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clicking on an underlined word or phrase takes you there |
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WHAT WE ARE CURRENTLY
READING Dorothy: Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton, and Christopher Brookmyre, Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks Arnold: William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury, and Harry Thompson, Penguins Stopped Play |
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| WHAT WE ARE WATCHING ON TV THIS WEEK - New Tricks, The Bill | |||||
REGULAR COMMITMENTS
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not in the daily diary
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| AUGUST 2008 | APRIL 2008 | ||||
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Tuesday 19 August - Wednesday 20 August Pat Corke arrives to look after Bertie & Hughie. We have lunch at Sam's of Brighton. After stopping in Arundel especially to visit Sparks Yard, we drive on to Goodwood Park Hotel, check in, rest up and then go on to the Chichester Festival Theatre for the production of The Music Man. On Tuesday we shop in Chichester - discovering that the Max Mara shop has closed! - have lunch at Comme Ca and take in the matinee performance of Six Characters in Search of an Author. Then we return home and relieve Pat of her charges. In our absence, the kitchen tiling has been completed. |
Saturday 26 April - Monday 28 April We drive (taking Bertie) to Oxfordshire, stopping for lunch at The Harrow in West Ilsley and going on to stay with Ann & Ian Corbett in Abingdon. We have dinner in: "historic" venison from Finbar the butcher. Much wine is drunk, mostly from near the terroir of the Corbetts' French demesne in Neffiès. On Sunday, we all have lunch at Villa Marina in Henley. A&D have mushroom risotto as a main course.
We still manage a little cold meat in the
evening and watch an episode of Midsomer Murders, partly filmed
nearby. |
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Saturday 16 August We travel to Wadhurst to Judith & Ron Henderson's, for dinner. Their friends Claire & Harry are there. Dorothy is Judith & Ron's tutor in a literature class. |
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Friday 15 August The kitchen's granite worktops are installed. After three weeks, we can use the kitchen again - once we've fetched its contents back from other rooms and the summer house. All that will then remain for it is tiling and then painting. |
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Wednesday 6 August We have lunch at Ann & Geoff Yates's in Kingston. Geoff and Arnold walk Bertie at great length on the Downs. |
Friday 25 April We learn that Bimsells is sold ("completion"). We walk about Lewes and shop. Bertie familiarises himself with the scent of local dogs. |
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Saturday 2 August We go to Debbie Haffenden's 50th at Heather & Nigel Harper's Carter's Corner Farm in Cowbeech. After a thoroughly damp morning, the rain holds off (just), |
Thursday 24 April
We take Hughie to Coopers Croft Cattery, where he will spend the next month in luxury, in his two-room chalet. Niamh Layberry - Tails on Trails - returns Bertie to us. He's been looked after by her for the three days of the movers' work, including a "sleepover" (as the young Layberrys call it). We hand the keys to Bimsells over to the estate agent, who'll pass them to the new owners (Carole & Tony Realff) when our lawyer gets the money. We drive with Bertie to Ann & Geoff Yates's in Kingston nr Lewes, where we're staying until our home in Lewes is ready for our occupation (23 May) and we have dinner with them. |
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| JULY 2008 | |||||
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Thursday 31 July We take Oscar, Katie & Natalie to see Wall·E at Cineworld in the Brighton Marina, a slum, then return to Grange Road, where Arnold roasts two chickens for dinner for 7. |
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Monday 28 July The kitchen is torn out. This week: plasterer, floorers. Arnold paints ceiling and walls. We will eat out (or from take-aways) until normal service is restored, sometime in August. (Indian, Thai, pizza, other Italian, kebabs, Chinese: all within 3-5 minutes' walk.) |
Tuesday 22 April We have dinner with Moira & Goff Bowles at the Brewers Arms in Vines Cross. |
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Saturday 26 July We have supper at Delia & John Venables' in Lewes. Their friends Mary & Peter and the Hillmans are there. Arnold and Rodney Hillman were colleagues in English at Sussex University. See Delia Venables' legal website. |
Sunday 20 April We share a table at the Merrie Harriers with Pippa Cross & Graham Lee. It's the annual presentation dinner at which the Merrie Harriers Bonfire Society distributes grants to worthy local area causes. One of the grants is to the Herstmonceux Village Information Centre. |
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Thursday 24 July Moira & Goff Bowles from Cowbeech come to lunch in the garden at Eastport Lane. The sun shines. |
Thursday 17 April We have dinner at Mary Ann & Dave Gordon's in the village, with Linda & Peter Sangster. Between the Merrie Harriers Bonfire Society, Herstmonceux Parish Council and the Herstmonceux Village Information Centre, we all have many inter-related connections. |
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Wednesday 23 July Dorothy has lunch with Hilary Newman at The Real Eating Company. |
Tuesday 15 April The Eastbourne Forum for Older People, which Arnold chaired for the past three years, is stood down, in the light of the previous day's creation of the organisation to supersede it (see 14 April).
