Sunday 1st
January 2006
Ian's
idea of shopping
Ian's idea
of shopping was to wake me up the next morning and tell me he had bought
a new camera off QVC during the night (their "Today's Special Value" starts
at midnight). He did this at least two or three times, as he kept
upgrading his camera!
Tuesday
3rd January 2006
A dog
called "Bobby"
One evening last year we were out quite lateish walking Meg, and it was just getting dark. Ian saw a dog loose, and went down a lane after it, leaving Meg with me. He couldn't get the stray dog to come to him, however, but where it was it could not come back out of the lane without coming past Ian. He told me to take Meg home (we were just up the street from our house) and bring back some dog treats so he could entice the dog closer and earn its trust. I did this and he managed to get the dog to come to him. The dog was obviously lost, and several streets away from home, because he was wearing a collar, with a tag on, it said his name was "Bobby", and it gave his address, but no phone number. Well, Ian was quite insistent, we must take the dog back to his home, and so we put the blanket on the back seat of the car, and drove round there. It was getting quite late by this time, it was after 10.00 p.m., and when we arrived at the address, there seemed to be no answer. We thought maybe his owners were out looking for him, and so we waited, maybe half an hour or so. We were getting ready to leave them a note, saying that Bobby had been found, as we did not know how long they would be. Then a car drew up down the street, and a man and a teenage girl got out, and we thought they must be Bobby's owners as they were heading towards the house. We quickly got out of the car and shouted to them, had they lost their dog? We said we had found him and he was in our car. Naturally his owners were very worried what had happened to him, and they had been out all evening looking for him. It seemed he had got out unnoticed when the back door had been left open. Ian always wanted to rescue lost animals.
We chose Meg
from Jay Gee Dog Sanctuary. They have kennels specially for small dogs,
but Meg was actually in the kennels where the big dogs were. It was only
when we introduced Meg to Missy, Ian's dog that he had had since she was
a puppy, that Ian admitted he had thought Meg was the same size as Missy
(who was a chihuahua / Jack Russell cross). I said how could she possibly
be the same size, she was in the big kennels with the other big dogs. Ian
said, "I don't know, I've got no concept of size, I've only got one good
eye! She looked "tiny" in that big cage!" I said that's the last time I
trust Ian to make any decisions based on the size of something. Whenever
Meg did anything naughty, suddenly Ian would say, "YOUR dog has done this!"
Meg became MY dog therefore, because I had paid the donation for her. I
said I have never "owned" a dog before. Actually, she is adopted. (Jay Gee prefer the term "adopted" to "owned" and they provide "adoption papers".)
Wednesday
4th January 2006
"Miss
Me?"
I have been
listening to audio recordings that Ian sent to me instead of writing a
letter. On one of them when we were "just good friends", before we went
out together, I must have said I missed him, because he replied on the
tape, "How could anyone miss me? I'm missable!" So
modest!
Friday
6th January 2006
"I JUST
want a DRINK!"
On 16th September,
1993, as a surprise treat for Ian's Birthday that year, I booked us on
a trip to Brugge, Belgium, via overnight ferry, from Felixstowe. On the
way out, we had cabin berths with bunks. However, our cabin was right opposite
the showers, and we had hardly any sleep all night, what with the motion
of the ship, and strangely enough, people seemed to be taking showers,
ALL NIGHT! Even at 4 o'clock in the morning they were taking showers! Still,
we arrived at Zeebrugge and caught the train to Brugge. Now, Ian had to
take water tablets, which made him need to go to the toilet, followed by
a desperate need for a long drink. He had taken his tablets that morning,
before we got off the ferry, so by the time we were awaiting the train
to take us to Brugge, he was desperate for the toilet. He had to go in
the station toilet at Zeebrugge, and was not too happy about it. Following
that, we got on the train, and went to Brugge, which was not a long distance away;
it maybe took ten or twenty minutes. Once we got to Brugge, Ian kept complaining,
"I want a drink.......I JUST want a DRINK!" I said well, perhaps if we
went in this cafe or that cafe and got breakfast, but no, Ian didn't want
to go in any of the cafes, he said they were too expensive, and he just
kept on saying, "I JUST want a DRINK!!!" He was getting more and more wound
up. In the end, we found a supermarket, so that he could buy a bottle of
fizzy pop, and we brought food (bread and jam was all we could get, if
I remember!) to eat for breakfast from there too, as he refused to go in
the cafes. They were a bit expensive by our standards, it was the equivalent
of about £10.00 each to get breakfast in those. But I thought, "Well!
