Boxing Day at the Holmes

I travelled to Burnham to my sister-in-law Glory and Richard’s house to celebrate Boxing Day with Virginia, back briefly from Mumbai, Alex once again on dry land, my mother-in-law up from Dover, together with assorted friends: Grace, Alex’s current girlfriend from Korea, Rechna from India, briefly Anders from all over the world, Ursula from nearby and Jan and Norman from London.

A more eclectic group is hard to imagine. It was a time of much catching up, reminiscing and jollity with some splendid food and wine. Sadly Renee, my mother-in-law was in pain and confined to a wheelchair and it has been a tiring time with all the necessary preparation for the holiday period, and Catherine chose to lessen the burden by not coming over at this time, so my time with her was to be the following day.

I hope I will get to see Virginia before she heads back to India, but I think it unlikely, but perhaps I might at least see Alex.

Westcott Christmas Day

I count myself very lucky to be invited to spend Christmas Day with my younger daughter, son-in-law, Tim, both his parents, and my first grandson, Joshua. Travelling cross-country was even quieter than normal, and the weather was mild.

It was very relaxing as Tim and Lizzy had had a good night, and all the preparations had gone smoothly, and it was not long before John and Sue had arrived which heralded the grand opening of presents, with Joshua following the tradition of all children of his age – enjoying the packaging far more than the contents! Everything has to provide relief from toothing pain or simply be introduced to the mouth: "Mouth, this is Paper"; "Paper, this is Mouth"!

John had a wonderful time introducing a series of ten numbered plastic mugs, ranging from small to large, that could be stacked to form a tower, and even more easily knocked down by small swinging feet and returned individually to the floor! Endless fun, interspersed with ever more paper as presents were opened.

We were all gathered around a log fire in the grate, and this kept the adults busy feeding it with new bits of wood varying from softwood offcuts to true logs via smaller branches, and this provided authentic crackling as well as louder cracks from time to time.

We soon sat down for a splendid lunch, to the opening of the Queen's Speech, at which point Sue chastised us all for not standing to attention during the National Anthem, however I am proud to say I had remained standing till Sue herself had seated. Lunch was a delicious beef joint carefully cooked to three differing degrees from rare to well-done to satisfy each individual's taste. This was followed by a Christmas Pudding that had been purchased at a recent Food Fair at Waddesdon, served with runny custard. Absolutely delicious in every respect.

All too soon, Sue and John were leaving. I then collected my night things from the car, stayed the night, and the following day set off for Burnham to visit my sister- and mother-in-law, and my niece and nephew.

Sawston Village College Concert

I was pleased to see that the morning’s fall of snow had melted before my journey across country to Sawston. Catherine had invited me to join her and Holly and Poppy at the school concert which was being held at Great St. Marys University Church in the centre of Cambridge. It was the girl’s first at the new school.

We joined a long queue outside the church, which grew to at least twice the length as we waited. Martin arrived to the obvious delight of the girls whilst we were there, and other mothers spotted Catherine and stopped by to chat. It only seemed a long time due to the cold, but soon we were making our way to find seats; I chose mine carefully to be able to see the girls clearly, but I was to learn later that there were places up in the balcony which would have offered a much-improved view – next year!

I could only take the very occasional shots from the pews of the actual singing without causing a distraction, so I concentrated on enjoying listening and singing. It was a very well-organised event and a delightful performance. Next to me sat a past Deputy Head and his wife, and she very kindly pointed out that the band were worth listening to at the end, rather than rushing out, which we duly noted. This gave me the opportunity for some more shots whilst various friends gathered to chat to either the girls or Catherine.

We then took a stroll through the Market place and visited Carlucci’s, passing the longest and possibly coldest, bare legs in Cambridge, belonging to Tina, as she stood outside a nightclub.
Poppy wanted to try her hand with the camera, once she and Holly had taken a look at some of the shots on the back of the camera – I am not sure which of the girls took the shot of Catherine, but the ladle and bowl were by Poppy, so I am hoping that the next generation of photographers might include one or both of them.

Last 2011 Visit to Foresters

This is likely the last visit in 2011 to the Foresters Development in Harpenden, and there was occasional sunshine, but it had rained a good deal over the last few days, so it was extremely muddy.

I spent some time covering the connection being made to heavy duty three-phase electricity cabling immediately below the Site Office Portakabin. I was intrigued by the clever shear bolts used to ensure a sound electrical connection; the studs shear when the intended torque is reached. The individual phases are shrink-sealed with a semiconductor material to ensure there is no crosstalk between the individual phases, and a conducting shield is then wrapped around the joints and bonded at each end by jubilee clips, before being covered by an outer plastic cover that is itself sealed at each end. The cover has two ports into which a mastic is poured that encases the connections completely weather-sealing them.

Nearby another man is grinding several steel reinforcing rods that were protruding from the edges of the pit where the electrical work was being done.

Elsewhere I took shots that finally showed some of the buildings more clearly now that the scaffolding is down, and that interior finishing was going in, and the work that was nearing completion at the back of the site, on the curving pathway.