Reunion

On the weekend of 2/3/4 October we had our annual reunion of 10 couples, the husbands of which were all at medical school together. The London Hospital Medical College. It was the 40th year since we all qualified. This year Steve came and brought his new wife, Barbara. I sat next to her at dinner on the Friday. She is a poet. As the wine flowed (in me!) I eventually asked her if she would write a poem for me to read out on the Saturday evening after dinner. When Kath and I got back from a day out on Saturday there was an envelope that had been delivered to our room. It had Barbara's poem in it. I read it out to Kath and had a few tears reading the last verse. However, I practiced it and though I may not make a fool of myself. I decided to tell the gang that there was a possibility of my cracking up reading it. The last time I read a poem was at my lovely Goddaughter's wedding. Samantha. She is Robin and Chris's daughter and they were both at the reunion as they a medical and dental students in our year. I read out the poem and messed a few words (booze!) but it was listened to in absolute silence. Here it is.

Reflections by Barbara Shalet, 2009.

Forty years have passed on by-
How they have so swiftly gone
Leaving a host of memories
For each of us to look upon.

In an instant I am able
To upon those years reflect
And recall the times we all shared
The I never shall forget.

Ambitious, young and eager -
A band of hopeful men
With the whole wide world at our feet -
That's how we thought - back then.

As we gained our right of passage
Different thresholds we walked though -
Stepping along our various paths
Yet, our friendships still stayed true.

The sense of group identity,
The laughter and the fun,
The stars within our grasps we thought -
Now a new time has begun.

And still the camaraderie
From all those years ago
Is as vibrant as it ever was
And it always shall be so.

My life has been so richly blessed
In knowing each of you
And I know the bond we share tonight
Will last a lifetime through.

London September 2009

Last week we we went to London for one night and took a friend, Molly. This is the envelope of the thank you card she gave us. we went by taxi to Westgate Station, Wakefield and then by train. I carried all our luggage. Kath and Molly went to the National Gallery and I to the Royal Society of medicine Library. We went to the plat Pitmen Painters at the National Theatre. The next morning they went to a beading sop in Covent Garden. The envelope is unique. Click on it to get a larger picture.

Sound of Music

We went with friends to Paul and Sheilagh Taylor's house for a "Sound of Music" evening. We all dressed up and sang along to the songs as we watched the film. The film was actually great. Kath had never seen it.
When I was a child and we went to Germany for our holidays we often met Rangheld (a schoolfriend of my mother) and her son Christian. They would stay in our hotel for a few days. The hotel was on the beautiful lake Tegernsee. Rangheld's late husband was Wolfgang Reinhardt. Wolfgang was the son of Max, a very famous film director. Wolfgang bought the film rights of the story of the von Trapp family from Maria von Trapp for $10000. A bargain. Kath and I met Rangheld for lunch when we were staying with my Uncle and Aunt at Ammersee in 1978. She was charming.

Thunderstorm

We had the mother of all thunderstorms last week. It was a Monday evening and the electricity went off at about 6 pm after the most terrific clap of thunder with lightening a split second before. We had no electricity until 1 pm and no telephone until the next afternoon. I found out that lightening had struck a telegraph pole putting the phones out of action. Lightening also struck the surgery next door and was conducted along a metal fence narrowly missing a health visitor. A neighbour went out to the main road in the middle of it and could not see the road. Water was up to the windows of a car stuck on the bend going into Fryston. There was a mini tornado reported 1 mile away and there was photo of this in the local paper. I have never seen such heavy rain and hail. Wow.

Doris Lessing

I have just finished Doris Lessing's novel "The Golden Notebook". No wonder she won the Nobel Prize for literature. Here is an important, for me, quote from the introduction:
" it is not only childish of a writer to want to see what he sees., to understand the shape and aim of the novel as he sees it - his wanting this mean that he has not understood a most fundamental point. Which is that the book is alive and potent and fructifying and able to promote thought and discussion only when its plan and shape and intention are not understood, because that moment of seeing the shape and plan and intention is also the moment when there isn't anything more to be got out of it.
And when a book's pattern and the shape of its inner life is as plain to the reader as it is to the writer - then perhaps it is time to throw the book aside, and start again on something new."

Funeral Music

The accompanist of the Castleford Choral Society (where Kath and I have been singing for about 30 years) is a fine organist and often is asked to play at weddings and funerals. She told us that she was asked to play at a recent funeral "Smoke gets in your eyes". The funeral was followed by a cremation.

The Tempest

Last night we saw the Royal Shakespeare's Company's production of The Tempest. It was fabulous. We arrived at the Playhouse Theatre in Leeds in good time. We bought our meal and sat down to eat it. I went off to the bar to buy a couple of glasses of red wine and some interval drinks. I completed the form for the interval drinks and it requested which play we were seeing (there are two theatres there in Leeds). I paid for the drinks and then the barman noticed I had written "The Tempest" for the play we were seeing. He told me that play was not being performed at The Playhouse but was on at The Grand. I panicked slightly and told Kath. What a daft thing to do. We walked up to The Grand and had a great experience with that play. It was great.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Today is the 200th anniversary of Felix Medelssohn's birth.

Robin and owls

Yesterday we went to Fairburn Ings bird reserve (RSPB) because we found out there were several owls nesting there. We did not see them but there were loads of people trying to get a glimpse. However, when we were waking back form the hide, there was a man feeding a robin some seed from his hand. Another man had a sophisticated camera and took a great photo. He took the email address of the robin feeder person and was intending to zap the photo to him. Great stuff.

Tina

It was Tina Greatorix's funeral today. I have never seen a funeral like it. 600+ peple in St Giles' church, Pontefract. Tina was only 62 and died of a malignant brain tumour. She was a nurse and worked for decades at Pontefract General Infirmary mainly, towards the end of her career, with cancer patients. She was a member of our Castleford Choral Society for quite a while as was her husband, Bobby. They were both very much involved with G and S. I met her through the CCS and she was a valued member of the committee for a long time.
It was amazing how many people she knew in this area. The major was at her funeral as well as several GPs and consultants. Mick Peake, a consultant chest physician who moved to Leicester, came over for the funeral. At the end, 30+ nurses n uniform lined the street when the coffin was taken to the car. Music was a great feature of the funeral and there were performances from the Castleford Male Voice Choir and the Margaret Duckworth singers.
Towards the end, members of several G and S societies scattered in the audience stood up and sang two pieces one of which was "we are gondellieris". Stunning stuff.
We had trouble getting out of the crowded church but when we did so there were about 200 people chatting on the street. We met quite a few people we knew.
Goodbye, Tina. We will never forget you.