billatbingley - Random Jottings: The Past Year

The Blog has been a little neglected this week, due to the fact that I have been busy composing my Christmas Newsletter – there are two versions of this. One goes out to former colleagues, and the other goes out to family & friends.

The newsletter usually runs to five or six A4 sheets of paper, and is a sort of look back through the year, with photos.

It is always interesting to re visit events that have happened during the year. So for this blog I aim to do a sort of edited yearly review.

As has been mentioned in a previous blog, life gets pretty hectic in our household over the Christmas period. For what seems like time immemorial there have been the following events to celebrate/participate in:

Early in December (2008) there was an Advent Carol Service to prepare for and play the organ for, and there are usually two or three soloists to run through with too. Running throughout the early part of December there were the usual rehearsals for Nativity Plays and then later the performances at a local Primary School. The Christmas Toddlers Praise Services – there were two of them to cater for the different groups of children who meet on different days. There were rehearsals for my Male Voice choir, and three Christmas concerts to take part in. Last year I was appearing as Santa on the Pennine Boat Trips in Skipton, which entailed three Saturdays and most of the week preceding Christmas. I was also Santa for a local Primary School too! In addition to all the previous I had the usual Church Services – Christingle Service, Nativity Play, Festival of Lessons & Carols, Midnight Mass and Christmas Day Eucharist to rehearse for and play for. There were a couple of weddings around Christmas time too! I also gave talks to four groups on either “Christmas Traditions & Customs” or “A Canter through a Collection of Christmas Carols” My own birthday and that of my wife also falls in December too.

We managed to escape for a three days break at the Kings Head Hotel in Masham. We visited Hawes, Aysgarth, Leyburn, Bedale and Richmond, whilst we were there.

Market Square Masham

Warm and Welcoming at night

The King's Head Hotel Masham

So what of 2009?

For something like thirty five years all the family have visited Harrogate Theatre for their traditional pantomime. On Sunday 11th January we paid our annual visit to see the final performance of the pantomime Cinderella at the theatre. It lived up to expectations, and is a much loved event by all the family.

On March 17th, we went to the opening night of West Side Story at the Leeds Grand Theatre. This was the 50th Anniversary Tour and a superb production. It brought back happy memories, as many years ago I was rehearsal pianist for the first amateur production of West Side Story performed by Keighley Amateur Operatic & Dramatic Society. We were in the centre of row B so could see all that was going on in the orchestra pit, as well as what was on stage. Unfortunately about 15 minutes before the interval an alarm went off and the theatre had to be cleared! It took 10 minutes to get the theatre cleared and then another 10 minutes to get everyone back in their places, for the remainder of the performance.

On Saturday 18th April, all the family spent the weekend in Manchester at a relatives wedding. The wedding took place in Manchester Town Hall, followed by a reception at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel. We made a long weekend of it and stayed from Friday to Sunday, whilst the rest of the family joined us on Saturday.

In June our youngest daughter and her fiancée took a holiday in Jamaica at a place called Runaway Bay. They flew out from Manchester to Sangster International Airport Jamaica, and then drove on to Runaway Bay. They had a wonderful holiday and spent time sunbathing, swimming, snorkelling, etc

An International Festival of Food takes place in Ilkley early in August, and we visited this. Among the countries represented were France, Germany, Italy, Poland, China, Japan, and Mexico. There was an interesting stall selling all kinds of exotic meat – kangaroo, crocodile, ostrich, venison, springbok wild boar. I’m afraid we chickened out (no pun intended) and didn’t try any of the meats on offer!

During the summer holidays, we regularly take the grandchildren up to a stream in Austwick. Ruby (and the grandchildren) delighted in playing in the stream. We usually either stop off at the Naked Man Café in Settle, or have a picnic before we arrive, and finish off with a meal at the Gamecock Inn in Austwick.

Heading for the Naked Man Cafe in Settle

The stream and clapper bridge

The last week in September and the first week in October we took our usual break The first week we stayed at Lamlash on Arran, and the second week at Waren Mill, 2 miles north of Bamburgh in Northumberland. We stayed at the same self catering Cottages we used last year, and were fortunate enough to have twelve and a half days of crisp bright sunshine out of the fourteen days we were away!

Whilst on Arran we visited all the coastal villages (Brodick, Corrie, Sannox, Lochranze, Pirnmill, Machrie, Blackwaterfoot, Kildonan, Whiting Bay and Lamlash) as well as some of the attractions – Brodick Castle and Gardens, Lochranza Castle, Duchess Court Shopping Centre, where we saw Arran cheese being made, and purchased cheese from the factory and perfumes etc from Arran Aromatics, as well as Arran Beer from the Arran Brewery.

The view from our Studio flat of Holy Isle in Lamlash Bay

Duchess Court Shopping Centre

We then moved on to Waren Mill, two miles north of Bamburgh, and from here we visited many of the coastal villages – Seahouses, Embleton, Beadnell, Low Newton by the Sea, Craster, and Warkworth, as well as Holy Island and Berwick upon Tweed. We also met up with a fellow blogger (Judith O’Reilly – Wife in the North, who was the inspiration for me starting this blog) and had a lovely afternoon with her, meeting her family, husband and mother, as well as visiting the Maltings Theatre in Berwick to see a performance of “A Winter’s Tale”, and meeting up with Ferdinand Kingsley (son of Ben Kingsley the film actor) and spending some time chatting with him in the theatre bar after the performance. We also managed a trip to Kelso and Melrose (in the Scottish Borders)