenth-century farmhouse in Suffolk, with six others. Not much walking, but we looked round Nayland and Clare. We saw a woodpecker and two jays in the garden.
The bank holiday weekend of 1-3 May was again spent at the Great British Bear Bash in Manchester, where I renewed several acquaintances and met some new ones, particularly Matt and Davy from Dundee. At the end of that event, on Monday afternoon, I drove up the M6 to the Lake District (meeting everyone else coming back from their weekend there), and camped at Grange-over-Sands. Climbed Crinkle Crags from the top of Wrynose Pass, with no knee problems. Looked round Cartmel.
I planned another Thames-side walk [ http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/jld1/walks/walk99.html ], from Wandsworth to Tower Bridge, and surveyed the walk on 29 May, an extremely hot day. Walked about 14 miles to Westminster and realised that we wouldn't get to Tower Bridge. Very violent thunderstorm right over St Pancras Station.
The walk proper took place on 26 June, and 24 people took part, including an American who happened to have seen the details on my web site, and Richard Holland, who from Dubai had read my web site, and decided to surprise us by greeting us in Battersea Park when we thought he was still in Dubai. Very hot and humid day (hottest day of the year so far), but we made it as far as Charing Cross.
Andrew had to go to Edinburgh to work on 23 July, so we went up by train on 22 July. While he was at work I climbed Arthur's Seat and walked back along the bottom of Cumberland Crags. Extremely windy, but a beautiful day. Fran joined us on the Friday evening (having flown up). On the Saturday she went up to Aviemore, while Andrew and I took the train to Berwick-upon-Tweed and walked round the walls. On Monday we all visited Edinburgh Zoo.
Andrew and Kevin went to Paris for the weekend of 30-31 July, so I took the opportunity to move our desk upstairs on an incredibly hot sticky day.
Our main holiday was 7-21 August. We flew with Andrew's parents to Salzburg, stayed there one night, then took the train to Vienna. We hired a car and drove down through the eastern province of Burgenland to the tiny village of Bad Tatzmannsdorf, where on my 54th birthday, 11 August, we saw the total eclipse of the sun! Despite the clouds, we managed to see the corona and one of the diamond rings. Then we drove to the lake resort of Weissensee in Carinthia, staying in Berg-im-Drautal. Took a ferry trip along the lake, and a ski-lift to a high plateau. Went for a walk in the forest near Berg - beautiful wild flowers and butterflies. The next three days were spent in the tiny village of Niederthai, high up in a side valley above the Oetztal. Extremely beautiful, and just as I remembered it from 30 years ago. Finally, we drove back to Salzburg and looked at the Mozart Museum and the old castle. A few more details are on http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/jld1/holidays/austria99.html
Andrew was on retreat at the Temple from 5-11 September, so I arranged to go up to Dundee by train to see Matt and Davy. Because of a change in their working times, I ended up with a few days spare, so I went to Glendevon youth hostel (train to Gleneagles) beforehand, and had three days lovely walking on the almost deserted Ochil Hills. A 14-mile walk across 2000ft hills felt like 24 miles, though! My 4 days in Dundee were very pleasant, and included a trip into Edinburgh one evening, and some walking in Dundee itself.
At the end of September I went to America (see Singing, below).
The weekend of 17-19 December we're going to the farmhouse in Suffolk again, and in early January are taking advantage of cheap flights to Amsterdam from Luton.
During the year I learnt that Tony Baxter (my oldest friend, whom I've known since we were 11) has had a massive stroke. He had a coronary bypass last year, and seemed to be recovering, but in April had this stroke from which everyone thought he wouldn't recover. However, he is improving steadily, and is able to stay at home some of the time. His wife Gillian and daughter Nicola visited Fran and me in Cambridge in October.
On 12 February I met my brother Mark in Battersea. I hadn't been in touch with him for twelve years, and he was very pleased to see me. He's still having health problems as an indirect result of his Rhodesia-Zimbabwe war injuries.
Andrew's sister Anna had a son, Christopher, in October, so I'm now a sort of honorary uncle!
Louise and I went with Andy and Natalie and her son Daniel to Woburn wildlife park on 4 April. Nice day, but we couldn't go on the little train because someone had changed the points while it was on them!
For Fran's birthday, she and I and Louise went to Whipsnade Zoo, where two baby tigers and a baby white rhino entertained us.
My uncle Bill, who has had Parkinson's Disease for several years, had to be taken into a nursing home, and is not looking at all well. He will be 87 on Christmas Day.
On 21 February we went to the animal sanctuary at Heydon to look for a cat. They had a ten-year-old female called Lucy who doesn't go outside, which is exactly what we needed, so we paid and took her home. She was very nervous, and lived behind the hi-fi for 3 days. Then she vanished. We knew she was still in the house because her food was being eaten. Eventually we realised that she must be under the floor under the bath! When she finally came out I blocked up the hole and she retreated under our bed, where she has lived ever since. A strange cat - and very difficult to housetrain - but she's gradually becoming more normal! She doesn't ever jump up on anything, though, except for the bedroom windowsill where she sits waiting for us to come home.
We bought a large ceramic pot and installed a fountain in it for just outside the front door. Andrew thought we ought to have some fish, so we bought 6 goldfish. Several times a fox (we think) tried to catch the fish, but only succeeded in scooping out one of them, and some of the plants. During the winter we have the fish in an aquarium indoors, though we're finding it very difficult to keep the water in good condition.
In January the big university choir (CUMS) performed Walton's "Belshazzar's Feast" at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, with Willard White as baritone soloist. Wonderful!
In June CUMS performed Mendelssohn's "Elijah" in King's College Chapel; it was fantastic - much better than when we last did it.
November and December see 4 major concerts by CUMS: Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand" in Ely Cathedral and the Albert Hall, new-style Christmas concerts in the Festival Hall and Albert Hall, and our usual Christmas concert with the Philharmonia Orchestra and King's College Chapel Choir in the Albert Hall.
The small choir, Ionian Singers, hasn't been idle, either! We've performed several concerts in London, Beaconsfield, and Yorkshire, mostly of modern music - very difficult to learn. Then at the end of September we had a 12-day tour of New England, flying to Boston, staying mainly in Concord, Massachusetts. I was one of the minibus drivers, and driving across Vermont from New York State to New Hampshire was very beautiful with the autumn colours just beginning. A great success. Seven concerts and a lecture recital made us very tired, though. It took me days to recover when I got back.
Continues much as before, except that we have just moved offices for six months while they refurbish our side of the building (much overdue!)
Email me at my old work address:
JLD1@cam.ac.uk
or privately:
john@rabancourt.co.uk