Doesn’t time fly by, it doesn’t feel like a whole year has passed since my last annual review but it has. Unfortunately the last four months of the year were dominated by sorting out care, equipment and finances for our mother, whose health suddenly deteriorated, and then, since her death in December, both Amanda and I have been busy keeping up with all those things that have to be done, from cancelling her Christmas cruise to Norway to clearing and selling the house; not easy when our mother was an avid hoarder. Which is why it is only now that I have finally found the time to get back to my blog and find that, despite everything, we have done far more than I thought. We’ve had births and milestone birthdays, holidays and days out, dancing and steampunking, highs and lows and, despite everything life has thrown at us though the year, we have remained a close, fun loving family.
January was a slow start to the year, the main highlights being Lil’s 16th birthday meal out and the Newark Steampunk 9th Anniversary bash.
We started the year full of good intentions; Netti and I were going to get the kids out on lots of walks and days out. But we all know what happens to good intentions. It wasn’t until the middle of February that we got out for our first walk of the year. We finally got a pleasant day when everyone was available so off we went to Rivelin Valley, just the other side of Sheffield. Netti has wanted to go there for a few years but I have always avoided it. Mainly because I might have run into former patients but, ten years after leaving the NHS, I think that is now a very remote possibility. It was a lovely little walk but with three grumpy teens who would have preferred to be sat at home on their Xboxes it wasn’t quite the enjoyable afternoon we’d envisaged.
March proved to be a bit busier with a couple of walks. The first was when I finally decided to grab my camera and take myself off to our local woods, Melton Woods. I wanted to experiment with taking my camera off auto mode and using aperture priority. Got some quite passable photos as I rambled off the beaten track through the woods.
The following day Netti asked if we could take the dogs for a good walk so off we went back up to Melton Woods.
Earlier in the year Amanda had decided it was time to get back into the dancing scene. First up was a trip to Parka’s in Nottingham to dance the night away to a Frankie Valli tribute band. Made all the more enjoyable since Netti joined us. She booked a room for the two of us at a Premier Inn near to the venue so I would be able to let my hair down. Although our morning round Nottingham the following day proved to be a complete washout. All those interesting little independent shops which used to litter the streets around Hockley have disappeared and Sneinton Market was a real disappointment. Nottingham is now just another city full of generic nothingness. We went home early.
A week or so later I joined Amanda and Lisa at an afternoon tea dance where we met a very nice gentleman who made sure we all got a dance or few.
On 31st March, a crisp but sunny day, I dragged Paul along to the 1940s vintage event at Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum since it is fairly local to us.
March was also the month we lost our cat, Tenzing, at the grand old age of fourteen. He has been sadly missed.
April began with a solo trip to Chesterfield for a poke around their WW2 vintage market. I also found the tea merchants and bought loads of delicious teas. Paul particularly likes the Orange Pekoe and the Russian Caravan which makes the best builders tea by far.
My steampunk year started very slowly. For some reason I really wasn’t feeling the vibe. Possibly because my young protégés were now gloomy teenagers. Plus, Harry was a college veteran in his second year and it was no longer cool to dress up whilst, for the time being at least, Joey was still happy to play along providing he was still a pirate. Our first outing was the annual Newark Steampunk Society picnic at Newstead Abbey where a good time was had by all and I mislaid the boys but they never mislaid me.
On the 18th April we welcomed our fourth great grandson, Finlay Darroch, to the family.
The beginning of May and Amanda and I were off to Haworth for our birthday holiday; deferred from March so we stood a chance of better weather and timed to coincide with the Steampunk event. It proved to be an eventful week in many ways with a mix of steampunk, vintage, geekiness and the unexpected. And our quirky little apartment above a quirky little shop right on the high street was the perfect base for experiencing it all.
Back home and we were thrown into another busy weekend with the Doncaster Steampunk Day on the Saturday and Bridlington Steampunk and Race The Waves on the Sunday.
May bank holiday was soon upon us with the Newark Steampunk Festival where Amanda and I outdid everyone else at the fashion show; not with fabulously ornate outfits but by being true to steampunk and our antics. We got a lot of good feedback the following day.
Due to college, work commitments and life in general we only had one family holiday in 2024. When asked the kids said they would like to go back to Cornwall for a beach holiday so we booked a cottage on a holiday complex near Falmouth for a week in June. It was then that we we realised that with us, Netti, three adult sized children and at least two dogs we were going to need a bigger car. So when Paul; on one of his days of interminable scrolling through Marketplace and Autotrader; saw a Ford Galaxy for sale locally and at a reasonable price he went and bought it on the spot. And what a beast it turned out to be with bags of room for seven adults and still space in the boot. Not to mention all the little hides holes for stashing stuff. It’s nice to drive as well so I don’t mind using it when I’m off out with the kids. Although we had our ups and downs; grumpy teenagers again; we had a lovely week.
July was a good family month. With , a trip to Cleethorpes, steampunking at Papplewick and Whitby, joyriding on the trolleybuses and Cyd’s birthday bash.
