Well, sort of! Claire and Carl’s wedding forced us to (almost) finish the reconstruction of our house, started over three years ago and “stalled” for some time. So our holiday consisted of spending the hottest month of the year, working most days from 8:00 am until midnight.

The last paintbrush was put down at 3:00 am on the day before the wedding.

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Gone to the Chelsea Flower Show every one…..

Fulfilling one of Noelene’s long-held dreams by dragging John along (actually, he rather enjoyed it!). The highlights for us were the Antipodean Gardens, particularly the South African township garden - especially lovely, evocative and our favourite of the show (no bias, honest!).

We spent two nights in the capital, did lots of the “normal” tourist things which we so often don’t make time for, but which can be very enjoyable nonetheless, and had a fantastic N. African meal - complete with a rather skinny belly dancer! There was even some good London beer (yes, there is such a thing!).

Where Have All The Old Socialists Gone?

Gone to Cable Street every one (in October, at least!).

They and a lot of younger ones went to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the turning back of Moseley’s fascists at the famous battle, re-enacted on the street itself. We spoke to some, older even than us, who had taken part in the 1936 protest and very emotional and uplifting their stories were too. We heard music, poetry, watched dancing and even socialist magic! And don’t forget, as Billy Bragg sang:

“….. join the struggle while you may The revolution is just a tee-shirt away”

Anywhere Else?

John’s still supporting the German economy with his monthly beer and wine runs, with portions of fois gras, paella and Danish herrings thrown in as he flits around Europe. In March he travelled to Malaysia, China (for the first time), Australia and New Zealand; the latter for all of three days. Mind you, although he travelled for work, his luggage took a fancy to a rather longer holiday in Malaysia, as those around him at the time will attest!

Happenings (Man...!)

With everything else that’s been going on in our lives we haven’t had a lot of time for live music this year.

Early on we saw Billy Bragg’s hard hitting “Hope Not Hate”, anti-BNP show at the Bridgewater Hall.

We ventured into unknown musical territory with Mostly Autumn at Bury in October. Disappointingly, their recorded sound didn’t translate into a good live performance, although John at least is willing to give them another chance!

Unusually, The Levellers were also well below par when we saw them in early December, so much so that we actually walked out less than half way through, seeking solace in a bowl of pasta at Pizzeria Italia!

All in all 2006 hasn’t been the best live musical year. Never mind, we’ve already booked to see the Genesis at Old Trafford next July - the start, we hope, of what will be a year filled with good sounds.

But, where the musicians let us down, the actors lifted us and we saw excellent performances of Miller’s “A View From The Bridge” and Dario Fo’s wonderful “Accidental Death of an Anarchist” , both at Bolton’s Octagon Theatre.

Cheering For The Team

In March Noelene bowed to the inevitable, finally becoming “nationalised” and is now as British as St. George (“he’s half English too”!).

Naturally, she kept her fingers crossed and lips tightly sealed when she was supposed to swear allegiance to the Queen at the nationalisation ceremony! Gawd bless ’er!

However, you can take the woman out of Africa but you can’t take Africa out of the woman. It wasn’t long before she was smiling smugly as England beat S. Africa at rugby and even more so the following week as they took their revenge.

What Else

It’s not easy to sum up a whole year on just one web page and a lot of other things have happened to us in the last twelve month, thankfully almost all of them good!

Noelene continues to tussle with her MA in Public Art but the end is now in sight. Commissions continue to dribble in, although not all of them are as well paid as they should be! At least she’s starting to put her actions where her heart is — with the refugee and asylum seekers’ communities and disadvantaged young people. And John stood (and came a great second) in the local elections yet again!

If you like our photos you can see lots more of them at: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/gaijin1234. You never know, you might just spot yourself in one or two of them!

A very special thanks for all the good things that have happened to us this year and especially to our friends and families for their love throughout the year.