Tarrant & Andrews Family Diary

Donations to Oxfam

When I was at Meeting yesterday I picked up a letter that was waiting for me in the pigeon holes.

It was from Oxfam and said that £872.01 had been donated at Cindy’s funeral. I’ve also had a few other letters from their central office telling me that other people had donated money in memory of Cindy. So the grand total must be nearly £1000.

Half Term

We’ve had a busy week, which is one reason I haven’t written about it, and the other is that we were away from computers for half of it.

From Saturday morning to Tuesday evening the four of us went to Hunstanton. We stayed in the youth hostel, ate a couple of meals in an excellent pub, lots more nice meals elsewhere, went on a boat trip to see seals, ten pin bowled, went swimming, walked along the beach, watched paragliders, went to the cinema, saw butterflies, birds and llamas at a wildlife centre and generally had a good time.

Once we had got home, Rose in particular had a busy time. She went to Young Embroiderers with Nok on two mornings, and to a wood working thing on another with Lily.

John and Toby went to the Apple Mac show in London with Lance on Friday – and came home with an iPod nano each, and one for Rose. What an extravagent grandfather they have. They arrived home at about 11:30pm, and couldn’t go to bed till they had got music onto one of them, and had a listen. Saturday was therefore spent putting music onto these amazing little things (and story books in Rose’s case). No one need fight over the car radio again – or even talk to each other in the car!

Friday evening Kath came round for a meal. She had been going to bring Louis too, but with the boys being off and Louis having a party, it was just her. Very good to sit and chat to her. Nice meal too.

We saw Jane and her friend Merrial on Saturday. They took Rose to have her hair cut at Glen & Julio’s – which was an experience apparently. Toby went to watch Huddersfield with Keith. We had supper at Lance and Mary’s.

Today we went to Meeting for the first time since Cindy’s funeral. I knew I would find it very difficult and I did. Lasted about 20 minutes and then sat in the library with Cathy.

In the afternoon we went swimming (took Lily too), then John and Rose went out to a Halloween Party at Lottie and Polly’s. I made a lovely lamb and spinach curry for tea.

Sarah to Hospital

I went over to Will and Sarah’s today to take Sarah to hospital. She’s got a bad case of conjunctivitis which had been agravated by eye drops she had been given. Her sight wasn’t up to driving, and she wanted someone to look after Jack and Grace while she was seeing the doctor. She got another appointment for next week, but the doctor reckoned she should be ok.

Coffee and Harvest

I had coffee with Michelle this morning at the Blakehead Bookshop and Café – oh yeah and a huge plate of mushrooms on toast. Long chat. She had Dominic with her – what a charming child, smiley and cheerful.

Then in the afternoon it was John and Rose’s Harvest festival. Excellent as all Scarcroft things seem to be at the moment. Rose’s class sang several WWII songs – not really a harvest link, but… John’s class didn’t do a huge amount – 1 poem – but I expect that all their effort went into last Friday’s superb Good Work Assembly.

John has no gym this week or next, and Rose was taken by Jenny and picked up by Mark, so not a busy evening. Early to bed.

Theatre Tickets

Cindy & I had organised this term’s worth of big deal tickets. I decided that I didn’t want to go without her, so I’ve given them away to family and friends.

Sam and Steve went to see Twelfth Night (review).

Mary and her sister Anne went to see My Mother Said I Never Should (Anne said it was interesting!).

Judy and Keith are going to see Jerusalem.

And Jo and Bill are going to see Dead Funny.

Rose’s Photos

Just had a film from Rose’s camera developed. It starts with photos of last year’s Christmas tree, so it’s been in there a while. There are a couple of lovely photos of Rose, Cindy and Mary.

School Cycle Ride, Cinema, Toby Home

John, Rose and I cycled this morning along the cycle track to Naburn on the Scarcroft HSP cycle ride. Nice leisurely ride that we all managed easily with lunch at Naburn.

Then this afternoon we went to see Wallace and Gromit. Excellent film really enjoyed by all.

After a lovely tea of lamb chops for John and I and spinach and feta pie for Rose, we went to pick up Toby from the station. He’s had a lovely time with Jane and Andy – really enjoyed himself and has come home full of the joys of the big city! Lovely to have him back.

Rose’s Dance Show

Rose’s dance show has been taking up a lot of time the last few weekends and I finally got to see the finished thing tonight. I was amazed. It was very good indeed and Rose looked very grown up in her various costumes (flower, sailor and spoon!)

