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This page
has my Christmas
Letter for 2014 from
John Saville for
my British and American friends I'll put translations from English to
“US English” in brackets [I mean parentheses]
(each click will open a new window so you may wish to close each one
after reading it)
From www.jrsaville.co.uk/diary_2014.htm you
can see more details to everything in my year!!
December 16,
2014
This year,
for privacy reasons, I’m not going to post information about Jeremy and
Martyn and their children on the open web but if you are interested I
will share some things via email.
My mother,
now 91, is still active but slowing down a lot. I visit her weekly and
phone daily. She still goes to Kingsley Hall, Dagenham which has been
the major focus or her life for 80+ years): on Tuesdays to the Tea Dance
that she and Dad started over 30 years ago (though mainly to administer
it rather than to dance); on Fridays to help with the “old folks” at the
Lester Group; and on Sunday evenings to church. She no longer has visits
from her sister Shirley, or sister in law Peggy, as they have both given
up driving. After I wrote last year’s letter we lost my Uncle Reg. His
widow Daph (who is my godmother) meets with her most weeks, |
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It’s a sign of Mum
slowing down that although I took her on our annual pilgrimage early in 2014 to
see the "Strictly
Come Dancing Tour" ["Dancing with the Stars"] at the O2
(formerly The Millennium Dome), she doesn’t want to go in 2015. |
That being
said she did ask to go on her (3rd!) “Last Visit to Cornwall”
to see friends and her favourite places. It also gave me an opportunity
to take photographs of buildings upon which the Lilliput Lane models are
based. I still have the only website where you can see all the models
since they were started together with the "originals". |
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I had my first
holiday in a hotel for many years when I went to the Greek Island of Kefalina
(setting for “Captain Correlli’s Mandolin”) and stayed in a remote family hotel
with no car! A week spent swimming in the pool and the Med ,and reading many
books (thank heavens for the Kindle) |
This year's
concerts included another by the "Aussie
Pink Floyd" tribute band (where my goddaughter is a backing
singer). On the folk side I saw Dave Swarbrick & Martin Carthy and
Maddy Prior (of Steeleye Span) & the Carnival Band. I’ve just
seen Michael Buble at the O2, one of the best concerts I've ever been
to. I also went to a number of plays in Cambridge, |
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My main
focus in the year has been around the centenary of the start of World War One.
On August 3rd we held
“Exning Remembers
WW1” for which I provided a slide show covering a year by year a history of
the war and the names of those who fell.
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Earlier in
the year I came up with the idea of honouring all those from my village
who served in World War One (not just those who died). This resulted in
the “Exning Enlistment Re-enactment” on November 8th when
over 100 men, women and children (and our own “war horse”) walked from
the homes of the 302 men who served in WW1 to our local Primary
(Elementary) school to sign an “Enlistment Book” against the names of
the men they represented. The day started with a live interview on a
local radio station. |
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In the
evening I organised an event with Music Builds Communities where we had a “Sing
a Long” of WW1 songs. This was followed with the traditional “Last Post” being
played on a range of instruments between which were a series of readings. The
following morning I led the commemorations at our local War Memorial (my last
act as a Reader – [licensed lay minister]). |
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The
organisation and preparations were all consuming so after that I had a
crazy 10 days in which I saw the movie “Mr Turner” and then spent a day
in London visiting the exhibition of the artist’s work at Tate Britain
followed by those of his contemporary John Constable at the V&A Museum.
Turner is my favourite artist (I have a large framed print in my
bedroom!) and Constable is famous for painting views in the county of
Suffolk where I live. |
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I also saw the movie
“The Imitation Game” about the life of Alan Turing, the Enigma code breaker and
revisited
Bletchley Park where there was an
exhibition of sets and costumes from the film.
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I didn’t
have far to go to the memorial of the other major code breaker
Bill Tutte, who was born and
brought up in Newmarket a few miles from where I live. He broke Hitler's
Lorenz codes used to his field commanders. |
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In that same period
I visited the Tower of London to see the display of over 888,000 ceramic poppies
– each representing a man who died in WW1.
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I also saw
a friendly soccer match between Argentina and Croatia at Upton Park --
home of my favourite soccer team, West Ham United (who at the time of
writing are having their best season for decades). |
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And I visited the O2
to see a match in the ATP World Tour Finals between Roger Federer and Andy
Murray (who was very disappointing).
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Earlier in
the year I watched the start of the second stage of the Tour de France
in Cambridge. |
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I again acted as a
Business Presentation Judge at Formula
Student [Formula SAE] at
Silverstone and provided a chapter for the book "Learn
& Compete" on how to do well in the competition. (now to be
published at Formula Student 2015 in July). I also gave a talk on the competition to a local technical audience. |
I continued
as secretary of Music Builds Communities and led the fortnightly [every
two weeks!]
“Singing for Fun” sessions where
we take a theme and accompany songs on guitars.
I continue
to maintain the MBC
website as well as those for the Village
Church, its Hall one
for the village (www.exning.net) and this
personal one of my own. This
year I have started to create a
Heritage website based on the work of
Muriel Lester and the Kingsley Halls in Bow
and Dagenham which have been part of my family’s lives for 90 years. I
also provide websites for businesses of personal friends.
I'm still
playing Real Tennis [Court Tennis] at least once every week and
did quite well in the singles tournament.
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I
wish you a very Happy Christmas and every blessing in 2015
John |