Happy New Year

Overcoming my Yank-bashing urges following the previous post, I paste here the 2008 Skerratt newsletter for posterity. Some unfortunates have already received hard copy of this - including the appropriate health warning in para. #1 to immediately recycle on the bottom of the budgie's cage if they had an aversion to such notes. If you did happen to read it already then see if you can see the minor alterations that made it into the final edit here...and also the bonus paragraph.

Hello again

2008’s almost over and it’s time for another canter through Glynn’s, Robyn’s, Mark’s and Taz’s year. If you hate the idea of Christmas newsletters and/or can’t stand the thought of ploughing through the trivia of our last year’s highlights and lowlights then feel free to discard at this point and recycle. For those of a more daring persuasion…read on…

Odds and sods to report for Glynn – he has some snazzy new glasses that are taking some getting used to, resulting in the floor seeming 3” closer than it really is and him only feeling comfortable lowering his eyes when slowly walking backwards travelling on a downwards moving escalator.

Workwise things have been the usual mix of puzzlement and wonder coupled with plenty of trips to keep me regularly appraised of the, at times seemingly glacial, progress on the upgrading of the West Coast Mainline, and also the installation of squillions of new scanners in various termini at Manchester Airport. In no particular order of merit: institution work in London – lots of; several visits to Helsinki and the S. Tyrol/N. Italy for work and fun – on one occasion to the latter with Mark and my mum (so I’m not sure which category that might fall under!); some EU work in Brussels kept me busy and exceedingly well-fed for a few days, and delivering a workshop in Colombo in February helped me remember why I like the place so much.

Musicwise: Matchbox 20 – a great gig and a great band to see if you ever get the chance; Mark Knopfler and the band played two of the coolest gigs I’ve ever been to – one in Manc. and the other in Bolzano (don’t ask, it’s a long story, but thanks to Mark for making the trip with me and pl. scroll back through the blog for more information about the memorable ‘meal-before-the-show’], Bruce Springsteen in both Manchester and Cardiff…and also on a sunny balmy evening in Helsinki. All 3 of these were simply towering performances – I guess you either ‘get’ Bruce or you don’t…no prizes for guessing my camp; Coldplay – who walked all the way to the back of Birmingham’s NIA mid-set and played a couple of songs from there, making a spectacular gig even more memorable; Ralph McTell played a lovely set at Buxton in November…and played a simply beautiful ‘Naomi’ just for me – honest. Finally, right before Xmas it will be Jools Holland - again, at the NIA. It was May ’07 when I last saw him [yep, had to look that up and, yep, seems like only yesterday]. Looking forward to a good night there as well.

Peoplewise: Saw David Tennant in a wonderful RSC production of Love’s Labours Lost – he was great and the overall performance by the whole cast was captivating. Another truly great evening with Eddie Izzard at the Lyric – including sharing champagne with him and his PR dude outside the stage door after the gig but that’s another story for another day. Also attended talks by, and met and shook hands with, Tariq Ali and Douglas Hurd. Very different people but each completely justifying the time and effort spent in going to listen to them. In November, spending an evening with Jonathan Miller was just brilliant, and I finally got to say thank you to him for inspiring me in so many ways over the last 40 years.

It’s barely worth reporting but Glynn also needed to smile for the Sigmoidoscope camera back in Feb. – just an age and general wear and tear thing (ed. that doesn’t really scan too well, you know). All was OK and one of the nurses even commented that it was the cleanest gut she’d ever seen; max. respect to the inventor of Picolax here, I think. Mind you, I bet she says that to all the boys.

Much more importantly, Robyn’s graduation in Durham Cathedral was a wonderful day – we were all there (including my mum, but not Taz) and had a fantastic time. Way to go Rob.

Speaking of my mum, Billie had a nasty fall in early Autumn and spent most of September in one hospital or another getting photographed, CAT Scanned, clipped, stitched, transfused etc. I’m pleased to report that she’s now back at home and doing just fine.

As for Taz, during the Spring and I really thought at one point that the virus or lurgy that had suddenly started making her so sick would inevitably transport her to Cat Heaven. After much TLC and Rob and Mark administering steamed vegetable and duck from their finger tip for several days, old Taz recovered and is now, I’m enormously proud yet strangely nervous to admit, back to all of her old ways…and more. Oh yes!

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Mark says:

Over the past year, I have passed my BTEC National Diploma in Building Studies and, following on from that, I successfully qualified onto my University Degree at Wolverhampton University in Building Construction. I am still working at Mountain Warehouse and have been travelling the country doing store refits for most of the summer, travelling to such places as Edinburgh, Inverness, East Kilbride, Kendal, Bowness, Ripon, Darlington, Wrexham, and Durham just to name a few. I was also the acting Assistant Manager at the Cheshire Oaks store for a month. I’m currently looking for a Construction based job as my course is one day a week.

I hope everyone has had a good year and I wish you all the best for the year coming.

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Robyn says:

It has been a year of change for me, I graduated from Durham in summer with a degree in Geography which was a fantastic but also a very sad time saying goodbye to many friends and also a wonderful 3 years. I spent the start of my gap year and most of summer working as a teaching assistant in a primary school in South Africa with the charity Tenteleni. I was working in North-Eastern South Africa near the Kruger National Park and I was actually living on a game reserve which was incredible, we even had 3 resident zebras who frequently came into our kitchen!! In school I helped with all sorts of things both in class and also extra-curricular activities including teaching the children rounders and putting on a production of Romeo and Juliet. The experience was amazing and extremely rewarding, however also very challenging at times too. Since coming back to the UK in September I have been working as part of a customer services team at a company who manage the online stores of lots of other companies and brands which is based in Sandbach. I finish this job in January in order to spend 5 months away travelling the world (which I am extremely excited about) my stops include South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South America and finishing in New York in June 2009. My plans after this are so far sketchy but I am currently applying for masters degrees in urban regeneration commencing September 2009.

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas and a wonderful new year.

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Wherever you are, we all wish you a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Glynn, Robyn, Mark and Taz xxx