Georgie pitched a random question. “Are you and Mary free down our way on 18 July
or 31 July?” Last year about this time,
she and Gav had thoughtfully (and generously) arranged a day out at Blenheim
Palace. This time, I suspected a family evening
meal invitation, probably courtesy of some coupon offer. It happened that Mary and I were due to pick
up new flat keys locally, and we could well be free. Georgie didn’t elaborate. Ten days or so later she texted a photo of
some Derngate Theatre tickets for An
evening with Ranulph Fiennes.
There’s something of a history behind this. I met the great man at a Heating and Plumbing
trade exhibition in London’s Olympia, quite a few years ago. In an effort to boost attendances, the event
organisers arrange celebrities to drop in at some point, and they promote
accordingly. I’d got fed up with manning
our Atmos stand, and repeatedly explaining why we offered 28kw and 32kw units
but and not 35kw ones. I sneaked off
round the back of the exhibition displays, and found Sir Ran in the
sparsely-attended seminar area. He supplied
entertaining anecdotes and we had a chat afterwards.
Then Jack bought me a copy of his (to my mind overpriced)
Beyond the Limits book for a birthday
present. Soon after, Danny – who met Sir
Ran in a similarly serendipitous way to my own – kindly bought me a second
copy. Finally, Dave bought me a CD set of
after-dinner talks for Christmas.
My 70th birthday was looming (2015). Lizzie wished to get me something ‘a bit
different’. She’d already offered to
sponsor me to climb Kilimanjaro. It
happened that I was due to be in Kenya with Multiply that year. I was very
tempted. She sent a pair of Crucible
Theatre tickets for An evening with... After much umming and ahhing about other commitments,
I passed them to Viv and Kat. They had a
great time. Having mentioned Kilimanjaro
at the merchandise table, they presented me with a third – autographed – copy
of Beyond.
Years have passed since our last visit to Derngate. We had to park some distance away because of
the roof-box fitted on the car.
Knowing some of the blokish references in the CDs, I
wondered if the evening would leave Mary blushing. But she enjoyed every minute of it. Best was the, “Then he began to whinge,”
story. With slow deliberate movements
across the stage, Sir Ran looked as though age was catching up with him. Maybe it was the sum of skin grafts on his
feet. His achievements have been
monumental. He remains a remarkable once-in-a-generation
figure.
Later, we had our own little adventure on the way to
spend the night in Coventry. I took the
Nissan Leaf on from work, while Mary kept our Zafira. The electric car charging point at Kings was
inaccessibly blocked in by wheelie bins. We all have our challenges. Thank you for the treat, Georgie.
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