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We hope you and the family are all well. We
are fine and have enjoyed wonderful weather this month with
temperatures reaching 28c, Summer is here at last.
It has been a real pleasure bowling at Batchwood this month with
the good weather, although we lost all 3 matches against Herts,
Harpenden and Owls it's not all about winning.
Rehearsals on Wednesday evenings with the Quorum Choir have been
very good. Our first Concert this month was in St Albans
Cathedral on Saturday 5th June. We shared the Concert with the
South Wales Male Voice Choir of 80 members and our mixed choir
of 18 made a very pleasant contrast. It was an exciting evening
for all performers and audience and we were praised for our fine
singing.
My two favourite pieces which we sang were "Amazing Grace"
followed by " and so it goes" by Billy Joel. The sound from both
choirs was amazing and enjoyed by a capacity audience.
Our final Summer Concert was on Sunday afternoon 27th June in
the great hall at the Pastoral Centre in London Colney. Our
programme of music was to suit all tastes and went very well
indeed.
After the Concert singers, friends and family were all invited
to a garden party at the home of our piano accompanist Malcolm
Scott in Homeward Road, The food was delicious with Strawberries
and cream to finish the day.
I went to the Boxmoor Probus meeting on Wednesday June the 2nd
where we had an interesting lecture about spies in World War 2
and the mystery of Rudolph Hess.
On the night of May 10th 1941, Hess, Hitlers deputy, baled out
of his aircraft, a Messerschmidt 110 after a 5 hour 900 mile
flight and parachuted into a field near the village of Eaglesham
on Fenwick Moor.
He surrendered to a Ploughman with a pitchfork and told him that
he had an important message for the Duke of Hamilton. He was
then taken into custody by the local Home Guard.
The motive for this bizarre event still baffles military and
political experts to this day. He stood trial at Nuremberg and
was sentenced to life in prison. He died in 1987 aged 93 and may
have been murdered by a British Special Agent.
Claire visited the Physio Department in the Hemel Hempstead
Hospital the following day and the were very pleased with her
mobility. She exercises her legs every day and the pain has at
last gone.
It was the Derby Race on Saturday 5th June, we watched this on
television and it was won by "Workhorse" in a record sprint time
of 2 minutes 31 seconds, a great achievement and a real
thoroughbred.
Also this weekend were the finals of the French Open tennis
championships in Paris. We watched on television where Nadal
beat Sodering 6 - 4, 6 -2 6 - 4 and the Ladies final where the
unseeded Schiavone from Italy beat Stosur from Australia 6 - 4
and 7 - 6, great play in both finals.
On Monday 7th June Claire and a friend Freda went to the ladies
Probus Lunch at Ashwell House and really enjoyed herself.
In the afternoon there was quite a lot of noise from our living
room, our piano tuner was at work finely tuning the notes for me
and did a great job.
The following day Claire and i visited our friend John Chandler
at Bushey Heath. After coffee he took us out in the car for
lunch to a carvery restaurant in Stoke Poges. After this we
continued in his car to Marlow on Thames where we had a very
nice walk along the river side path, admiring the luxury boats
moored up. There seemed to be a very large amount of swans on
the river, all looking for food as always, they certainly are a
very gracious bird. It was a very pleasant day out.
I had been suffering with tooth ache for a few weeks so I
plucked up courage and visited our Dentist at Hertford on the
11th. He could not repair the tooth so he removed it, the 4
injections were painful but I did not feel the tooth being
extracted, thank goodness.
The Football World Cup started that day in South Africa and will
be on for 4 weeks. We all had great hopes for our England team
but after dismal performances drawing with Algeria and the USA,
a 1 - 0 win against Slovenia and a thrashing by Germany losing 1
- 4. We are now out of the tournament. It has been great
watching on television all the nations competing in the
competition, many of these teams with far more skill than
England.
I must tell you this joke.
What's the difference between the England team and a tea bag ?
The tea bag stays in the Cup longer !!!!!!! ha ha ha.
On Monday Claire and I travelled to Westfield in East Sussex
for a weeks holiday on my school friends farm. We had a
wonderful time, the weather was perfect, taking there black
Labrador "Cyndy" for walks across the fields down to the river
and counting the cows and bullocks on the way.
Feeding the 12 young calves every evening was really a great
experience.
During the week they were cutting, turning and baling hay in
those large circular bales and wrapping in plastic 200 bales for
silage feed and 100 bales of hay for the cattle. It was a record
amount per acre this year.
We visited the coastal towns of Hastings, Rye, Winchelsea,
Bexhill and Eastbourne during our holiday, all such interesting
places.
During the last week of June we watched some of the great Tennis
Matches from Wimbledon where John Isner "USA" beat Nichola
Mahut after 2 sets all the 5th set went to 70 - 68 making an all
time record, it took 3 days, over 100 aces were served by each
player and they were absolutely exhausted at the finish.
Well I hope you have found our news of interest,
We wish you good health,
Regards from John and Claire
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