Dear Liam and Francesca,

Today was a bit of a special day for us, this was the day we got married, 45 years ago. Yes, it was our Wedding Anniversary. It’s one of those days when, even though it was 45 years ago, you can remember everything you did that day. It would have been nice for you all to have been here to have a bit of a family celebration.

I do hope that you’ve had better weather than us today. It’s been really wet and miserable. Tonight, on the way to the band, I had to have my car lights on. That’s the first time for months.

We got a new set of phones today as we got so fed up with the old phones not working. We were really surprised when we took them back. They didn’t argue at all, just said, go and get new ones for the same price. The new ones seem to work OK. All we need now is to hear the phone ringing and for someone to say, Hello, Grandma and Grandad. We dream of that happening. We hope it will.

I finished the next version of my novel today and sent it off to get some copies printed so that my friends can comment on it. I hope they like it.

We’re off to bed now so sleep tight and have wonderful dreams,
Night, night,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Francesca and Liam,

We’re back at home now and starting to get back to normal. We’re starting to realise that it’s near the end of the summer holidays and that this is our second summer without you. We have our memories of you and those are a comfort and we treasure those memories of you both, but you’ll both have changed a lot since we last saw you. And you, Liam, do you still remember us? I do hope so.

I hope that you’ve got a nice day planned and that you both have a lovely time,
Bye for now,
Lots of love from,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Liam and Francesca,

Today we played our music in Barry, just a bit further up the coast. It was raining cats and dogs when we arrived in Barry and we thought we might have to cancel the concert, but by the time we were all ready it stopped raining.

This was at their first Barry Street Festival. We played outside the Town Hall in a square. To start things off, we marched up the street and then played a couple of numbers at the end of the road. Grandma was pulling the little trolley with the amplifier on it. She was quite busy as Kath and I had to swap instruments for different numbers and Grandma had to hold our spare instruments for us while we were playing. Kath played the salpinx quite a lot of the time.

We then marched back to the Town Square and played for twenty minutes there. Then we had a rest while another group played just up the road. After that we played twice more, just for twenty minutes. It was good that they’d put up a gazebo for us on the square as it rained really heavily between two of our sets and we’d left the instruments there.

Quite a lot of people came up to us and said how they’d enjoyed our playing as they didn’t get music there very often. I don’t think many had heard our kind of music before. Two young girls came up and talked to us after the second set, one was eight and one ten, you’ll never guess who they reminded me of!

We’d worried about the weather when we arrived but we didn’t have to. Every time we were due to play, it stopped raining and the sun came out. I think that everyone enjoyed the gig.

After we’d finished playing, we drove over to Barry Island to eat and Grandma remembered it well. Do you know that, when I did my PhD, we spent our holidays travelling all over Europe so that I could look at instruments. We did that for several years and, when I’d finished, we asked your Daddy and his brother where they wanted to go for our holiday and they said to a holiday camp. So, guess where we went. We went to Butlins at Barry Island.

We took Grandma and Grandad and your cousin, Joanne with us and I think that our two dear boys had a really good time. It was at the time of a kind of music called ‘Disco’ and we heard nothing else for a week. It was around the time of the movie called ‘Grease’. They did all sorts of different things and quite a lot of swimming. It was a long, long time ago but we can still remember it. Perhaps one day, if you ever read this, you can ask your Daddy if he remembers it too.

We’re back home now and pretty tired so we’re off to bed. Hope you’re both tucked up safely in bed,
Night, night and lots and lots of love from,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Francesca and Liam,

Today we travelled to Wales and to our guest house in Porthcawl. They were having a new Arts Festival there and had asked us to play in The Grand Pavilion. This is quite a beautiful old building with a lovely hall inside. It has seating all round and a stage at one end. They’d been holding an event for children there and had built a model town in the middle of the hall. Each child had made their own building to put there. Some had made houses and there was a fire station and a mountain with sheep on it, all sorts of buildings, it was really nice.

Part of our job was to get people into the building from outside so we walked some way along the promenade and then marched all the way back, playing. We got a hundred or so people inside and then did our performance. There were a lot of children there and quite a lot of them were dancing. It makes it much easier to play, you know, if people are dancing. I think that you two would have loved it.

In the evening, we went down to the beach and then walked along the seafront. Tomorrow, we’re off to Barry, keep you posted.

