Val, 3 January 2022
Just to say a very Happy New Year to you all & a hope for return to full normality!! All the best. Love, Val
Angela, 5 January 2022
Wishing everyone a very Happy and Healthy New Year and looking forward to continuing our SUPSLISKAN sagas! Love, Angela
Jane, 6 January 2022
Hope you had a pleasant festive season. We did, with fizz and canapes with the friend with whom I have coffee (and a moan) every second Thursday, and Eggnog Pie with the American family on Hogmanay.
However grumpiness has returned! Yesterday, when the PO finally opened after two more Bank Holidays, I took a slim book to post to elder son and his wife in Amsterdam. Not allowed! Apparently no printed matter can be posted abroad because of Covid, according to the lad in the PO. He may have meant only to the EU but one of the assistants in our local paper shop where I went immediately after the PO and let off steam said she had been unable to send a calendar to New Zealand. Are there such restrictions, Sue? I suspect it is all a plot against the UK after Brexit. Almost makes one think Scottish Independence would be a good idea . . . Except this new rule might just be a Scottish one.
There is a Scottish tradition of cleaning one's house on Hogmanay in preparation for the New Year. I try. But this time, with one room done, 3-month old Hetty the vacuum cleaner died. I gave her a new bag and cleaned all her tubes, but to no avail. So I phoned Lakeland from whom I bought her and was most impressed by the response - a replacement was ordered immediately to be delivered on Monday and the dead one would be picked up by the courier. I am still waiting - in a dirty house with a boxed vacuum sitting in the middle of the floor.
Meanwhile David is now researching my mother's family, and delving deep, it seems, to connect all the families in Galalshiels.
Otherwise we are still well, as I hope you all are, and hoping to escape from St Andrews sometime this year.
Love, GJ
Sue, 7 January 2022
Many thanks for the New Year greetings - yes, indeed, let's hope for a better year for us all now we are into 2022.
In reply to your issue with posting stuff, Jane, my sister-in-law in Colorado had a parcel-sized calendar for us declined by the US postal service, but a calendar small enough to be "large letter" sized from my other sister-in-law, posted in Buckingham, arrived safely. Letters and cards from anywhere also seem to arrive safely. Looking at the NZ Post website to-day the list of places that won't currently accept mail for NZ is quite long... but it doesn't mention Scotland!
The explanation is understandable; no one will want to manage stacks of bottle-necked mail en route. Looks as thought the list was created on Dec 10, so maybe it hasn't been updated over the holiday period, remembering that down here we are dealing with both Christmas and peak summer holiday manning issues. But not being able to send a book to Amsterdam seems absurd.
It's always nice to get calendars from overseas, especially whilst we can't travel, but it does mean we get caught on the hop with some of NZ's more obscure public holidays - like Canterbury Anniversary Day...
So far, life is still pretty "normal" down here, with masks mandatory in shops etc, scanning for tracking encouraged, and increasingly the need to show our vaccine passes, and we don't yet have issues with manning because of staff off-sick or isolating etc due to Covid. Mustn't speak too soon, of course, especially with Omicron appearing in those in managed isolation at the borders. We'll have the opportunity to get booster shots soon, and home testing kits are on the horizon. It's not yet clear whether vaccination of kids will happen before the start of the new school year, which is in the first week of February. Inevitably there are still concerns about lab capacity as well as ICU bed numbers if we don't succeed in keeping it in check.
Good luck with that replacement vacuum cleaner, Jane. My maternal grandfather was proud of his Scottish heritage and took Hogmanay seriously to the extent of requiring a dark-haired man to first foot. My mother would recall standing outside her home in her flimsy 1920s finery, having been out dancing with friends, waiting for her big brother to return home, so that he and not she would the first over the threshold. Same grandfather used to walk round the table before Sunday lunch playing his bagpipes (I'm sure they didn't have haggis every week); as he died before I was born I have no idea if his playing was a joy and delight to all (including the neighbours) or a bit of a torment for all concerned.
I won't mention the cricket as NZ seems to be struggling a bit against Bangladesh. Though I did enjoy the recent headline that England were "Ashen-faced"...
Take care, stay well -
Love, Sue
Janet, 8 January 2022
Happy New Year from us, too, though ours has got off to a bit of an unprecedented start. We had a New Year's Eve 6 or 7 years ago when there were high winds and the cover of our poly tunnel was ripped off in the middle of the night, scattering plant trays and garden furniture all over the garden but this year Storm Arwen had felled some huge trees on 26th November and left us to deal with the aftermath. The falling tree had brought down our telephone and power lines, pulled up the main drive, exposing the gas main, and made it impossible to drive any vehicles in or out for several days. Luckily, the drive goes round in a semi-circle and after a few days work with a chain-saw John was able to clear a way through the fallen branches to afford access via the other gate, but it will be months yet before we are anywhere near back to normal. We were lucky in that no people or cars were damaged in the fall but we lost our summerhouse, wooden swing seat, other garden furniture and some lovely old trees and shrubs, including a Japanese cherry, in the process and the front lawn is now like a ploughed field.
Our contractor for cutting up and removing the fallen tree and roots and carefully back-filling the drive has posted some drone footage on Facebook. Here is the link:
Still, we had a good Christmas, seeing family almost daily via Zoom, playing Cluedo, Buccaneer, Cat Attack and Ticket to Ride on different days and setting one another Quizzes as well. Plus we had a few friends to afternoon tea here, with crackers and party hats, and a New Year's Day visit to friends across the road for afternoon tea. No large gatherings apart from a U3A Christmas lunch in early December, well before the Omicron variant hit, which we had thoroughly enjoyed. But we do hope life will improve for everyone over the coming months.
