Christmas 2007: We spent this in Baldock. Fran joined us for Christmas Day; Louise, Andy, Rory, and Morgan came for Boxing Day afternoon. The following day we reconvened at Louise's to celebrate Rory's 4th birthday. We went to Yorkshire for New Year.
January: 
John took Rory to the pantomime
(Cinderella) in Cambridge, which was noisy but very enjoyable. 5th
January was the Civil Partnership of our friends Andy and Alan [Scott],
in Ely. We then visited the Tutenkhamun exhibition at the O2 arena with
Anne and Peter (not many exhibits, but very well presented) and the
Millais exhibition at Tate Britain – excellent. We hosted a party at the
historic George Inn in Southwark on 26th for friends and family who
couldn't come to our Civil Partnership. John had recurrent back problems
during January and February.
February: 
Our
friends John and Christianne invited us to a play-reading in Islington;
Andrew couldn't go, but John enjoyed himself, playing the parts of both
a German Count and a British Minister – at one point having to have a
conversation with himself!
John took Louise and her friend Clodie to see
Avenue Q in London (an exceedingly rude, very funny, lifesize puppet
musical).
On 10th we watched the Chinese New Year parade in London.
From
28th to 3rd March we were in Amsterdam, with a (very slow) day trip by
train to Middelburg just near the Belgian border. (One of our Dutch
friends said, "What the f*** did you want to go to Middelburg for?!" but
we found it interesting and pretty.)
March: 
John went to see Equus at Cambridge Art's
Theatre, which was extremely well done. On 13th Jill Smith invited us to
dinner; as we hadn't seen her since her recovery from her heart attack
the previous year, this was a very nice occasion. For Easter we were in
Berlin, and did one fairly long walk round a lake south-east of the city
in beautiful weather. The month ended with a party to celebrate the 10th
anniversary of our moving into Raban Court.
April: 
John had another MRI scan of his spine
(it's just like being inside a pneumatic drill!) Although there are
signs of more damage, there was no actual nerve compression at that time
and they decided not to do anything more unless and until he has more
problems. Séverine brought Chris, Jake, and Kim to Cambridge, and we
visited Audley End and Wimpole Hall.
May: 
John's usual week in the Lake District was
enhanced by the reopening of his favourite campsite, high up overlooking
Morecambe Bay, near Grange-over-Sands. The weather was reasonable though
rather cold, and he did some lower-level walking, including half-way up
Scafell Pike.
June: 
Rory's class made a visit
to Cambridge Botanical Garden, and John and Louise went along to help.
Nobody fell in the pond (not even John), but it's difficult to get a
group of 4-year-olds to stand still and actually look at anything! From
20th to 22nd we went to Antwerp by train – very comfortable and fast.
John took Rory and Morgan, Louise and Andy to the Wolfson College family
garden party, which was very enjoyable. Rory even took part in a couple
of races. A performance of A Winter's Tale in the courtyard of the
George Hotel in Huntingdon was excellent.
July: 
4th was Rory's school sports day. On 5th we
joined the Pride parade in London. And on 6th the Pryor family (for whom
John had been doing genealogical research) invited us to their family
reunion with about 70 people attending. Our main holiday was to Poland
from 7th to 21st. Although we enjoyed ourselves in Poznan, Wroclaw,
Kraków, and Warsaw we realised towards the end that we should have spent
some time in the countryside rather than concentrating on the cities.
It's amazing how well the cities (particularly Warsaw) have been
reconstructed following wartime damage; the medieval centres have been
almost completely restored. It's a great pity that Britain didn't have
enough money (or foresight) to restore Coventry to its former state. We
made day-trips to Lódz [pronounced 'woodge'] (the town centre was almost
deserted; we discovered that everyone was at a retail development just
out of town on a former factory site) and to Auschwitz, which was less
emotionally draining than we had expected.
We then went up to
Newcastle by train, staying in a hotel just opposite the station.
Newcastle is a really vibrant city and we enjoyed looking round. The
Saturday nightlife has to be seen to be believed! We walked along the
coast south of Newcastle and went to an aquarium, and spent a day going
by bus to Vindolanda, and Housesteads Fort on Hadrian's Wall. A
recurrence of a minor medical problem seen last year prompted Andrew to
go to the doctor again.
August: 
We spent a
week in Fangfoss, cat- and dog-sitting for Anna and David while they
were on holiday. A very quiet, peaceful week with a wonderful 9-mile
walk in the Wolds. Mid-August saw us in La Rochelle, visiting Andy and
Séverine and their family. La Rochelle is a lovely place – much nicer
than we had anticipated, and we went for several walks nearby. On 20th
we went to see West Side Story at Sadlers Wells in London; an excellent
production. From 28th August to 28th October Andrew was in Berlin doing
a German course at the Goethe Institut, living in a very large bare flat
in Yorckstraße. Louise took John to see As You Like It in Robinson
College gardens, preceded by a picnic; very enjoyable. At Lister
Hospital Andrew had the delights of viewing the inside of his stomach,
but no problem was found.
September: 
John
visited Andrew in Berlin 5th to 8th, and we enjoyed the sights, food,
and beer in good weather. The London Zoo Gay Day was fun, and John met
some friends there. A weekend in Leicester might sound like penance (!)
but John took Rory there for a weekend, staying in a motel. They visited
the beautiful Bradgate Park (a deer park near Leicester) and Abbey Park,
where John used to play as a child. John showed Rory where John's
(Dawson) grandparents used to live, but Rory wasn't impressed.
October: 
John again visited Andrew for a weekend
in Berlin, and we had another lovely lakeside walk. After a very
successful German course, Andrew returned to Luton Airport to be
welcomed by the earliest snow since 1932.
