Summary of 2020

 

Dear Friends,

 

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a gradual return to social togetherness in the New Year.

 

Lasts and Firsts

 

After my usual Christmas visit to my sisters in Scotland, 2020 started with a pub lunch in my local, the recently remodelled Beck and Call. February saw two named storms – Clara and Denis – forcing the cancellation of two of our Sunday bike rides. February was also the last time I was in the Town Hall (Organ concert on 17^th), the last time I went on an organised hill walk (Ilkley Moor on 20^th) and the last time I was in the Leeds Grand Theatre (Britten’s Turn of the Screw on 25^th).

 

March 11^th was the last time my Wednesday lunch group met in person, but on 25^th we had our first Zoom meeting, and these are still continuing. My regular Friday night pub visits also came to an end that month and were replaced by a Zoom meeting that usually attracts about 15 people (from Huddersfield, Milton Keynes, Edinburgh and Vienna as well as Leeds) and involves a quiz. A big thanks to host Neill Davison and all the quizmasters for the effort they put into this highlight of the week.

 

April 22^nd was the first time I had a Zoom meeting with my two sisters and their families. We have continued these fortnightly, with a meeting of just the three siblings on the alternate weeks. So now I have a zoom meeting every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Along with the weekly shopping on Saturday and a bike ride on Sunday, this gives a structure to the week which would otherwise be lacking.

 

Silver Linings

 

There have not been many upsides to COVID19, but I will mention three:

·         Getting to know my neighbours better - one of my neighbours started a WhatsApp group which most of us joined and now use regularly. Also the ‘applaud the NHS’ on Thursday evenings usually ended by chatting to neighbours I barely knew before.

·         The reduction in traffic and pollution during the first lockdown - sadly traffic seems to be back to normal again.

·         Getting to know all the green spaces within about three miles of my house – I have done much more local walking this year than ever before and been surprised at just how many good walks there are. Here’s one from 21^st March. During the warm spring and summer our Wednesday lunch group sometimes met up for a socially distanced picnic lunch at one of these green spaces.

 

I’m not sure I would call it an upside, as it’s not as good as being there in person, but the availability of top class performances online from the likes of the National Theatre and Opera North has been much appreciated. Opera North’s concert staging of Wagner’s Ring Cycle is now available to view for free on YouTube, allowing the 15 hours to be enjoyed without committing to five-hour marathons!

 

News from Abroad

 

I have not been out of Yorkshire all year, so it was especially nice to get a surprise WhatsApp call from my former PhD students Hien and Minh in Vietnam. In May I organised a Zoom reunion of classmates from 1978-79. Sadly some of the intended participants got the timing wrong, but it was good to see Dave MacDiarmid, Phil Wright, Geoff Davidson, Derry O’Leary (in Dublin), Donald Veal (in Perth) and Harry Thompson (in Cape Town). It was also entertaining to follow the exploits of my old mate Neil Douglas in New Zealand, building bridges on his nut farm!

 

Cycling

 

My main form of exercise this year has been cycling, either solo or in groups of two or six according to the prevailing regulations. On 17^th May I rode to Boroughbridge via Myton-on-Swale and a bridleway. On the return I stopped at Coneythorpe to eat my packed lunch and was shocked to see that my pannier was missing! I retraced my route for ten miles but failed to find it, so bought some food in Boroughbridge and cycled home, hoping I wouldn’t get a puncture as the tools were in the pannier. I reported the loss to the police just in case someone handed it in but didn’t even get an acknowledgement. Three weeks later it occurred to me to phone one of the farms I had passed through on the bridleway. Once the farmer’s wife had stopped laughing she offered to ask her children if they had seen anything. Ten minutes later she phoned back to say her son had spotted a black bag sitting on a wall. So the next day I cycled back with my friend Andy and there was my pannier, still containing my tools plus a mouldy quiche and a shrunken black banana!

 

Alumni News

 

In November it was great to see my former master student Rachel Skinner (1999-01) become the youngest ever and only the second female President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 200 years.

 

Health

 

I’ll spare you the details but since September I have had three visits to urology and one to the eye clinic, with more expected next year. Despite this I am actually feeling very well.

 

Writing

 

Early in lockdown I decided to embark on a big project that would keep me occupied. I decided to write the story of how I completed the Munros from 1975 to 2006. This was the best decision I have made in a long time – the process of reconstructing history from old diaries and photographs has been fascinating. I am currently up to 2001 and have written 57,000 words. I hope to be finished by Easter and will publish the final version on my website.

 

 

Best Wishes

 

Frank Montgomery