All our love,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Liam and Francesca,

Today we set off on our TSMB mini-tour to Bristol and Wales. We went to Bristol in a mini-bus which the band had hired hired and then had a walk around the city. We weren’t very far from where we think you are, hope you’re not out in the rain. It rained quite a lot where we were but we were lucky that we were inside when it rained really badly.

We remember bits of Bristol from when your Daddy was at university there and we used to visit him.

In the evening, we played in a place called The Canteen. It was set up like a works canteen but had a stage at one side. At first when you walked in, it didn’t look great but as it started to fill with people, it turned into a great venue. The crowd were all dancing so it was a good evening.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Wales, keep you posted,
Bye,
Love Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Francesca and Liam,

This is our 550th Letter to you. I Know that it’s not long after the year and a half anniversary but it’s another one of those milestones, isn’t it?

We’re off tomorrow, to Bristol where we’re playing in the evening. On Sunday, we’re playing in Portcawl in Wales and then on Monday, in Barry. I don’t know if we’ll manage to get to an internet connection so we might have to catch up a couple of days when we get back. Whatever happens, you know that we’ll be thinking of you.

Have a really lovely weekend,
Bye my dear Grandchildren,
Love,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Liam and Francesca,

That time of day again when I write to you. Will I ever run out of things to say? What should I say.? What would you like me to say? I don’t know the answers to any of those questions. In fact, I don’t know if you will ever actually read any of the things that I’ve written.

I picked a few pears today. I know that you’re not supposed to pick them until the 25th of September but there’s so many on the tree that I thought that it would give some of the smaller ones a chance to grow if I removed some of the big ones. I’ve put them in the dark in the cubby hole for a couple of weeks then I’ll try them.

I still dream that you’ll be hear to help me pick the rest as you did a couple of years ago. I’m allowed to dream, aren’t I?

Oh well, have lovely dreams and I’ll write tomorrow, night, night,
Grandma and Grandad xxx

Dear Francesca and Liam,

It’s very late tonight when I’m writing as I’ve just got back from a gig. We were playing tonight to launch our first CD. It’s quite exciting seeing the finished thing after lots and lots of work and it was great to finally launch it.

We played at The Strongroom which was where we made the original recording and the venue was absolutely crowded. It was a good audience.

Tonight, I played the sax quite a bit and felt more like part of the band again. Guess I’ve just got to keep practising. I’m off to bed now, Grandma is in the land of nod, so

Night night you pair, sleep tight,
Love from
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Liam and Francesca,

How was your day today. Hope it was an exciting one. That’s what your holiday are for, isn’t it?

Today, I kept trying to get on with my book for Middlesex but kept getting interrupted by people asking me to do things. You know, when you grow up, if you get good at something, just keep it a secret – it makes life much easier!

I did my practice on the sax today, as usual but had to change reeds as the old one wasn’t working very well. It took me sometime to get the new one working and that was a bit frustrating. However, it’s working now. The trouble is, I don’t know that much about sax playing. I wonder how good I’ll be by the time we meet again. Who knows, I could be brilliant or too old to play any more, that’s if we ever meet again.

I will try to dream tonight that we’ll meet again soon, what will you dream of. Something nice, I hope. I don’t know if that would include meeting us again or if you’ve managed to replace us in your life. I wouldn’t blame you if you had, you’re too young to worry about such things. Perhaps we’re too old. Who knows?

Sleep tight, my darlings, lovely, lovely dreams,
We love you, always,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Francesca and Liam,

Thomas asked about you today. He came to stay with us for the day. He asked why he never sees you any more. He knows you live a long way from London, about five hours drive away. He asked why we couldn’t travel for two and a half hours and you do the same and then we meet in the middle. I think that he really misses you.

We worked a bit on his web site this morning and put some stuff on about animals. Then we went to Aldenham Country Park. Do you remember going there when all the blackberries were ripe. We picked loads and you, Francesca ate loads on our way round the 100 Aker Wood. We had a picnic on the grass, looked at the farm animals and then went in the adventure playground. We all enjoyed it very much.

After that, we went to the RAF Museum and had another look round. There’s quite a lot of new things to see there since you last went. Thomas went on the simulator again with Grandma. He really likes that. I didn’t go, it’s much too rough for me!

Thomas and Grandma then walked home from the museum while I drove the car. When your Uncle Joachim came to pick up Thomas he also gave me a lift right over to near Stratford where we’d got a rehearsal.

It’s been quite a long day and now I’m really ready for bed. Hope you’re sleeping soundly and dreaming of what you’ll do tomorrow,
Night night from Grandma and Grandad and Thomas sends his love too. xxxx