Chinese Water Torture

I slipped in that we'd been to China.  And so had, for a week.  Hardly the grand tour, but Shanghai and Hangzhou were our two ports of call.  I'd say we saw a teeny, tiny, tiny slivver of the country and its culture, but it was absolutely entrancing.  And exhausting.  And it rained a bit.  And its a long way.  It was a fabulous week, entertaining and educational in equal measure.  I took a record-breaking 2000 pictures, which is ridiculous.  So here's a few, without a word of explanation:

Bike ride

In preparation for a cycle ride to Amsterdam, after my ride to Paris last year, I went on a long ride.  It's called London Revolutions, and is literally that... a ride around London.  200 miles in two days with a night spent in a tent at Ascot Racecourse.

I wasn't particularly fit after a week in Shanghai and not doing as much cycling as I ought before that...but hey ho, it made for a better challenge.  I discovered that Surrey has many hills, some of them steep, but it also has some very pretty villages.  The latter was nice, the former were a real challenge...for the first time ever I actually got off and pushed for a hundred yards.  That depressed me until the next day when I saw many people get off and push up most of the hills, whilst I stayed on.

I didn't enjoy the first day all that much, but loved the second, and certainly came into my own when finishing through the London traffic.

I also discovered my sports tracker doesn't work with my new phone which was disappointing as I like to record these things.

Not many photos either

Slip sliding away

We continue with our eclectic social life.  Last week we went to The Chambers of Flavour... a pop-up dining experience.  It was created under the arches in near Hoxton Station as a series of 'experience' rooms. You entered sitting in a low-slung wooden trolley which was hauled through a short tunnel to an elaborately decorated room...and after each course you shuffled into a new experience...we started in a forest, moved to the home of a crash test dummy, the dining hall of a mad aristocrat and finally to the interior of an aircraft.  I may have missed one course.  The food by the Art of Dining was fabulous, the entertainment by a series of actors, fabulous.  A great night which ended by exiting the 'machine' down a 20' slide...not done that for a few decades! Sadly photography of the experience was banned, so here's a picture of the toilets instead!

We headed down to Plymouth to see The Cat's production which was being put on at the Theatre Royal...she was assistant Director, and this part of a competition created by the National.  There are 500 entrants given one of eight plays to put on...the top twelve get to perform at the National itself.  The Cat's play was all about the traumas of adolescence, and there was a lot of paint being thrown around.  Stunningly performed by a bunch of teenagers, we have our fingers crossed.  We stayed in a grand place called Boringden Hall, which has the honour of playing host to Elizabeth 1st as well as Drake, Raleigh, and all those dubious sea-dogs that helped create our sea-faring reputation.  We got to sleep in a four-poster

The next day we visited some of my oldest and dearest friends who moved south-west many years ago.  They will soon be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary...it hardly seems possible.

We spent Sunday at the London Marathon watching another of our friends wear themselves out...she did incredibly well with a time of 4.28 hours.  It's become an annual ritual, and its great fun amongst the crowds chasing our runners around

The 23rd was spent at the cinema watching the live broadcast of the 400th birthday party of our greatest bard.  More a focus on how he has influenced future generations of song, dance and writing than the great man's works, it was fun, but perhaps wouldn't get five stars from me...

100 not out

A while back we watched a great social history programme called the Secret History of Our Streets...you can watch a clip here or here

More recently, we watched a follow-up series called The Secret History of my Family which traced the family fortunes of the poor and destitute and their wealthy benefactors, which you can see here  - my favourite is the Gadbury sisters, one of whose descendents still lives in central London, one who was deported to Australia, a chronically class-ridden society, and the third went to Tasmania which achieved equality by dint of pretty everyone being a criminal - her decendents became respctively Premier and Attorney General.  That's real social mobility in action

Illness in Cyprus meant that Grandma in Cyprus couldn't attend something she'd been really looking forward to for the last few years.  This is quite a disappointment for her, but with Grandpa in Cyprus recovering from his heart operation, there was no way he could be left alone.  There had been a bit of a plan to secretly buy her a flight ticket which provoked much discussion between my brother and I but eventually common sense prevailed and it didn't happen.

So instead The Boy and I went along to Great Uncle Jack's birthday party.  He's 100.  That's not quite as unique as it might have been a few years ago, but still quite an achievement.  More importantly, he's still bright as a button....much sharper than many half his age.

So it was a great family reunion, and as the family tree had been worked on, we discovered there was an Australian branch.  That's really quite exciting indeed...it made me think of the Gadbury sisters above...although our ancestor emigrated by choice, and worked for the Royal Mint creating Australia's first coins.

Camera roll

I realise I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment.  I think I've found a new enthusiasm, based mainly on nothing much at all.  Earlier this year, I started using a different social media channel called ello.  It's really just a space for people to post images and words which inspire.  For me it's like being a kid and going into a sweet shop...there's so much there.  Anyway, and I'm not sure if this will work, if you'd like to see the pictures I posted (you will recognise some of them) look here 

Joining Ello is I am told by invitation only (that may be just hype), so if you do want to sign up to yet another social media outlet, just let me know

What's Up Pussy Cat?

So a very fond farewell to my mother's beautiful cat, Goldie, who was run over and killed at the weekend.  He was always an adventurous soul, and that had resulted in him losing the use of one of his front legs when he was a very small kitten.  A year later he had flourished, with a hobble that didn't hold him back and remained as mischievous as ever.  Strangely, he touched our hearts more than you would expect.

No April fools

Just a short post.

