Quiggers 2003
Jill, Les, Dani & Chris in a Jazz Club somewhere around Mayfair January 2003
Another very active year passes, with a more active one in prospect as next year marks Les's 60th Birthday!
We reckon that with a fair wind and lots of luck this leaves us just 15 summers to enjoy life. Or, if we can manage to winter in the Caribbean or Southern Hemisphere, 30 summers - so we're going for the 2nd option and SKI holidays. [For those unaware of the SKI holiday philosophy, it's nothing to do with freezing your vitals off in the name of fun - it stands for "Spending the Kid's Inheritance"].
Talking of "kids" we'll start our annual review with a look at them...
Danielle, now an incredible 28, still lives in Luxembourg with Pascal, her partner. (How we hate that word!). They have now been together almost 10 years since they met at University.
| Danielle is still in the Project & Planning Department
at Nomura in Luxembourg where she thoroughly enjoys the variety of tasks she
has to carry out.
One of her first tasks this year was to organise Nomura's annual Christmas bash. These are always very expensive themed affairs. This year's theme was "the 70's". Amongst other things, she commissioned "Rubberductions" (her brother's company) to make a 70's compilation film for projecting on the big screen during the dancing. Nomura's management were so pleased with the results that they secretly flew Chris to Luxembourg, put him in a gift box, and, before the party commenced, presented Danielle with the box. She thought that they had set her up with a male stripper and, although we'd all been together in London the previous weekend, she didn't immediately recognise Chris as he popped out of the box! |
Danielle & Christopher 70's style in Danielle's 70's MGBYou can see why she didn't recognise her brother! |
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After several years acquiring the land, designing the house and of course having it built. Dani and Pascal moved into their new house in the village of Boudler, near the German border but less than 30 minutes from their offices in the centre of Luxembourg. (Eat your hearts out you UK commuters!). Shortly before they moved in we flew over one weekend (To deliver a Burglar Alarm!) and flew Danielle over her house so that she could take some photographs. The house and village are superb. One feature of the house, that few have in England, is a massive basement that amongst other things (such as a boiler room, laundry room, wine cellar, food store, work shop and dog house), incorporates a 6 car garage! This is just as well as it houses Pascal's passion - his cars and motorbikes. |
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It doesn't look as though we're going to be grand parents for some time since Danielle and Pascal have decided to have a dog instead. A very large dog. They have been waiting for several years for it - a Landseer - from Holland. (We thought it was a car from Italy.) The dog is to be called "Aston" (After the "Aston Martin" that Pascal really wanted!), and they are taking delivery before Christmas, together with a new car to transport him in. A big Volvo Estate! (We recommended a transit van!) Left - Danielle with their new puppy!Right - Pascal with the mother (If you think this is big you want to see the father!) |
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Considering that we are several countries apart, we have seen quite a lot of Dani this year and of course talk to her several times a week. As usual we managed to get together for her birthday in October. This year we all met up in Ypres for dinner in our favourite restaurant "Hostellerie St Nicholas".
Afterwards we went on to Luxembourg for the annual RAFA Luxembourg bash. We were the guests of Pascal's parents Pierre and Regine Ducarn and were royally entertained to Dinner on our arrival. The "Bash" started on the Friday with the Ambassador's reception at the British Embassy followed by the "Jeux de Quilles" championships. (Organised by Danielle - Jeux de Quilles is Luxembourg's version of 10 pin bowling). The ceremonials, to honour RAF aircrew lost over Luxembourg, took place on the Saturday with a Ball in the evening. Altogether a very pleasant way of spending time with family and friends.
Sadly we won't see her at Christmas, but are all planning to meet up in the New Year.
Some of the action in Luxembourg 2003
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The family and friends meet up at Ypres for Dani's birthday - Left to Right - Geoff Fitchett, Dani, Les, Pascal, Jill, Chris Fitchet, (In Front) - Chris Q |
Jill and Chris placed a cross on Jill's uncle's grave at Ypres. Gunner Oliver aged 23 was killed exactly 85 years before on 9th Oct 1918. |
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A Knight of the Realm, Sir Christopher Coville, has women falling about at his jokes! Mind you one of them is viewing him through rose colored spectacles! |
Dani gets the prize for being the slowest! |
Sir Chris (Centre) presents the cup to winners of the Jeux de Quilles, Paul Tovey (left) - representing Wales- & Geoff Fitchett - representing Mansfield?? |
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The girls at the RAFA Luxembourg Ball - Left to right - Regine Ducarn, Chris Fitchett, Jill Quigley, Lady Irene Coville, Danielle Quigley, Shireen Shuster |
Jill gets to drive Pascal's latest toy - A 4.8 Ltr Westfield (Well to sit in it at least - it frightened her to death - she reckons it makes flying look safe!) |
Now to Christopher who is 25 and is still running his business empire in London. He continues to enjoy the London social scene despite after having spent his youth in the quiet countryside of North Yorkshire.