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Saturday 19 July Arnold, Tom, Oscar & Natalie walk to The Dripping Pan and watch Lewes Rooks play Brighton & Hove Albion (the Seagulls) in a friendly match. Score: 1-1. Lewes go ahead but Brighton equalise with two minutes to play. (The ground is a 5-minute walk from 24 Eastport Lane.) Dorothy, Jackie & Katie walk Bertie and do girlie things.
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Thursday 17 July We have hair seen to at The Chapel in Tunbridge Wells followed by lunch at Thackerays. A five-weekly ritual. |
Monday 14 April Arnold attends the launch of Eastbourne Seniors Association. See Tuesday 15 April. |
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Tuesday 15 July Arnold attends the funeral of Cedric Grant, who was a member of the psaEastbourne Support Group. |
Friday 4 April We have hair seen to at The Chapel in Tunbridge Wells, followed by lunch at Thackerays. In the early evening Arnold attends the farewell reception at Age Concern Eastbourne for Richard Drinkall, retiring CEO. |
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Saturday 12 July We go to a Lewes Liberal Democrats buffet. (Dorothy is a card-carrying party member.) The local MP, Norman Baker, is a Lib Dem - and he is there. Among others we meet Delia & John Venables. John and Arnold were colleagues at Sussex University, being "senior tutors" for science and arts respectively - liaison with student activities. |
Tuesday 1 April Friends Ann & Geoff Yates from Kingston (nr Lewes) come to Bimsells for lunch. Afterwards, Geoff & Arnold take Bertie for a walk. |
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| MARCH 2008 | |||||
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Friday 11 July Bertie, minding his own doggie business on a walk with Dorothy, is set upon by a rottweiler in Cliffe High Street, Lewes. Lunging at Bertie, the bitch knocks Dorothy to the ground. She suffers abrasions and limps; Bertie is punctured and bleeds a little. The owners are unable to control their dog, who continues to lunge forward. Passersby offer help and tell the owners what they think of them but the owners leave without giving their names - or any apology. Arnold reports the attack to the police. We have drinks at Ann & Jonathan Thomas's, neighbours on Southover High Street. Other neighbours there, some recently met (Anna & Nick Milner-Gulland), some previously unmet (John, Moya, Paul), and our mutual friends Ann & Geoff Yates. |
Monday 31 March At 3pm we exchange contracts to purchase 24 Eastport Lane, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1TL. See 23 May for moving day. |
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Friday 28 March After a visit to our solicitors Griffith Smith Conway in Hove to sign house purchase contract papers.
