We returned to the UK in February and settled into business for a few uninterrupted weeks. At the beginning of March we had an RAF College Cranwell 89 "C" Squadron re-union in the "Whipper In" Hotel Oakham. It was a great occasion. I met chaps I hadn't seen since 1966 as well as those I see regularly. (For more information go to www.89entry.co.uk )
89 C 40+ years on
Rear - Dave Harlow, Derek North, "JC" Newland, "Snotty" Synnott LVO, Duncan Swift
Front - Jerry Pook DFC, MBE (Guest from "A" Sqn), "Quiggers", Dave Donnelly, Chris Saunby, Dick Shuster AFC
France - 1st Trip of the year
We flew down to France for a week in the middle of March with Danielle who joined us from Luxembourg.
Danielle was having a frightful time with her boy friend of 10 years. They owned a house together which they had built on land found by Danielle. They had 50/50 shares in the property, but he was exerting mental & physical pressure on her to force her out. She is a tough young women, but it was obvious that she was weakening under the pressure. He wanted her half of the house for around 50% of it's market value, and at one stage she was prepared to take it just to be able to get out! After a week with us in France she was at least able to forget her problems.
As usual we spent time partying with our neighbors and local friends...
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Left - John Slattery, Tinneke Suanet, Dani Jill & Les at the end of an Indonesian night in a local hostellry (We're last to leave as usual!) Right - Jill & Tinneke fighting over a Knight in shining armour! Bottom Left - John cracks an Irish Joke! Bottom Right - A quiet night in playing Canasta with the neighbours - Dani is teaching Tinneke's son, Robert, how to shuffle cards like a croupier - something you learn at an English girls boarding school apparently! |
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Trouble in Luxembourg
We were only home 4 days when a very distraught Danielle was on the phone - her ex-boyfriend had turned even nastier in her absence. We decided to jump in the car, grab the overnight ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge and pay the bastard a surprise visit! When we turned up on the Saturday afternoon, he was surprised!. He was in the garage, and when he heard a car pull on to the driveway, he assumed it was his parents (since he didn't have any friends), so he opened the electric garage doors - he got such a shock when he saw my car that he beat a hasty retreat up the rear garage stairs to the garden!
I had a few quiet words with her ex-boyfriend pointing out the error of his ways and the likely consequences if it continued - for some unknown reason he promptly left to stay with his parents for the weekend!
Danielle had booked us into a nearby gastronomic hotel on the banks of the Mosel, so we proceeded to enjoy our weekend with Danielle in a far more relaxed mood. It was the first weekend in April. The weather turned out to be magnificent so we spent 2 very enjoyable days sampling the excellent food and wine of the Mosel valley!
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There's nothing like a bit of wine tasting to reduce the tension
Left - a morning riverboat cruise past our Hotel set the scene for a relaxing Sunday |
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Some people take their wine tasting seriously - at least for the first few samples - it tends to deteriorate after a while and you ending drinking the lot as it all tastes good! We visited several "Caves" and ended up with a car load of wine and Luxembourg's excellent equivalent of Champagne - the highly recommended "Crement" |
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Back to France
We were only home 2 days and then we flew back to France for our 2nd visit of the year - Jill stayed for 3 weeks whilst I returned home after 5 days - someone has to make the money to keep Jill in the manner she's accustomed! I returned to France after a week, meeting Chris and Danielle at Stansted as they were joining us for a few days. (More partying!)
A Business Problem!
This took us to the end of April when we returned to England to be confronted by a business supply problem. My scheduled deliveries of a new piece of kit that we were marketing, and had serious commitments to supply, had failed to turn up from Korea. What's more my supplier had changed his name and was looking very iffy? I have to pay up front when importing, so he was sitting on quite a lot of my money. There was nothing for it but to head out to Korea to sort out the problem.....
