The evening before yesterday, I had got most of my packing done for my Yorkshire trip but then decided I would make a lightning trip over to Droitwich for a quick half an hour in other’s company before my little trip up North. This I did and we had a quick meal together which my friend threw together and then returned home ready for a viewing of the Jane Austen ‘Pride and Prejudice’ This version was showing for exactly two hours and I stayed awake for the first one hour and fifty minutes of it before falling asleep just before the classic denouement at the end of the novel, only to wake up later and find myself in the middle of the film which followed it which was a showing of ‘Whisky Galore’ So this was an element of frustration but it has happened before when I have watched films from the comfort of a warm bed. I made sure that I had a couple of alarms set for early the next day so that I should not oversleep as there is always some last minute flying around before a long trip. I am well used to what might be called ‘hotel catering’ culture and I am taking with me some extra things and some things that I know will be useful such as extra waste bin liners for the storage and eventual disposal of any packaging for any little foodstuffs that I might buy from the little shop across the road from the hotel as I tend not to avail myself of the huge breakfasts that the hotel will provide. By sending out a series of texts several days beforehand, I have managed to meet up with some family members over the next few days and, evidently, there will be a lot of family news upon which to catch up. With various friends and acquaintances, I have made the observation that I thought that the dark days of the autumn would prove to be a great travail but instead the weeks seem to have flown by and I can scarcely believe that we are more than half way through December already. At this time of year, I like to ensure that I have calendars of the type that I particularly like I place for the start of the New Year and I do actually have most of these already in place. Before I see my sister on Saturday morning, I shall be able to stroll along some of the pedestrianised streets of Harrogate and perhaps make last minute purchases of things I need before the festive season descends on us with a vengeance. I generally look forward to train journeys but the Friday in the week before Christmas might prove to be particularly busy and I nearly always have to first locate my seat in the relevant carriage and then turf the inevitable occupant out of it. Having done a similar journey several times before means that at least I have a rough idea of the platforms from which my various connections generally depart and this is always useful.
Having got to Harrogate, I purchased my tickets for my trip to see my sister tomorrow in Knaresborough and then when to a Chinese restaurant that I know very well. There I had the most enormous lunch of fried rice with beef, washed down with some China tea – the son of the restaurant owner is a real ‘foodie’ so we were soon swapping photographs of food dishes that we had on our respective phones. Then I got to the hotel, unpacked and then got some vital supplies such as fresh milk by which time most of the afternoon had gone. I had arranged to meet with one of my nieces in the hotel reception and then we shared a coffee and a drink with each other spending the early evening together. On occasions like this, we always have a lot of family history and family relationships to discuss and, of course, we both have some relevant photos to show to each other best part of two hours in each other’s company. When my niece departed, I almost but not quite got engulfed in a local Christmas part that was being held for members of a local gym but then I needed to get up to my bedroom to finish off this blog and reply to some messages. My niece and I often share detailed discussions about both parents and particularly grandparents where sometimes family ‘secrets’ get revealed but often it is a case of filling parts of a picture most of which we know but there are always details that one of us to get imparted to the other. Before I came up to Yorkshire on this occasion, I brought with me some of the magazines that detail some of the TV programmes so helps to push the solitude of staying alone in a hotel bedroom away somewhat. But I realise that when I meet the younger generations of the family, I must make particular effects to find out about their issues and concerns and not just be seen as a really distant relative who just turns up once or twice a year. Wandering through the streets of Harrogate as I do, I sometimes wonder whether it is at all likely that I will bump into anybody by chance that I could possibly know, given that I spent most of my formative years and did not leave it until 1963. But that was 62 years ago, so the chances of my actually meeting or even recognising anybody that I knew in those days must be vanishingly small. Many members of my family did have periods of working and livings in, for example, the capital London) but in the end they all seemed to gravitate back into the orbit of Yorkshire. So in many ways, I feel like a planet that broke away from the pull of the solar system of the family by working first in London, then in Manchester followed by of Leicester and finally Winchester before going to live in Bromsgrove. But I am forcibly reminded that many of the population stay within a few miles of their birth as I am quite forcibly reminded when I visit the Methodist Centre in Bromsgrove as a source of contacts and so many have been brought up within a few miles of where they are currently living. Of course, as generations age, older and widowed members of the family often move to be closer to their families of origin which I suppose makes sense so that they can provide mutual sources of support to each other.