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Wednesday 9 July
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Thursday 27 March Arnold attends the retirement party for Lesley Goble, leaving the Eastbourne Association of Voluntary Services after 8 years as CEO. (Arnold is a trustee of EAVS.) |
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Saturday 22 March Our 45th wedding anniversary: a very good dinner at the Brewers Arms in Vines Cross. |
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Saturday 5 July The house alarm goes off (though un-set) and deafens the neighbourhood. (Faultily impossible to turn off.) Waiting for the repairman, we miss the monthly Lewes Farmers' Market. Dorothy makes the rounds of neighbours, apologising for the continuing din. In the afternoon we go across the road to the Southover School grounds for the annual fete - Oscar, Katie & Natalie all attend the school. Tom & Katie run the tombola (Arnold wins a bottle of lemonade); Jackie oversees various child-run stalls. Oscar & Natalie lollop about, sumo-wrestle in fat suits. We have lunch at the fete: curry etc provided by Chaula of Lewes. Dorothy wins a CD/clock/radio for the best limerick by an adult. (At last year's she won a hamper of food in the raffle.) |
Thursday 20 March After their final session - on selections from Ulysses and Gravity's Rainbow - Arnold's Hastings & St Leonards WEA Class on Comic Fictions takes him to lunch at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill.
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Wednesday 2 July Hughie - our siamese - goes to vet for the extraction of six teeth. Recovers. |
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Tuesday 1 July Anna & Nick Milner-Gulland, our new Lewes neighbours, come for morning coffee. In the 1960s/70s Arnold was a colleague of Nick's brother Robin at Sussex University. |
Tuesday 11 March
Today, Thursday and Friday Arnold helps staff a stand at Eastbourne District General Hospital in aid of Prostate Cancer Awareness Week and to raise funds for a portable bladder scanner. Arnold manages www.psaEastbourne.org.uk. |
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| JUNE 2008 | |||||
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Monday 30 June Ann Williams, formerly our Cowbeech neighbour, comes for morning coffee. |
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Saturday 28 June We see the ENO (co-)production of Bernstein and Wilbur (et al)'s Candide at the Coliseum in London. The Times review was too negative: it deserves a additional star.... |
Sunday 9 March Lunch at Bimsells for Hilary & George Newman, Joyce Barlow & Richard Kemp, and Pippa Cross & Graham Lee. Dorothy serves |
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Thursday 26 June We go to lunch to Pat & Robin Charlton's in Lewes. Other guests are Bet & Tony Ingalls, Linda & Willy Lamont and Ann & Geoff Yates. Just warm enough to eat outdoors. |
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Sunday 22 June We go to an early evening WEA reception for the Lewes Branch committee and tutors. Arnold is a tutor. Meet both species: some of the committee are Arnold's students. |
Wednesday 5 March Arnold goes to the University of Sussex to hear the inaugural lecture for the new Cunliffe Centre for the Study of the American South. (Arnold was Marcus Cunliffe's colleague at both Manchester and Sussex universities from 1961 to 1974.) Eric Foner of Columbia University lectures on Abraham Lincoln and (slave) colonisation. Afterwards, Goff Bowles collects Arnold at Falmer Station and they go to hear the Red Priest baroque ensemble at Brighton College. |
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Friday 20 June Despite having tickets, we don't go to see the The Rude Mechanical Theatre Company in the grounds of Lewes Castle. Cold, damp, threatening weather. Hope to catch them later this season, perhaps at their Rushlake Green evening. |
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Monday 16 June Bertie has thrown a wobbly, tossing his cookies, etc etc, taking himself to bed, rejecting all food. It reminds us of when he was so poorly as a pup. We take him to a Lewes vet who advises "watchful waiting" for a gastric upset. He's right: by Wednesday/Thursday B is his old enthusiastic self. |
Tuesday 4 March Dorothy out to lunch to help plan her Crowborough class's field trip to Venice in September. (It was going to have been New York City. Go figure!) |
