The Ryall family festive news 2023
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The last week before Christmas is always busy here, with concerts to give, students to fetch, Dead Man’s Finger to buy, ect ect (Molesworth ref #1). So it is sorely tempting to just put everyone’s annum commentarius into ChatGPT and leave it to get on with it. I can hear you all urging, yes, do it please, it will undoubtedly be more entertaining – but I am not quite ready to shuffle off into the Mediterranean sunset clutching a Negroni yet. Actually, I am ready, but there are still a few prosaic responsibilities to keep me here, so I will do it live one more time.
The highlight of the year was of course Josie and Alex’s wedding, more about that later, and we have a link to a video of the ceremony if you would like to watch it. I know there are various members of this household whose memories of the day were entirely wiped, so may need a refresher in what went on.
I have spent quite a lot of the year trying to work less and paint more, sadly with only limited success (if you have seen my paintings you will know what I mean), but I have now made the move entirely to oils. They are more messy, but I do now have my own messy space, and I feel I am making some progress.
Nicola has been gamely trying to learn how to ride a bike this year. The autumn and winter are perhaps not the best time for this, and she has not been hugely encouraged by me crashing in a pothole one night last week, resulting in muddy gashes and grazes all over the place. Fortunately I had my ‘Is my bike OK?’ shirt on. Onwards and upwards.
Here are more details from the team:
Nicola & I started the year with a trip to the Kew Christmas light show, which is really a series of light-based art installations, and which I highly recommend (we are going again shortly). We went to the Cezanne exhibition, which was great for me as the timed entry meant it was not too crowded, and I could actually get close enough to see how his brush strokes worked. I have tried to emulate this in some of my own work – I can get the angle right, no doubt the rest will follow. We did some refresher ballroom dancing lessons in the spring, and finally learnt how to do both a 12-step and an 18-step Foxtrot sequence. We had to curtail these as I was due to have an operation for a rotator-cuff injury, which had been troubling me for the last 2 years.
We had planned a number of things on the basis that I would lose the use of my right arm for several weeks, which included taking a couple of weeks in Spain (thank you to Lydia and Nick for their wonderful hospitality as always) – the idea being that I could just lie about in my swimming trunks and wouldn’t even need to dress myself. However, on the long-awaited day of the op, when the surgeon came around to check how I was, we decided that my shoulder was actually significantly better, and that I might not benefit much from the surgery. So I baled. This is the thing with orthopaedic issues and the NHS, if you wait long enough for treatment, there is quite a strong chance that problems will clear up by themselves. I have now learned that the problem gets worse if I work the shoulder hard, and better if I do nothing. I may never be able to do Head of a Cow again, but I can live with that (TBH I could barely do it in the first place).
We did however make it to a rather nice ballroom dancing event later in the summer – this was an open-air dance at Spitalfields, with a live band. There were loads of people there, the dancing was frenetic, and the appetite of the dancers for the free biscuits was phenomenal, in fact by the time I had even realised there were biscuits available, they were toast.
In September Nicola went to France for a week with her friend Lesley Samms, and I took the opportunity to visit my friend Nikos Tsouvallas in Rhodes. He is chef at Andama, the only jazz bar in the Old Town, which is very boho and runs until about 3am most nights, and 5am on rugby match days, but I couldn’t manage more than a couple of nights there, especially as I needed to be up at 7 every day to go for a run (it was way too hot to run during the day). However I did manage to work on a series of paintings, ‘scooters of Rhodes’, a commentary on the way that our love of convenience trumps everything else, and will eventually destroy everything we love. Happy Christmas! Many thanks to Nikos for his generosity in putting me up, and his cats for adding extra texture to the work.
We joined the RHS this year in order to get tickets for Chelsea, but we had a much nicer day out at RHS Wisley, which is so much calmer than Chelsea, and with a much wider variety of gardens and environments. Also cheaper cake.
A big thank-you also to Lucinda and Bob Yelland (Alex’s parents), for letting us use their apartment in Coverack, Cornwall – we went in the first week of June, and had great weather for exploring lots of gardens, castles, wireless stations, and we also went to opening night at the splendidly mad Minack Theatre, on our anniversary. The show was a kind of live-action Punch & Judy with added fire-eating and assorted pyrotechnics.
Back at home, we have done quite a lot of musical things this year – we have sung together in Faure’s Requiem with CCS, and joined Kirsty’s church choir for 9 lessons and carols the other night. Nicola has continued to play with Chorleywood Orchestra, who have done several fine concerts during the year, including film music in the spring (in fancy dress) and a recent ‘Snowman’ concert. We have also been to some great concerts this year, including a new choral version of Beowulf at the Barbican, with Ruth Wilson narrating; Carmen at the ENO, which featured the stunning Ginger Costa-Jackson dancing on top of an array of old Mercedes cars; and Rigoletto at Holland Park Opera, which is always a delightful summer evening out. This production had a sinister public school/Bullingdon Club vibe which really worked. Almost as if the director was working from personal experience.