November: 
We went up to Yorkshire as a surprise
to attend Anne's 70th birthday lunch, which was very enjoyable. Fran's
2007 Christmas present was an afternoon at the Raptor Centre looking
after the birds there and helping with the flying demonstration.
Although it was bitterly cold we had a lovely afternoon, and Fran worked
with and held various large birds of prey. This time at the hospital
Andrew had the delights of viewing the inside of his colon, but again no
problem was found.
December: We enjoyed the Cambridge Cancer Help Centre's Christmas party in their wonderful new premises. Rory played the part of one of the three Kings in his school's nativity play, and had his photograph taken by the Cambridge News. Fran and John are taking Rory and Morgan to Wolfson College children's Christmas party. On 19th the Literary and Linguistic Computing Centre where John works holds probably its last Christmas party (see below), followed on 20th by a pre-Christmas party at home. We are going to Yorkshire for Christmas 2008, and back to Baldock for New Year.
Singing: John continues to sing with Choir 2000 in Histon, and with their Chamber Choir. He was also invited to join a Madrigal Group (The Silver Swan) formed from members of the choir. In February the Chamber Choir performed at care homes in Histon and Oakington, and for the Mackenzie Society in Cambridge. The main choir's performances of Bruckner's Mass in E minor and other works in March were followed by our taking part in the Choir of the Year competition in Warwick. Although we were clearly not up to the standard of the highest-placed choirs, we received complimentary remarks from the judges. In April John was lucky enough to be invited to sing the Tallis 40-Part Motet in St Albans (8 choirs of 5 voices each, 2 people to each part) – a glorious work. The most moving part was when the group began by managing to sing about half of the work before we went astray. The day finished with a performance of the work to a small audience.
Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt was performed excitingly well by the choir in June, and the Chamber Choir sang at Histon Feast on 28th. The Silver Swan sang for a friend's 90th birthday at a care home in Histon, and many of the main choir sang at the 150th anniversary celebration of Histon Baptist Church (where we rehearse). The December concerts were Haydn's Theresienmesse, a very difficult carol by Poulenc, and carols for choir and audience. Then the Chamber Choir performed at two Histon care homes. A very busy (too busy?) year.
John's university work: John has decided to retire slightly early, on 9 October 2009, by which time he will have been working at the Literary and Linguistic Computing Centre (LLCC) for 35 years! His job will not be re-filled, and his colleague Rosemary will be moved back into the main Computing Service offices in central Cambridge, thus ending 45 years of the LLCC's existence as a separate unit.
John's genealogy, etc.: His course to obtain a genealogical qualification continues – very slowly. He received a very good mark for an illustrated essay based on his Uncle Bill's RAF career, thanks to photographs and documents provided by his Auntie Pat. He has done a small amount of paid work, and quite a lot of free work for family and friends.
In May John received an enquiry from another
genealogical researcher asking if John could undertake research for her
about the Hicken family in Hull, as that surname and city appear on his
website. Then she realised that John is (perhaps) related to that
family, so she put him in touch with her client, David Hicken. The
likelihood of their being related depends on whether or not John's
grandfather Harry changed his surname at some point from Hicken to
Hickling. After some email discussions with David, the matter was
finally resolved when David said that his great-aunt used to receive
presents of ostrich feathers from her brother Harry in South Africa –
John's family information states that his grandfather stayed in South
Africa after the Boer War to run an ostrich farm! So David is John's
second cousin, discovered by a set of internet coincidences. David and
his wife Glynis came to Cambridge to meet John and they had lunch and
discussed family history matters. David has many papers relating to his
and John's great-grandfather's merchant navy career, and has very kindly
had them professionally copied and sent them to John.
The other main task that John undertook was to make an index to Volume 5 of the History of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames (he was one of the editors of Volume 4). The publication of that volume was celebrated at Watermen's Hall in London in November, and John gave a short talk on making indexes by computer. John has also been involved in checking and proofreading books on genealogy and computing by a colleague.
Andrew's work, etc.: In January Andrew began a collaboration with a colleague on writing software that would be sold to large organizations such as BT. He could tell that the project was not going well and was unlikely to be financially successful, so had a discussion with his colleague, who agreed that it wasn't going well, and Andrew abruptly finished working in April! This left the year's arrangements somewhat in disorder, which is why we only had a two-week main holiday (and many weekends away). However, Andrew's plan to spend two months in Berlin learning more German was successful. To general surprise, Andrew (just) failed his MBA project with the Open University, but has permission to resubmit by April 2009.
Plans for the future: John is giving a paper at a conference in Baltimore in June 2009, after which we shall do a tour of Maryland and Virginia (we have friends in Virginia, who we hope to meet). On 2 October 2009 the LLCC will hold its 45th anniversary celebration, and on 9 October 2009 John retires. Starting in July 2010 we hope to live in Berlin for a year, renting out our Baldock house.
House: While Andrew was in Berlin, John took the opportunity (without telling Andrew) of demolishing the small bedroom wall, and found a builder who replaced most of the upstairs floor and plastered up various holes. John then had the immense job of moving back upstairs the mass of stuff from upstairs that had been stored downstairs, laying hardboard over the new floorboards, and cleaning the whole place, so that when Andrew returned he was unaware that anything had changed until he went upstairs! He was pleased with the result. We have now covered the resulting 'mezzanine' (posh term for a wide landing!) with carpet tiles, and Andrew has done a sterling job decorating almost the entire house (which is still black beams and white walls). John has moved his 'study' in there, out of the main bedroom.
Websites and photographs: Many of our holiday photographs can be found on our website www.rabancourt.co.uk, and John's genealogy site is at www.rabancourt.co.uk/abacus. John's work website is people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/jld1.
Email: andrew@rabancourt.co.uk john@rabancourt.co.uk