Wednesday 16th

Since the last post on the 11th I had a wonderful day out with the family on Sunday,  a FAM JAM organised by James and Jeremy at a zoo park in Sussex where I used to take my lads when they were children.   Tim and family unfortunately were not able to come.

It wasn't a very big place back then in their childhood, there was the zoo of small animals and spaces for children to play, also a little train ran round it.   Since then it has grown and expanded enormously, covering a much bigger area.  The train still runs round (but obviously a newer one) and the train and its station was the only part I recognised - and the zoo - everything else was new to  me .   There were several fairground type rides and other attractions, but my grand daughters, Pearl and Doris, favoured a sort of trampoline set in the ground with a lot of water splashing over it, so after looking at everything else we eventually settled down to watch them play there.    We had a picnic lunch and at the end of the day all went back to my sister Pat - who lives nearby - for supper.  

I was very grateful to Jeremy for the enormous amount of driving he had to do - coming from Oxted in Surrey to pick me up in Oxford at 8.00 am, then going down to Sussex which is on the south coast, finally bringing me home again before getting back to Surrey.   We got to Oxford about 9, and Jeremy was home about 11.   It was a really lovely family day out.

James and family live in Leicester which is way up in the midlands, quite a bit north of Oxford, but were staying with Pat.

The next day I was a bit stiff - a combination I think of walking and fibromyalgia - but am fine now.

I didn't go to the event today, which was a social get together and coffee morning.   On Friday there is a quiz, and I will go to that.

On Monday I went to a talk at St Andrews, followed as usual by tea and cakes.  It was one of the 'Holiday at Home' events and given by a church member, it was quite good and much better than the previous one.   It was 'Recollections of a Royal Footman'.   He worked for Princess Alexandra but told stories and anecdotes - obviously nothing confidential - about the Queen and Royal Family generally, and showed slides of the state rooms at the royal palaces.

He had a few business cards laid out and I thought it must be useful to have had a job that allows you to spend your retirement as an after dinner speaker.  We weren't charged but he made a few bob in donations.