As for posting things abroad, yes, we had no trouble posting calendars to Australia before Christmas (as either large letters or small parcels) and no difficulties sending small parcels containing children's books and confectionery as gifts to Switzerland, which normally has the same rules as the EU, so I don't know if Jane has simply come up against some over-zealous post person with their own ideas on keeping everyone safe.
I love the idea of your grandfather walking round the dinner table playing the bagpipes, Sue, what a wonderful tradition. It'll be a shame if all these little bits of history, pleasant or not, are ever lost.
Love, Janet.
Sylvia, 08 January2022
Golly Janet, that was some tree! I suppose you can consider yourselves lucky that there was no more damage then you described, but it must be a huge loss, not just to you, but to the local environment.
My Christmas travelling went according to plan with me driving 140 miles cross country to stay with my son and family in Hertfordshire for Christmas and 40 miles to my daughter's in Church Stretton for New Year, with just two days at home between. However, there was some drama with my youngest grandson at 31 months being hospitalised shortly before Christmas with a raging temperature and cough. We knew it wasn't Covid, but it took 3 days for medics to decide that it wasn't bacteriological and that the cannula in the back of his hand for the administration of antibiotics could be removed. So, when I arrived he still had it there and was going back to the hospital in the very early hours of each morning to have a top-up as the infusion was strictly every 24 hours and the first lot was at 04:00! Somewhat unsurprisingly he was very clingy to one or other of his parents for most of the time I was there, but I did get my first hug from him in 2 years as I was leaving. The New Year celebration was small but thankfully uneventful, but on the first day back at school, my son, having dropped off the two older boys, a van coming out of a side road slammed into the side of the car causing extensive damage. Luckily, neither driver was hurt, although they both had to be checked over in A&E. I've been wondering if they sat together chatting or as far away from each other as possible! We're now waiting to hear if the car can be repaired, or if it's a write off.
Here, the weather for the last week has been what I can only call dreech/dreich. I gather both spellings are acceptable. I've resisted having the lights on all day, but I think often of my time in NZ, Sue, and although I was there in October, I can't imagine that you would ever have days like this.
I wish everyone a very happy and above all a healthy 2022. Love, Sylvia
Sue 13 January 2022
With apologies to the NZ tourist industry (or what's left of it!) and in reply to Sylvia, yes, we can do "dreech" down here. And it can linger, too. But we also get some fabulously atmospheric fogs which I really love, though not of course when driving is called for. Currently we are having some lovely sunny days, but also hot, heavy days, too, which are quite enervating.
I'm keeping my usual eye on the BBC internet news; when is a party not a party? Prince Andrew! The news here is commendably tame by comparison. Though we do have a couple of community cases of Covid in Christchurch, but so far any Omicron cases seem to have been caught at the border.
Life must be so confusing for little ones - being encourage to keep at a distance from other folk, seeing everyone masked, and then meeting family members after a long break and hugs are OK after all. You did well to get that hug, Sylvia, given the little chap had been through the extra trauma of hospital visits, so was entitled to be clingy. And a car crash in the family, too - that will be enough for 2022, it's got to be plain sailing from now on after all of that.
Take care, stay well. Love, Sue
Sylvia, 2 February 2022
I have received a lovely, though unnecessary, thank you from Maggie for the letter of condolence I sent her after Peter's death. I'm sure a number of you will have received a similar letter, but she has asked me to say thank you to those of you who wrote to her and whose addresses she doesn't "have to hand at the moment".
Hoping everyone remains well. Love to you all, Sylvia
Anne, 4 February 2022
Yes, I too have just today received a lovely letter and memorial card from Maggie, so thoughtful of her.
I also hope you are all keeping well. I am in a bit of a quandry right now as I have to decide whether or not to attend the reunion of my Leeds Univ. German Dept planned for April 2020 and postponed twice. Although I would of course really love to go there and combine it with a family visit I think I'm reluctantly going to cancel. It's more the risk of travelling than actually meeting up with my old friends that is putting me off. For me it's still too soon, call me a German cowardy custard if you like but I have been very careful up to now and don't want to take too many risks. I'm still hoping that Fishburn Tours in York at the end of August/1st week in Sept. can take pLace!
The days are getting longer and my snowdrops are out so some positive news.
Take care everyone, Anne
Sylvia, 4 February 2022
Good to hear from you, Anne. I too am scheduled to go to a reunion of my German Department friends in Cambridge at the end of March. There will be just 6 of us and like your reunion, it has been postponed twice. You will remember, I’m sure, that our last one was in Munich in October 2019, when I met up with Howard and Mandy. As things stand, we plan to go ahead, but we can cancel up to two weeks before without losing our deposit at the B&B. At least I have the advantage of being able to drive there, which I plan to do since public transport between Hereford and Cambridge would involve too many changes and would take hours.
Apologies to everyone for making this email more personal to Anne and Howard, but I’ve included everyone because I’m curious to know how other people feel about venturing out into daylight again.
Love to all, Sylvia
Val, 4 February 2022
I too have received a lovely letter & card from Maggie, even though we never met. Pete looks completely unchanged! So sad.
As regards travel, Chris will be off as soon as face to face courses resume. Pittcon was cancelled 5 weeks before it was due to go ahead when he was all set to go to Atlanta to lecture at it in early March. He’s very disappointed!
Roger was in Las Vegas early January for the very large CES conference & all was normal, though they still had masks etc indoors. So I think a return to as much normality as possible is to be hoped for, with everyone making their own choices. Day to day life is as it was before.
So sorry about your reunion, Anne, & hopefully yours will go ahead, Sylvia.
Love to you all, Val
