I’m an octogenarian ! As of last week. It’s been a long time coming. And I scarcely feel a day over seventy nine. After considering some more up-market options [one restaurant had closed down, another did not open at lunchtime], Susie and I took the train across the iconic Forth Rail Bridge to Aberdour, a station which wins prizes for its flower arrangements.
And we met up with our friends Mike and Wendy, and had lunch at The Sands Cafe. It was excellent: good fish and chips, excellent service, home made ice-cream, and right on the beach overlooking the Forth. It was a glorious sunny day, and my nose has been peeling for the last week.
Celebrations
Susie and I celebrated my birthday and our Golden Wedding Anniversary with a party for seventy people at the former Priestfield Church on the Dalkeith Road. A mix of family and friends. My brother and his wife came from Birmingham, my sister-in-law and daughter from Leamington, the children flew up from down south, and several of Susie’s assorted cousins. Friends came from Edinburgh and from Duns, from Chantilly and Brussels, from Lyon and south-west France.
Priestfield worked well as a venue. The building dates from 1879-80, when it was built to house the Rosehall United Presbyterian Church. It is a complicated Lombardic building with stained glass by Mary Wood and Douglas Strachan. According to a plaque on the wall in a side-room, Susie’s grandparents, the Revd George Percy and Mrs Littlewood, were sent out from Rosehall as missionaries to Manchuria in the early years of the twentieth century. Followed in 1940 by Mr and Mrs Aylwin P. Littlewood, Susie’s uncle and aunt, also sent to Manchuria. It is a good building, and I’d like my funeral to be there. At some unknown future date.’
The church has been through several iterations down the years, most recently as Priestfield Parish Church. There are no longer any Church of Scotland services there following the amalgamation of Priestfield with Craigmillar Park and Mayfield-Salisbury earlier this year. But a Korean congregation worships there. And Newington-Trinity may well meet there for a few months when the heating system at Mayfield-Salisbury is replaced, though to be happening sometime next year.
People drifted in from about midday. The self-service buffet was provided by Nicci, of Butterflies at Marchmont Saint-Giles church. The wine came from Majestic [we have a dozen bottles left over which pleases Susie]. And the soft drinks came from Sainsbury’s. After we had sung Great is Thy Faithfulness, Charlie [Robertson] said Grace, and guests were guided in groups to the buffet.
I had long ago booked SoftShoeShuffle, a skiffle band who play a lot of Lonnie Donegan stuff. But one of them had a stroke, and in their place we had SwingCo, an all octogenarian jazz quartet. Astonishingly the bass player told us he was ninety-three. They played a mix of jazz classics, and Stranger on the Shore. And were excellent.
After which our friend Rebecca, originally from South Carolina but now living somewhere near Limoges, sang a collection from The Great American Song Book. Accompanied by Phil, who was at CH some fifteen years after me, and who was a one-time member at St Andrew’s, Linton Road, north Oxford. Mainly stuff by George Gershwin and Cole Porter. Starting with Summertime. And including True Love from High Society. Which encouraged us to release our inner Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. There is said to be a video of the whole event in preparation. Enormous thanks to Kenny, and to Carole and Michelle and Jade, and to David, who helped the event go so well.
Life Goes on
Since the celebration we have been to a couple of events at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival. First to hear Hamish McGregor and Colin Steele and others pay a Tribute to Ball, Barber, and Bilk. Three of the best known bands of the British Trad Jazz revival of the early 1960s. Good, energetic, New Orleans style stuff. And then to the Classic Jazz Orchestra playing big band stuff by Duke Ellington and Count Basie and others. Both concerts were in the SpiegelTent in St Andrew’s Square. Good venue, but terribly uncomfortable chairs.
In the weeks ahead have three sets of friends coming from Lyon. And I am wondering whether to beg a lift up to Ullapool and Stornaway with my friend Pete in a few days time. It’s a tempting idea. The problem might be getting in and out of the car.
And I’m wondering whether to try and arrange my reading in a more disciplined way over the coming year. Is this the time to look at some of the dozen or more books on my shelves on the Spanish Civil War ? And should I embark on a complete re-read of the Le Carré corpus. A tempting thought. Meanwhile I’m back in the Psalms.
July 2025
Through a glass darkly 