Jake at the theatre

Dear Gran,

Jake is currently obsessed with the book "Room on the Broom". I'm not sure if you ever came across it, but it's a fun story involving witches and dragons and friendship, and Jake will have one of us read this story to him three or four times a week. He's recently decided that each of us is now a character, so Kelsey's the witch, I'm the dragon, he's the cat, Sophie is the frog and Hobbes is the dog, of course. I had heard of a walking trail where the characters and storyline had been set up around a park, and started to look for it online, and by accident discoverd that there was a Room on the Broom stage show that had rave reviews from the West End and was coming north to Chesterfield. The internet being what it is, I had tickets booked in under 5 minutes and we went to the 10.30 matinee this morning.

You would have had a whale of time. It was short, only an hour, but perfectly pitched for kids with all the characters as they appear in the book as puppets, lots of songs and some funny dialogue to keep us adults amused. Jake sat mesmerised through the whole thing, cuddling Hobbes on my lap so he could see over the tall person in front. He had this wonderful look of concentration and a permanent grin as he recognised bits of the story coming to life, and couldn't take his eyes off the stage. It was a brilliant introduction to theatre for him, and I sat enthralled too, wishing that you had been able to take him and see the look of sheer joy on his face.

I also started him on the tradition of a small pot of ice cream to go with, though the train timings meant that we stuffed ourselves on the ride home with delight. Jake babbled about various bits all the way back, telling me how Hobbes had shouted at the dragon to go away and how the dog was very silly. It was interesting trying to describe what would happen in the theatre to him on the way there, but now he's been once, I'm on the look out for his next performance. It may be a while till we get to Alan Acykbourn and G&S shows, but we've started off in the right place.

Ben

Thank you Gran part 2

Like in Emma's post, we received Gran's life-changing legacy today. I would much rather be able to pick up the phone (or more likely email as phoning was always difficult with my deep rumbling voice) and talk to her about everything, but her spirit lives on through her generosity. Her words about a life changing amount of money in our thirties ring in my ears, and today marks the next step in our big adventure next year by becoming debt free (bar the mortgage). I've carefully balanced budgets, made cuts and wrote more rubbish on the internet than you could search in a lifetime to get to this stage, but to get across the debt-free finish line with 9 months to go is life changing for so many reasons. It's a massive weight off my mind, it allows us to live off our incomes even when Kelsey drops to SMP in September and means that once we sell up here, we can turn up in America with a massive nest egg and owe nothing to anybody. What a start to our new life! Gran, you probably would have liked the difference you're making, but I can assure you that I (and my little family) will always be grateful.

It's also not all about sensible finances. Jake is currently obsessed with Room on the Broom, so Gran is paying for me to take him to his first theatre trip on Friday to see the live version. We may even buy small ice creams at the interval, and I will definitely have my G&S CD on full blast on the ride there and back.

Thank you, Gran

Today some of Gran's amazing generosity has turned into a transformational amount in my bank account. This will let us all do all sorts of brilliant things, from the highly-pragmatic-and-boring-but-very-very-sensible (mortgage overpayment 1 now made, ISAs filled...) to enjoying some more frivolous moments - I have a feeling Aliya's dream trip to Mexico to Chihuahua state may be funded by Gran.

I'd give anything to have a happy and healthy Gran instead but as we can't have that, I will have to settle for knowing that she will live on through the changes she will help us make.

Thank you Gran. I love you.

Caz in concert ...

Gran's bequests ...

Gran left three bequests to charity: Woodland Trust, Retirement Education Centre and BMK Waterway. Here is the reply from the REC: she would have like to know this!

Dear John and Jane,

Thank you for your very kind letter and the cheque for £10,000  bequeathed by your Mother, Margaret Harden, which we have received with grateful thanks.

We are about to embark on a major development at the Centre to provide two new classrooms for art and fitness, as well as improvements for access and catering and generally bring the buildings in line with current legislation. The bequest will go a very long way towards these improvements and I will keep you informed as we progress. Hopefully, in the not too distant future we will be able to invite you and your families to the unveiling.

New Generations Concert

Today I conducted my last concert for NMPAT, using Gran's baton. She came to see me conduct the County Junior Wind Orchestra in March 2014 at the Royal & Derngate Theatre in Northampton, where she took us as kids to see musicals! I thought of her a lot today, and hope I would have made her proud.