14th November 2023

On Friday, 3rd November, Sue and I revived our much-enjoyed family get-togethers, which had last taken place before the Covid pandemic lockdown in March 2020. As it was a fairly last-minute decision, the Newbold Verdons were unable to join us, having already made plans to attend a Bonfire Night display at Hinckley RUFC.

Charlotte, Suraj, Lucas, Ellis, and Harry arrived in the late afternoon, followed shortly afterwards by Jamie and Nalla, with Ruth and Joey not far behind. Sue and I had prepared a Thai green curry as a starter, followed by chicken korma served with rice, onion bhajis, chapatis, and roti. For dessert, there was cheesecake and an Arctic roll, followed by crackers and a creamy Cheshire cheese I’d made earlier in the week. For entertainment, we shared a video of our recent trip to Ethiopia.

The evening wasn’t without incident. Upon seeing Ruth and Joey arrive, a very excited Harry dashed to greet them, but slipped on the bamboo flooring in the hallway. He performed a painful impression of Bambi on ice and let out a yelp of agony until I lifted him off the floor. Fearing he may have broken something, we were relieved when, twenty minutes later, he was back on his feet, seemingly no worse for his dramatic, spread-eagled mishap.

On Saturday, I finished off the Thai green curry with several of my rugby chums, who came round to watch the Tigers lose to Saracens on the Garden Room TV.

Sunday was a busy day for the younger members of the family. Jamie and Ruth visited the Christmas market in Birmingham, while Charlotte and her family opted for a walk around Sywell Reservoir before enjoying lunch by the canal. Sue and I, by contrast, chose a quiet, traditional Sunday lunch at home.

Unusually, on Monday night, much of the country witnessed a rather spectacular display of the Northern Lights, as the Aurora Borealis lit up skies across the UK. I do hope it wasn’t an omen of something unpleasant to come!

After a rainy shopping trip into town on her E-bike, Sue discovered that water had somehow found its way into the supposedly ‘sealed’ battery. This became apparent the following day, when the bike refused to charge. I took it apart to investigate, and despite drying the unit out with a hairdryer, it still wouldn’t take a charge. Frustratingly, the battery will now have to be replaced. Even more annoyingly, the bike came with a one-year warranty, which, as luck would have it, expired in September. Isn’t it always the way?

On Tuesday evening (7th), Jamie travelled north to Manchester with a friend to watch Manchester City beat Young Boys 3–0. He shared a video of the spectacular pre-match light show on Family Messenger. It’s been since the 1980s that I last attended a Premiership football match, back then, the only highlight was a pre-match pie!

On 9th November, Sue braved a damp day out in the ancient Wakerley Woods with the U3A Nature Group, studying fungi, while I took charge of Rocky and Nalla. Jamie and Ruth had dropped them off en route to the airport, as they were flying to Italy for a few days in Rome to take in the sights and immerse themselves in Italian history and culture.

Among the attractions Jamie and Ruth managed to visit during their weekend away were the Vatican, a performance at the opera, and the site of Julius Caesar’s assassination.

On Friday, 10th November, Sue joined Sarah, Alice, and Archie in Newbold Verdon, and together they drove to Tenbury Wells to visit family friend Sheila. Sue’s sister Philippa and her husband Paul met them there after a long drive up from Devon. Sheila had undergone heart surgery earlier in the year, and it was only now that she felt well enough to receive visitors. Ever organised, the sisters saw this as a good opportunity to exchange Christmas presents and save on postage, while also catching up on news from the town where they were brought up.

For their birthday presents, we had arranged for Charlotte and Suraj to spend a night at a spa hotel in Hinckley, where Sue and I had enjoyed a relaxing weekend earlier in the year. It was to be the first time they had left Lucas and Ellis overnight, but both boys are now old enough and sensible enough to look after themselves. With the parents away, it was up to the grandparents to help out.

On Sunday morning, I collected Lucas from Rothwell to help me cut down three dead fir trees by the river. They’ll make good fuel for the log burner later in the winter. We had finished the job by 11:30 am, and I returned a very grubby teenager home, no doubt ready for a long soak in the bath. As I arrived back at Willow Bank, Sue was heading out to collect Ellis and take him to join his Air Cadet squad in Kettering for the Armistice Day commemorations. By the time they returned to Rothwell later that afternoon, Charlotte and Suraj were back too. They reported a relaxing time, having visited Sarah in Newbold Verdon, done a bit of shopping in Hinckley, and made full use of the hotel’s facilities.

We had expected the dogs to be collected on Tuesday, so we were surprised when Jamie and Ruth came straight from their early flight into Stansted on Monday morning, eager to be reunited with their pooches. As Ruth had to be at work that afternoon, they stayed only long enough to load the dogs and various belongings into the car before heading north to Waltham on the Wolds.

With the animals gone, I finally had time to pack and prepare for my upcoming trip to Bulgaria and to fit in a much-needed haircut. Sue, meanwhile, got to work hoovering up the inevitable trail of stray dog hairs. I had originally planned a ramble in Rutland with John, but my foot, still sore after a couple of weeks of dog walking, persuaded me to postpone it until December. I have a feeling I’ll need both feet in full working order over the coming weeks.

Since returning from our cruise around eastern Canada, I’ve been steadily working through the 800+ photos and videos we took, deleting many, organising the rest, and assembling them into a video of the trip. The finished product is now up on YouTube: Canada 2023. We’ve also started planning our adventures for 2024, Albania in April, and Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands in June.

On the 14th, I turned my attention to tidying the garden in readiness for winter, as I’ll be away for the next month in Bulgaria, helping my step-brother David sort out his house in Ritya after four years of it standing empty. Using the leaf blower, I managed to gather up some of the fallen leaves for the compost heap from those trees that knew what season it was. Frustratingly, none of the apple trees had shed theirs and were still dark green, showing no sign of turning. I grubbed up the Cape Gooseberries and brought any ripe fruit into the kitchen. Much of the afternoon was spent planting several hundred tulip bulbs in pots and around the lawn edges.

Tomorrow, I begin my journey to Bulgaria, catching a train to Manchester Airport and meeting David at an airport hotel, ready for an early flight the next morning to Sofia.