Douglas and his mother finally went on the Dutch Bulbfields day trip ( which turned out to be the first foreign trip for our new camcorder ! ) which was a colourful experience.

In July, Douglas and his mother used more air miles and a special offer from the Royal National Rose Society to spend a day at the Hampton Court festival which was very crowded!

We both went to Jersey for a few days around our anniversary/Douglas’s birthday but missed Douglas’s cousins!! Douglas and his mother went back later for a day trip and met up with them though. It is a bit worrying that the people at Thesaurus ( the Jersey bookshop ) recognised us so quickly.

One of the more interesting short trips was on 25^th July to Meadowhall near Sheffield to meet Peter Fagan ( creator of the Colour Box range of Cat miniature models ) and Jean Fergusson from "Last of the Summer Wine". Remarkably nice people.

In November we both queued for 2½ hours to meet Terry Pratchett again ( We were 3^rd & 4^th in line )

Photokina, Cologne

This year we finally made it !…but it was a bit of a fiasco. First a couple couldn’t find Victoria Station so were lucky to be spotted wandering nearby by the coach driver at 7am. Next a man with a Jamaican passport was refused entry by the French immigration officials at the Channel Tunnel. The trip across to Cologne was uneventful but then we went past the city…it turned out that rather than a hotel close to Cologne, our group was in a very nice hotel some 90 minutes by autobahn away. Further the AA route that the driver followed was wrong so we did go round in circles in the centre of Germany for well over an hour.

The trip into Cologne next day was fine and the exhibition as noisy, packed and fascinating as always ( I do wish Kodak were as friendly and helpful as Fuji though ). After a typical exhibition meal ( i.e. tasty, hot, stodgy AND filling ! ), we walked over the Rhine railway bridge to the great cathedral and were suitably dwarfed J and then went to the Roman-Germanic museum where Douglas’s memory of school Latin and German came in quite useful. When the museum closed we came out to a torrential rainstorm and into the middle of a demonstration for Turkish "guest worker" rights. We wandered the streets for a while with Douglas trying to remember his way around eventually we got so wet that we sheltered in a MacDonalds and dried off somewhat ! The coach trip back to the hotel got a bit raucous thanks to a plentiful supply of booze from the exhibition hospitality stands.

Next morning we started the trip back and were expected back in London at 6pm…the coach got a flat tyre before Belgium and limped back to the UK to meet standing traffic on the M20. Eventually ( at 4pm ) it pulled into a service station to wait for a mechanic to change the tyre…and wait…and wait. When the mechanic arrived the spare was found to be bald so he headed out for a spare coach tyre on a Sunday evening in Kent. Finally he came back and the tyre was fitted and we went on our way at 8:30. It was after 10 pm when we got back to Victoria. Our transport back had gone so we took the Heathrow Express train and hired a car back home ( Be warned the Heathrow Express is a great train service but the station is at least a 10 minute walk from the terminals )

Apart from migraines, colds, flu and stomach bugs this was another quiet year healthwise for humans until the end of November. On 29^th November 1998, Christine collapsed in a supermarket. She was admitted to hospital on the 1^st December and released on the 2^nd after a 4 unit transfusion to combat severe anaemia. So 1999 has to be the year we improve fitness ( rather than just lose weight ! )

Animal health has had a major impact on us this year…Douglas’s mother’s dog Rusty has developed diabetes ( so daily insulin and a special diet ) and cataracts ( so eye drops many times a day ) this year . On the 5^th November, the cataracts were operated upon and so far things are looking better for Rusty!

Christine is still at Trafford Libraries Bibliographic Services and has been promoted to a supervisory post. Unfortunately the local library service is in disarray with frequent reorganisations and not very good ideas e.g. closing a popular library/community rooms and replacing it with 1 room at a leisure centre for a self-sevice library

Douglas is still at ICC Travel Systems, where his team lost a member on 1^st December 1998 to join Barclays Bank ( Can’t think why he did - unless it was the 60% pay rise and many benefits J ) The Delphi project has been through many changes ( usually because some director comes up with a "bright" idea every week ) but will go to beta test in January 1999.

Our feline fiends are happily scratching away at furniture so we expect to be replacing wardrobes, sofa and bed in the next year

A major change has happened at Douglas’s mother’s home which has had double glazing fitted and, in November, had a conservatory attached to the house!!

In September the giant shopping complex "Trafford Centre" opened. It has caused some reduction of traffic in Urmston centre but shops here seem to be coping in the main. The Trafford Centre itself never seems too busy but does still have many empty shops and generally has an air of not being finished. However, we could seriously overspend at Selfridges if we let ourselves…really all it needs is a Marks & Spencer and a decent book store ( unlike the tiny Books Etc in the centre ).

We did go to the Xmas 97 Gary Glitter show.

The next day, we went to a Halle carol concert at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

In January we went to a "Classical Pops" concert at the same venue with Douglas’s mother.

Douglas went to the Chris de Burgh picnic/concert at Harewood House near Leeds in July and met up with several people we had met at previous concerts ! On the way back, he got caught up in a traffic jam in Manchester caused by the commemorative events remembering the death of Diana, Princess of Wales

Before the end of the year, we are due to go to a Hallé carol concert ( with Douglas’s mother ) and to a film theme concert in early January.

To Jenny & Jon Avetoomyan for the birth of Kate Elizabeth Faith on Christmas Day 1997

With all our good wishes for a happy, prosperous and healthy 1999

Douglas Ian & Ann Christine Smith

Christine Home chris@bickerton.freeserve.co.uk