Christmas 2024

[Cover photo is our view of the mighty Uluru]

Annus Mirabilis

Dear Friends

This year has turned out to be one of the most momentous for me. In March, Marian and I became partners as well as travelling companions. In our first trip as a couple we boarded The Ghan train in Adelaide, alighted at Alice Springs, drove to spend a few days at Uluru (Ayers Rock), then back on The Ghan to Darwin with a visit to Katherine Gorge en route. After some days in Kakadu National Park we boarded a Silversea expedition cruise (203 passengers) taking in several major rivers of the Kimberley aboard Zodiacs before making our way through a couple of very rough days to Fremantle. An epic trip.

In January I became a student again and enrolled for a Diploma in Nutrition at Torrens University. This is primarily for my own benefit, but surprisingly they awarded me a scholarship for extending nutrition advice to my fellow retirement village residents and friends. I need to complete 8 subjects and as of now I have finished 4. I aim to graduate in August 2025.

Soon after getting together Marian and I were apart for 2 months. She did her Swiss Alpine Railway tour, a Baltic cruise from Southampton, and a visit to her sister in Amsterdam.

While she was in Europe I flew to visit my sister and husband in their retirement community in Santa Barbara, my first visit in over 20 years. I stayed in one of their village guest rooms and we had a great time together catching up.

My brother-in-law Mike is a great fan of Elon Musk, and we drove an hour or so north to Vandenberg Space Force Base to see a SpaceX rocket launch. Sadly the clouds descended and we missed seeing the launch but we definitely heard it, especially the very loud sonic booms as the booster landed back at its launch pad. Another highlight was when Mike and I shared a test drive of a Tesla Model Y which is very likely to be my next car.

Then it was on to the UK for a lightning tour visiting old haunts. I first took the Eurostar from London to Brussels for the day - a channel tunnel bucket list tick. I spent a very expensive few days in London with the mandatory experience of The Eye.

Next came visits to Winchester and Cardiff before the long awaited reunion of Birmingham University friends in Edgbaston. Sadly one was struck down by Covid and another was unable to travel. Fortunately I caught up with both for a few hours during my trip. It was great to see the campus again, much changed of course, since our arrival 60 years ago. Other highlights were a canal tour and walks through the city centre as well as much wining and dining.

Then I spent a few days spent in Nottingham visiting old schools and homes. While there I was able to visit Alan’s home in Belper in Derbyshire just prior to him moving south to the Thames Estuary.

Onwards to Newcastle where I was born and lived for 10 years. It was good to see the new bridges and a thriving Tyne Quay abuzz with tourists. There was much nostalgia visiting my primary school and grammar school and the house where I spent my early years. I drove out to the Allen Valley where I remember many damp summer holidays. My Aunt Doris’s cottages in Allenheads have been improved and the place looked prosperous.

As I drove further north I had to make another nostalgic detour to Bamburgh Castle where I swam often in those early years. It was raining of course but it was good to walk the beach again, and tour the village. The downside was the need to take the very slow Edinburgh road via Berwick-on-Tweed.

I next spent a couple of days in Fort William at the Moorings Hotel next to Neptune's Staircase in Banavie where I last stayed in 2003. Sadly the hotel has deteriorated in the intervening 20 years but still provides a great view of the boats coming up and down the series of 8 very large locks built in 1822 at the start of the Caledonian Canal.

With prebooking I queued to get one of the last few places on the Jacobite steam train (of Harry Potter fame). I returned in time to drive out to Glenfinnan to see the afternoon train returning on the famous viaduct along with quite a crowd.

My most northerly hotel was in the centre of Inverness where I stayed for 6 nights. I had never been that far north and did several tours of Loch Ness, Skye and, of course, my bucket list destination John O’Groats.

All the bus tours were excellent with Timberbush Tours in small coaches although the Skye trip was very tight as one of the three drivers was sick. I was blessed with sunny weather especially on the John O’Groats trip and the visit to Dunrobin Castle. Inverness is a beautiful city and I thoroughly enjoyed my first visit although finding a working laundry was challenging.

Then I began my return journey in the trusty Honda C-HR hybrid with my longest drive in a day, 580 km, from Inverness to Harrogate. There I spent a very pleasant and informative couple of days with my oldest friend Tim and his wife Mayumi. Harrogate was beautifully green especially in the suburb where Mayumi and Tim live.

I can see why their extensive research of where to live led them to Harrogate. It has a lovely relaxed atmosphere, plenty of history, green parks and the range of facilities you need in retirement.

Heading further south I luckily caught up with Marg and Frank as I was passing very close to them in Loughborough. We met at The Priory on Snell's Nook Lane for an excellent lunch and much needed catch up.

My last hotel in England was probably the most significant. I stayed for a couple of nights at The Randolph in Oxford where Margot and I spent our short honeymoon in 1967. This brought back many happy memories.

The Randolph is only a short walk from Pembroke College where I studied for my DipAdMaths in Computer Programming, one of the first 5 students admitted that year to study computing.

As luck would have it Pembroke was celebrating its 400th anniversary the next day and I was able to attend the celebrations and a very interesting series of research presentations. It was my first return visit to Pembroke since I graduated in 1968, and I was very impressed the new Rokos quad built with a major donation from a previous student.

As you can imagine Marian and I celebrated on my return after 70 apart. After the wonderful trip described above we had a lovely 4 days in Toowoomba for the annual Flower Festival and the carnival parade which was celebrating its 75th anniversary. Marian was born very near Toowoomba and attended the very first carnival parade in 1950. We made a point of visiting the main flower parks and did a very interesting personal guided tour of 8 of the winning gardens entered into the annual competition.

The next day we did a long sweeping tour further west visiting her family farm before driving to Yarraman for coffee and Jandowae for lunch. It was a most pleasant 4 days.

It was back to study for me in September which consumed a lot of my time but thankfully semester finished a week ago allowing much needed relaxation. We are in the middle of many Christmas events with our various friends and clubs.

We will be spending Christmas Day with Marian’s sister in Redcliffe, a Brisbane suburb. In the second week of January we will spend a few days in Sydney welcoming my sister and husband off their trans-pacific cruise. After only 2 days they have to fly back to the US for much needed medical procedures.

Marian and I send all my friends our best wishes for the festive season, and health and happiness for the new year to come.

Marian and Michael (M22)

10/12/2024

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About to board The Ghan in July