I have gone to all this trouble, arranging this surprise for his birthday,
and all he can do is complain about getting a DRINK!"
Sunday 8th January 2006
Name Changes
Ian wasn't the only one to send gifts in the post. I sent stuff to him
as well. It annoyed Ian when products changed their name, and so for a
joke, one day I posted him a parcel containing a Snickers bar (used to
be Marathon), a packet of Starburst (used to be Opal Fruits) plus whatever
else I could find at the time that had changed its name (and was tasty
to eat!)
Monday 9th January 2006
A virtual Hug?
I was on my way to go swimming early this morning and I pulled up behind
a big TNT lorry. On its number plate, the letters spelled "HUG".
I have never seen HUG on a number plate in my life! Some time ago, I had
heard on the radio, all about how when someone gives you a hug, it releases
chemicals into the brain, which have the effect of making you feel good.
I told Ian all about it, and so after that, whenever he hugged me, he would
say, "AAAAaaah, give Julie a big hug, make her FEEL good!" (He actually
did this on the evening of Monday 12th September 2005.)
Tuesday 10th January 2006
A New Asda-Walmart
This evening Kirsty and I went to the new IKEA in Milton Keynes. Right
next to it is the biggest Asda-Walmart store I have ever seen! Oh, how
Ian would have loved to have gone in there! He loved shopping in Walmart
both of the times we went to America.
Wednesday 11th January 2006
"Not been here before!"
This evening I had to go to Milton Keynes for a BSP meeting. As I drove
through the car park, I remembered all the times, when we had gone somewhere
new, where we had not been before, Ian would repeatedly say, "Not been
here before, not been here before, not been here before!"
Friday 13th January 2006
Jack Dee....Live
This was Ian's idea - he found out Jack Dee was doing his stand up comedian
show as a live tour, and he was coming to the Derngate, Northampton! Ian
organized it, he invited our friends Tim and Kirsty to join us and he ordered
the tickets. What a fantastic evening's entertainment! We totally laughed
until our sides ached! I was also telling Ian that night about how we had
last gone to this theatre to see a live action stage show of Wallace and
Gromit. Ian said he could not remember going to see this AT ALL! He tried
to tell me I was making this up, or I must have gone with somebody else!!!!
Some days later I produced the tickets and programme from my scrap book
(it was a few years ago) and Ian said he still couldn't remember! He had
even paid for the tickets on his credit card! All he could say was, "But
what the *%@! was it about???!!!"
Saturday 14th January 2006
"Worms"
Ian used to like All-bran to eat, but he always called them "worms"! I would say, "What do you want for breakfast?" And he would reply, "Worms, please!"
Ian and......new gadgets
Ian bought himself a PDA with satellite navigation on it. He could use it in the car, or just walking around if he wanted to. The first morning it arrived, he went out into the back garden to get it to pick up a satellite signal and tell him where he was! He was like a kid with a new toy!
When Ian got his most sought after Autograph
Ian collected autographs for many years. He would write letters to his favourite tv actors, movie stars, producers, special effects people, astronauts and anyone else he fancied having their autograph. But his idol was the TV series creator and producer, Glen A. Larson, who created the series Battlestar Galactica and many other shows. Ian always said he would trade every autograph he had collected, for just one signature from Glen Larson. He wrote many times, but to no avail. When we went to Los Angeles, he went to Glen's office in the hope of a glimpse of his hero. However, one day, a few years ago, I was out in the garden one Saturday morning and Ian ran out of the house practically hysterical. "I've got Glen's autograph! It's so cool, I've got Glen A. Larson's autograph!" It had just come in that morning's post. He was utterly ecstatic! And it was true, once he had that one, all the others he had, never held the same attraction for him, and he didn't keep them.