We caught up with our old friends Julian and Theresa Temple this year, after a gap of 20 years. They have better houseplants than us. However I am trying, I have a bougainvillea and a lemon now growing well, which is a huge improvement on previous years when they have never made it past November. We also now have a rather impressive bougainvillea mural to make them feel at home.
Other excellent events this year included a garden party given by our friends the Samms to celebrate their daughter Christie’s engagement, Deep Purple at the O2 (freebie courtesy of Ali), a nice family trip to the Everyman to see Barbie (but not Oppenheimer), Groundhog Day (I’d seen it all before) and Back to the Future in the West End (lovely present from Jonny), the Van Gogh immersive experience, and the RA summer exhibition – although I thought this was a bit lacklustre compared with Grayson Perry’s curation last year. He had worked hard to cram in as many works as possible, in keeping with his views on democratisation of art, so it was a bit disappointing to go back to half the number this year.
Rather more prosaically, we also finally managed to extract some of our pensions from Phoenix Life, a process which has taken over 2 years, due to their appalling and utterly glacial communication speed. We did however get some compensation, and we took our IFA and his assistant to the Grove as a thankyou for all the time they had put in on this. Although the restaurant bill nearly wiped out the compensation, it was worth it all just to get the funds out of the wretched Phoenix. Be warned kids.
I have met up with old friends Lesley and Jo in London several times, to have lunch and take in exhibitions including Coco Chanel, Diva and Tea. I am also now a fellow of the RSA, and went to a fascinating lecture by Henry Dimbleby, restauranteur-turned-food campaigner, on how we can meet global food challenges in an age of climate change.
Having had problems over the last few years with my teeth moving Into strange positions, including one which was getting close to popping right out, I decided to do something about it this year, and had them fixed with Invisalign. This handily coincided with Josie’s wedding! In the run-up to the wedding, I went dress shopping with Josie, a lovely bit of mum & daughter time.
I continue to teach yoga in CW, and also went to a very interesting yoga class at the Albert Hall with live music, played on an electric harp.
I have also been to a number of exhibitions with Jasper, including Botanical Art and Queer Plants at Kew, Marina Abramovic at the RA (very weird), and of course the odd visit to the very wonderful Cornelisson’s Artist’s Supplies.
My trip to France with Lesley started with the inevitable flight delay getting into the country. This shouldn’t have a been a problem, but the hire car company had gone home, leaving us stranded in Montpellier – a 200 euro taxi to get home! Much cheaper to find a hotel nearby. So, a quick search found a very good value venue within a few hundred yards, which was duly booked. We walked into reception – everyone very friendly – although a woman waiting in reception was wearing more make up and less clothes than Lesley & I would normally choose. A very nice, muscular young man carried our luggage upstairs (no lift), which was very nice of him. Next morning, Lesley chose to go back to the car hire place on her own – complaining dramatically of being left stranded, alone at night – which was very irresponsible of the car hire company… they felt very guilty and upgraded our transport from the cheapest to the most expensive vehicle they had – which had air conditioned seats if your bottom got too hot.
Lesley’s vivacious and slightly mischievous mother passed away just before we left for France and we will miss her greatly.
As you will recall, I have inherited her my father’s academic legacy – a psychometric instrument, named after him. After a vertical learning curve, I am continuing his work and research with enthusiasm, dedicating much time to promoting and extending his research. I am indebted to the kind mentoring and support from many of the dedicated KAI community, to whom I am very grateful. In particular, I am pleased to have given many talks on the subject to a global community. In 2024, I hope that an updated version of KAI will be launched (just shy of it’s 50th anniversary) and work will start of translations into Tamil and Hindi.
Regarding the aforementioned bike-riding, I did two courses with Sarah from the Watford Cycle Hub, which is in my view a great use of Watford taxpayers’ money. I have improved substantially and will get back down to it when the weather improves a bit (next June).
What family resemblance?
note gunboat in the background preparing to repel small boat invasion of Eastbourne
Josie and Alex were married in the summer. It was a day full of joy, with a beautiful ceremony talk from Josie’s friend Sally, great readings from members of our team, and emotional speeches from friends Gina and George. I personally declined all drinks until I had added my hap’orth to proceedings (I made up for it afterwards with several espresso martinis). The wedding was in a dedicated wedding venue, which meant that the ceremony, meal and party were all in the same place, and the day moved seamlessly from one happy scene to another, with barely time for me to squeeze in a round of croquet.
The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that Nicola worked really hard to find a dress to match my bow tie. Such dedication!
Josie & Alex did all the planning of the wedding, and lots of love and thanks go to George and Gina for planning the stag & hen events in the lead up to it, with their amazing fantasy theming. This was an awful lot of work, and all of them deserve huge praise for pulling it off so well.
After the wedding, Josie & Alex had a lovely week in Malta to recover.
If you’d like to watch the video of the ceremony, here it is!
Ali & Anna have moved to a house Chesham, which is a detached bungalow – perfect for flute practice and a big relief after a year with rowdy neighbours in Ealing.
Ali finished his Chartership, and rolled off his grad scheme at Liberty into a manager role in one of their startup ventures, where he has much more responsibility, flexibility & scope. His graduation event was a VR experience in Amsterdam, we have not enquired too closely into exactly what this was about, but apparently a great time was had by all.
