50th anniversaries in 2011

20/1 JFK sworn in
6/3 George Formby dies
8/3 Sir Thomas Beecham dies
15/3 Dr Richard Beeching appointed head of BR
26/3 Leigh Bowery born
31/3 Sir Geoffrey Faber died (there was no other Faber)
11/4 Adolf Eichmann put on trial
12/4 Yuri Gagarin first man in space
19/4 Bay of Pigs fails
23/4 De Gaulle broadcasts appeal in face of Algerian coup
8/5 George Blake gaoled for 42 years for spying
8/5 Anthony Wedgwood Benn barred from Parliament as Viscount Stansgate
10/5 Beyond The Fringe opens
13/5 Gary Cooper dies
31/5 South Africa leaves Commonwealth
27/6 Michael Ramsey enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury
1/7 Woman called Diana born
2/7 Ernest Hemingway shoots himself
13/8 Berlin Wall goes up
17/9 Ban the Bomb demo in Trafalgar Square (850 arrests - plus ça change)
18/9 Dag Hammarskjöld dies in plane crash
1/10 Last steam train runs on the London Underground
11/10 Chico Marx dies
18/10 West Side Story opens
25/10 Private Eye starts publication
2/11 James Thurber dies
9/11 Jill Dando born
4/12 Contraceptive pill approved for NHS by Enoch Powell
24/12 Frank Richards (author of Billy Bunter) dies

Oh, and it's my 50th too. Bloody Hell, how did THAT happen!

It was ten a half years ago tonight. Another subtle shift in perspective.

I did my usual thing of scanning the teletext pages for the local honours handed out to anyone I might know, when my jaw hit the floor. In Essex Mr R Bryant MBE "For services to justice in North London". I was immediately sure it was Dad as he'd been a magistrate for 20 years in Waltham Forest, and had been chair of the NE London Chancellor's advisory committee for some time (and was especially distinguished as the other 4 chairman were judges - Dad was the only, and I think first, lay chairman).

Having no broadband back then, but a working wireless setup connected to a Microsoft SBS 2000 server with modem (oh happy days!), I fired up the laptop and hooked up to the net and searched around. There I found the website from Buckingham Palace, which showed a similar report, without being *absolutely* sure I was convinced it was him.

Dad had kept completely and utterly schtum on the matter. As he had to.

The following morning, having set a completely unusual Saturday alarm, I rang and asked to speak to 'Mr R Bryant MBE'. "How the hell did you find out?" was his, frankly, shocked response. "Curiosity and the Internet Dad!!". I then explained.

Tonight, catching tweets on this year's New Year Honours, I realise that I'm no longer really bothered by it all, and will catch up with it all in the morning. It doesn't really matter now... Another subtle shift in perspectives.

A different kind of Christmas, ups and downs

With the year we'd had so far, we didn't expect Christmas to be ideal, but for both of us to go down with flu on Christmas Eve, and still be ill on the final bank holiday (Tuesday 28th in the UK) adds a special je ne sais quoi...

We did get to to cook the bird on Boxing Day, and have some - thankfully the cold weather meant that the boot of my car proved to be a excellent fridge.  But we've only had our second proper meal in 5 days!  Christmas Day dinner, was a bowl of soup and a cheese roll.  Still, could be far worse.

In the meantime, the ponds have started to defrost, but not before I got some interesting photos of the near complete coverage.  The lower pond level has dropped about 6 or 7 inches with the amount of water taken up in the ice.

This is the small ring left around the upper pond's pump (used to aerate the pond, and in these conditions ensure the ice is incomplete).  Frankly, given a few days more i think the pond would have been fully frozen!



Here's the waterfall between the ponds, almost something for a climbing challenge

And finally the pond filter system.  Heavily encrusted with ice, the water continues to flow through, but I imagine the contents are probably frozen in part.

Thank Heavens for a temporary thaw!

A right dodgy pic! Enid, Norwich.