It’s David Garrett’s 74th birthday today.

Many years ago I was at St John’s College in Cambridge with David. We were both members of the choir and boarded at the school attached to the college on Grange road. David’s family lived in Papworth Everard.

David and I were close and on the odd weekend when we had a day off David invited me to come and spend the day with his family. His father was the vicar of the local church.

We drifted apart and didn’t see each other until the summer of 1991 when Doctor George Guest retired from the role of director of music at St John’s.

Since then we re established our relationship. In 1991 we re established the Choir Association with a small team of which David was a part. We had regular meetings and quickly started what we called “The London Lunch” which was initially held on any Friday the 13th…. and eventually was established in Dec as near to David’s birthday as possible. This year it was 12th Dec which no one was able to attend….

A day in London

Val has planned a short day.

12th December 2025 . An early start and an 8.00 am train from Norwich to London Liverpool Street.

The 22 building

Our first stop is the 22 building. It has one of the highest observation platforms in London.

It’s an amazing place. Well worth a visit. The views of the river are absolutely magnificent and from here it’s the second highest viewpoint of London after The Shard.

A short walk away was our next destination and was kept secret from me. We are going to one New Change which apparently is a shopping centre with an observation platform.

So this is another one of London’s hidden gems. Well worth a look, especially for the views  of St Pauls

Our next stop is “Imad’s Syrian Kitchen” on Carnaby Street. It’s a 2-mile walk so we’re just having a look at some stores and then we’ll set off in that direction.

We arrived. It’s heaving with people which I suppose tells you how popular it is. I chose the express lunch and chose lamb which is pretty rare for me. Val chose the vegetarian express.

You can read my review on the Google reviews page…..

After a fabulous meal we walked to covent garden and had a little wander in the opera house and the stalls around the market.

Our journey then took us from Covent Garden back to Liverpool St station. We had time to kill so we ducked into the golden arches for ice cream…..

Waiting for our train

This is the end. We’re on the train heading home. Merry Christmas and happy 74th to David G for Sunday 14th

Journalling

I read today that people who keep a journal/diary are much less likely to suffer from dementia. 

As you may know over a long time I’ve tried to keep this blog going. I don’t find it easy keeping a diary. Lol, my life isn’t that interesting. I have several blogs on blogger. see https://peter-ball.blogspot.com/

We are thinking about our friend Susan in Seattle who is undergoing treatment for cancer. Our hopes are with her.

Val has gone to York to see Lizzie and the family. Lizzie recently had an accident and broke her ankle which has stopped her, James and William coming down to Norfolk to see us and the rest of the family. I’m here to keep an eye on Bob 🙂

We visited the Houses of Parliament

 Today Val and I were in London to meet our local Member of Parliament (Ben Goldsborough). Neither of us had been before and so we really didn’t know what to expect. 

We had been given instruction from Ben’s personal secretary Cathy on what to do, where to go and what time to be there. We were instructed to go to Portcullis House on Victoria Embankment where we went through security. This was similar to any national airport. Once we had passed through we rang Cathy and she came down to meet us and take us through the corridors of power. At that point Ben wasn’t around as he was travelling in from Norfolk. Despite that, Cathy proved to be a worthy guide and a font of information. We were ushered through chamber after chamber where unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures.

After sometime Ben arrived and we established that he is a parliamentary history nerd 😁

We did manage to take a few pictures at the end of our visit. It was thoroughly enjoyable and we hope to revisit in the summer of 2026.

Zoe have been Testing my poo

I’ve been a member of the ZOE programme for quite a considerable time. In Dec last year I signed up to a programme where they test me on a 3 monthly basis. The initial test is for blood sugar and testing poo for microbes positive and negative.

I had tests done in Dec 24, April 25, July 25 and this month Oct 25. The results have been very interesting. Currently ZOE tell me I have 33 out of 50 good bacteria (that they have identified). The bad bacteria has risen to 11 out of 50 (5 up from last time)