Rose has got exhausted with the dress rehearsal last night, and then two performances today, so I hope she’ll have a bit of a lie in tomorrow.

Toby to London

Rose and I went to the station to wave off Toby. He is spending this weekend in London with Jane and Andy. It’s the first time he’s gone on a train journey by himself, and although I was sure he would be ok, it still felt very strange watching the train pull out with him in it.

He was met by Jane at Kings Cross so all was well. On his journey, he texted me several times, so it’s not even as though I didn’t know where he was!

Rose went off to a dress rehearsal for her dance show Alice in Wonderland. So it was just John and I at home – very quiet indeed.

Walk in the Wolds

I went for a walk in the Yorkshire Wolds today with David Campbell. We left after dropping children at schools and drove to Kirby Underdale. It was about 8½ miles round trip from there to Thixendale and back. The weather was a bit grey and misty, but it didn’t actually rain! In Thixendale we looked at the building that used to be a youth hostel, that I stayed at with Will about 7 years ago. It’s now heavily renovated, looking much better and is used as a village hall.

This evening John and Rose have been out to Stomp, a very exciting percussion/dance show with all the Emericks. They came home at about 9:45 very excited and hyper. I have been out to the Scarcroft pub quiz for a bit – with Kjartan comparing the quiz. Shame I won’t find out the answers!

Cindy’s Grave

I went to the cemetery yesterday and took some photos of where Cindy’s ashes are buried.

Cindy’s ashes are buried in York Cemetery (map), here’s a map of exactly where:

New Look

I’ve spent some time over the last couple of months setting up a “new look” for the website.

And here it is… I hope you like it. I’m sure there are a few wrinkles still left to be sorted out, if you see any let me know.

Poem from the Holmans

This poem is one that the Holmans chose to read at Cindy’s funeral, but didn’t find a space to.

The Dead

The dead are always looking down on us, they say,
while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,
they are looking down through glass-bottom boats of heaven
as they row themselves slowly through eternity.

They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth,
and when we lie down in a field or on a couch,
drugged perhaps by the hum of a warm afternoon,
they think we are looking back at them,

which makes them lift their oars and fall silent
and wait, like parents for us to close our eyes.

Billy Collins

Cindy’s Birthday

Today would have been Cindy’s 44^th birthday.

To celebrate we are going out this evening to La Piazza for a meal.

John, Rose and I have spent the afternoon at Beningbrough Hall with David, Mimi and Jocelyn Campbell. Have climbed trees, run around, had scones and generally enjoyed ourselves. Toby has been working very hard on his graphics project and then went out with Tom Robinson.

President John

John was elected onto the school council a couple of weeks ago – a boy and each girl get chosen by each class. Today they had their first meeting and John was selected to be President. It was a very close run thing, he only won by one vote. Tomorrow the world!

I had lunch today with Cathy. It was great to sit and chat with her.

Millthorpe Visit

John has been off school today with tummy bug, but he was well enough to go round Millthorpe School in preparation for moving up next year.

He recognised lots of the pupils who were there, which made him feel better the change – not that he seems worried. All the pupils were very chatty and seemed well balanced enough! I think it’s really difficult to tell what a school is like from the outside though. Toby seems to get on well there, so…

All Saints next week, but I should think it’ll be Millthorpe for John and Rose – there will have to be very compelling reasons if not.

Very Busy

It seems strange writing here now, which is one reason why I haven’t posted for a week or so. But I intend to carry on using the diary, so I’ll just start writing!

I feel as though we are very busy at the moment and that I’m running to stand still. The children are continuing with their various activities – gym, dance, squash, homework, school (of course), piano… which makes us busy enough anyway, and of couse there is only me to take and pick up. Lots of people are being very helpful with lifts and so on (big thanks to Saffron & Jenny, Mark & Michelle and particularly my parents), but it still feels busy. I’m also having a bit of trouble holding in my head who’s doing what when – but then the start of term is always like that.

I’m busy in the day time too – still lots of paper work to get through and it’s always nice seeing friends for coffee etc. I’m also playing badminton with Simon as usual and with Bill today for a change.

We’re all ok most of the time – quite tired, finding it a bit difficult to get to sleep, but mostly ok. All of us are sad from time to time of course.

The house feels very quiet – it’s like when one of the children go away for the weekend. You can just feel something missing all the time. I’m sure I’ll eventually get used to it, but it is strange.