Happy Christmas you lovely curios. Another twelve months have whizzed by. I hope you’ve had a good one. On New Year’s Eve, we sit around, sometimes with friends, and we jot down our possible ideas of things that we would like to do in the following year.

So this year....

We had to sort out Pat’s sister, Anne’s estate. Pat had to go through a lot of stuff, a lot of memories, and there were a lot of trips to Gillingham. I was her Executor. By the end of March, we had sorted most things, and were able to sell her house. End of the Gillingham era.

We had booked a three day trip to Berlin, which was made even shorter by EasyJet delaying our flight by a day. We made do with a bus tour of the city, and a full day walking the sites. It was good to do a recent history tour, considering that we were born a few years after the war ended.. yep.. that old.

We visited Edinburgh for a few days. We had booked to see Karen Polwart and Mary Chapin Carpenter playing in the Festival Hall. While we were there we met up with Marilyn, and Anne and Adrian, from Strathclyde University days. We stayed in the centre and walked Edinburgh. From there we drove the length of the country to meet up with friends in Swanage.

We had a week with friends in Malaga, which is an excellent place to visit. We were there when the power failed all over Spain for 12hrs. Everything shut down , and we sat in our apartment in the dark. Things really fell apart.

Topsham activities keep us entertained. I bought a new super bright, £12000 projector for the local hall. I continue to sing in the Barolotones Choir….. Pat has produced several more textile pictures which are in Ferry Road, and the flat in Exmouth. She continues with her French group. We tend to visit our holiday home in Exmouth (5 miles away) most weekends!!

There was the normal travelling around see the kids, to Leeds and Wendover..

The regular requirement to drive up to Watford, for our six monthly dental inspection, has finally come to an end as our excellent dentist, Mr Odendaal, finally retired. He’s been doing our teeth for 30 years and more, poor guy….

Owen and Emma are still in Wendover. Owen is still 3D printing things for Mclaren, and we like to think is the reason for their success. (not the thousands of other employees). He’s quite the tour guide for friends and family, and almost has the patter, although maybe not the F1 passion.

Life trucks along with Helen, Sam and the kids in Leeds. They always seem amazingly active. They’ve now climbed all three UK peaks, finishing off with Ben Nevis this year. Stanley moved on to Roundhay School, which is good and local. Old alumni include Arthur Brown ( The Crazy World of), and Liz Truss ( The Crazy World of). I saw Arthur Brown at Manchester in 70’s, yeah man…

(Spoiler Alert) Then just at the beginning of summer, I got off the train at Teignmouth aiming for a Wetherspoons pub, and fell over a kerb. I fell on my knee, and the shock through the bone, broke the head of my femur in my hip. They pinned and plated it (see X Ray in photos), but it has subsequently crumbled, and my left leg is now a couple of inches shorter. It was very painful to get about , and annoyingly still is. I’m now in the stick brigade. Fortunately, earlier in the year, some Exeter scoundrel stole my trusty bike, and on the rebound I bought an electric “Ladies Step Through” bike, which if you’ve broken your leg, is a real godsend. I can definitely understand the freedom kick that mobility scooters give people. I think it’s going to be a bit of a journey. There’s another fracture clinic at the end of this month……..

So if you do make it down to the South West for a visit, and do try, the only walk we will be going on, is the walk to our local Passage House Inn …..200m at the most…

Roger and Pat

Photos on www.3square.co.uk