Diary 2000
Juliet
gained a place at Pate's Grammar School
for September.
Jay also
won Major Academic and Music Scholarships to Dean Close Junior School, which,
after some difficult consideration, we turned down.
Sadly,
Hazel had a stroke on 4 February. She
spent over a week in
Teresa’s birthday – we had a meal à deux at the King’s Arms in the
village.
A busy
month in the garden, planting. But not
the best of years for results, with several crops not coming up at all, and others
badly hit by pests. Roger will elaborate
on the problems elsewhere. J
We went to see the Boys of
the Lough at the Cheltenham Everyman Theatre.
Aly Bain is one of Roger’s favourite fiddlers and Cathal McConnell one
of Teresa’s favourite singers. This was
the night we made a rapid get away from our parking space in the multi-storey,
only to find that the car park was locked and barred by metal gates 20 feet
high. A long, winding queue formed
behind us as the rest of the audience emerged.
Emergency numbers were phoned, without success. Just as we seemed to be in for a long chilly
night, an enterprising young man pulled the hinges clean out of the wall with
his bare hands and off we all went!
Juliet
went away for a school activity week – PGL (I should know what this stands for
but Jay says it’s Parents Get Lost).
Juliet
went on a school trip to the Dome – the only member of the family to have
been. She thought it was great.
Roger
and Teresa ran a stall at the
An
eventful month. Roger’s last day at
work, followed by Juliet’s last day at Berkhamstead. Here she is with the Music Cup.
We also said
goodbye to Robbie, our battered Renault 5, which had been in the family nearly
10 years. Hard to believe though it is,
a queue of eager buyers did not transpire and poor Robbie went for scrap.
We had a
fortnight’s holiday in Portugal.
We went
to see ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ at the Everyman. It was the same production as we had seen
last year in
A generally lazy month, with a number of
barbecues enjoyed on the patio. Juliet
spent a week at a school fun French course.
Bravo, Juliette!
Roger
acquired a new toy for the garden – a petrol driven cylinder mower for the
lawns, replacing an old electric machine, always difficult to use because of
the cable.
We went
to see Helen for a day, the highlight being a ride on the London
Eye, but we also saw the Tate Modern and the wobbly
Michael
(Uncle Mick) and his wife, Pat, came to see Hazel for a day.
We took Juliet and a
friend to the West
Midlands Safari
Park
Juliet started her
secondary school education at Pate’s Grammar School.
After saying
goodbye to Robbie, it was now Rene, our Renault Espace, who had to go after 11
years in the family. Teresa fancied one
of the Rover range and when Roger saw the September prices the deed was done. ‘Rovy’ is a copperleaf red Rover 45.
For the first time for many years, our own
pumpkins failed to come up and we had to buy one of these. The ferocious face J carved must’ve done its
job as we had no ghostly visitations in the night.
We
started work on this website.
Juliet auditioned for a place at GAMPA and
attended her first session on Saturday 10th. The journey took a round 4 hours through
darkness, driving rain, eccentric drivers and Mackeson Gold Cup race traffic
which slowed everything to a standstill.
I’m already looking forward to next week…. J
Two
unusual visitors to the garden. A
kestrel was seen around most days in the month, and one morning there was a heron standing in the pond (a
legacy of the heavy autumn rains).
We had a
short spell of cold weather just after Christmas, and enough snow for Juliet to
use her sledge for the first time in her life.
Last amended on 1 December 2000.