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We are the Gerrards of Canterbury. Colin is one of the few Gerrards
ever to have escaped from their native Cheshire. After spending his first 18 years on the family farm, he moved on to Reading
University where he studied French including a year in Toulouse in the South of France. After a brief dalliance with
the idea of teaching or becoming a cinema manager, or even continuing a vacation career as Harry Hassall the ice cream man,
he took to the idea of being a librarian. After a qualifying spell in Reading and Liverpool, he worked in the Polytechnic
of Central London for two years, before moving on to Canterbury at the University of Kent in 1977. He has been there ever
since. He met Sally and they married in 1981, when Aston Villa also won the league. Lindsay arrived in 1984 and Kathryn
in 1988.
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| Peggy Carter 1915-2005 |
The year has ended on a sad note for our family. Sally's mother, Peggy passed away on October 1st. She wil
be much missed by friends and family.
2005 seems to be vanishing
in no time, or is it just the aging process that makes it seem that way.
Lindsay is now in the
4th year of her four year Warwick University course in German and French. She
spent most of the previous year in Bremen, teaching English to German schoolchildren.
Colin went out with her
to see her settled. Needless to say we took the cheap option by taking the circuitous
route via Frankfurt on the way out and a sharp detour south on the way back through Munich.
Colin found this tiring, worrying though in retrospect amusing. Given
only 30 minutes to change planes at Munich, he was held up by various obstacles and found himself at Gate G1 and having to
reach H48 in about 5 minutes. He raced (by his standards) past the 96 gates in between as helpful gatekeepers sent urgent
messages such as “this is Tehran Air reporting a London passenger is with great effort proceeding toward you. Fortunately he eventually toppled into the plane – panic over
Colin, Sally and Kathryn
ventured to travel by train to Bremen in February and saw the wintry side of Germany, particularly Hamburg, which was bitterly
cold.
Colin flew out to Bremen again in June using an excellent
direct air service from London City Airport run by OLT. (incidentally if OLT are as quick off the mark as Barcelona FC and
Aston Villa have been in putting an advert on this site, they are welcome to do so - a few free flights would be nice, guys).
Before returning with Lindsay, they made a day trip to Berlin and found the decaying and graffiti covered Berlin Wall
a fascinating sight.
Later in the summer we all spent a week in Toulouse
prior to Lindsay's four week course there. Colin was interested to see the city 33 years after he was there for the
best part of ayear
Kathryn succeeded in obtaining
9 GCSEs at Barton Court Grammar School and is currently weighing up various career options.
Following the Gerrard family tradition she has recently joined the Templeman Library staff on a casual basis working afternoons
in the hectic Short Loan Collection.
Colin is now Collection Resources Manager a change of title from Technical Services Manager at the Templeman Library, University of Kent, a helpful change, since, as he will readily accept, his technical
expertise is not in the practical sense, only the library sense of collection management
Templeman Library
Templeman Library
Our main holiday in 2004 was in Barcelona,
where we visited all the usual sites, staying in a hotel on the street that never sleeps – Las Ramblas. We visited the home of Barcelona FC, the Noucamp where Kathryn invested in a Ronaldhino shirt, whereas
Colin was pleased to find a cheaper one in the city, and he is probably the only person outside Tottenham currently wearing
an Edgar Davids shirt
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| Sally in Barcelona |
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| Colin, Lindsay & Kathryn |
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| Noucamp - home of Barcelona football team |
Above you see a photo of the great Noucamp Stadium - home of Barcelona FC - yes that team that Chelsea beat in the
Champions League earlier this year. Sally is a fanatical Chelsea supporter now joined in this strange choice
by Kathryn. Lindsay still has faith in the Old Trafford lot, although there was a recent sighting on the Werde Bremen
terraces. As for me, awaiting the return of Aston Villa's glory day, don't hold your breath!
Colin will shortly be updating his Harry Chapin pages. If you haven't seen them and want to
find out more about this great singer songwriter follow the link below
Colin's Harry Chapin pages
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