Glimpses of 8760 Hours

Happy New Year! I hope you have a good one, and that your festive season was wonderful.   Ours wasn't such a great success in that there was a lot of illness, with one person after another getting sick. In fact,  we never managed to get everyone together to exchange presents at all!  And 2022 had more than its share of political nonsenses, but apart from that it was quite a nice year for us.   

So I was sitting here looking through photos and thought I'd pick out a shot from each of the twelve past months with a glimpse of a few of the 8760 hours of my 2022 life.  First, a general shot of something that can be done at any time of year, which is to stroll along the canal towpath and look at all the boats, so many of them colourful and creative in different ways..  

And my first monthly photo is from JANUARY 2022.  We went to a show of 1960s fashion at the London Fashion and Textile Museum with young S,  who was home on his holidays from university in Scotland.  He has adopted a style of dress from a slightly earlier era than the sixties, but we all enjoyed this brightly coloured show on a dark January afternoon.     London didn't feel fully out of lockdown, and after the show we walked from the museum in Bermondsey all the way to a nearly deserted City, in an atmosphere of rather cosy wintry gloom. We were delighted to find an excellent cake shop near St. Pauls, where we had tea.  A nice memory for the month. 

In FEBRUARY we attended one of V's storytellings in the half ruined chapel of the Asylum Chapel, off the Old Kent Road.   The Asylum, built in the early 19th century, was not designed for lunatics,  but as an almshouses for the Licensed Victuallers Association - that is, people who work in the pub trade.  (You can read more about the Asylum here)  It is still run as social housing, although the aged publicans were moved away to the countryside long ago.     The handsome colonnaded chapel, the centrepiece of the almshouse, was badly bombed in the war and never fully restored. Now, fully watertight with its beautiful stained glass windows repaired, it is used as a quirky events venue, even though it has no heating and minimal electric lighting.   

The event was candle lit, and we had to dress up very warmly, but it was atmospheric as the shadows drew in and the candles flickered.  K was singing with the band, so it was quite a family affair.   I took this picture while everyone was lining up for free hot chocolate, and I hope my photo shows a little bit of the unique atmosphere. 

  St. Patrick's Day is on the 17th of MARCH.   I got Irish citizenship just before Covid, and I am very pleased to have it.   I tried throughout 2022 to get to Ireland, but was foiled each time for various reasons. But at least I baked a Paddy's cake in orange, white and green!  The orange parts were ginger and orange-zest, the green parts were pistachio nuts and tiny green boiled sweets, and the white is whipped cream.   I took it over to share with the Irish contingent and we all liked it very much, I am glad to say.  

I always like APRIL for its flowers, all in bright, simple colours, yellow, white and green mostly. These are photographed against a large cherry tree in full bloom, which I am proud to say I grew from a pip.  The cherries are pretty good,  and in July we usually have a grandstand view of the pigeons walking along the branches and hoovering the ripe cherries up in their beaks.  It's a startling sight and I always wonder why the greedy things don't choke or burst.   Ah well, nature knows best.  The tree is also popular with kids who climb up to collect cherries, and the upshot is that you have to be quick if you want to get any cherries yourself even though the tree produces thousands.  

MAY is my favourite month to spend in the countryside.   Everything is out in full bloom. We spent a week in Herefordshire, which has a smiling, gentle landscape, fairly hilly for cycling but not impossible if you chose the route carefully.  In the steeper areas, we walked along public footpaths.   The grass was full of flowers, the weather was mild and soft.   So peaceful.  

At the end of May we, our daughter K and her family all went to Spain to attend a big party, and spent about a week, returning in early JUNE.  We flew via Wizz Air, a budget airline.  At this time there was a great deal of disruption at airports, with lots of airlines cancelling flights.

Wizz Air wasn't named as the worst for cancellations but has apparently had far more unresolved complaints than any other airline in Britain, and our experience definitely agrees with that.  4 hours before our flight left, at 6 AM, Wizz Air sent a text saying the plane was cancelled, and that was the last we heard from them. All six of us were left to find our own way back to the UK, and there were no flights to be had. 

After a great deal of hassle we found six flights back to the UK the next day, at sky high prices. Between us it cost about £2400  and an extra night in Spain, but at least we all got home. Back in England, we and K each claimed for the statutory compensation for a missed flight. To cut a long story short, Wizz Air gave K and family the statutory 1600 euros compensation (400 euros per person), but told T and me we weren't entitled to any compensation at all even though we had had exactly the same experience as them in every detail!   Over six months Wizz Air evaded the question of WHY.  I thought it was very dodgy, and have applied for dispute resolution.  It will take months, but  I suspect there is more information to come, and if there is, I will let you know. Meanwhile I can truly say that if Wizz Air was the only airline flying to a destination, I'd change the destination rather than use them again! 