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Chris has moved offices from the Strand to Covent Garden where his multimedia
company, "Rubberductions Ltd", is continuing to be successful. Amongst
other activities they are specialising in political promotions. They waged a
very successful campaign promoting "e-voting" in several cities and
shires throughout the country.
However, their most recent coup was something entirely different. They won the National 48 Hr Film Challenge. We noticed also that one of their short films was recently featured on TV news as being used as entertainment in hairdressers throughout the country! To find out what Rubberductions are up to go to his website www.rubberductions.com . |
Chris's other company is "Eurobandits". Despite the name this is quite serious stuff. To understand it you will have to go to www.eurobandits.com . This company has been set up by Chris and another chap Tommy Hutchinson to promote Europe. (Tommy stood as the Labour candidate opposing IDS in the last election - with IDS's record, he might have a better chance next time!).
| We see a fair bit of Chris since we go to London several times a
year and he has
clients in Sheffield, so then he comes home. We met up in Ypres for Dani's birthday and we have been to France together a
few times.
Mind you the visit to Ypres nearly went pear shaped for him. He had set up a meeting at No 10 with one of the PM's advisors on Europe for the day after Dan's birthday. We were to drop him off at Charleroi Airport at lunch time so that he could be back in London for his meeting at 15.00 Hrs. In the event we missed the turning on the autoroute (thanks to the signs being in Flemish) and got horribly lost. Fortunately my map reading skills came to the fore and he just made the flight and his meeting, which we understand was successful, but he's not allowed to tell us what it was about! We're pleased to report that Chris is coming home for Christmas. |
Father & son doing a pre-flight check in front of the main terminal at Tours Airport - Father is checking to see if that's the Ryanair flight landing, as he's parked in their space, and they don't like waiting around! |
Now to Mum & Dad Quigley - As already stated, we are not yet grandparents, unlike many of our contemporaries, but unfortunately we are equally as old as those grandparents ......
2003 has been another good year - no disasters - The Alarm Monitoring Company Ltd ploughs on successfully and is not nearly as time consuming as it was, thanks to our recruiting and training of a couple of hardworking young graduates to relieve the pressure. (For those needing security go to www.alarm-monitoring.co.uk ). Most of my other business ventures are in limbo as I don't have time to organise them, however, I am planning to push Near2u.net next year. (I'm sure I said that last year?)
| Early in the year we invested in 1/3 of a cheap little aircraft, a Gardan Horizon GY80. The aircraft is French and was built a year after I got my PPL. It was built at Pau in June 1963 by Sud Aviation, so it's even older than the other aircraft that they were building at the time - Concorde. However, unlike Concorde it is still flying. (Although I haven't managed to get it supersonic yet - I've tried but at Mach .2 it starts getting upset!). It's not the prettiest of aircraft, but it does carry 4 people with a range of 600 miles at 115 knots so we can make Luxembourg in one (slow) leap and our house in France in two. |
QUIGGAIR heading for Poole Harbour with a nervous passenger! |
During the year we made good use of G-ASJY with trips to Luxembourg, South of France, visiting friends and business trips around England. Jill was a bit reluctant to fly with me at first. She flew a few times last year in a Cessna 150 and Diamond Star DA40, however, in her words she "didn't like turning corners" - this was especially true of the high wing Cessna since she felt as though she was going to fall out. (When was the last time some one fell out of an aircraft?). Eventually I persuaded her that I would fly in a straight line and not "turn corners" - difficult I know - I had to perfect the slow skidding turn technique.
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Jill with Bian and Liz Synott at Old Warden |
Anyway on her first trip down to Old Warden to stay with Brian & Liz Synott for the annual "Flying Proms" concert, we had just flown past RAF Finningley and she was settling down and getting used to the little plane, when over the RT came "MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY". Ah! I thought, listening to the distraught pilot announcing his engine failure and (awkward) position, maybe Jill will think it's some sort of "seasonal celebration" - NO! She speaks French and perfectly understood that the pilot was yelling "Help Me!" Fortunately another passing plane spotted him and acted as a relay station passing on the details of the incident to ATC at RAF Waddington. The aircraft, a biplane crashed into a field, and went A over T... Fortunately after, what seemed a long time, the pilot was reported to be crawling out and clear of the aircraft. |
As you can imagine this incident did not improve Jill's confidence! However, all's well that ends well, and despite having to turn the odd corner to get into the airfield we landed safely with the Orchestra playing "Rule Brittania" as we touched down. (They were rehearsing for the evenings open air concert!) After this Jill came on several trips and has proved an excellent "enemy aircraft" spotter - she sees aircraft that I don't - the survival instinct she says!
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Lizzie - The last flying Lysander takes off |
As usual the Synotts provide a superb picnic at the Proms! |
| Spain still has it's
attractions ....