Custard on the bottom
Whenever Ian had a pudding, such as a pie or a crumble, he would always
say, "Custard on the bottom, please!" This was because he said if
the custard was over the top of the crumble or the pastry, it made it go
soggy.
Sunday 15th January 2006
The Inner Light
Here is another great Star Trek line, that in fact sums up how Ian lived his life: "Live now....for "now" may never come again." This is from the Next Generation episode, The Inner Light.
Cuddly Scooby Doo
When we were in America, the first time, we went shopping in the Warner Brothers store in Glendale Galleria. Ian picked up this great big cuddly Scooby Doo, it was about two feet long, and all soft and squishy. He threw it on to me, and this toy dog was so CUDDLY! Ian decided to buy him for me. "You like him, don't you? I'm going to buy him for you!" I protested, saying how on earth would we get it home? But it was so soft and cuddly, in the end I let Ian buy him for me.
Today I went shopping in Northampton. Isn't it strange how I keep on noticing things that have been there all along? Today I looked up at just the right instant, while walking past an alleyway I must have walked past many times before. I looked up and saw the name of the street, "Conduit Lane." Of course! What story about Ian's and my life together would be complete, without the story of how we met?
It was August 1991, and I had just taken a job in Manchester, and I
had just moved up there, after graduating from college. I did not know
anyone in that area, and my cousin Peter had said some time earlier about
going to a Star Trek convention, and I had said, I would like to do that,
too. Well this particular weekend, Pete had written to me saying did I
still want to go to a Star Trek convention, in which case there was one
happening that weekend in Manchester. I thought it would be a good opportunity
to meet people from this new area and make some new friends so I agreed
to go along. I met Pete there, and he booked me into the Convention and
got me a room to stay in at the hotel, and then he introduced me to a group
of friends he was there with. Among the group were Ian, and his friend
John Ward, both of whom were very friendly and chatty, that night.
That was the night Ian asked me, "Do you like astronomy?!" On the Sunday
morning, just Ian and I were talking, we were on the landing sitting in
some armchairs in the Britannia Hotel, which was where we were staying,
although the convention was in Sacha's Hotel, around the corner. We found
out we had so much in common, that morning! We were talking about all sorts
of things, including classical music. Ian asked me what was my favourite
piece of classical music. Without hesitation, I answered, "The Blue Danube".
The name of the Star Trek convention, was "CONDUIT".
Monday 16th January 2006
"Three hands!"
Ian would often say, "You need three hands! If only we had three hands!" Two hands are never enough to do so many jobs - you always need a third...or a friend's!
When we got stopped by an L.A. Cop!
When I was driving in Burbank, only the second day after we picked up the car, we got pulled over by an L.A. Cop! He said I had not stopped at a STOP sign. I said, "We're from England, and in England we usually only have GIVE WAY signs, we hardly ever have STOP signs." He said, "What, you don't have STOP signs in England?!" He said, "You must allow the vehicle to come to a complete stop." When he realised we were tourists, he was very lenient and let us go. (For the full story about our L.A. adventures, including this one, the L.A. Tour Diaries are in a separate section on this site.)
Ian and...apple cores!
Ian always ate the whole apple, INCLUDING the core! He would even eat
the cores of the apples I had eaten and discarded!
Tuesday 17th January 2006
More Love
Ian was sometimes quite apprehensive about meeting new members of my
family he had not met before. One Christmas we were invited over to my
cousin's house, on Boxing Day, for a buffet tea. But Ian need not have
worried, my cousin and her husband and their three teenage children made
us so welcome, and my Dad and Aunty were there as well. Ian said there
is so much love in that house...