Walks round Manvers Lake with Lils and the McLeans
We went to meet Netti in Cleethorpes where she had been working for the week and had a grand day out at the seaside.
Steaming Round Papplewick
I was flying solo in Whitby. Well, OK, Paul came along for moral support and was pleasantly surprised when we bumped into our old friends Kim and Dan who were attending a little car show in front of the abbey and met their daughter Flo for the first time.
The month ended with another geeky day with both Paul and Amanda at The Sandtoft Gathering where we enjoyed riding on the trolleybuses, wandering round the museums and listening and dancing to the music in the glorious sunshine.
Cyd’s Birthday Bash
We had a family night out “down t’pub” with Cyd now she can party again.
August proved to be very busy steampunk-wise with events both large and small.
The kids and I managed to drag Paul along to a glorious day at the Matlock Pirate Mutiny which was far better than last year in the pouring rain. We perused the stalls, watched The Olde Time Sailors at the pub, took a row boat and a pedalo out on the river and finished the day with yummy fish and chips.
Amanda and I mooched along to the South Yorkshire Transport Museum steampunk day where we took a ride into Rotherham and back on a vintage bus.
The August bank holiday was soon upon us and Amanda and I had a nice but tiring couple of days at Lincoln Asylum.
The following day was another warm and sunny one so we all decided it was time for our one and only family picnic. Since we have fallen out with Clumber Park; for various stupid National Trust reasons; we headed over to our new favourite, Sherwood Pines, where we had an excellent day out. Joey and Jude became best buddies and we all met the Gruffalo.
For the last couple of years we have been measuring Joey at regular intervals. In September he finally made it! He was tall enough for the big rides at Alton Towers. Despite half the rides being closed for various reasons we did have a good day and, thankfully, Joey enjoyed most of the rides. On the upside, when Netti went to customer services to complain about the cost and the lack of rides she found we were not alone and we came away with a free return pass for the 2025 season.
After another night of dancing at Parka’s I made the short drive over from Amanda’s to Caenby Corner to meet Paul at the all new Kustom Kulture Blast-Off for the rest of the weekend. And what a weekend it was!
September was the month we adopted Monty when we realised that Mother was not going to have her usual bounce back. As many will know, Monty had a penchant for feet and would pounce whenever he got the chance which made him a trip hazard to her whilst getting round the house. It was at this point, during her second stay in hospital, she leaned over to Netti and, in her best stage whisper, suggested that we might like to cancel the cruise she had booked for Christmas. Which took the next two months to achieve thanks to poor communication by P&O.
The main event of the month was Netti’s 40th birthday bash. Since she wanted to share it with all the under 18s we organised a family fancy dress party with an 80s theme as that was the decade she was born. And the decade fashion took a serious nosedive with all it’s Lycra leggings and shell suits. We had Cyndi Lauper, a Pink Lady, Madonna and several variations of Flashdancers but Suzy, Cyd and Jessie would have won first prize as the main characters from that iconic 80s film Rita, Sue and Bob Too?
We managed to get tickets for a local Halloween event. The faint hearted (Lils and Joey) managed to blag several free rides on the waltzer whilst Netti, Kate, the boys and me were being chased round some spooky woods by chainsaw wielding clowns, grisly ghost girls and mindless zombies whilst exploring deserted mines, haunted cabins, demonic churches, zombie villages and mad funhouses. All interspersed with scoffing hotdogs and guzzling hot chocolate. Although Joey did go round the spooky stuff in the end when we happened upon an unmarked program someone had thrown away. It might only have been a small local affair but the atmosphere was crackling and everyone was having fun which is what matters in the end. We ended the month with a trip to the cinema at Joey’s request.
Guess who was eighteen in November. We celebrated Jessie’s birthday with a bottomless brunch at The Slug And Lettuce in Doncaster and an aborted pub crawl before ending the night in The Corner Pocket in Mexborough. From what I remember we had a cracking time, well……Suzy did!
December 14th was a night to remember for Harry and I. Netti and I had bought the tickets way back at the start of the year for Harry’s birthday and the day had finally arrived.
Slipknot
The Christmas Market season was upon us and Netti and I filled the next few weeks with festive outings. December kicked off with Kelham Victorian Christmas Market which once again it got us in the festive mood with the stalls, the brass bands and the Morris dancers. We took Lils for a stroll round Sheffield Christmas Market to do a little Christmas shopping, visited Meadowhall with Harry and made a return trip to Halifax for their Christmas market.
We celebrated Christmas in style with a Christmas Eve party at Kate’s and a huge family dinner at our’s on Christmas Day. And the everyone putting together for prezzies idea seems to have worked out well. The girls gave me a dressmakers dummy; I’ve been after one for ages; and Paul gave me a personal number plate for my car: PP55LRP. I’m well chuffed.
I hope you have enjoyed catching up with all the shenanigans we got up to last year and are looking forward; as we are; to a fun filled 2025.
A full year. Hope 2025 will be fun.