I have spared you the photo of us all sitting glumly at the airport for hours and hours. So, for this month's photo, what about this male flamenco dancer? We quite enjoyed our enforced extra night in Spain. Went into town and saw him performing in the town square. I wasn't bowled over by him, to be honest but you couldn't help but see he was  going down a storm with the audience. And the nice thing is that in the surrounding streets, and in the streets, women with buggies and male passers by were singing and dancing along as well.

In JULY we loved going to the village fete at Rendham, Suffolk.  I've missed country fetes so much during lockdown.  I love everything about them, the old-fashioned games like Whack-a-Mole, the teas with fantastic home made cakes, the stalls selling all kinds of bric a brac and books, plants, home made jams, the beer tents, charity stalls, the local brass band, dog obedience contests,  Punch and Judy.... if you've ever been to one, you'll know what I mean. 

Rendham is always a good fete and this year it had a classic car show and entertainments that included the "Red Barrows"  crack local team of formation wheelbarrow pushers. You can see some of them here (in red with white caps)  lined up ready to leap into action & astound everyone with their skills. In the background, a couple of the Saxmundham Bellydancers in their turquoise outfits. And can you spot the celebrity attendee?   You will notice that it's not all 100 percent serious, and all of it is to raise money for Rendham parish church, Rendham Village Hall and the local charity, the Rendham Amenity Fund.  

In AUGUST we went to Shropshire, staying near Shrewsbury. On the way we stopped at Bridgnorth, a pleasant town on a hill whose main park has marvellous views over surrounding countryside and a large ruined castle. It's very well maintained and a really delightful spot to laze around on a sunny afternoon. Even better was this lovely shiny red ice cream van where we had some top class snacks and some of the best home made icecream I have ever tasted.  In fact, I'd say it was almost worth making a detour to Bridgnorth just for that.  I was amused by the blackboard which points out that the cows on the wind powered farm could choose their own milking times.  Is this really possible? 

 In SEPTEMBER I was horrified to find that a lime tree in the garden was covered in one huge web. If you look very closely you can see thousands, probably millions of tiny red insects. We think they're spider-mites, but haven't a clue how to treat them.  I know that greenhouse plants sometimes get them but this tree is enormous and I can find no information at all. (If you have any, please let me know. We have to do something about it and I don't know where to start.) 

In OCTOBER there were huge winds, and one night they were particularly bad, quite alarming in fact as they howled round our poor rickety old house. They brought down many branches from the trees and when I opened the door the following morning, there was this beautiful spray of flowers blown neatly on the top of the front step. The flowers were totally fresh and the colours were really beautiful so I put them in a vase and we enjoyed our  "present from the wind" for about a week!  

Every NOVEMBER we try to attend the annual Koestler Arts exhibition at the South Bank Centre.  This is art produced by people at secure institutions of various types ranging from juvenile offenders to secure mental hospitals and facilities for asylum seekers.  Some of the rehabilitation work and support work carried out in these places unlocks a wealth of creativity, skill and ideas hiding inside some of the people are confined there.  It's impossible to convey the variety of the work. Some is beautiful and nostalgic, some is incredibly skilled, some deals with stress and sadness.   There is no self pity in the scene portrayed below, but it has a kind of horror for me.  I wonder how it must feel to be him.

  

 

None of the prisoners are ever identified, but you can leave comments which are apparently eagerly read by the artists. Much of the work is for sale and we bought a fantastic picture from the last show. You can read more about the Koestler Foundation here (and check out the artworks on the site) if you wish. 

Actually I have to put a second picture in, just by contrast. This is a beautiful group embroidery project showing life Under the Sea.  It's a small part of a huge panel but I hope you can see that it is full of colour, well-observed detail and grace.

In DECEMBER we had a snowfall which lasted a few days, very unusual for the time of year.  More often than not, if we have snow it is in January or February. I watched, amused, as 3 young people created a huge snowball from the freshly fallen snow at about 11 PM and rolled it up the road.  They ended up taking selfies of themselves and the snowman.  I thought how nice to be young and carefree enough to just go out and make a huge snowball just because you can.  Just down the road, an eight foot snowman appeared in a garden overnight.  

 

And so, that's it.    I could have posted a completely different selection and indeed my rather infrequent posts during the year tell the stories of other things I've done.   But I hope you've enjoyed this high speed trip through flashes of my 2022, and I hope that there will be many happy moments in your life too in 2023!