Architecture Ball

13 May : Following an interim crit of the Tall Buildings group, it was the Architects' Ball, at Colwick Hall. Plenty of last year's and last semester's tall building students were there, but I fear that we have tired out our present group as only 4 were at the ball (three of them pictured).

Pictured: DNC, Aurelia, Rain and Ben

Bike ride to Attenborough

23 April : We have family staying, and the garage is full of bicycles and the decks are being cleared for Sally's birthday party on Sunday.

During the afternoon, daughter Sophie and DNC went for a 30 kilometre bike ride - some things are more important than mucking about with drills, screwdrivers and wire! Quality time! We went to Attenborough Nature reserve and back, along the Trent.

I rode on Henry's bike, a 'Specialised', and my daughter has a similar bike - so seemed like an easy ride - and during the afternoon, my son took my bike (a 30yr old Dawes) and gave it a thorough service.

Walkabout in Holme Pierrepont

18 April: We decided to make a visit to the white water rafting course in Holme Pierrepont - we actually went down this in boats back in about 1991.

I had a nostalgic moment seeing the Nottingham sailing club nearby of which I used to be a member... but after about 5 years, I didn't stay because the winds along the Trent are so fickle, and I made the mistake of selling my Laser dinghy. So it has been windsurfing (occasionally) since then.

Sunny weekend in March

A lovely sunny weekend at the end of March has preceded a horrible cold week of rain to follow (with blizzards in the north). On Sunday 28th, the PV roof panels and the sunboxes on the south wall both did splendidly - each taking nearly 15 kWhrs from the sun and sending either to the grid or into the ground!

We took a trip into town, and enjoyed seeing the Red Star exhibition in the Nottingham Contemporary, the Nottingham Eye in Market Square, and finished at the Vienna Restaurant for a late carvery lunch!

Hedda Gabler

28 March 10: We had Theatre Royal tickets for Hedda Gabler, starring Rosamund Pike.
As one always does with tragedies, one can't help thinking 'Why can't they just be nice to each other', but of course it wouldn't be a tragedy if they did that! Tragedies are mostly about personality flaws coinciding towards a fatal ending - Hedda has plenty of those.
I remember almost every word, as we did it in English in about 1965 (taking turns to read it through) - I had a very good teacher called Crawley who loved reading through plays with us - we did Hedda, and quite a few Bernard Shaw plays too.

Oliver Perks 90th birthday

Feb 13: We had a very large family gathering to celebrate Oliver Perks 90th birthday - it was held at the White Hart in Wrington, with champagne starter, a toast to the birthday boy, some speeches, and then a very good birthday lunch.
Backrow: DNC, Daniel, Henry, Oliver, Libby, Ange,
Middle row: Carol, Phil, Paul, Alex, Fran, Rose, Chris, Hugo,
Frontrow: Jack, Sophie P, Rachel, Philippa, Rosemary, Judith, Sophie D,
Seated: Sally NC.

Tragedy Strikes

Jan 19: Monday morning, we had a terrible phone call from daughter Sophie in Aswan to say that her husband Luke, our beloved son-in-law, was drowned in a nocturnal felucca boat capsize in the Nile during a freak electric thunderstorm. This is an indescribable loss, and it's difficult to write more on this.
We spent all Monday on the phone either to her, or to her insurance people or to the British embassy, or the hotel in Aswan, arranging for her return. I booked a flight to Cairo because she had lost her passport, but then she had one bit of luck which is that locals found all the luggage and passports and returned them.
By Tuesday we had Sophie back in England, and Henry brought her up from Heathrow.

If there was a deity who could talk or listen, what bargain would one strike to reverse time and change the result?