hello folks!
Our Silver wedding Anniversary is a good place to start, I suppose, not that it’s first, chronologically, but the celebrating of it was. Rather than have a party where everyone has a good time, and we wash up, we decided to have a few days in Paris (our favourite watering hole) and to take John and Miriam, and their respective partners, Caz and Simon, for company. We asked them to come up with dates, they being more restricted than we, which threw up five days in late May. Perfect- weather, journey, food, company- everything except a brief blip when my walking stick slipped on a wet step, and badly jarred my new tin hip.
h, I forgot about that. Two months previously, I had received a total hip replacement. It’s fine now, in fact I had the other done in late July. Now I’m pushing for the other shoulder and two knees. They always said they couldn’t get spares for these old ‘Utility’ models, but now look- the bionic painter! I’ll still paint the same old stuff but much faster. Actually, I don’t need to paint faster but to sell faster. Still, as I said to the tax man who complained of my low profitability, ‘When you have a life like mine, you can’t expect money as well’. Besides, any fool can double his prices and starve to death.
alerie is now a Lady of Leisure. The Education Authority have now decided (having been advised by Valerie’s GP and two of their own hired Suits) that it is not possible to coerce, cajole, scare or beat anymore work out of her, so they have granted her early retirement. This has given her a new lease of life. She was already benefiting from just not being in school, but after a year of not knowing, to have it all settled at last, has lifted a great weight from her shoulders.
I have one more season to do, then I get my Senior Citizen’s Giro, after which I shall revise my work pattern drastically. I’ll still work, but not as much. I’ll tell you more when I know, next year.
John continues to live his usual charmed life, living and working in Nottingham, but for trips all over the country to gigs, doing his reviews, and Dee Jay-ing. He and Caz are sadly no longer an item, but still good friends.
iriam has started at University College, London (apparently, it’s just UCL to them wot nose) doing speech sciences, which seems to cover everything to do with the voice except ventriloquism. She is handsomely funded by the NHS, and with text books at £50 per each being commonplace, all contributions are met with a smile, a song, a coffee and a bagel. She brought a lump to my throat recently by announcing that she wanted to add the name ‘Elizabeth’ to her own. My mother’s name. Presumably doing it legally involves some expense, and so she has decided that is what she would like for her birthday. Need I say more?
ow I’ve saved the main news headline until last. Early in September, Miriam spent a week with us, and Simon managed to join us for the last two days. He arrived late evening, supper was late, then Miriam being tired by university prep went to bed. Simon stayed chatting to us in the kitchen, then eventually asked “Would you mind if I asked Miriam to marry me?” I thought Valerie would never put him down. She almost ate him. We were sworn to secrecy, until he had proposed, which he did, next morning, on a walk round St Benet’s Abbey ruins. So we are now heavily into lists, material swatches and patterns (Valerie is making dresses for the bride and two bridesmaids) menus, etc. We have a date for next year- 12th August- yes, the Glorious. We have a church, here in Catfield. They are bringing their own clergyman from All Souls’ Langham Place, London. We have a venue- the barn of a friend, by his own broad at How Hill. We have the carriage and pair, and I’m already being warned, regularly, to behave. Our little girl is getting married. Too young? We have no qualms. She has a wise head on her shoulders, and knows her own mind, and Simon is the same. They are a good match. We are already booked to spend New Year with Simon’s parents, Deryn and Nick, in Northumberland. No doubt we will be privileged to witness the historic event of the Deliberations of the Mothers’ choices of Hats, Miriam having already issued the directive- ‘Ladies in big hats where appropriate, please’. Yes, we are in the grip of Wedding Fever, and I see no prospect of relief for a good eight months.
meanwhile, on a more mundane level, I have an exhibition to mount- ‘Neil’s Christmas Annual’; jugs of joy, glasses of chat, and a feast for the eyes. Over one hundred paintings! Sorry! Sorry. Just had one of me turns. Everything is well prepared. All I need is a couple of days decent weather to encourage folk to turn out. It’s late this year- Dec 10th and 11th. That will leave me a bare two weeks to shop and prepare for Christmas, because I can’t think about Christmas until the exhibition is over, and I know the state of the coffers. Then with a sprig of holly in my top hat, I’ll go rampaging through Norwich like an omnibus-full of fusiliers. I’ll beat the shop tills until their bells ring merry Christmas carols; I’ll charm the lady shop assistants until they dance like sugar plum fairies, and I’ll nutcracker the male assistants into lords a-leaping. I’ll set a new record of how many full carrier bags you can get on one lap in a full bus. I’ll negotiate the whole length of our lane, in the dark, without missing a single puddle. I’ll arrive home, go into the kitchen and be mugged by an arthritic old puppydog, as I search for Valerie in the eye-squeezing fug of fumes of lemon juice and cinnamon, and brandy and cloves and orange zest and nutmeg and maple surple and almond essence, and I’ll find her by the hob, with two glasses ready filled with white wine, and we’ll exchange ‘Hello my Love. Have you had a good day?’ and we’ll kiss, and it will be Christmas.
We can wish you no more than a Christmas as happy as ours.