Summary of 2022
Dear Friends,
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year.
Losing
it:
On Christmas Eve last year I lost my phone.
After the panic subsided I
remembered about the Samsung ‘Find Your Phone’ app (and thankfully
remembered the password!), which showed it was in Waitrose, Milngavie.
A phone call confirmed they had found it lying on the floor (I
still don’t know how that happened) and all was well.
A few days later I lost a gold
crown (from my tooth, not my head!).
Finally on Wednesday this week I lost my wallet, probably on the
bus. Luckily I have a
policy with CPP so only one call was needed to stop all my cards, but I
still had to phone Halifax and Jaja to order replacements.
Applying for a replacement driving licence and bus pass was a
pain, as there are fees which need to be paid by card (Catch 22).
Family
Matters:
The highlight of the year was the wedding of
my niece Laura and Jonny McNulty
on 14 May. This had been
twice postponed due to Covid, but it was well worth the wait!
The ceremony and subsequent meal and
dancing
took place in
Cottiers,
a former church in Glasgow’s West End.
Health:
I visited the Seacroft Eye Clinic five times this year and had an
intra-ocular injection on three occasions.
The doctors seem very pleased
with my progress, and so am I.
On 22 March I suddenly fell victim to sciatica in my left leg.
Initially I couldn’t walk as far as my local shops (but could
still cycle!) but gradually with the help of physiotherapy the
discomfort abated, and I was finally rid of it by mid-May.
After two postponements and a change of consultant, I finally had
an operation to remove nasal polyps on 2 December.
I can now breathe easier and also have a better sense of smell. A
number of friends had warned me of the (rare) danger of penetrating the
brain during this surgery, so I was relieved to come out of anaesthesia
unharmed!
Walks:
I
am a member of two informal walking groups, the Geezers and the Winos
(as in ‘Last of the Summer Wine’).
With the Geezers this year I went on five walks, starting at
Settle, Shipley Glen, Fridaythorpe, Leathley and Burley-in-Wharfedale.
I joined the Winos (former colleagues Nick Marler, Feri Saremi,
Paul Timms, Dirck Van Vliet, David Watling) for six walks (Guiseley,
Eccup reservoir, Adel – Meanwood, Saltaire, Otley former rail line,
Yorkshire Sculpture Park) but missed one due to aforementioned sciatica.
Additionally, I joined in walks organised by RICE (Retired
members of the Institution of Civil Engineers in Yorkshire) as a part of
visits to
Top Forge Museum
in Thurgoland,
Scammonden Reservoir,
and
Swinden Quarry.
The latter visit was in
mid-September and our walk took us along the
Leeds-Liverpool canal,
dried up due to the unusually hot dry summer.
Cycling:
As
well as the regular Sunday rides with Leeds Cycling Campaign (of
which I led eight), I had a
go on the cycle track at the
Brownlee Centre
where we had our AGM.
In mid-July I fulfilled a long-held desire to see the
Jodrell Bank telescopes
up close. A
new visitor centre
was opened in June, providing the impetus for me to organise a three-day
cycling trip with Steve Hammond (who had celebrated his 60th
in May), staying for two nights in the lovely village of Bollington,
near Macclesfield. We went
via Huddersfield and Holme Moss and returned via the Peak District to
Wakefield. This was during
the severe heatwave, and on the return I almost collapsed with
exhaustion at the top of a long hill, so we took the train from
Wakefield for the last leg.
I would normally cycle home from Leeds Station but was still pooped, so
took a taxi, and surprisingly was not charged extra for taking the bike.
A few days later I was part of a
group of six
for three excellent days of cycling based at Dufton youth hostel near
Appleby. I felt I was struggling
to keep up on the hills on this trip, possibly an aftereffect of the
heat exhaustion, or possibly because it was discovered that my bike was
quite a bit heavier than the others!
In early September a
variation of the same group
had an equally excellent three cycling days based at an Airbnb in North
Ferriby, near Hull. I planned
the route for the first day and arranged to meet Diane Stead for a pub
lunch in Holme on Spalding Moor.
Valete: In
early June I was in Richmond (Yorkshire) to assist my sister Jo in
scattering the ashes of her late husband Steve into the River Swale, as
per his wishes. Steve’s
mother came from Richmond and he had happy childhood memories of playing
by the river.
My
good friend David Solomon was killed while cycling in Guiseley.
He was 82, and I cycled with several other members of Leeds
Cycling Campaign to his funeral at Tarn Moor Memorial Woodland, Skipton,
on 16 September. David was
the instigator of the Campaign’s Social Rides, and will be sorely
missed.
My former dissertation supervisor, and later colleague and friend
Howard Kirby
died on 7 December aged 79.
I worked with Howard on seven research projects, and kept in touch with
him socially when he moved from Leeds to Napier in 1997.
He was the perfect gentleman, and was one of 17 (as was David
Solomon) who accompanied me to the summit of my final Munro.
I will be attending his memorial service in Rosyth at the end of
this month.
Culture:
Events
I much enjoyed included: three concerts by
Sinfonia of Leeds and one by Bridge Ensemble Leeds, both amateur
orchestras with high standards; two nights of short films at the
Banff Mountain Film Festival
(in Harrogate and Leeds); the documentary ‘My
Old School’
at the National Media Museum, Bradford; an illustrated talk by
Leo Houlding,
a rock climber;
Orpheus – a new work by Opera North
wonderfully blending 17th century western music with modern
Indian music; a free lunchtime concert at Leeds College of Music; ‘The
Third Policeman’ a book by Flann O’Brien.
Less to my taste were: Orfeo ed Euridice (Opera by Gluck);
Parsifal (Wagner – I much enjoyed his other operas but this was just too
depressing); ‘At
Swim-Two-Birds’ by Flann O’Brien (perhaps it might make more sense if I
read it again?);
Light Night in Leeds
(much sound and fury, signifying not so much).
Writing: I
finally completed writing the story of how I climbed all 284 Munros over
31 years, and was very pleased when Chris Low (who introduced me to
Munros and was with me on 161 of them) agreed to proof-read the draft
and write a foreword. My
Munro Saga is online
here.
Visits & Reunions:
At the end of December 2021 I accompanied my sister Jo to Stirling to
meet her former work colleague (from her days in Holland). It turns out
that her colleague’s partner is Nigel Bruce, who used to work in the
University Computing Service at Leeds.
I had been departmental computer user rep at the time so knew
Nigel fairly well. We
enjoyed a couple of hours recalling old times at Leeds while Jo and her
friend recalled old times in Den Haag.
On 3 Jan Jo and I had lunch in Milngavie with my old schoolmates
Gerry Quinn and Paul Mazoyer and their partners.
Now that covid restrictions have gone, it was good to meet for
lunch with my old friends John and Rosa Walker, Chris Low, and my
cousins Dave Kean and Trish McQuillan.
On 20 June my former PhD student Tran Huu Minh came to Leeds, and
I joined him and Paul Timms (his co-supervisor) for dinner.
At the end of July I went to York to meet Jo who had come down
for a reunion of friends from her time in Manchester.
Much beer was consumed!
But the big reunion of the year was on 8 July, when
ITS celebrated its 50th Anniversary
at The Tetley, Leeds. It was great to meet many of my former colleagues,
but I was struck by how few of the current staff I knew.
Time moves on very quickly!
Best Wishes
Frank Montgomery
