[BITList] Sensitive bloke

[HUGH]

Ena and Malc(olm),

I don't how how John Feltham's mind works, but I know how mine works.  He's got a short memory - his site was started after one too many bust ups on BIShip caused by John Prescott's prissy attitude, and also by the supportive remarks of his coterie of sycophants.  Only one engineer contributes to it now (I get the Digests from Fred Waddington in France), and that's Bill Power.  George Preston in Oz sends in the odd comment, but hardly ever.  I agree about Mike - a nice chap. I met both at the 150th in Glasgow, but I only remember Mike.  I commented on Mike's latest, a series of jokey items.  I'd seen them all before, but I never waste time saying that to people - my motto is, either don't respond, or else be polite and say it was funny. I said it was funny, and I hoped he'd checked it on Snopes first, lest it be thought of as crud.

Our Christmas was a bit cramped. Our 50th wedding anniversary was on the 15th (December), and from the last Saturday in November we had 4 at-homes for friends and family on each Saturday evening.  Neither of us wanted a "party" in some hall, and we specified no gifts, but many translated that as "a bottle of something isn't a gift", so we have a goodly selection of booze and cholcolates that might last till next Christmas. We had two dinners and two buffets.  There will never be another buffet - too hard to organise. For the last event, a buffet, we said 6.00 for 6.30pm - this was mainly Janet's cousins and step siblings, and our next door neighbours.  Some arrived between 7.30 and 8.00, having stopped off for a Chinese before arriving, hence they had no appetite for the buffet, of which the hot things were then cold.  One brought his own bottle and took it away with him. That's what we did in BI, when the gathering was in someone else's cabin, but that was BI.  One of Janet's cousins who lived locally had been ill for a while with liver problems - a combination of alcohol abuse and an unfortunate weak frame that couldn't cope with it.  He took bad just before Christmas, rallied, then died in hospital. So we put his brother up for a few days while he helped arrange the funeral with the widow, and we went to the funeral.  So it was a hectic Christmas, with not much done towards the actual Christmas.

Janet's birthday (21) was on the 29th, and on the same day I went to the funeral of John Smith (ex-BI) at Dalnottar Cemetery, across the river. James Slater drove up from Rochdale and kindly picked me up here, as it's an awkward place to get to without a car. John had a good send off - there were about 6 ex-BI there.  There was a light lunch afterwards, but I didn't partake of it, since my lift home (Tom Kelso) wanted to get home to Troon himself - James went straight back south from the funeral.

Which only left Hogmanay. As has become our custom, we had it quiet.  During WW2 we used to go along the street on the 31st to great aunt Maggie's house behind her greengrocer's shop.  She'd have the fire relaid but not lit, a cold meal on the table (usually her version of a quiche) with the table covered, bottles of home-made elderberry wine corked and glasses upside down. At midnight, usually marked by the ships in the river sounding their sirens,the fire would be lit, the table uncovered, and a drink poured out.  The wine being home-made, she deemed it non-alcoholic, so we got a glass - I was 8 at the time of the blitz up here, and I was the oldest. Her custom, most of it, has been carried on by our family ever since.  If I drink at all on Hogmanay, I never touch a drop after lunchtime until midnight. Then we have a sherry and some shortbread and cherry cake, and whatever we've set out - soup is a favourite. We have a quiet drink afterwards with the TV, and if nobody visits we turn in around 2.00am.  First footing on Ne'erday morning seems to have died out around here - our family exchange visits during the week after.

So here we are at 10.22pm on a cold night.  Time for bed.  I finished my bedtime reading last night, so I'll have to dig out another.

Kind regards,

Janet and Hugh.
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