The Ryall family festive news 2022
Apologies once again for the lateness, it seems that even while the world goes to hell in a handcart, the runup to Christmas here just gets busier and busier, and more stuff falls by the wayside. Possibly not helped by me taking the week before Christmas off to go on an art course.
As with everybody, no sooner had more-or-less normality returned after covid, than things started going mad with inflation and energy costs. Fortunately we completed the sale of our Brum rental house in the spring, which enabled us to add a solar PV and battery system here. This is really helping with the electricity consumption, but energy overall is costing more than our mortgage, even with the thermostat set very low. We also had some work done in our two back bedrooms to extend the dormer windows, which greatly improves the usable space in the rooms, and has the incidental benefit of adding a load of extra insulation. Previous insulation in these rooms was 1930s standard – ie. about 1″ thickness of sheep’s wool, so 100mm of Kingspan is a big step up.
As part of this work we also added an en-suite bathroom to one of the rooms, which at 3′ x 4′ is I think the smallest functioning bathroom I’ve ever been in. However, it has a shower that works, even if you can’t actually turn around in it.
We spent quite a lot of time this year abroad, thanks to the generosity of Lesley and Paul Samms, Lydia and Nick Dalby, and Nikos Tsouvallas, who very kindly let us stay in their wonderful houses again. Various family members joined at various times, and through the wonders of broadband and VPNs we were even able to do some work!
Here is a bit more on what various people have been up to:
Nicola & I have done a few new things this year – we joined the local choral society, and sang in concerts including the Messiah, Mozart Requiem, some very tricky Elgar and a jazz mass & carols. This has been particularly tricky for me as I don’t read music very well, or Latin. And in fact the voice is not that good either. But apart from that, there is no question that it is good brain training. We have also made an effort to get out to more shows, which have included Bill Bailey at the Royal Opera House, Cabaret at the ‘Kit Kat Club’ (amazing in-the-round nightclub-style presentation where we had a table by the stage), and various films at the splendidly decadent Rex, including ‘Leo Grande’ which is a must-see for all women of a certain age (just don’t blame me for any subsequent divorces).
The 10,000 steps tyranny has had us firmly in its thrall this year, and we have upped our walking quite a bit wherever we have been. The bluebell season in the spring was particularly fine around Chorleywood, and I did not even suffer from the curse of inadequate footwear (wide feet) too badly as the weather was good.
We took most of the team to the Abba hologram concert for Nicola’s 60th birthday – I have never seen anything like this, really quite extraordinary. Fabulous music, glam outfits, Nicola was right down the front in the moshpit of course. Very difficult to film or take pics as security people were confiscating phones, but I did manage one. In a few years time this will be a standard night out – you will be able to go and see Elvis or Frank Sinatra ‘live’ on stage, anywhere in the world. I’m sure I’ve seen this in a sci-fi movie – which is really what this concert was like, an immersive sci-fi experience.
Early in the the spring we went to the RHS show at Great Malvern, where we walked the hills in the beautiful weather, and sampled a number of Nepalese restaurants – apparently there is a big Nepalese community there. Maybe Elgar is big in Kathmandu? We had afternoon tea in Kew Gardens (present from Josie), where we ran into Anne and Hector, who were out running off some steam, and we also had a spa break around Oxford with Lydia, Nick, Steph & Will – and walked the hills around there. Found an excellent cyclists’ pub at the foot of the escarpment near Thame, I haven’t got out there on the bike yet, but I will.
We went to Grayson Perry’s Art Club exhibition in Bristol – which featured clever juxtaposition of various avant-garde pieces in amongst Bristol Museum’s very staid Victorian exhibits. In the summer we went to the RA exhibition, where the best rooms were also the ones curated by Grayson Perry – he had painted his rooms canary yellow, and crammed in as many works as possible, as part of his democratisation agenda. The quality may have been variable, but the other rooms looked very dull by comparison. We also had an inspiring and fun day out at the Henry Moore sculpture park, on one of the hottest days of the year.
Ali’s partner Anna had been due to have a trial in the pit orchestra at the ENO before she became ill (see below), so I booked My Fair Lady there as we thought she might be playing in it. As it turned out she wasn’t in this, but it was an excellent evening out anyway. Then we went to see it again a week later, at the Elgiva in Chesham, as Josie’s partner Alex was playing Freddie in their production – which was actually well up to par with the ENO’s, and Alex did a great job.
Anna finally had her trial at the ENO in the Autumn, and we went to see her playing in Yeomen of the Guard. The performance was excellent, and her trial went very well. Unfortunately, as part of the Brexit dividend, Arts Council funding has now been slashed, including the ENO’s. Hopefully 2023 can bring some better fortune their way.
We have supported a number of Ukraine benefit events during the year – including a concert put on by our choirmaster Graham Willi (held in a very atmospheric barn in a remote part of Hampshire), one of Nicola’s orchestral concerts, and one of our ‘Messiah’ performances.