He has joined the local squash club where he is steadily climbing up the rankings, and went to the rugby a couple of times with me (Sarries). For those few of you who haven’t been to Sarries, their stadium is half a mile away from the road. The phone signal and broadband there, as with most big venues, is appalling (probably supplied by O2/VM), so one time we arrived at the turnstiles and Ali had the tickets in his email… somebody had to run all the way back to the road ☹ Anyway the pitchside standing tickets are fantastic, and cheap as chips, so I highly recommend it to any rugby fans. We also went to Wimbledon, had a great time as always although I did nod off in a Rublev 5-setter. I have also been over to Chesham a few times to watch Champions League games (I have had to axe BT Sport due to insane cost, but Ali gets it all in his work package), it was particularly pleasing to see Newcastle hammer PSG. We also watched the England/SA rugby semi-final in the Jolly Sportsman, an excellent venue only slightly spoiled by the presence of a noisy South African contingent, who made a point of shaking our hands afterwards. Grrr!
Anna has made some good progress with her career, winning two schemes at RCM, one with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and one with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. She has been able to both play in, or sit in and listen, exclusively on many rehearsals. She’s also playing in a Christmas concert at the Albert hall for the RPO and recorded a collection of songs with the RPO for the kings birthday which were broadcast on BBC Radio 3. And she is now on the extras list at the LPO following an audition, and made her debut with them in Eastbourne.
Ali and Anna went to see their favourite bands, Bastille and Muse – Anna got the Muse bassist’s plectrum, which has made her year. They went to Harry Potter World (a first time for Anna), and organised a friends’ holiday in Devon, where they went paddlebording & axe throwing amongst other things.
it's not about the length, guys
She has made some short festival films, and done table reads, including for a big feature, where she met some great people, and was praised for her Welsh accent (learned from Gavin & Stacey).
She is also Director of Music for St Lawrence’s Church in Abbots Langley, where she has produced notable performances for Easter, Advent, Nine Lessons & Carols, and (hopefully!) Midnight Mass.
She has continued running Mini Mozart classes in various upscale parts of London, and has now started a class in Chorleywood, which has been going well. She has also been working for Stagecoach, now as their Main Stages singing teacher and LAMDA teacher.
She has bought a lot of music equipment, and can now record at home with Logic Pro, at which she is now something of a whizz. She is doing recording and arranging for a variety of projects, including an album with a friend from the Edinburgh Fringe, and vocal stems for live performances (the downside of all this is that she has had to go over to the dark side, and start using a Mac. However, I can’t really criticise as I have also finally given in and moved to iphone – for an Android user, maddening and impressive in equal measure). She is also performing when she can in jazz groups, most recently with the Chorleywood Big Band, singing and playing sax.
Kirsty and Jasper had a great break in Paris, staying in Kitty Gould’s lovely, central flat (thank you so much Kitty!) and did all the sights, including Versailles in very mixed weather. But they did get to see red squirrels!
Back home, she has also seen some great shows this year including Cinderella (thank you Nicola Wilson!), Back to the Future (courtesy of Mini Mozart) and Groundhog Day (she’d seen it all before).
They also did a field course in September at Parc Slip Wetlands, where they were learning to ID bird calls and flowers, and went with us to Brownsea Island to see the Red Squirrels!
They saw two of their favourite artists in concert: Hozier (at Cardiff Castle) and Mac Demarco, and have been playing oboe in the Cardiff University Music Society orchestra.
They are on two committees at uni: BSL (Welfare); and TANGGS+ (Trans, Allies, Non-binary, Gender Questioning and Gender Non-conforming society) (where they are Social Sec with their friend Beckett!). They also went to Trans Pride for the first time.
They had holidays abroad in Italy with Jonny, and Paris with Kirsty, and also went to visit their friend Elsa in Hastings, where they spent a lovely evening stargazing.
Last but not least, they have painted a fabulous bougainvillea mural at home, which took a couple of weeks but was well worth it!
During the summer he worked at Geolabs (where Ali, Anna and Jasper have all previously worked, and Xav still does), and he was also very helpful with one of our major garden projects this year, which was demolishing our oldest and largest shed (20’x12’), then dismantling one of the ‘log cabin’ chalets and rebuilding it in a different place. Then building a big new patio. A big shout to Jonny’s friend Charlie Scott who put in a big shift on this as well. I think the most exciting thing for both of them was the vehicles at the dump – who knew waste disposal could be so much fun!
one shed goes off to the dump
Xavier has been working this year at Geolabs, where he has had several promotions and pay rises. He is now looking after their IT, which includes a whole range of tricky legacy systems, as well as security cameras and bizarre network arrangements, to keep him on his toes.
He continues to work on mod development for strategy games, which is improving his programming skills, and does press-ups in the kitchen while waiting for stuff to cook.
He has been down to both Bath and Cardiff to see Jonny and Jasper, including to see Jasper’s recent concert.
We are singing in Midnight Mass tonight, so I do believe this may be the right time for an Espresso Martini. Wishing you all a Happy Christmas, and best wishes for 2024.