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Sunday 15 June We go to Cowbeech for John Cobb's 70th birthday lunch party. All Cowbeech's movers & shakers are there. In the evening Arnold goes to the Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra Summer Concert. |
Monday 3 March Sheila & Frank Dickenson take us to the Garden Restaurant in the Grand Hotel, Eastbourne, for lunch. (Frank was Director of North Staffordshire Polytechnic - now Staffordshire University - when Arnold worked for the Council for National Academic Awards and was the poly's "chief inspector".) Many years later, Arnold recruited Frank to be a trustee of the Eastbourne Seniors Club. |
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Friday 13 June We have hair seen to at The Chapel in Tunbridge Wells followed by a "free" three-course lunch at Thackerays: Dorothy had won the April prize draw. |
FEBRUARY 2008 | ||||
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Wednesday 4 June In the evening, Joyce Barlow & Richard Kemp come to Eastport Lane for drinks. |
Thursday 28 February We meet ten people for early dinner at Carluccio's in Brighton - five of whom were Arnold's colleagues at Sussex between 1966 and 1974. Afterwards we all see the Peter Hall production of Uncle Vanya at the Theatre Royal. Afterwards, Jennifer Platt asks Dorothy & Arnold to review the production for the SussEX newsletter. To read the review, CLICK HERE. |
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Tuesday 3 June Dorothy and others who do lunch lunch at Sue Hanley's. |
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Monday 2 June We attend David Williams's funeral, returning afterwards to Cowbeech with other mourners. David & Ann were neighbours and friends for our 10+ years in Cowbeech. |
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Sunday 1 June We return to Cowbeech for lunch in the garden at Karen & Roger Wintle's. |
Tuesday 26 February We have our regular monthly lunch with our friends Ann & Geoff Yates, at their home in Kingston nr Lewes. |
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| MAY 2008 |
Friday 22 February We have hair seen to at The Chapel in Tunbridge Wells, followed by lunch at Thackerays. |
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Saturday 31 May We have dinner at Hilary & George Newman's in Langton Green with friends Linn Lee, David and Chris. |
Sunday 17 February We have lunch at Moira & Goff Bowles's with Trish Radcliffe and Sue & James Pollard. 5hrs - wow. |
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Sunday 25 May Tom Jackie Oscar Katie & Natalie come to lunch at Eastport Lane, bringing lunch with them. We eat in garden. |
Wednesday 13 February Dorothy goes to her friend (and student) Linn Lee's for lunch with some of the "Crowborough study trip group" (see India and Florence). Afterwards they watch the film of The Wings of the Dove. Cultured or what? |
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Friday 23 May We move to 24 Eastport Lane, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1TL. Tel. +44 (0)1273 478470.
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Wednesday 6 February Arnold and Goff Bowles go to Brighton College to hear the wind quintet, the Galliard Ensemble in a programme of Mozart, Ibert, Grainger, Arnold and Berio. |
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Sunday 3 February Arnold goes to the final round of the 2008 Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist of the Year Competition. Adds winners to ESO website. |
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| JANUARY 2008 | |||||
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Sunday 27 January We see Sweeney Todd at Cineworld in the Crumbles, Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne.
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Monday 12 May - Monday 19 May: trip
to New York On Monday we leave Bertie with Niamh Layberry (Tails on Trails) in Foul Mile, Cowbeech, and drive to Gravetye Manor near East Grinstead for lunch.
Afterwards we carry on to the Holiday Inn
at Gatwick Airport, where we stay the night.
- first stopping at an outdoor
health & safety voluntary organisations festival. (Arnold collects
pamphlets about American and local older people's organisations for
www.olderpeoplesweb.org.uk.)