We didn't manage our winter cruise this year because of a staff shortage at the beginning of the year, however, we have had many trips to our house in France and a few trips to Spain. We are spending between one and two weeks a month in France and about a month a year in Spain, consequently we have decided to sell our Spanish house since it is not being used often enough . (If you are interested got to www.nybc.co.uk/mojacar for details.) Right - Jill relaxing in the pool during one of our visits to Spain |
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France has been hard work
Whilst we do use the house as a holiday venue, most of our French trips have been to sort out the house which is slowly moving from the 1950's to the 21st century. We have now taken on a local architect to progress "the extension" and hope to start on it by Easter. We shall see! (We did a website for Danielle & Christopher to comment on the design and one for architects whilst we were getting quotes. So you can see Chez Quig at - www.nybc.co.uk/maison ).
Left - Paul Winterburn discovers the village still, but is very frustrated as he doesn't have any fruit and can't read the French instructions! |
Building a shower room - takes team work - Chris and Ben flew down with me to help with the heavy work...
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Ben Pennington - an old school and University mate of Chris's and now a 6'4" Irish Guards Officer was the ideal man for fixing ceilings |
I got the technical jobs of fitting lights and fans and plumbing and tiling, etc |
The end result was to turn a store room into an ensuite shower room |
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Mind you it is not all work, Jill is now playing tennis in Monleon regularly and I have joined the local flying club. (Who after crashing their previous aircraft up at Bagnere de Luchon are just getting a new one.) (Mind you Paul Winterburn probably thinks differently - Paul went to France with me during the summer when I had a deadline to finish an ensuite bathroom and seemed to work non-stop for the week.) Right - Jill playing tennis with our neighbours |
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Les Q & Les C at Luchon |
We are now in a position to accept guests - so if you are passing give us a call. We can generally find you a bed or two. Our last guests came by plane - Les Clarke and Nessa - we had never met them before they arrived, they were from Breighton flying club in England - we offered a bed for a flight. The flight in a 1950's French aircraft, a Jodel, was spectacular. The weather was perfect so I took, Les, up to Bagnere de Luchon in the Pyrenees. To see what it was like go to www.nybc.co.uk/landings.htm and click on Bagnere de Luchon to see the photographs. |
Les C & Les Q at Les |
Reunions
| It has been a superb year for reunions, for meeting up with old
friends and meeting new friends. It
must be a sign of our age and the age of fast communication that we live in, for
we have contacted and met up with friends that we haven't seen since school
days.
We had a weekend in Bournmouth in May when we had dinner with "Spees" and her husband Jim. Jill had not met Spees since the 6th form. We rendezvoused with them again for lunch at Compton Abbas later in the summer when Spees risked life and limb and came flying with me to admire the sights of Poole Harbour. Left - Jill with Spees and Jim at Compton Abbas |
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During the same weekend in May we also met up with Chris and Irene Coville whom we hadn't seen since Chris was Station Commander at Conningsby back in the late 80's. Chris and I go back nearly 50 years and Irene and Jill 40 years so we had a lot to talk about! We teamed up again in Luxembourg in October for the RAFA Luxembourg weekend. Chris and Irene have now organised a reunion, just before Christmas, of "The Four Mustgetbeers" and their wenches. The "Mustgetbeers" are Chris Coville, John Sandiford, Mike McDonagh and yours truly, with wenches Irene, Mitzy, Bernie and Jill. The boys were all at school together, whilst the wives met during the 6th form or shortly after. Sir Chris has just retired as C in C, John is an eminent surgeon in Washington DC, Mike is a retired eminent Chemist and I'm .... well ... still trying to be eminent!
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Also during the year was the 89 Entry reunion to celebrate the 40th anniversary of our joining the RAF. It was a memorable and poignant reunion for we not only renewed old friendships we remembered old comrades who are no longer with us. (For details go to www.w4u.co.uk/89 )
Left - Some of "C" Squadron Survivors - Left to right - Front - Ian Robertson, Derek North, Dave Harlow, Chris Saunby Rear - JC Newland, Dick Shuster, Brian Synott, Les Quigley |
Before Christmas we have one more trip to France, and then on 1st January we're off on a quick (24 day) round the world trip (westward), to get in one of those extra summers before the sun sets....
Sunset over the Pennines - taken from the rear of our house at Raskelf, North Yorkshire
We wish you and your families
a very pleasant and relaxing Christmas and a
happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.
Les, Jill, Danielle & Christopher
Email - lwq@near2u.net (UK) lwq@wanadoo.fr (France)
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UK - 0044 (0)1347 823222
School House Raskelf North Yorkshire YO61 3LG |
France - 0033 (0)5 62 99 47 24
10 Chemin du Sarrott Grand 65670 Monleon Magnoac Haute Pyrenees |
Spain - 0034 950 472694
2 Calle Alhambra 04638 Mojacar Playa Almeria |
Music pinched from a fellow scouse grammar school boy of the 60's - damn! - can't remember his name? - but I know he went to Liverpool Institute! (Always sounded like a looney bin to me!) - became a knight like that other guitarist Chris Coville! ??????
