The REGISter No.32 Winter 2021
That was year the that was, was it?
Monday 13th December 2021
Not easy to find a new spin on last year’s circular, which you could just dust off and re-read without missing a much distinctive about 2021. SHEU survived lockdowns thanks to furlough money, and our order books are now looking much healthier. We did scrape the bottom good and hard at the end of last year, and Angela and I both went down to a 4-day salary, without actually being able to do a consistent 4-day week (going into the office itself 2 days until recently). Thanks to my friend Tim Onions, I realised I could take my teaching/University pension when I turned 60 this year (and visited Mum), so I could fill in some of the missing wages, but more importantly could take a lump sum to pay off the mortgage, so I’m not really any worse off.
Had a hit with the chessbooks in Spring with a big sale for the US market. I still keep up with Theo in Florida, where our monthly sessions serve to underline the gap between us. My young student Pengxiao became British U10 Blitz champion in the Summer, and got a performance prize in the U10 rapid tournament. I haven’t had a lot of success in running online chess for the juniors – it’s not as much fun and cheating is widely suspected if less often practised – so was pleased to be able to run our annual Championships in-person earlier this month. The event was well-attended and went OK, but I was quite disappointed with mask-wearing among players and adults.
I still play a couple of hours of games online with David Beckwith once a week; we keep meaning to do an in-person session but life and COVID keep interfering. We greatly like Push Fight as a game, and I made us a set each.
The plaster on the front of the house finally blew completely, so needed taking off and replacing. With the pension lump I was able to get this done by some guys who seemed to know what they were doing, and who had a few passing remarks to make about the clown who had previously attended to this part of the cottage (‘criminal’, ‘dreadful’ etc.) I learned from a neighbour that the said clown had recently died, which obviously saves me a job.
While furloughed and otherwise short of work I had been going for fairly regular walks with Tim and less regular ones with Paul, but found myself sadly unfit and rather breathless on occasion. The breathlessness worsened during Autumn, and, to cut a long story short (chorus: too late!) what I had was a succession of blood clots in my lungs, meaning oxygen carrying blood flow was much reduced. (You may remember I had a similar clot in 2006, which should have been some sort of clue). Anyhow, all better now, on anti-coagulants as a fixture, and most days I don’t think about it.
Karrie has found this year pretty tough; she and all her teaching colleagues are just worn out, and vulnerable to infection – not just COVID, but that too. Staff and student absences across the country are pretty high. Despite this, she managed to get her leadership course work (NPQSL) in last week. COVID made getting Xander to Leiden last August much too fraught, so he’s having a year out to try again next cycle. Karrie’s brother Jim came to stay for a week or two just before lockdown in March 2020… and is still there. He wanted to travel around Europe which was immediately out of the question, but he has utterly failed to make any other plans and has rather outstayed his welcome. Karrie and Alexander need their home back. (STOP PRESS: he’s gone.)
Not really had much of a holiday this year; I have been happy to have Karrie’s garden to play in.
She and I went camping on Exmoor for a long weekend over the Summer. Weather not perfect but we had a good time and saw some places new to us.
I was able to entertain my family this year; Mum came down with my sister Nicky and her son Jack. We were able to find some activities enjoyable by each end of the age range. Nicky and Jimmy split up during the Summer; Evie has got engaged to Steve but they are both living with Nicky and Evie is now pregnant; I’m bound to say that arrangement wasn’t ideal even without the prospect of a newborn being added to the census.
Laura and Harry seem in good shape, with Harry now working more regularly as George has started nursery – more or less his first interactions with other toddlers. Sally is picking up plenty of grannying opportunities too. We made another trip to Paignton Zoo, which I hope will be a regular fixture.
Leo has been slow to pick up reading, and he has been found to have a little collection of learning difficulties, but now identified I trust the school can give him the right support and guidance for them. His enjoyment of drawing and nature continue; produced from memory:
I hope the New Year brings good things for you and the world
D
Version with pictures Regist32_2021
