Happy (We hope!) New Year!

       We’re just saying goodbye to perhaps the worst two years in the life of the world… pandemics, droughts, famine, fires… where are the frogs and locusts, I’d like to know!

    In 2021, Scott turned 60 and is now in the queue for two hip replacements. (I will not mention that his deteriorating hips are in large part due to his ultra-marathoning youth).  I turned 70 and I’m also feeling my age - literally uncomfortable in my own skin (senile dermatitis), and my hearing is leaving me.  Sisi turned 12 and promptly got acute pancreatitis. 

    In spite of all of the above (and don’t I just sound like our parents and grandparents, bemoaning our old age ailments!) we’re still kicking and happy to be alive, in spite of the recent Omicron variety of Plague.

    We love living in this wonderful Shropshire market town called Ludlow. It’s the opposite of Covid Central (London? New York?) 

    And I was just getting used to all the people again, enjoying daily walks through town, the open air markets, along the river Teme and around our own Ludlow Castle (where Henry VIII sent his children Mary and Edward to learn how to become kings and queens). But we anticipate another set of drastic measures just in time for Scott’s birthday on Boxing Day.

    There were some highlights for us in 2021: Scott spent a week in sunny Todi, a pretty hill town in Umbria, Italy. I trained down to London to visit friends and some nifty exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert and British Museums.

    The Festive Season was supposed to be back in swing here in Ludlow with the annual Medieval Christmas Fayre (sic). But Storm Arwen not only blew down all the marquis and food and gift stalls the night before opening, she also blew down the festive spirit we hoped to jumpstart the Season with. Storm Badda blew in right after her; but by god the Market Square thumbed its nose at the weather and continued to offer “Tinsel Tuesdays” full of Christmas goodies in December. 

    Our Assembly Rooms - dating from 1840 - reopened after several years of renovation.  We have taken advantage of their showcase of first-run films, live streaming from London’s Albert Hall and The Royal Opera. We don’t have a movie theatre here so it’s great to see films like James Bond, Dune and the lesser-known-but-still- fab films for only £10 in a large theatre.  PLUS, one can enjoy a glass of wine whilst watching! I’ve seen both Bond and Dune; Scott and I saw The Truffle Hunters (Italian with English subtitles) and the latest from Wes Anderson: the quirky French Dispatch.  Is it a sad state of affairs that we publish the movies we’ve seen in our annual holiday letter? My excuse is that, for the ten years we lived in Slovakia, Scott saw zero films in a theatre, and I saw perhaps two when I visited London. This was a drastic change from the days when my colleagues and I would tram up the hill to Universal Studios in L.A. to catch a lunchtime matinee.

    We hope to enjoy a festive Christmas Feast in a restaurant at the 15th c. Feathers Hotel - a half-timber confection in the middle of town - with several of our neighbours from The Angel. Covid willing. But we fear Scott’s birthday on the 26th at The Charleton Arms will be cancelled. 

    We so look forward to a better year than we’ve all been beset by. I have my South Africa Adventure to look forward to in March, Scott is lining up another trip to Italy later in the spring; but most of all, we look forward to your visiting us! There are several Airbnbs here as well as some excellent ensuite rooms at both the Charleton and its sister pub The Church. We promise to show you a great time.

    Meanwhile, don’t let the pandemic get you down, stay safe, stay healthy and mostly: stay happy!

Love from Jo, Scott and Sisi

oxoxxoox