Frank Montgomery's Personal Pages
Summary of 2017
Dear Friends and (mostly ex-)
Colleagues,
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year.
Family:
I spent Christmas 2016 with my sister Jo and her hubby Steve in Den Haag. I saw them there twice in 2017: in August while on a cycling tour of Leiden, Amsterdam and Gouda with my 'Friday Friends'; and in September at the end of my big cycle trip (with Barry Hughes) from Auxerre to Vienna. Jo and Steve both retired this year and have bought a house in Strathblane, NW of Glasgow, with a moving date of mid Jan 2018. So with both my sisters in or near Glasgow I will probably be visiting more often in future.
In February my sister Ged spent four days with me, and we managed to squeeze in an opera (Hansel & Gretel), a play (Pygmalion) and a day trip to Ripon.
In May I spent four busy days with Ged. In lovely weather we went to Millport, cycling round the island. The next day we visited Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis, and saw 'Travels with my Aunt' at the Citizens Theatre.
In August Ged was back in Leeds, and this time we enjoyed a visit to the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield, plus a musical version of Jane Eyre at Leeds Grand Theatre.
I spent Christmas 2016 with my sister Jo and her hubby Steve in Den Haag. I saw them there twice in 2017: in August while on a cycling tour of Leiden, Amsterdam and Gouda with my 'Friday Friends'; and in September at the end of my big cycle trip (with Barry Hughes) from Auxerre to Vienna. Jo and Steve both retired this year and have bought a house in Strathblane, NW of Glasgow, with a moving date of mid Jan 2018. So with both my sisters in or near Glasgow I will probably be visiting more often in future.
In February my sister Ged spent four days with me, and we managed to squeeze in an opera (Hansel & Gretel), a play (Pygmalion) and a day trip to Ripon.
In May I spent four busy days with Ged. In lovely weather we went to Millport, cycling round the island. The next day we visited Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis, and saw 'Travels with my Aunt' at the Citizens Theatre.
In August Ged was back in Leeds, and this time we enjoyed a visit to the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield, plus a musical version of Jane Eyre at Leeds Grand Theatre.
Cycling:
In February I organised an evening at the Lord Darcy where four of us (Peter Khoo, Paul Haigh, Vanessa Bridge and I) gave short presentations of our recent cycling holidays in Europe, USA and Asia, to a packed room of about 34.
The end of April saw the third Tour de Yorkshire, and a group of us went to Knaresborough to see the second stage. To get from Knaresborough to the finish in nearby Harrogate, I gave a 'backie' part of the way to my colleague Astrid Guehnemann - the first time I have given a backie for possibly 50 years! They are perfectly legal in Germany and the Netherlands, although not in UK, but we were not on a busy road ;-)
The end of April saw the third Tour de Yorkshire, and a group of us went to Knaresborough to see the second stage. To get from Knaresborough to the finish in nearby Harrogate, I gave a 'backie' part of the way to my colleague Astrid Guehnemann - the first time I have given a backie for possibly 50 years! They are perfectly legal in Germany and the Netherlands, although not in UK, but we were not on a busy road ;-)
The major trip of the year was to Vienna. We got to Auxerre by the European Bike Express, leaving Leeds at 0640 on 1 Sept and arriving at 1am the next day. From there our route was due East, across the Vosges to Mulhouse, through the beautiful Black Forest to the start of the Danube, then following the Danube cycle path to Vienna except for a diversion to Munich, where we stayed two nights, and had dinner with my former masters student Steffen Hermann. In Melk we had dinner with Astrid (who in July had taken up a post at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna after 12 years in Leeds) and Guenter & Genia Emberger, natives of Vienna and old friends of Leeds. We spent four days in Vienna visiting the usual tourist hotspots (this was my first ever visit) including the Hoburg Palace, Schloss Schoenbrunn, and the Ferris wheel made famous by 'The Third Man' film. But our favourite was the Albertina Museum, with its modern art collection.
The journey home was via sleeper train to Dusseldorf (where we took in the view from the 240m high Rheinturm) then three trains via Venlo and Eindhoven to Den Haag where we stayed with my sister. The next day we cycled along the coast to Europoort to catch the ferry to Hull, and thence train back to Leeds on 23 Sept.
House & Garden
After years of procrastination, I finally got round to having the whole house redecorated. Also quite a bit of work on the outside (gutters etc) and removal of an ash tree that was getting too big. In preparation for the redecoration I had a big clear out involving trips to charity shops and the council tip. I've always been a hoarder, but finally got rid of my lecture notes from my first degree (1968-73).
In October I got an email from NPower saying they were sorry I was leaving them, and my transfer would be progressing soon. The problem was that I had not asked to transfer at all! After a lot of enquiry it transpired that someone was moving into a house near me, and had wrongly provided my address to SSE. This mistake started a whole chain of events which took me about two months to reverse. I was amazed to discover that these 'unwanted transfers' are far from uncommon. You would think that my existing supplier would at least contact me to confirm that I had really asked to transfer?
Hill Walks:
I have been on 11 hill walks this year, including: part of Hadrian's Wall in June;
Pendle Hill in December.
Valete:
In May I attended a celebration of the life of Mike Hall, in his home town of Harrogate. Mike was an inspirational endurance cyclist, tragically killed in a road crash during a race in Australia.
Also in May I went to Scarborough for the celebration of the life of my schoolfriend John du Feu.
In October in Yeadon I joined a very large group of cyclists for the celebration of the life of Nicole Mann, originally from Salford, whose life was cut short by cancer at the age of 41.
Finally in November I was sad to hear of the death of my former student, colleague and friend Frank Lai.
Culture:
This year I have been to ten operas, seven plays, seven concerts, two stand-up comics and one silent film. Interestingly it's the plays that made the lasting impressions on me. Particularly: 'Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf' streamed live from London at the City Varieties Leeds; 'Tin Drum' at the West Yorkshire Playhouse; and 'The Ferryman' at the Gielgud Theatre London.
Visitors:
It was good to meet up with a number of folk that I hadn't seen for many years, including:
June: Seventeen of my old school classmates, at the 50th anniversary of leaving St Aloysius College Glasgow. This was the first time my class had had a reunion. So apart from the three that I had kept in touch with, I found it quite difficult to reconcile the names with the faces!
July: Former Director of the Institute for Transport Studies Prof Ken Gwilliam, at his 80th birthday party in Addingham.
This year, I have once again made a donation of one pound per recipient of this email (250) split between Practical Action and Maggies Centres
Best Wishes
Frank Montgomery
PS If you wish to be removed from this email list for future years, please let me know.