Health

Apart from migraines, flu and flea/mosquito-bite reactions, this has been a ( touches wood ) quiet year healthwise.

Christine has had real problems with migraines & headaches for a long time and has taken many and various types of pills ( including Sanomigran ) which she records in a special diary.

Still no Smithlette so we are trying for IVF treatment and have been on steady diets for most of the last 6 months. Between us we have lost about 6 stones since mid-July and have another stone each to lose by February when we may be given the go ahead. It will be a major monetary cost as well, since we definitely will have to pay for the treatment and do expect to pay for the drug costs also.

Jobs

4:30pm Christmas Eve 1996, Douglas is still working at UMIST fixing someone else’s problem when he realises he’s the only one in the building. After a few minutes on the ‘phone a security guard comes and unlocks the door to let him out !

In February Eddie Davies left Thorn after 13 years. Eight weeks later, after 9 years and 11 months at JEL/THORN, Douglas finally left to go to a new job developing software for the Travel Industry at ‘ICC Travel Systems’ an offshoot of Misys plc. ( No there are no cheap travel perks ! ) Its an amazing change of outlook – here if you need something for a project and can show why its needed then it gets ordered and arrives within 2-3 days. Compare that with Thorn who could not arrange for replacement machines even a year after the break-ins ! At ICC, Douglas is the lead analyst/programmer on a Delphi project in charge of 2 programmers and 2-3 contractors.

Christine is still at Trafford Libraries Bibliographic Services and is now the union rep for UNISON for that library section and has spent much of her own time in discussions over general regrading of council Staff.

Animals, Home, Car & Urmston

No major changes with the animals except with the stray cats. Yes another 2 small male black kittens ( with remarkably fast running speeds !! ) arrived on the scene in June-July. They have been neutered by the Cats Protection League and happily wolf down any spare cans of cat food that may wander nearby ( especially at breakfast & supper times ). One even sleeps in our garage during the day with occasional teasing of the dogs to keep him amused.

All our cats & dogs have been healthy except for some very small friends…FLEAS. For some reason these tiny, vicious brutes picked on Douglas ( only a few million times their size ! ) who suffered a reaction and had a very swollen leg during August L and a fun time was spent spraying everywhere !! In September we bought some furniture ( incluing 2 wardrobes ) from IKEA, it has taken the feline fiends just 2 months to work out how to open the drawers and kick out the contents especially socks !

Some swine ( Douglas ) lost the keys for poor old Red Fiesta so it’s hatchback cannot be opened.

One year from now the giant shopping complex called "Trafford Centre" will be open…less than 2 miles from us. Already the effects on Urmston can be seen with the large Co-Op, local newsagents and the one remaining bookshop all closing since June. 

Holidays & Day-trips

In February we used some of our air miles for a trip to London for a software show. Christine now understands how boring these shows really are !!

Douglas, Christine and Douglas’s Mum (Mavis) went to Preston Guildhall on 3^rd May for Douglas’s M.Sc. ceremony. Strange how he left Thorn so soon after the degree was confirmed…

We finally went on the much-delayed Sri Lanka & Maldives trip at the end of June. Christine was knocked back by the wall of heat when we got off the plane at Colombo in the early hours of the morning. She simply didn’t have the energy to visit the archaeological sites that she was interested in. (She did however make it to the Elephant Orphanage and the Sea Turtle conservation hatchery which were much cooler and really liked the Tea Country with a climate much like a warmer version of the Lake District ). One of the couples on the trip celebrated their 30^th Wedding Anniversary at the Elephant Orphanage but had their jewellery stolen at Colombo airport.

At Male airport all went well until the transfer to the speedboats to get to ‘Fun Island’ when Christine banged her head on a stable-type door! The island itself was extremely relaxing and Christine donated some 16 books to the Island ‘lending library’. We lost one day to a tropical storm but had many happy hours just watching the myriad colours of the fish wandering past the reef. Having totally avoided the mosquitoes in Sri Lanka, Douglas was bitten scores of times by some insects here!

We were due to go with Douglas’s mother on a day trip to Jersey but Christine had a bad migraine. So Douglas & Mavis went on the foggiest flight either had experienced…that was the day the new Jersey airport was full to overflowing and was somewhat chaotic. (Especially when carrying bags of books from that marvellous Jersey bookshop ‘Thesaurus’ )

We went to the University of Manchester Alumni Weekend and went to lectures by Rosalie David and Sir Bernard Lovell amongst others – and we finally visited Jodrell Bank with a lecture/tour given by Ian Morison (one of Douglas’s old tutors ) and a PhD student who studied originally with the OU !

In October, Douglas was offered a Sun computer if he could collect it…so we went on a day trip to Kent J We hired an Astra for the day and had picked up the computer by noon so headed over towards Edenbridge to fulfil one of Christine’s oldest dreams. When we got to Hever Castle, the bookshop was closed, but still Christine got to wander around the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. We aim to go back sometime in 1998. Douglas had made an offer ( higher than the Kent machine cost ) for the SPARCstation that he had used at Thorn but still has had no response !

Concerts

We had to drop out of the Chris de Burgh concert in Germany at Christmas 1996 because Christine had a severe bout of flu.

We did go to the CdeB Xmas 1996 Manchester show though but didn’t get to meet Mr. de Burgh unlike several fans we knew L . A very bad review of the concert was published by the Manchester Evening News which went on to publish countering letters by Douglas and several others.

Douglas also went to the Monkees concert (Chris had flu again !!) and to the Suzanne Vega concert in Manchester.

We both went to a Chris de Burgh picnic/concert at Ragley Hall near Stratford-upon-Avon which was an amazing venue with the stage directly in front of the stately house.

Before the end of the year, we are due to go to a Hallé carol concert and to Gary Glitter’s annual tour ( Both in Manchester ).

Family

Christine is now a godmother to Hannah Oakes ( see below ) with the baptism at a Methodist chapel in Winsford, Cheshire.
Our niece Diane had a great 1^st birthday party ( but she really doesn’t like Douglas with a beard ).
Christine’s parents and family finally moved from their tied farm cottage to a house in Shavington near Crewe in November 1997. Douglas’s mother Mavis has her 75^th birthday on the 17^th December 1997

Congratulations

To Steve & Margaret Hall on their wedding at the very end of 1996,
Urzula & Anthony Oakes on the birth of Hannah ( 4^th July 1997 ),
Eddie & Wendy Davies on the birth of Adam ( 24^th July 1997 )
and hopeful congratulations to Jenny & Jon Avetoomyan who are expecting their second baby sometime near Christmas.
Belated congratulations go to Tim & Jayne Criddle for the birth of Benjamin ( 19^th August 1996 ) and any others missed !

In a different area, congratulations to Eddie & Wendy Davies on setting up Madriam Ltd as a computer consultancy,
with Barclays Bank as their first clients!
Also to Mick Jacques for making the break from printing to programming at last !

With good wishes for a happy and peaceful 1998 

Douglas & Christine Smith

Email dis@cix.co.uk or dis@bcs.org.uk

Web pages http://www.cix.co.uk/~dis/

Copyright © 1997-9 D. I. Smith
Created 19th December 1997 - Last updated 2nd December 1999