Tuesday 18th January 2006
Flowers
Tim reminded me how, when we went to take the cards off the floral tributes
a few days after the "Celebration of Ian's Life", how some small animals
(probably mice or rabbits) had eaten some of Ian's flowers. They had eaten
the yellow ones in the Batman tribute, and Mandy's sunflowers, especially,
but they had not touched the ones which were dyed black. We agreed Ian
would have liked that. The flowers would not have been a waste, after all,
the fact that some small animals had been able to have a good meal on them.
Saturday 21st January 2006
Crimewatch
Ian liked to watch the show "Crimewatch" whenever it was on television. What's more, if we were out and about, driving, and Ian saw for example, suspicious-looking guys by the side of a deserted road, he would say, "Oooh, I'll remember them in case they're on Crimewatch!"
Ian and directions
It has to be said, Ian was not very good at giving directions to anyone
who was driving the car. The number of times he was directing me, and he
would say, AFTER we had gone past some traffic lights, or a turning, "Oooh,
you should have turned right there!" We always joked that Ian couldn't
find his way out of a paper bag! All that changed however, when he got
his GPS system. That caused arguments, because he would tell me off for
NOT trusting it! Well it did seem to go some rather strange routes, but
I have to say it got us all the way to Dortmund that time! Only trouble
was, when we got there, it took us on an orbital route of Dortmund, because
Ian hadn't downloaded the street maps for Germany, only the trunk routes!
Sunday 22nd January 2006
When Ian saved a Hedgehog
One night when we were driving back from Nottingham, Ian saw a hedgehog
in the road and made me pull over. He was straight out of the car and he
picked up the hedgehog with his bare hands and moved it onto the grass
verge. It ran away under the fence. Inevitably, he had pricked his fingers
on the hedgehog's spines and it could well have had fleas for all we knew
but Ian didn't care, he was determined to save it from being run over.
Monday 23rd January 2006
Ian and Road Signs
If we were out driving, and we entered a new county, or a village/town
we hadn't been to before, Ian liked to take a photograph of the signs at
the entrance to the village/town/county, the ones that say, "Welcome to....."
or where they say what the town/village is twinned with. We kept saying
we should go and visit Marburg, Germany and Poitiers, France that Northampton
is twinned with. Ian would also take photos of the motorway signs overhead,
and sometimes video footage of our journeys. He made videos of driving
to Scotland, L.A. to San Francisco, and Dortmund.
Wednesday 25th January 2006
When we bought my Engagement Ring
(Bless!) When we went to choose and buy my engagement ring, Ian's card was refused and so I had to pay for it on my card!
Ian at the Barber's
Ian always went to the Barber's to get his hair cut. He was not into
Hairdressers at all, unisex or otherwise! He complained when it went up
from £4.00 to £6.00!
When I went to the Hairdresser's to get my hair cut, he would say,
"HOW much?????!!!!!! That's a RIP-OFF!"
Thursday 26th January 2006
When we went to Berlin
Last year we went to Berlin for three days. When we arrived at the Brandenburg
Gate, we sat drinking cappuccinos outside Starbucks Coffee, and Ian was
giving bits of his sandwich to some sparrows that were around. Afterwards
we took photos in front of the Brandenburg Gate. We had a really good time
there, what a fascinating city, constantly changing. We visited many landmarks
and sites of historic interest: Platform 17 Memorial Site, the House at
Wannsee, Tempelhof Airport, Checkpoint Charlie, Bebelplatz, the Berlin
Wall... Ian was fascinated by the streetlights designed by the Third Reich
architect, Albert Spier, and he photographed many of those, and many statues
of Eagles.
Saturday 28th January 2006
When Ian went to buy Turf
In August 2004 I got my lovely new car. The very next day after I brought
it home, Ian wanted to go to the garden centre and buy two rolls of turf.
I was dismayed because no matter how carefully I lined the boot with a
plastic sheet, bits of grass and soil were going everywhere! Ian had absolutely
no sympathy. "It's a CAR, Jool, it's going to get dirty...!" Yes, but I
would have liked a little while of it being CLEAN!