Well, that was a funny old year, and it is easy to write it off as Death By A Thousand Cancellations.
Here are some of the things that we didn’t do in 2020:
- Two international barbershop quartet events and two barbershop conventions.
- No in-person rehearsals or concerts for any of our choirs since March. A choir tour to Ireland was going to include driving to see some of our classic car friends, but that had to be cancelled too.
- Sailing training and practice, leading up to participating in the Newport Bermuda race on Black Watch.
- Various classic car events including Goodwood, the Celtic Challenge and the Highland Thistle, and longer rallies going to the Atlantic coast of America, and from Ypres to Istanbul.
- A trip organised by Political Tours to go and see the US Election in both Democrat and Republican areas.
But looking back at the diary, here are things we did do instead:
- Doris did actually go to one quartet event in January and came joint first in their informal competition – also learned all the songs for the other events which is no mean feat.
- We did the Winter Trial in the Mini and were awarded First Mixed Team. We then successfully took Hermann to the continent for his Grand Tour, and we took the Mini to Orkney and the Hebrides for the Not The Thistle. We’ve invested some more money and time in Hermann and he is now a fabulous go-anywhere Pagoda, just waiting for the salt on the roads to clear before going out again.
- To make up for the cancellation of Newport Bermuda we created the Dash To The Onion Patch video. This was part of a much larger programme of work to learn both audio and video editing, and Doris created a teach video for the Audacity video editor. We did virtual choir concerts with both of our choirs and have done a lot of song recording including the infamous “Hallelujah! It’s A Ukulele!”
- Other training included Doris becoming a Trainee Advisor with Citizens Advice and Sid doing many training courses to qualify as a Vaccination Volunteer. [I never knew that car parks were so sensitive to organise – S.] We also took the Mini and the Golf to Millbrook for a day of performance driving training.
- We got to know our neighbours! There are 13 houses in our close, and we took part in the highly successful “Not Too Close VE Day Party”, then a 50th birthday party, and as the Cancellation of Christmas loomed we all sang carols at 6pm on Christmas Eve. All distanced and covid-compliant, and we now feel like a proper community.
- We tried some Classic Lockdown Activities. Vegetable gardening turned out to be a good way to pass time but a poor way to create tasty and attractive food. Bread making and marmalade making were more successful, and the Lockdown Pounds were only kept under control by a regular regime of Joe Wicks Keep Fit. Tennis has been extremely successful, big thumbs-up to Alex our coach who has transformed us from people who say “which way up does this racquet go” to people who can actually serve and rally. And because jigsaws are an ideal lockdown activity but the charity shops are all shut, Doris now runs a monthly jigsaw exchange which has raised over £1,000 for our local hospice. [Sorry about the pile of 80 jigsaws in the garage – D.]
- We have also been swapping activity projects with our niece and nephew. Josephine has sent Mini House projects from China, James provided a solar-powered moon buggy, and Doris and Josephine are both now working on Toft crochet animals.
- Doris has always wanted to have a proper nativity set of santons, and finally saw the ideal set made by Heide in Innsbruck. Thanks to the miracles of click-and-deliver and the economic argument of “no pockets in a shroud”, a full set of shepherds, kings, holy family and assorted villagers made their debut appearance in the front window in December.
- Glamping at Knepp Estate was… er… interesting, (more “ping” than “glam” due to various lockdown restrictions) but gave us a couple of days to observe socially distant wildlife.
- Inspired by the work we’d already done to prepare for Newport-Bermuda, we managed to slot two more sailing sessions in between lockdowns. We bareboated in the Solent thanks to Fairview Sailing, and we had a Skipper Refresher course in the Algarve on a Broadblue 34 catamaran, the first time we have sailed a large cat.
- And still in progress – Earley Engineering are building an Alvis for us! More details to follow… we think a trip to the States would be great fun when the borders reopen…
Sid and Doris have got their 2021-22 Planning Hats on. It may be folly to plan any specific dates, but we can still get out the route books and start making lists.
PS Here, in case you missed it, is the Infamous Ukulele Song.
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