Oakwood as usual

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Goodness me, is it that time of year again ? Read on for a quick and mildly eccentric view of 2005.

Its been a busy old year. We'll start off with a team photograph taken in one of the local Italian jobbies on Izzy's 17th birthday. It is anybody's guess what Felix is eating, but that looks like a tentacle sticking out.

2005 was a reasonable year for us. Business has been good, tending towards manic so no complaints there. So what have we been up to ?

In now traditional batting order:-

Isabelle

Finally managed to shake off the glandular fever that trashed the whole of 2004 and part of this year and shocked, not to say stunned, her teachers by getting 95% in AS maths to go with the A in music and B's in psychology and biology. This was particularly satisfying for Izzy as her school tried 4 years ago to restrict her to a set where a B was the best they could get. This was done in a very low-keyed way, (i.e. without telling us). The argument is that it puts less stress on the student. This is modern spinspeak for screws up our league table results. Do not let your schools do this, even though mathematics teaching generally must be at an all-time low in an increasingly innumerate society. She is working hard, (being female), and has been doing the rounds of universities for the next phase. Manchester, Birmingham, and Nottingham are currently high up the list, although Manchester is as usual asking for silly qualifications in music - 34 A's at A-level, five year's experience of conducting a major orchestra, not less than first prize at the Leeds piano festival, at least one Olympic gold medal in a sport of her choice and a trip as a crew member on the space shuttle. A Nobel prize although optional would be considered persuasive but they have graciously waived the requirement for a performance of Chopsticks to compensate.

Izzy with silver medal for javelin in the Surrey county athletic championships after her 2004 layoff. Later this year was awarded Kingston Borough Colours for winning at the Surrey Schools.

Izzy has carried on as a first flute and piccolo in the classical Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra and with the Merton Youth Concert Band, recently joining the Merton Youth Jazz Orchestra for some different sounds.Composing and singing is becoming her spare-time passion. Music therapy is still on the horizon as a post graduate but we think Isabelle is just going to wade in and enjoy herself in music and see how it goes.

Felix

Well, devotees of this annual column (you should get out more), will be pleased to know that its business as usual for Felix. He survived his second year in architecture at Sheffield with only one or two minor flurries of excitement for Mum and Dad, grew a bit more and finished up as reserve in the England U23 athletics team with a couple of notable scalps from his javelin competitions. He was carrying a back niggle for most of the season which held him back but enjoyed getting through a whole season for the first time in 3 years and is now training hard for next year. He has an excellent group of friends up there and a great javelin coach and will probably stay in Sheffield for a while. Spent the summer as a storesman in a local hospital and got up at 7am every day. On his own. Yes, really.

Fe was 21 this year. His girlfriend Alannah celebrated this by spit-roasting a pig with a bunch of friends. Needless to say, this grabbed his attention.

Leo

Leo made a comeback in musical theatre and appeared in Carmen at Richmond Theatre this year, produced by Riverside Opera Company. Great night. He moved out a couple of months ago to a bijou little residence in Camberley just in time for his current employer, Sun, to threaten to ship him off to Singapore in the New Year. We are currently negotiating with them how much of his stuff he can take with him. A small container vessel ought to be enough, say 50,000 tons. His girlfriend Carolina has also got a good job in London after enduring a series of internships with great patience.

Leo is on the left of the trio standing looking as though he has forgotten the words. As it happened, he hadn't, unlike Dad who can't ever remember lyrics. We hope to see him in more of these.

Les

Has been travelling a fair bit with business but also settling into his job at Kingston University where he now spends 75% of his time. He is still not entirely sure what he is supposed to be doing so no change there but he seems to be really enjoying this after years in industry. The highlight of the year was the band playing at the Burnley National Blues festival. You can read all about their exploits here. This year he took up the trombone after taking pity on one in a music shop. It had apparently just been returned by the desperate parents of the previous owner. We would like to report that he has picked it up quickly but he is better on the bagpipes and he can't play them at all. It has to be said he is eye-wateringly bad - think mating elephants. Also managed to see Cream at the Albert Hall in May so a good year for music if you don't count the trombone.

Incidentally, for those of you who remember the Maths Tower at Manchester, memories is all you will have from now on. It was knocked down this summer and is being replaced by a television sponsored Faculty for minor celebrities to learn something useful such as basket weaving, and survival skills if temporarily marooned in Islington. It will be called Reality University and will feature celebrities sitting on a sofa with their baskets watching Celebrity get me out of here. This is known as 'entertainment' for some obscure reason although probably serves a useful function as an anaesthesia-free lobotomy.

Speaking of television, it is not just mathematics which has suffered. The standard of science as promulgated by the British Bollocks Corporation regularly causes conniption fits in Les although he was relieved to hear one of the breakfast television 'personalities' say that hurricanes are caused by global warming. He thought it was part of the ageing process.

Gillian

Has battled through a difficult year with her knees and these are unfortunately damaged sufficiently badly as to need replacements in March, so 2006 will see a new and more bionic Gillian take to the road. Les is trying to persuade her to have wheels and a V8 fitted so she can join that select little group of middle-aged ladies who can do 0-60 in less than 5 seconds and perhaps feature on Jeremy Clarkson. Her athletics commitments remain so she is exceptionally busy sorting out the coaches 3 times a week, organising Sports Hall Athletics and until this year the Borough Athletics Team for the London Youth games and she is looking forward to Izzy disappearing off to University so that for the first time in 20 years, taxi-driving will not figure so highly in the week's activities. She is also secretly planning the North Wing whilst focussing on her new sport in a hydrotherapy pool 3 times a week.

Bit short of solo photographs of G this year so this one taken by John, husband of Sheila shown with us on the way back from yet another sleep-walking tour of the Isle of Wight, now an annual feature at the May Bank holiday.

Mary

Nannie-chuck has picked up a lot since her fall last year. The minor structural damage to the town hall has now been repaired and the pie and peas shop rebuilt. She is managing just fine and looking forward to spending Christmas and New Year with us.

Nannie clutching a very large chuck outside her bungalow in Manchester.

On the pet front, we still have Kerby, the Flashman of the Chelonian world and Trampolina, his long-suffering partner and love toy. The fish are still here although feeding time now sounds more and more like a shoal of Piranha and we have adopted another stray pussy cat, Dotty, so named because she was shacked up with Kerby for a couple of months. There is no accounting for taste. Dotty is only interested in laps for crashing on when her legs simply collapse like a new-born giraffe and eating as many meals as possible in a day. She has taken to trying to hynoptise Les and crawls up him to stare into his eyes from about 2 cm. no doubt to see if he is thinking about guitars again. He usually is.

We hope you and your families are well. We wish you a very merry Christmas and health and happiness in 2006.

Xmas News; Oakwood home for the persistently bemused, 7th December, 2005