Late Summer…

 July

Later in July we visited the Chipstead Village Flower Show & Fair, where friends had a stall. Here in the grounds of a lovely old house there were many stalls, a flower/veg and cake competition, a selection of old cars, and a display of exotic reptiles. It was a hot sunny day, and the ice-cream van was doing a brisk trade.

A fun venue to visit is the nearby Dropkick Brewery and here with friends we enjoyed The Collective AKA perform their energetic ska music.

August

As the summer progressed, we enjoyed many garden parties and BBQs and outdoor activities.

The first blackberry picking gathered many juicy fruits for the larder and freezer.

We visited Ashridge House with Terry and Katharine

A small yet entertaining event we attended in Sutton, run by Sound Lounge, was the Folk in the Park.

September

Our major festival event of the year was the End of the Road Festival which had a wide variety of music, both mainstream, heavy, dance, and acoustic. The weather was not great as it was cold and wet for a lot of the weekend. As our aging tent had been thrown away earlier, we decided to pay for pre-set-up tents – these were closely arranged in rows and had the appearance of a refugee camp.

Later in the weekend after late nights and poor sleep I experience a couple of disturbing episodes, firstly my hands became so cold I was unable to use my fingers to grasp anything until they warmed up and as we were packing up to leave, I had a collapse – I was carrying a heavy load walking uphill and I could not get me breath. I was brought to my knees, though did not lose consciousness. It took a while for me to regain my breath. We originally though this might be to an early diagnosis of myasthenia gravis, but later when we talk to a specialist, he did not believe this was the cause as my diagnosis was ocular only. Therefore, something else had caused the collapse, so my GP arranged an ECG, which picked up suspected arterial fibrillation. We used our private medical to arrange a consultation with a cardiac specialist.

A regular local event is Pippfest, where a small stage hosts local acts and is something that we had visited for many years with friends, however now it seems they may not be continuing next year.

Something that had caught my attention for a while was book nooks (a small self-build diorama that fits on a bookshelf). We saw one on sale in a garden centre and I bought it and spent a weekend building what was a little view up a river between builds towards a bridge with a tram crossing. It was one of the most relaxing and therapeutic moments that I have had in a while, bringing back memories of when I was young making model kits. It also looks quite cool on the shelf.

Another regular event that we try to attend is the Open House in and around London, where you get the opportunity to visit places you wouldn’t normally get access to. This year we took Terry and Katharine with us and we visited – Royal Courts of Justice, Dr Johnson’s House, Livery Halls (Founders, Painters, Coopers, and Drapers). We had lunch at the old fashioned Ye Old Cheshire Cheese.

Friends, Greg & Fi, were visiting Sicily with several of their children, and they asked us to join them there, so we had a long weekend in Taormina in a fabulous villa in the shadow of Mt Etna. During our time here we visited the local town, took a drive (along roads resembling a goat track) to the remarkable Villa Romana del Casale that had stunning mosaics, and then a short visit to the ruined town of Morgantina as rain passed over. We also had a private boat ride out to the Aeolian islands where several of our party, including Sue, swam in the waters of Vulcano (I had an unplanned dip getting into the boat, luckily with minor physical injury). Another treat was that a local chef had been hired to come to the villa and to cook some regional delicacies, all very tasty (after Sue and I had left he returned to teach the others how to cook the same dishes). On our way home we visited the town of Catania.

October

Jamie and I visited the Peckham Conker Championship and tried our hand at the schoolyard game. It was a vicious and enthusiastic competition with a very large number of excitable attendees.

Several of us visited the Sound Lounge and thoroughly enjoyed the musical arts of Chris Difford.

We had been given a gift of a self-guided tour called City of London Mystery Adventure, where you follow clues to solve an imaginary historical crime, and as you do explore parts of the area that you would have not known about before. Our party included Blonde-Deb, Dave and Tom, Deb, and Jamie. We had a lovely meal afterwards at the Keu Vietnamese restaurant.

One of my highlights of the years is a visit to the Essen Spiel Game Fair in Germany. And I had a fun time with gaming friends as we explored the enormous event, bought a few games, played a few games, and partook of the local cuisine.

November

The ‘girls’ had a wild weekend out at Butlins to celebrate Carole’s birthday, seeing several musical acts including Wet, Wet, Wet.

We had a few lovely Autumn walks in the countryside, including a pub or two.

Festive sights are starting to appear everywhere seemingly earlier every year.

We travelled to Tring to partake in Terry’s birthday with the family at a local pub.

The first snow flurry hinted at a distinct change in the weather.

Anne and Howard invited is to join them watching the Illegal Eagles at Dorking Halls.

I had my Cardioversion, a ‘relatively’ minor procedure where they knock you out and jump start the heart. The worst part for me was the anaesthetic they used on my throat where they but a sensor in to scan from the inside. It was over quickly, and the heart came back into rhythm on the first attempt.

The neighbours, and Deb, came over for an Italian evening, where Sue made some of the dishes that we had in Sicily, in particular a splendid tiramisu. 

December

Chris, Carole, Deb, Sue, and I had an evening out in Dorking, starting with a Thai meal. The girls went to the ‘Go Your Own Way Fleetwood Mac’ show at Dorking Halls, and Chris and I went to play games at Game N Play. 

On our way out to my uncle’s regular Christmas Carols event Sue and I first visited Wisley Gardens, and then Tring Natural History Museum.

It has been a long time since we visited the Grape Variety, a wine bar with a lovely aesthetic, unfortunately the service was somewhat slow, but fun was still had with – Deb & Dave, Chris & Carole, and Deb.

Several of the local pubs get together and arrange musical events across the weekend and we like to join in watching the entertainment.

Sue and I had a lovely walk in the countryside and ended up at The Drummond in Albury for a meal.

A group of us get together at Christmas at Borough Market for a drink or two, and this year afterwards several of us (deb, Carole, and Jamie) went to see Jon Cleary play at the Jazz Café.

Another tradition is to host Blondies birthday at ours and once again we had a full house - Deb, Dave, Tom, Ollie, Chris, Carole, Paige and Deb.