I set the alarm for 6 a.m. today as I needed to up and away to drive to Southwick near Shoreham-by-Sea to attend the funeral of an old masonic colleague of mine, Boyd Neal. Sara needed to be up early too as she is off today to spend the next three days (two nights) at Champney's at Forest Mere (avid and observant readers of this blog will remember that I went there in January and bought a voucher for Sara to go before the end of April). I left home at around 8.30 a.m. and was having a coffee at Holmbush Shopping Centre at Shoreham by 10.30 a.m. I had decided to avoid the main coast road and took the lovely A272 from Stockbridge to Petworth and the A283 down through Pulborough and Storrington to Shoreham. A wise choice. I arrived at the beautiful church (St. Michael's) at Southwick about 20 minutes before the funeral procession arrived. Boyd's coffin was draped in a Union Flag as he was proud of his army service and country. Boyd was my Third Principal when I was First Principal of Preston Park Chapter and we had recently sat next to each other at the last Chapter Meeting. His stroke and sudden death were a shock to us all. He was aged 74. He had been a mechanic and had worked on many films during a career in Hollywood including helping to build and look after Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and various cars of James Bond. Afterwards I joined three colleagues from my Craft Lodge for lunch at the Hove Tandoori in Church Road. We had an excellent and filling meal. I drove back again along the A272 stopping off at Midhurst to visit Middleton Press and pick up a copy of their latest book in the trolleybus series - Manchester and Ashton Trolleybuses. I met Vic Mitchell who started this enormous publishing enterprise many years ago by self-publishing his own railway book about Branch Lines to Midhurst. He was a very jovial and pleasant chap who wanted to show me the whole enterprise. This would have been fascinating but I needed to get on as I had to take Mary to her drama class this evening. I therefore politely made my goodbyes and left saying that perhaps I could visit on another occasion. He let me have the book at discount too! I got back home at 5.50 p.m. and Mary had her tea at Molly's. Richard came round at 8.15 p.m. to discuss the outcome of our meeting on Friday and put together some action plans - which we did. We also managed to drink a bottle of Californian White Zinfandel too! Sara phoned me and told me how her day had gone. She is relaxing well, had eaten venison for the first time tonight and was now going to start to read all the Gospels, one by one, together with the notes from her study bible. I ended the day by watching a fascinating programme on how the Oresund Link between Denmark and Sweden was constructed.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Farewell to Boyd
I set the alarm for 6 a.m. today as I needed to up and away to drive to Southwick near Shoreham-by-Sea to attend the funeral of an old masonic colleague of mine, Boyd Neal. Sara needed to be up early too as she is off today to spend the next three days (two nights) at Champney's at Forest Mere (avid and observant readers of this blog will remember that I went there in January and bought a voucher for Sara to go before the end of April). I left home at around 8.30 a.m. and was having a coffee at Holmbush Shopping Centre at Shoreham by 10.30 a.m. I had decided to avoid the main coast road and took the lovely A272 from Stockbridge to Petworth and the A283 down through Pulborough and Storrington to Shoreham. A wise choice. I arrived at the beautiful church (St. Michael's) at Southwick about 20 minutes before the funeral procession arrived. Boyd's coffin was draped in a Union Flag as he was proud of his army service and country. Boyd was my Third Principal when I was First Principal of Preston Park Chapter and we had recently sat next to each other at the last Chapter Meeting. His stroke and sudden death were a shock to us all. He was aged 74. He had been a mechanic and had worked on many films during a career in Hollywood including helping to build and look after Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and various cars of James Bond. Afterwards I joined three colleagues from my Craft Lodge for lunch at the Hove Tandoori in Church Road. We had an excellent and filling meal. I drove back again along the A272 stopping off at Midhurst to visit Middleton Press and pick up a copy of their latest book in the trolleybus series - Manchester and Ashton Trolleybuses. I met Vic Mitchell who started this enormous publishing enterprise many years ago by self-publishing his own railway book about Branch Lines to Midhurst. He was a very jovial and pleasant chap who wanted to show me the whole enterprise. This would have been fascinating but I needed to get on as I had to take Mary to her drama class this evening. I therefore politely made my goodbyes and left saying that perhaps I could visit on another occasion. He let me have the book at discount too! I got back home at 5.50 p.m. and Mary had her tea at Molly's. Richard came round at 8.15 p.m. to discuss the outcome of our meeting on Friday and put together some action plans - which we did. We also managed to drink a bottle of Californian White Zinfandel too! Sara phoned me and told me how her day had gone. She is relaxing well, had eaten venison for the first time tonight and was now going to start to read all the Gospels, one by one, together with the notes from her study bible. I ended the day by watching a fascinating programme on how the Oresund Link between Denmark and Sweden was constructed.
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