Flat out

Photo: The completed task We were on a mission. To complete Jan's nearly god daughter's school project. In December a letter arrived from Molly with Flat Stanley. He'd been flattened by a steam roller and was now very flat. The letter asked Jan to take Stanley on adventures and send him back to her school …

Time warp

How to stretch your age a little. Have your birthday in one decade and celebrate in another. To be fair, Pete's birthday falls in December when they tend to be overlooked, or even worse, combined with Christmas. Other than Pete and Len we knew no one else at the party so we got to meet …

Cobweb clearing in Cornwall

Photo: starting out at Rame Head A few fun days in Cornwall was just what we needed. With friends Angel and Neil we enjoyed clean air, walks, Cornish fishing villages, laughs, pubs and fish. Lot's of fish. Cornish crab sandwiches became the lunch time mantra. One of the joys of visiting sea side towns and …

You’ll Never Walk Alone

Yesterday we said goodbye to Jan's father, Roy, at his funeral. He died on the 30th December, eight years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. After diagnosis Roy had agreed that his brain could be used for medical research into this terrible disease. As he also had vascular dementia his brain was of great value …

Flour power

Photo: David in full flow explaining what happened to him. This evening we visited a friend of ours who ended up in hospital with a broken pelvis. David had been circling The Regent's Park with ICC when he clipped the wheel of the bike in front and down he went. Falling from the saddle is …

Memory Lane

Last night we sat down to watch Heston's Marvellous Menu: Back to the Noughties. In the programme Heston Blumenthal re-united his old team and re-created the Fat Duck restaurant as close to 2001 as they could make it. It included tracking down some artwork that is no longer on the walls. We recognised the artwork …

Friends re-united

Photo: Earlier in the day (during the night) we saw Baga Chipz, a drag act at the Channel 4's Alternative Election Night. That night another chip reference. Three months ago Andy, Cliff, Gino, Jyde and Sean came out to Italy for the third ICC Pansèr Twinning trip. In a remarkable act of generousity they treated …

We think it’s all over

It was a bit of an anti climax. We arrived at the studio at 01:00 on Friday 13th December to watch the general election results unfold. We were to be audience members for Channel 4's Alternative Election Night. We were hoping for a more exciting night, but the exit poll put paid to that. The …

Winter coat

Photo: Before leaving we have to prepare the house and garden for the winter. We've been busy in the garden preparing for the big garage, cantina and portico build in 2020. We spent two days fitting a 50m Cor-ten border between the garden and what will be gravel in front of the house. It took …