During the summer we drove down through France to the Samms’ house, and stayed overnight in some great places along the way – Tours, La Rochelle and Albi – all fascinating places bulging with history. Albi is well off the tourist track, and certainly tested our French, but we still managed to get some decent vegan, sans-tomate food. We went to a son et lumiere in the castle there about Toulouse-Lautrec, famous son of the town, which was old-fashioned but delightful. We also picked up some gardening tips from various chateaux along the Loire, and I am looking forward to trying the cycling route there soon (in fact as soon as I can teach Nicola to ride a bike).
Also in the summer we spent several weeks at Lydia and Nick’s house in Spain, with quite a lot of lounging in the sun while Nick was doing his epic fund-rasing bike ride from the Wirral to the Costa Blanca. Some work and car repairs also got done, and we found a beach with the clearest water I have ever seen in the Med, at La Azohia.
After we returned from all this, we enjoyed a lovely meal with old friends Tim and Sue Platt at the Leander Club in Henley, and we were delighted to join Paul Samms for his 60th bithday celebration in Battle, where we caught up with a number of old friends, and were wined and dined to the max.
Nicola is now a visiting lecturer at Hertfordshire University, teaching marketing to MBA students. Her cohort includes a lot of foreign students, and a particular joy has been showing the women among them that they can and should have greater expectations, and that independence of thought and behaviour is their right.
Nicola is now a confirmed vegan, and it has been great to see that the number of restaurants providing vegan fare is inexorably growing, making it easier to go out. She has also continued teaching yoga, and Cathy has handed over her Monday evening class entirely to Nicola now. The first block of 2023 is already fully booked, which is a good sign.
She continues to work as a marketing consultant, and worked on a Government scheme to help businesses recover and expand, post-Covid (although this has not been helped by continual changes in Government!). She has also been steadily growing her psychometric testing business, KAI.
Nicola is having her teeth realigned, as one of them had moved badly out of position. This is using Invisalign (or similar) which are clear plastic covers, and seem to be working very fast. They also have the incidental benefit of reducing snacking, as they need to be cleaned each time she eats something. This is resulting in a useful bit of weight reduction.
Nicola visited Lesley a few times during the year, and they had a week together in Spain. Most recently they had an excellent Christmas lunch with their long-time ex-CCSB friend Jo.
Nicola has continued to play oboe in the Chorleywood Orchestra, which has a new conductor, Daniel Hogan – who we know quite well as an old family friend. Daniel is studying under Peter Stark at the Royal Academy, and has made a significant difference to the quality of the orchestra’s playing.
Nicola has been up to Newmarket to see her mum, Veronica, several times during the year, and we took her out to Spain with us in the summer.
Josie got engaged to Alex and is now planning her wedding! Wedding dress shopping has been going on, to much excitement all round, and a lovely venue has been found that will do the ceremony and (small) celebration in the same place. J&A held an engagement party at our house, and no vodka jellies were involved. Age and maturity, eh!
In other news, Alex is now involved in the upcoming Chesham Players production of Sweeney Todd, following his great debut as Freddie in my Fair Lady. He has a new job, doing similar stuff but at a higher level, and has to go in to the office at least two days a week.
Josie continues teaching maths at RMS, and following a period of negotiation has additional responsibilities, leadership training, and an enhanced package.
All building work on the house was finally finished, leaving them free to work on the garden. Or maybe to get a gardener. And they have finally got a dishwasher!
They had a break in Cornwall, where they were joined briefly by some other members of the team. And in the autumn, they all enjoyed an immersive Guardians of the Galaxy experience.
Ali has just sat the last exam of his chartership (CIMA), results on Jan 12th (not expecting any issues!) This is normally a 5 year course, but he has done it all within 2 years, with an exam every 6-8 weeks, hence most of his time this year has been spent studying for it. He has continued on his company grad scheme at Liberty, and is now in Mergers & Aquisitions. He got a bonus for being a high performer on the grad scheme for the second year running. One area where he is definitely getting into the swing of City life, is that he has been able to get to several events – including watching Ajax in the Champions League in Amsterdam (where he met Edwin Van der Sar), Laver Cup tennis, and Deep Purple at the O2 – N & I were delighted to join for this last one, unfortunately Nicola couldn’t get down to the moshpit this time as we were in Liberty’s box.
I have cycled down to Ealing to watch the football with Ali through the year – this is mostly because he has the biggest TV of anyone I know. Sadly me joining to watch tends to be the kiss of death for whoever we want to win (clue: not teams from Madrid), although the Lionesses bucked that trend :). And Watford managed to get relegated without us even watching any of their games.
Ali has continued playing squash and football regularly, this may all be part of his cunning plan to schmooze the management (who make up a good number of the players), or maybe he just enjoys it.
Last but not least, he has survived over a year of commuting from Ealing to Hammersmith by scooter with no ill effects!
Anna was unfortunately severely ill with Crohns disease for the first 8 months of the year. She had two hospital stays, and major surgery in June following a month in hospital. For a couple of weeks she was being fed through a vein into her heart, and lost 20 kilos of weight in that time. The disease is unfortunately still active, and not in remission yet, but following surgery has been more controllable, and we are hoping for an improvement in 2023. Ali would like to send a big thank you to Kitty Gould (fellow sufferer) for all her advice through this difficult time.
