Team
Triplet
Our
Times in Leicestershire
Shepshed Edition December
01
Gaélle
In response to a request on the Tandem
Club web site, we had Gaélle, stay with us since March until just before Christmas. We have met Serge, her father many times at
Tandem Club events both in the UK and
abroad so he knew what sort of family he was letting his daughter in
to!!!! In fact we had first
met Gaélle without realising it at Tandem 96.
Gaélle enrolled at Loughborough College on an
English as a Foreign Language course and found employment at Charterhouse a
large factory shop in Shepshed. We were
worried that a young lass from just outside Paris would find the nightlife of
Shepshed too much. Instead she threw
herself in to the night life, and was often in bed before us!!!!. The only thing she has not managed is saying
“Ay up m’duck”.
St Malo
For our main holiday this year we went to St Malo in
Bretange. Our trip coincided with
Bastille Day. Ceri and I rode into the
old town to see the fireworks and had a grandstand position right in front of
the Old Town walls. However Ceri was not impressed when due
to a strong sea breeze the fireworks literally rained down upon us.
The weather we had was mixed with some heavy rain
especially when we went to the far west, to Pointe de Penhir in Finistère. The weather was just like that announced on
the shipping forecast on the Home Service.
When we walked the cliff tops Ceri clung to me for her life.
Ceri Goes Green at the gills
The choice of St Malo was influenced by the proximity of Jersey as Ceri since a child
has been fascinated by cows and she wanted to go to the home of the Jersey cow. Ceri and I took a daytrip by fast ferry to St Helier from St Malo. It was blowing a force 5 and with the small
ferry it frightened Ceri a bit. However
we had a damp but very pleasant day on the Island. On the ferry over Ceri looked at a brochure
and decided we would go to two places, a gem stone place at St Quen Bay and
Jersey Pottery at Gorey. These places
were on opposites sides of Jersey and almost as far from St Helier as possible. We had taken the Tandem and managed to visit
the two places plus others on route with out rushing too much.
Ceri has showers voluntarily!!
One advantage of having a chic Parisian stay with us is
Gaélle has been a good influence on Ceri.
No longer do we have to drag Ceri kicking and screaming into the bathroom.
Ceri has taste for Cider!
Tandem 2001 was in the heart of cider country,
Herefordshire this year. We spent a week
at Lucton School. Ceri and I rode through the cider orchards
whilst Ann stayed at camp with her feet up.
Ceri really enjoyed the cider tastings and visits to the various cider
museums and shops.
Confessions made at Work
Early in the year a work colleague came into my office,
shut the door and secretly confessed his passion for railways. As a consequence of that confession I have now
been on several “Jolly Boys” outings with him and another colleague
from work. The first trip was to visit
the Croydon Tram system in June. During
this trip the second colleague made it known that he did not want people at
work to know he was on this trip, so I now refer to him as Harry Lime. For our most recent trip we followed up our
Croydon trip by riding over the complete Manchester Tram system.
Ceri Prefers Skool Trips!
Ceri went on a school trip to an adventure camp at Osmington Bay in Dorset, Spring
Bank Holiday week. She
really enjoyed it so much that she turned down a week away her Dad at the
Tandem Club International Rally next year.
Again Ceri let the side down by getting a tidy bedroom award.
May Day sunbathing!
We went to the annual Blaxhall camping weekend at Mayday
and introduced our friends Lynda, George and baby Helen to the delights of Suffolk. As in the past the weather was very mixed,
with extremes of temperature. On the
Sunday it was so cold we started riding in balaclavas and gloves. However by lunch time we had settled down in
a sunny spot with the girls sunbathing.
Car breaks down
On the way back from Blaxhall we blew a head gasket in the
car, on the old A14 between Royston and Huntington. We ended up on the Old A14 as I took a wrong
turn where the A14 joins the M11. Our
friends made the same mistake and they took Ceri and Ann home whilst George and
I waited for the RAC and were “recovered”, taken home with the car
aboard a truck.
Gaélle shocked by Night Life
As we were without the car for 3 weeks awaiting its repair,
we used the bus to go into Loughborough with Gaélle one Saturday night. On the way she commented on local fashions as
follows: “in Paris we would call her a bitch”, and whilst waiting
for the last bus back she was given the full picture of nightlife for the
young, laughing on the pavement (see Barry Mckenie films or ask Philip) and
oral tonsillectomies.
Skool
Ceri is now in year 7.
She did her STATs in May and did well. She suffered a bit at the start of term by
the classes being mixed up a bit. After
that settled down, Ceri is really enjoying skool, so much so that she got
really upset when I suggested taking time out of skool next year for a holiday.
