Nick’s Top 20 hits from 2020
My daughter Hebe’s twice-delayed wedding to Jimmy Duffy (pictured above) in the Tithe Barn, nr Petersfield, on 19 December was the highlight, the Match of the Year. She looked so beautiful and the simple ceremony in the cathedral-like space of the barn seemed somehow soft and intimate. Thirteen of us enjoyed a fabulous day, with tears of joy, lashings of laughter, fine food and drink at the reception, combined with some dreadfully uninhibited singing ands of of socially distanced dancing.
Apart from the wedding delays this was a good year for Hebe, who celebrated her 30th birthday in July and, in late autumn, got a job on Louis Theroux’s production company.
My three granddaughters bring me great joy, although I have seen less of them this year, of course.
Ella, 15, who gets more glamorous and grown up every time I see her, has won a scholarship to St Helens, Abingdon, which will give her a great chance of having a shot at Oxford.
Thea, 12, who gets cooler and taller every day, seems to have made a good start to her new life at Wallingford School, despite the pandemic.
Mimi, who was 3 on New Year’s Day, is just getting on with life and remains a fine force of nature. What else can I say.
I have felt very proud of Ben & Anna, as marvellous parents of Ella and Thea and dedicated teachers during these troublesome times. They have transformed their home with an extension. Many congratulations.
Equally heart-warming has been the success of Martha and no 2 son Chris, who are thriving through the gloom with their epic crowd-funding experience with Martha Brook. I hope they have kept a copy of Martha’s brilliant fund-raising video.
Will seems as ‘happy as a Sandboy’ (origin, https://bit.ly/3rvp3gn) since meeting Alice, the love of his life, at a wedding in December 2019. They have been happily locked up in lockdown and we trust he will emerge with his Masters from Met Film School this year.
This year I have had the great fortune to be reunited with an old friend from school, James Showers, whom I have not seen for more than 50 years. We used to go to the Lake District together as teenagers to stay with our mutual friend Hal Bagot at Levens Hall. Happy memories fishing on the Kent where I caught my first sea trout. We went our separate ways and, having spent an interesting and varied life, James now lives in Gloucestershire, running his own funeral business, Family Tree.
Podcasts have entertained me throughout the year – especially ‘Talking politics’ and the ‘History of ideas’ by Cambridge professor David Runciman; ‘The rest is history’ by historians David Sandbrook and Tom Holland; and ‘Something rhymes with purple’ by lexicographer Susie Dent and name-dropper Giles Brandreth.
As a member of 2 separate book clubs, fiction and non-fiction, I have kept reading, or rather listening, as I love Amazon’s Audible. My three favourite books, all novels: ‘Hamnet’ by Maggie O’Farrell, ‘Restless’ by William Boyd, and ‘The Midnight Library’ by Matt Haig.
Horse racing remains a great passion of mine. I followed the advice of the medical scientists and went racing at Cheltenham in March because we were told that people were safe from Covid if they were outside. Social distancing was a thing of the near future.
I have re-joined the Million in Mind national hunt syndicate, which I took up more that 10 years ago on the advice of Geraldine’s and jane’s Uncle Teddy (Phillips) and quit when I was teaching English in Istanbul five years ago. I hope we get the chance in the spring for visits to stables of Nicholls, Henderson et al, which is one of the highlights of membership. This time we have the promising Hill Sixteen which has already won twice.
Zoom has proved the find of this pandemic year. As a writer and editor I’m used to writing, reading and editing on my own. And I have an ideal cottage with a garden in Winchester. So, while I’m on my own I don’t feel lonely, especially when Mouse, the dachshund-springer-poodle I share with Geraldine, comes to stay.
Mouse is always a joy because she is a positive, smiley dog. She makes sure I keep walking, and over the year I have extended walks to 2 hours or more, which I could not have imagined achieving a year ago. Socially distanced walks and pub lunches with people (when not in lockdown) have also stimulated.
Networking (online this year) has proved life-affirming with 2 groups – Fabulous Networking and the ONLE Network. These are businesslike communities which are both commercially and socially invaluable. In September ONLE invited me to be their Showcase ‘star’ and tell the story of my working life in newspapers, publishing and marketing. That was fun.
A favourite role is as a volunteer mentor at Barton Peveril Sixth form college where I have ‘academic’ conversations with students who aspire to Oxbridge, or anything they desire when they leave college. My task is mainly to give them confidence and achieve that all-important interview at Oxbridge, if they so wish. This year I am proud that all four of my students had interviews and will discover whether they have won a provisional place on 12 January.
Two more mentoring activities have caught my attention and involvement:
Winchester Creatives, where I mentor recent graduates looking for jobs. I am helping Magda, a graduate film maker who studied at the University of Winchester.
The Happy Healing Hut, Alton, recently established by a matron at Basingstoke Hospital to support people of all ages though mental illness; after my mental health first aid training in the New Year, I will begin to mentor.
I owe a huge vote of thanks to my friends and all my family – Geraldine and Jane, and Patrick and Clare, to name but 4 – for their support since I was diagnosed with kidney cancer in November. The universe was also on my side as the cancer was discovered during routine urological tests.
Ironically, I have not felt fitter, with most of my ‘old man’s’ aches and pains fading away in the last few months – thanks, I believe, to the Forever aloe vera supplements I have taken for several months. I feel supremely lucky and privileged to have reached an age where I can view Covid-19 at a safe social distance, with hands washed and sanitised, and wearing my mask where appropriate.
By the way, my word of the year is Community. Hopefully we have become more community-minded with communities of key-workers, families, friends, neighbours and workmates.
Here’s hoping for a happier and healthier 2021.