After a late
burger lunch in a retro diner, we rest up for the wedding itself, which
begins at the Woodbury Jewish Centre
at 9pm. Very impressive wedding ceremony and astounding party blast
follows. It lasts until 3am - we last until 1.30am. |
Monday 21 January Friends Ann & Geoff Yates from Kingston (nr Lewes) come to Bimsells for lunch. Afterwards, Geoff & Arnold walk Bertie, but return home when (as so often) it starts to rain. |
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Friday 18 January Arnold being at a meeting, Dorothy goes to The Chapel in Tunbridge Wells to have her hair cut, etc. |
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Thursday 17 January Dorothy being at a Wealden Citizens Advice meeting, Arnold joins Pippa Cross & Graham Lee at the Merrie Harriers curry evening. All Cowbeech's movers & shakers are present. |
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Tuesday 15 January Arnold being at a meeting, Dorothy provides lunch at Bimsells for the six members of her Crowborough class who constitute the field trip group (previous visits India, Florence). They plan for New York City in September. |
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Thursday 10 January We go to The Merrie Harriers in Cowbeech to see PanDEMONium in Pantoland.
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Saturday 5 January We go to Jerry Noble's 60th birthday lunch party at Selmeston Village Hall. Jerry is a fellow magistrate and Citizens Advice member with Dorothy. |
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| DECEMBER 2007 | |||||
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Sunday 30 December After breakfast, OKN open Christmas gifts from their Litlington cousins, brought back by A&D on Boxing Day.
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Saturday 29 December We attend neighbours Marie & John Cobb's drinks party serially in order to care for Oscar Katie & Natalie, left with us while Tom & Jackie tootle off to a wedding (they claim). OKN stay the night. |
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Friday 9 May Dorothy has hair seen to at The Chapel in Tunbridge Wells and Arnold at Toni & Guy in Eastbourne. Too many commitments to join forces, so no lunch at Thackerays. [We later learn that we have won their April draw, entitling us to a free lunch for two.] |
Boxing Day 26 December After breakfast. We leave (with Bertie) for Litlington in Cambridgeshire and Nick Cathy Alice Poppy & Evan's, while TJOKN depart for J's parents' in Sevenoaks. Cathy's parents Clare & Ian Smith and brother Louis & sister Claudia arrive for drinks. (Parents over from new home in Portugal and staying nearby with another of Cathy's sisters & her family.) We exchange gifts, including those we've brought with us from TJOKN, and have lunch (Nick cooks salmon). We walk to the recreation ground for Evan - & Nick - to try out our gift, a remote-controlled model plane. We return for Christmas cake, watch Cathy's local scouts play on DVD, drive home. |
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Friday 2 May - Sunday 4 May We drive from Kingston to Litlington in Cambridgeshire for a weekend with Nick Cathy Alice Poppy & Evan. On Friday evening we go with Nick & Cathy to the Waggon & Horses in Steeple Morden for dinner. (Alice is in the kitchen and serving customers.) On Saturday, Dorothy & Alice go shopping in Cambridge; Cathy goes to London to give a talk; Arnold, Nick, Evan and Bertie walk to the quarry. In the evening Nick cooks a pork rib roast. On Sunday we go to the Farmer's Market in Royston, have lunch and return to Kingston. Arnold misses the exit for the M25 London orbital road - why didn't the satnav tell him what to do? We travel instead via the excruciatingly busy London North and South Circular Roads, the satnav trying all the while to reroute us to the M25. |
Christmas Day We open stocking gifts. Tom Jackie Oscar Katie & Natalie arrive for champagne (adults) & Christmas lunch. Dorothy has roasted a duck. Crackers are pulled, Christmas pudding lit, etc etc. We open gifts, watch Dr Who -
- and yet more Strictly Come Dancing. TJOKN stay overnight. |
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Sunday 23 December 75 friends & neighbours come to Bimsells for drinks. |
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Thursday 1 May We take our Kingston hosts Ann & Geoff Yates to dinner at Chaula's Indian restaurant in Lewes. Arnold had been bringing home Chaula's takeaways and sweets after his Friday morning Lewes classes. |
Wednesday 19 December We have lunch with our friends Ann & Geoff Yates at their home in Kingston nr Lewes. They are expecting the birth of a grandchild in Chicago. [Born later, a boy, Luca, mother & child etc.] |
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