Canadian Club Visit

Just before Easter, our local Rotary Club hosted four young Canadians and their leader for a week. We really enjoyed having them to stay and arranged a number of vocational and cultural activities. Jenny, our guest for the week, is a food scientist; she visited Jo Lunn, a friend of our Jenny’s at the British Nutrition Foundation in London and also the Syngenta laboratories at Jealotts Hill. Cultural visits included Tate Modern, Marlow, Windsor Castle and Peter Freebody’s traditional boatyard in Hurley. Other activities were a Safari Supper, and a wine tasting competition. Jenny also got to ride in Chris Chugg’s MG, which as you can see from the photo, she very much enjoyed.

Forming an orderly Kew

On April 4, we went to Kew Gardens, organised by Anne Wilson, above, and chauffered by Ron and Judith. We had a fine day and a good guide but there was much more to see than we were able to manage in one day. We even met Margie, completely by accident, who was visiting with Ingrid's sister. I managed to persuade Pat up onto the tree walk for some great views before we went home.

Happy snaps of Andrew and Sophia

ABS (another bloody sunset) over Burchetts Green

Romeo and Juliet for Steve's birthday

My birthday celebrations continued with two competitive productions of Romeo and Juliet - the 15 minute version wot I wrote for an earlier village event. The parts were drawn by lot - clock Juliet (aka Rob Hayward) looking more like Shylock.

A pensioner at last

Laura tells me I have now reached the age I've been acting for the last thirty years. Thanks Laura. We celebrated with a trip to the theatre in Windsor to see Belinda Lang and Peter Egan in Noel Coward's A Song at Twilight. Here are some friends outside the theatre just before we went in.

Afterwards we went back to Burchetts Green for the obligatory cake -

New camera

Walking around Marlow with my new Leica, I was taking a standard shot of the bridge when someone threw some bread for the gulls. As you can see, a lot of them responded

House for an Art Lover

While we were in Glasgow, we took the opportunity to visit The House for an Art Lover. This was designed for a competition by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1902 but not built until the 1990s. The design and construction are brilliant and it's hard to believe it hasn't been around for 100 years. I also had the opportunity to try out my new digital Leica - an early birthday present.

Glasgow

February saw us back up to Glasgow to visit Jenny and go to a Tom Paxton concert she had arranged for us. I think she enjoyed it too, although she was one of the few members of the audience under 50. Tom is still sounding good in his seventies - I liked his parody of Last Thing on my Mind:

I met a young girl at the folk club,
As you do, as you do.
So I bought her a drink and we chatted,
Wouldn't you, wouldn't you.
And then after the show she invited me home,
She said that we were two of a kind.
Then she played me every record that Tom Paxton ever made -
But you know that was the last thing on my mind.

Pat and Steve on the Mersey ferry

Tom, Laura and Pat looking very excited

Tom and Laura on the Mersey ferry in Liverpool Jan 2009

January saw us off to Liverpool - a trip down memory lane (or should that be Penny Lane) for Pat. This was a Christmas present from Laura and Tom. We went in the old Honda, which Steve thought would fit in well on the Liverpool scene. It turned out to be the scruffiest vehicle in town. This was the last day of Liverpool as the City of Culture so we had tea with the mayor in the City Hall. On Saturday, there were fireworks by the docks - crowded but very exciting when it at last started. And of course, no trip to this city would be complete without a ferry 'cross the Mersey - cue Gerry and the Pacemakers. Here are the pictures.