The other night the following three things were done:

The Cat's Mother's Brother (UP) recited off-by heart the 430 or so lines of TS Elliot's Wasteland.  It takes about 35 minutes uninterrupted; it was performed beautifully

We listened to a new CD - the opera Duke D'Albe by Donizetti.  Donizetti never finished it, so the first two acts have been completed by The Cat's Mother's other brother

The Cat's Mother's sister and her husband (The Muffins) were getting drunk with a bishop.  I daren't say which one, but a real bishop he is nonetheless

This is quite a family, isn't it?

This weekend...April 2nd in fact, was my first birthday this year.  Like the Queen, this year I have two.  On Saturday I was 20,000 days old.  You may do the maths to work out just how old that is...but I can tell you 20,000 days and 20,000 nights sometimes feels a lot.  Fourteen of us went out first to a karaoke bar before heading on to a themed pop-up immersive dining experience.  The food was delicious.  The theme was '1980's Office Party.  We all had a jolly good time, but I have to add that I couldn't do any of the things I did at the '80's office parties I went to, because now I'm quite respectable....

Ooooh another post!

So there was a point about two weeks ago when my mother was in one hospital in Cyprus, my step-father was in another in Nicosia....and I was in one in North London.  My poor brother, running round in ever decreasing circles trying to keep everyone happy!  Anyway, I was fortunately not in for long...I was just being patched up after being knocked off my cycle (again).  The driver of a car had suddenly felt the need for a KFC and turned left when I was in the cycle lane.  I went  straight over the handle bars....I remember seeing the pavement looming up towards me.  Fortunately I survived with cuts, bruises and aches and pains which were treated in A&E at Whipps Cross - a hospital that is in 'Special Measures'...why I don't know because my experience of them has always been very good. The driver's insurance will pay for my damaged clothing, and a new helmet as the old one has a nice dent in it (it's hard to see in the picture, but trust me it's there).  I'm still cycling, but surprisingly (to me at least) it's with significantly less confidence.  That's a worry as I have a 200 mile cycle round London coming up, and then 400 miles to Amsterdam in June....

Aside from medical things life has rolled on.  We went to dinner with friends who had managed to get to stay at Grayson Perry's House for Essex.  If you don't know about it, I quote "The whole building is in effect the story of an imaginary woman, Julie, an Essex Everywoman whose biography I have written in a long poem and provides a social history of Essex since the war. She was born in Canvey Island on the day of the great flood in 1953, moved to Basildon new town later in the 50s, then married and lived in a Thatcherite Barretty home. After she had brought up her kids she went back to uni where she met her second man and then lived in Colchester before moving to Wrabness on the north Essex coast where the house is. I call the building the Taj Mahal on the River Stour, which might be overdoing it slightly, but in the story it has been built by her second husband for his dead wife and all the imagery, inside and out, relates to her life."  Poor Julie was knocked over and killed by a motorcycle delivering curry.  The place is fabulous and fantastical.

The spring edition

Like many good publications, I've moved from a daily edition, to a weekly, to a monthly, to a quarterly...no doubt that means this will be the last post until 2022! Some people know me on Facebook, and recently I've been taking up more time with another social media outlet called ello.  I think you can find me here https://ello.co/notabene  do give it a go, as it's full of nice pictures!

Health has been the pressing concern of 2016.  The Cat's Mother's mother was in hospital in January for an op to remove a growth.  Amazingly she's bounced back and is the life and soul of the party again, whilst the rest of us are flagging.

Overseas, Grandpa in Cyprus finally got admitted to Nicosia General Hospital to have his aorta replaced with a plastic one.  Apart from the obvious concerns this has caused, it brought up a whole load of logistical ones too.  Fortunately he got through the operation well, although has subsequently had to have a week back in the hospital because of an infection.  In truth, he is not a good patient, and he has tried the patience of friends, family and hospital staff.  I flew over for a week to help the process at the beginning, and it was a good job I did otherwise it would have been a disaster...the admissions process appeared to be a matter of wandering around the hospital until you find the surgeon's secretary who will issue a slip which you then take to a reception desk before being pointed in the direction of the records department who will then give you your files to take up to the ward...there was more, but i can't bear to think about it!

Mum and I stayed for a couple of days in Nicosia to be close during the operation....it's about an hour or more away from 'home', and she no longer drives. We had time to kill during the days, but I can't say that I would recommend it as a holiday destination, although we did find one quite nice museum. After he had successfully got through the operation and was on the road to (painful) recovery I headed back to England.  My brother arrived as I left...our flights crossed in the skies above Cyprus.  He had said he would stay for 10 days,  and spent that time running around helping out, and taking mum backwards and forwards to the hospital.  After a week, the patient came home so there was a lot to be done to look after him, so it was disappointing that he had to be re-admitted to Nicosia the day before Kevin was due to return home.  That evening it all got too much for Grandma and she collapsed...fortunately it turned out to be 'only' exhasution and stress...we had initially feared a stroke.  She was admitted to the local hospital.  So Kevin had to cancel his plans, and has spent a further week over there than he expected.  Mum returned home after a couple of days, and Grandpa returned the day before yesterday.

We are hoping for a more straightforward path to recovery now.

I think my brother has been an absolute saint, putting aside his homelife to care for them in Cyprus...I have never been more in awe of him.

But the whole thing leaves many questions as yet unanswered.  It's hard enough when parents live down the road when they get older...a five hour flight away makes the situation impossibly difficult.  Kevin (in particular and I) have stepped up to the mark...but I can't help but feel that Grandpa's fanily have been woefully lacking.  We were able to jump this time, but it isn't something that can be assumed in future...that isn't good, nor does it make us feel good or confident.  Grandma and Grandpa need to carefully consider implications for the future - there are going to be many weeks ahead when they are dependent on friends, and who knows beyond that whether that is reasonable?  Perhaps some home help would make all the difference, and that is something they will need to look at.  There are more questions, but perhaps this is not the place to ask, let alone answer them.