On a happier note, ENO held Anna’s trial for her, despite her getting the Crohns diagnosis just 4 weeks after it was initially awarded. Anna made her professional debut in November in the Yeomen of the Guard. Feedback is that she is well liked there and she played very well, so hopefully there will be more dep work there in 2023. But we are all waiting to see how ENO’s plans unfold.
Ali and Anna recently celebrated their 5th anniversary together. They were really pleased to be able to go back to France during the summer and revisit some of their favourite activities, such as canoeing, and they also went to Wales in August with some close friends. Anna has been able to regain some weight, so we are all hopeful that next year will be much better.
Kirsty also played at various May Balls (in June) including Johns and her own, which were good paying gigs and, more to the point, gave her free entry. She had a fabulous purple gown for these which she and Nicola had a great time shopping for in London.
Shortly after graduation Kirsty was up at the Edinburgh Festival, where she performed in the musical Antigone, which had been very well received in Cambridge last year. They did 2 weeks to full houses in Edinburgh, with good reviews – and in fact ended up making money on the whole venture, which is very unusual. After that she joined us in Spain for a well-earned break.
Her newly refurbed room and bathroom is proving very useful as she will probably be with us for at least 18 months. She is currently doing auditions and trying to get a career in musical theatre going; there are some hopeful signs, but nothing concrete yet. She is also doing a lot of gigs with various bands, enembles and choirs, and providing music tuition for quite a few students.
Her partner James (also a musician) introduced her to Mini Mozart, which is classical music classes for toddlers and young children – she is now doing several of these a week in locations around London, and loves the enthusiasm of all the kids (sadly the nannies are generally too engrossed with their phones to even notice what is going on).
They went to see Florence and the Machine with their freind Tegan recently at the O2, which was AMAZING, although sadly Florence injured her foot. She finished the gig though, what a trouper.
Earlier in the year, Jasper continued working at Geolabs for the first couple of months, then quit to do some travelling. Unfortunately before going anywhere, they went to visit Jonny in Bath for their birthday and caught Covid.
When they were finally able to get going, due to budget and covid restraints it all had to be kept pretty local, so no NZ or USA, but they had some excellent trips including to Scotland (all the way to John O’Groats!) with friend Tegan, where they dropped in on Uncle Richard. Then on to Prague with friend Eloisa, and to France and Spain with us. Also to Cornwall where they went camping, and to the Eden Project, the Gardens of Heligan, and Land’s End.
Jasper played in the recent CYO concert, where they had some very tricky solos, and is looking forward to going on the CYO tour to France this year.
Their hair has been a variety of colours through the year, it’s back to something more normal now, but probably not for long! They were very helpful with decorating the refurbed rooms, and picked up some useful new skills along the way.
He has a new girlfriend, Emily, they knew each other at school previously, but now know each other rather better. Emily is an only child, which can make it difficult to deal with the cacophony of the full Ryall clan, but she has handled it well, and I think even quite likes being here now.
Jonny’s bedroom has also benefited from the dormer-extension work, which is handy as he is now well over 6′ tall, so dealing with the 45° ceiling in the room was getting to be a bit of a headache.
Jonny had a holiday with friends Will and Tom in Amsterdam – no pics of this though as they were not looking their best. He also went on the holiday to Cornwall with Jasper & friends, and he and Emily joined us in France, where she was initiated into the treetop joys of Beziers Aventures.
Jonny and Emily have been getting into immersive experiences – they did a Dirty Dancing one, which involved a lot of, er, dancing; and in the autumn Jonny organised an Immersive Guardians of the Galaxy Experience trip, which Emily, Josie and Alex joined – they all looked great, but don’t ask me what it was all about. And Jonny is very keen for me to tell you that he recently went ice skating in Bath, and did not fall over once. What sort of student is that?
He has heavily involved in developing mods for a particular computer game – this involves writing, graphics, coding and debugging. This is all unpaid currently but could lead on to paid work.
In the early part of the year we put quite a lot of time in to getting him prepped for his driving test – helped by his Gran Valerie, who paid for a car and its insurance. He did pass his driving test first time, which was great. However he has not driven very much since, so when he does go out there can be a certain amount of drama.
He has been down to visit his Gran several times during the year, including driving down (accompanied by us).
I have been riding my electric bike all year, and indeed when I was on the art course I cycled from Finchley Road tube down to Chelsea and back each day, through Hyde Park, Parliament Square etc which was a great ride (albeit a bit cold). I have really enjoyed riding to Ali’s to watch the football, and I have done it in full a couple of times, which is 18 miles each way, so not to be sniffed at, even if it is electric. I have just bought a similar bike for Nicola in the hope that we may be able to ride the Ridgeway together sometime soon…
I have been doing more gardening, with some success (especially indoors), and last year we attended several RHS shows. We have plans to make more space in the garden by losing one shed, we will see what happens this year! I also foolishly bought another lemon shrub recently, which I have always struggled with before, fingers crossed for this one.
All we need now is for inflation and energy prices to come back down to sensible levels, and we can all be happy bunnies again. All the best for 2023!
The Ryall Family