Ceri has been involved with the Skool paper. One perk is she got to see Harry Potter for
free in the first week of showing in Loughborough. As a fund raiser for the mag they had a disco
and Ceri won the fancy dress as the Grim Reaper. She won a box of chocolates as a prize and
according to her quote in the skoolmag her dad eat all of them.
Music
Ceri is still very active musically with the piano and
flute. She has lessons for both and also
is continuing with the Shepshed Community Band.
Shepshed Community Band entered the Young Musician of the Year
Competition. They got to the
Leicestershire regional final.
In addition whilst on holiday we got Ceri a Bombarde, a
traditional Breton instrument. This is a
cross between a recorder, tin whistle, oboe and clarinet. Ceri has struggled to blow a note on it, but
hopefully she will manage soon, otherwise there will be Bombarde for sale
advertised in this journal next year!
Model railroading
I have changed scales slightly and have now moved from 7mm
O16.5 to On30, ie US O gauge, 30 inch gauge, running on HO track. Ceri and I are looking to produce some
modular layouts next year in that scale. In addition Ceri and I have both been active
with the Local Black Diamonds HO group.
I now produce their news letter.
At regional meets Ceri makes herself very useful selling raffle tickets,
especially at the NMRA British region convention where with the help of two
other friends they nearly trebled the expected income for the raffle!
Things wearing out
After putting off the job of outside maintenance for 8
years we finally replaced our windows and cladding with plastic. It was a case of having to, the front bay
window was more softwood than hard. Our
old PC kept crashing during the year so in October we bit the bullet and
brought a new one. In true Microsoft
fashion we still get problems with the PC locking up despite having the latest
software, or is it because of it!!!
Ceri goes to Sweden
Ceri went to the International Guide camp at Stanford Hall
this year. It was all off 8 miles from
home!!! They had Scouts and Guides from
all over the world attending. The camp
was set up in sub camps, each named after a country, and Ceri was in Sweden.
With France, Guide Camp, Tandem 2001, Nannies and trips to
Quorn, Ceri hardly saw her bed in the summer hols this year.
Centre Parcs
At the end of April we went to Centre Parcs in Sherwood Forest for a long weekend in
order to assist our friend Paul who suffers from PKU on his holiday. Good fun was had by all, despite the various injuries
received on the water slide.
Quorn Cycle camping
With F&M and car break down in May we did not get as
far a field as in past years. However we
made up for this by having numerous cycle camping trips to Quorn, either by
ourselves or with friends. Quorn is just
under 10 miles. It is only a small site,
but is a superb location and has a friendly farmer and dogs.
Ceri Abseils with no fear
Ceri was introduced
to wall climbing on her skool trip. In
the early summer we visited our friends in Oxford and they took us wall
climbing there. Ceri was very impressed
and managed the climbs with ease, unlike her Mum and Dad who struggled to
stretch their legs wide enough.
It must be the effect of old age.
Ceri enrolled on a wall climbing course at the local college in the
autumn. This has proved expensive as
Ceri enjoyed it so much, apart from the abseiling after a climb. She got frightened after one abseil and lost
her confidence, so we had to bribe her with a harness if she abseiled without
fear. After 2 lessons she was doing it
with no fear at all.
Romway Close Bakery
Early in the year we brought a bread maker. It has proved very useful. I no longer buy cobs for lunch etc, as I now
make my own. We use ours most of the
time to make dough, but at present we haven’t found a recipe to make Sterling or Euros. As a present from Gaélle’s family Ceri
received a “starter pack” of Euros.
It should become a collector’s item in years to come if she can
keep the bag sealed.
Ann’s Bit
Hi yes I’m still here, I’m the one that
don’t do anything interesting. I
am now a Learning Support Assistance at Ceri’s school in addition to
Lunchtime Support Assistance.(LSA - Lazy supp’). In January I go on a course to further my job
as classroom assistant. I look after
boys and girls who have a wide range of troubles. I have good experience as I have two trouble
makers at home. As part of the Lunchtime
role I work with 4 children who cannot mix with other children, we play games
and have a room of our own. That’s
not a job, it is fun. I am
still Brown Owl and the pack is going from strength to strength. I now have a full pack plus 5 other adult
leaders. Not bad, as when I took over I
had 6 Brownies and 3 helpers.
Late News
We hope that you enjoyed our late newsletter. Being busy with other things we did not get
this ready in time to go out with Christmas cards. By the number of comments about the lack of
news letter, you all must miss the tales of our dull life up north, or are
wondering if we are joining the great modern institution of S&D.
Top Home