Following mum's death on 4th February 2014, maytrees min read her obituary in the Times - Times Obituary and then said that she was inspired by her nana to ensure that her own life was as full and positive as possible. She then made a good start by running in the Richmond Park 10k last week - Richmond Park 10k . Being slightly older than maytrees min I thought a blog post setting out 10 of life's highlights so far (excluding the personal highlights involved in courting,marriage and then with mrs maytrees having 4 great children) seemed right at this time. So here goes - 10 highlights in no particular order:
1. Having failed two of three (chemistry for some reason I passed) A levels because of the impending closure of Beaumont I was inspired by mum to read the FT and pass Economics A level in c. 3 months and then inspired by dad to enter the long since gone Holborn College of Law Languages and Commerce to take (and pass) the LLB (Lond)(External). Some 95% of students failed at the time so the outcome thanks to mum and dad was huge.
2. Serving at the funeral mass at Farm Street of Archbishop Chichester SJ in Autumn 1962. Especially memorable for 13 year olds because Father Hull SJ who took 4 or 5 boys (inc yours truly) from Beaumont to serve the mass, was accosted afterwards in London as we were going out for some supper, by a stranger armed with a gun who threatened to shoot him/us but then fled.
3. Taking a 3 day train journey with a great Beaumont friend to Istanbul and especially recalling when the train was hitched to a huge Turkish steam engine for the final section of the journey to Istanbul's Sirkirci Station - 1970 Turkey . Subsequently there was an outbreak of Cholera in Turkey and we were compulsorily evacuated and took a boat to Cyrpus thence by another boat to Port Alexandria Egypt; thence by train to Cairo and later by another train to Luxor Egypt c. 1970
4. Attending at the Supreme Court and winning for the Methodist Church Methodist Church Success
5. Traveling to Vancouver Canada thence by seaplane to Vancouver Island for work thence by train to Seattle USA for a brief break before returning to the UK. America
6 Being surprised by mrs maytrees, maytrees max and siblings with a 60th birthday present of long week end in Iceland Iceland
7. Runing the London Marathon with maytrees ma. and attending the Olympic Games 2012 especially on super Saturday with dad maytrees mi and maytrees min - Olympic Golds
8. Speaking of maytrees ma. Her wedding maytrees ma. wedding and of course becoming a grandfather for the first time on 28th October 2013.
9. Many many years of traveling to Lourdes with HCPT Group 35 and now HCPT Group 729 HCPT
10. So many plays films proms and other memorable artistic sights and sounds have been experienced that it is difficult to single out one as the most memorable but perhaps Punchdrunk's production of Goeth's Faust supported by the National Theatre comes close - 21 Wapping Lane - although the Minak theatre Cornwall is the most spectacular stage.
The above list is inevitably very personal and I am sure is subject to many omissions. Readers are invited to list their personal highlights so far not least because one aspect which runs through the above list is how much others have generously contributed and given to such events.
Hello Jerry. With regard to 1, I also attended the College of Law but not in Holborn. I think it was somewhere near Notting Hill. We were greeted by an incredibly aggressive lecturer who in particular took against university graduates like me. "You think you know it all, don't you?", he said, "but I can tell you here and now that none of you will last the course." And he was dead right!!
ReplyDeleteGreetings Barnaby
ReplyDeleteThere was a College of Law run by the Law Society for solicitors' exams at Lancaster Gate (which I attended) but premises in that part of London became hugely valuable and I think they were later taken over by the FA (always too much money sloshing around soccer).
The old Holborn College of Law Languages and Commerce was entirely unconnected with the College of Law. Later the Holborn colleged merged with Regent Street Poly then became part of the Univesity of Westminster and authorised to grant its own degrees.
The premises in Holborn are still there but now closed and somewhat forlorn looking.