Hazel’s Christmas letter 2022

Stepping towards “times before Covid”

This was a year where both Stephen and I were finally able to start doing more things outside the house. We returned to some of our favourite restaurants, I went to the Bach B minor mass at the Proms, and I started travelling again for work. We drove to Brecon and enjoyed the Brecon Visitor Centre out of season, and also to North Wales. Liz came to us in the summer and we revisited the Henry Moore Foundation gardens in Perry Green, and  Sissinghurst Gardens in Kent, both the first time for Liz. Stephen spent longer than planned with Liz in North Wales during September because we all got Covid. Liz hadn’t had a spring booster like us, and had worse symptoms. Meanwhie I got to Dublin before I succumbed to it, and spent longer there planned, of which more below.

Last Christmas was unusual as Stephen was in UCH before Christmas having treatment for his early bladder cancer. Since then he has had a lot of immunotherapy, with BCG (Tice for those who know about BCG strains). He is doing fine but it has been a tough year. His sister Liz has also had bad back problems again but before that was back to hill walking and cycling. But still it was a funny year as the world and we are not quite the same as we were in early 2020. The garden improves but is a work in progress, not helped by the foxes and squirrels. And the food at home is mostly just enjoyed by me, gets better and better. Stephen’s love for cookery books and cooking is a great passion to have. 

LSHTM news

Two big changes this year. My overseas role finished at the end of July and I have now reduced my work hours to 0.75fte. This is a work in progress as I still seem to be working full-time, as Stephen predicted, however I can now take time off when I want and do feel more relaxed. 

Jackie Cliff left LSHTM for a permanent Senior Lectureship at Brunel University, and Sook will also move at the end of January 2023. Egle had her PhD viva in September and then left for a post-doctoral position at King’s. All this and my birthday in the summer resulted in a number of celebrations this year. 

Meanwhile LSHTM encouraged us to return to Keppel Street at least two days a week. This still feels strange, especially as using “good” psychology LSHTM introduced a desk booking system, Skedda, so that I now feel my (shared) office isn’t quite my own any more. But overall, despite dealing with the challenges of Decolonisation and Racial Equality, LSHTM continues to thrive.

During the year, I caught up with some ex LSHTM people in the open air of Russell Square or elsewhere – Sara Atkinson (now married to David Wickstead), Jennie Blackwell, Eleanor Riley and Sarwat Jamil from Vancouver who was visiting London with her husband and daughter. 

Challenges for the year to come include completing the 7th Edition rewrite of Mims Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and clearing some of the rubbish in my office.

Back to the airport,

But be careful what you wish for. Heathrow, Dublin and Schiphol airports have all been impacted in various ways with major delays and staff shortages. Some days you had to be glad you could get into the airport, on a day in November the difficulty was getting out of Schiphol. Nevertheless, I made it to Dublin 5 times, as well as to Addis Ababa for an AHRI Scientific Advisory Board, to Seoul and to Stockholm to teach on vaccinology courses,  Washington DC for a BCG meeting and to Leiden for a PhD defence. I don’t think that we will ever return to travelling as much as before Covid. Next year looks quieter. It is odd, the travelling  was challenging at first as I seemed to have lost some of my travel memory, but I have loved getting the company and the variety back.

Family news

My mother, Adrienne, died in July aged 95, which is the end of an era for all of us. She had led an interesting and rewarding life, filled with Rodney, the four of us, and many dearly loved cats and dogs. Derek arranged a lovely and very personal funeral for her, with wild flowers from the West of Ireland, and smoked salmon and rhubarb tart from Bunowen and Clifden as part of the lunch in his garden afterwards. We all managed to get there variously travelling from Heathrow, London City, Bristol, Liverpool and Edinburgh. Adrienne was at home until five days before she died, which is what she wanted. This was only possible with the care and support of Derek who coordinated agency carers four times a day, as well as a live-in carer, and kept 109 running.  We are very grateful for all he did to make this possible.

He did make two trips to Melbourne, in December/January and in October, to see Lucy, Greg and Molly as well as to watch George playing cricket for Ireland. Hayes and Ann moved from Holbrook to Field Assarts near Witney, Vicky, Charlie and Ophelia are still in Wanstead, and Simon, Naomi and Ava live in Timperley; Simon is doing his PhD in neuroanatomy in Manchester. David and Dervil’s son Benjamin moved from Yeovil to be a Foundation Pharmacist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, while Killian is still in Edinburgh where he has completed his LLB in Scots Law, won a John Hastie Scholarship and has a place with a solicitor’s firm. 

Clearing out 109 is a work in progress. Rodney and Adrienne had documented every step of our lives, from school reports, through graduation photos, weddings, house purchases and more. We found books from our childhoods including the Kittie Poosies and The Wise Robin (an early 1950s Ladybird book), Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes (Beatrix Potter) and the Pelham puppets (Pluto, Noddy, Big Ears and the Witch). I found the Lady Gwendoline, my toy boat that sailed on rock pools in Donegal, many years ago. During Adrienne’s lifetime her notebooks and diaries increased enormously in size – in the 1950s they were tiny and over the decades we became profligate with the earth’s resources. We all have so much stuff nowadays and I returned home determined to start on our attic. But you see another side of your parents, not as your mother and father, but as independent people who led busy and varied lives. One skip load and many black bags later, we are making progress but there is still a lot to do. 

Very best wishes for 2023

Life in the UK isn’t quite what it was, with the country less well-off economically and often now regarded with incredulity by those overseas. Not to mention the effects of Brexit and  Ukraine. We are currently faced with strikes of rail workers,, teachers, university staff, nurses and now the Royal Mail. The Royal Mail’s endless price rises with service reductions (some of you may have got cards with curious combinations of stamps) all mean we are reducing our Christmas card list. They have however not understood that smaller means cheaper as you will see if you got a new bar-coded stamp – these enormous stamps are supposedly to prevent people reusing stamps. One Korean collaborator noted that “virtual greetings via email will be sufficient these days although traditional cards are still popular among the elderly people”. Which wouldn’t include us. So if you want to stay in touch, please send us an email address.

So we hope you have a good Christmas, holiday, and New Year…

Best wishes

Hazel

 

Scroll down four sceens to read the whole letter.

Scroll down to see all of each page