So, I'm 60. How in hell did that happen?
Seriously. I don't feel out of my twenties yet.
Many thanks to friends who sent me their good wishes. I've tried to thank people individually - if I missed you I'm sorry.
While Storm Desmond was soaking the country and causing all sorts of shenanigans Oop North, Dave and I went to meet the girls at a National Trust house in the Chilterns.
It may not have been on a Cumbrian scale, but it was wet. There was a Victorian Christmas Fair on at the property, and it seemed everyone in Buckinghamshire had decided to go there. Pity most of the Fair was outside, and thus wet.
Lots of people in costumes - rather fun, though I'm sure I recognise the pattern that cape came from.
The queues for food were long, so we went straight into the house.
It looks rather like the 'Mansion blocks' of flats you find in parts of London, mainly because Disraeli and his wealthy wife, Mary Anne were able to create it to the most modern taste. Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, was Victoria's favourite Prime Minister, the great founder of the modern Conservative party and engineer of much of the later Victorian additions to the British Empire and the title of Empress of India for his queen. We no longer see this as cause for unbridled celebration, but Dizzy and Vickie certainly did.
The National Trust now owns the house and grounds, and it was decorated for Christmas in a very Victorian style, using The Night Before Christmas as a theme. So in one of the rooms the children's beds were laid out:
And upstairs there was evidence a visitor with sooty boots had been around.
The house is still mostly as Dizzy left it, with lots of his and his wife's stuff around. I've always found him a fascinating character - he was witty, clever, a shameless flatterer and manipulator. Gladstone was his great political opponent, and the two of them dominated politics for decades. Between them the foundations of modern Britain were built - schooling, army reforms, the Civil Service, the popular vote...
There were some specific treasures. One I loved is the Official Gown of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. When Disraeli's party lost an election, he had to leave the official residence of the Chancellor (Finance Minister). The tradition was that the incoming Chancellor bought the furniture from his predecessor but in this case Gladstone (yes, him again) refused. So Disraeli kept the robe, and it's still in his country house.
There were also the regalia of an Earl, which Disraeli became quite late in life.
And some lovely 'dressing' of the house and grounds.
After we'd finished in the house it was still raining, even harder, and we tried sitting outside under parasols for a while, but after a quick coffee and browse in the shop we moved on to a country pub which was warm and dry and served good food.
At this point I was given my birthday presents. R is taking me to see a Stoppard play in Hampstead, and F gave me S7 of Castle. However, my main present was a book, the Rough Guide to Barcelona. And a file containing tickets and booking details for a trip there, starting next Friday!
We will be staying in a hotel on Las Ramblas and will be there five nights. (Dave and me - the girls were in on the planning but won't be coming.) My Spanish is rusty (last lesson was in May 1971) but my French and Italian combined with it should allow us to get by, if only reading. They mostly speak Catalan there anyway, I believe.
So, there's that. I may be officially a pensioner now, and OLD, but at least I don't have to be a grownup yet. This is going to be fun.
Many thanks to friends who sent me their good wishes. I've tried to thank people individually - if I missed you I'm sorry.
While Storm Desmond was soaking the country and causing all sorts of shenanigans Oop North, Dave and I went to meet the girls at a National Trust house in the Chilterns.
It may not have been on a Cumbrian scale, but it was wet. There was a Victorian Christmas Fair on at the property, and it seemed everyone in Buckinghamshire had decided to go there. Pity most of the Fair was outside, and thus wet.
Lots of people in costumes - rather fun, though I'm sure I recognise the pattern that cape came from.
The queues for food were long, so we went straight into the house.
It looks rather like the 'Mansion blocks' of flats you find in parts of London, mainly because Disraeli and his wealthy wife, Mary Anne were able to create it to the most modern taste. Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, was Victoria's favourite Prime Minister, the great founder of the modern Conservative party and engineer of much of the later Victorian additions to the British Empire and the title of Empress of India for his queen. We no longer see this as cause for unbridled celebration, but Dizzy and Vickie certainly did.
The National Trust now owns the house and grounds, and it was decorated for Christmas in a very Victorian style, using The Night Before Christmas as a theme. So in one of the rooms the children's beds were laid out:
And upstairs there was evidence a visitor with sooty boots had been around.
The house is still mostly as Dizzy left it, with lots of his and his wife's stuff around. I've always found him a fascinating character - he was witty, clever, a shameless flatterer and manipulator. Gladstone was his great political opponent, and the two of them dominated politics for decades. Between them the foundations of modern Britain were built - schooling, army reforms, the Civil Service, the popular vote...
There were some specific treasures. One I loved is the Official Gown of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. When Disraeli's party lost an election, he had to leave the official residence of the Chancellor (Finance Minister). The tradition was that the incoming Chancellor bought the furniture from his predecessor but in this case Gladstone (yes, him again) refused. So Disraeli kept the robe, and it's still in his country house.
There were also the regalia of an Earl, which Disraeli became quite late in life.
And some lovely 'dressing' of the house and grounds.
After we'd finished in the house it was still raining, even harder, and we tried sitting outside under parasols for a while, but after a quick coffee and browse in the shop we moved on to a country pub which was warm and dry and served good food.
At this point I was given my birthday presents. R is taking me to see a Stoppard play in Hampstead, and F gave me S7 of Castle. However, my main present was a book, the Rough Guide to Barcelona. And a file containing tickets and booking details for a trip there, starting next Friday!
We will be staying in a hotel on Las Ramblas and will be there five nights. (Dave and me - the girls were in on the planning but won't be coming.) My Spanish is rusty (last lesson was in May 1971) but my French and Italian combined with it should allow us to get by, if only reading. They mostly speak Catalan there anyway, I believe.
So, there's that. I may be officially a pensioner now, and OLD, but at least I don't have to be a grownup yet. This is going to be fun.