5 highlights of 2022

It’s been a more normal year and to some extent it’s been business as usual with fewer standout highlights. Here’s a list of five that spring to mind.

Family holiday in North Norfolk. We rented a cottage in Thornham and the Bradburies and Jenkinses including Charles coexisted for a week. We enjoyed some good, and less good, food together, we saw stuff we hadn’t seen before and Charles and I took lots of photographs. All in all a good event.

Getting Sunita elected. This was my last active participation in an election although it was still pretty limited. It was the SCDC elections and Pippa was spread a little thinly and Martin Cahn was his usual laid back self so I pushed a little and filled gaps whilst not doing any canvassing. Our third candidate, Steve stood down, was Sunita from Orchard Park and she was effectively up against Edd Stonham. Edd ran an active campaign claiming all sorts of successes but Sunita of course could count on the Orchard Park vote and came in 173 votes ahead. I was really pleased to see a first councillor from Orchard Park and for it to be a ‘person of colour’.

Gardens of North Wales. As usual we enjoyed many good holidays during then year but in June we had 6 days in mid and north Wales. The weather wasn’t great but I found myself experiencing quite an emotional experience visiting places I remember from my childhood, seeing so many place names which I recognised and listening to Welsh being spoken. My visit to Switzerland in February was similar.

Food in Italy. It’s stating the obvious of course but food in Italy is good and we enjoyed some excellent meals this year in Sorrento etc. From the simple pizza next to Pompeii and the pasta at the Sigligaida to the elegance of the Vesuvio and the understated excellence of l’Abate and le Grazie in Sorrento we had some super food. Even the meals in the generally mediocre Grande Hotel la Pace  were perfectly good. Sadly the meals we had in North Wales, especially those in the Royal Celtic hotel  in Caernarfon, were, at best, disappointing.

Complaining successfully. It began when I noticed that our PV solar didn’t seem to be working right. This was acknowledged and an appropriate firmware update implemented but then I reckoned that this malperformance probable meant that I’d paid for more electricity than I should so I complained. My complaint was upheld and I got a refund of about £70. Then in May our hotel got switched when we went to Sorrento. We were really disappointed and complained. VJV gave us a credit voucher for £350! Then we had dinner with the Bradburies at the Castle in Spofforth. It was a disaster and I complained. After a long and cathartic conversation with a director of the company I got a voucher for a meal for five plus a bottle of Rioja Riserva. Each time I followed the golden rule: get your facts straight and be constructive.