I was a GP in the West End of Newcastle until I retired in 2011, and was also involved in teaching evidence-based medicine and in primary care research. I published a few articles and papers and did an MSc in Health Sciences, which livened up the last few years of my professional life.
I met my second wife, Christine, in 2001, and we were together for almost 24 years. We spent over ten years living in Scotland, first in the East Neuk of Fife and then on the Angus coast near Carnoustie. Our life consisted of holidays and days out all over Scotland, to the North West Highlands especially, and meeting up with a large network of friends. I became very involved in music in St Andrews and Dundee. Instead of Evidence-Based Medicine workshops, I started going to chamber music courses, and was in a regular string quartet and several orchestras. We returned to the North East last June to live in Corbridge. To my great sorrow, Christine died in March of cerebellar metastases before she could get to enjoy her life here.
I spend a lot of time now improving my violin playing. We had a studio built in our garden to practice in, and a pond on the garden to contemplate nature. It has tadpoles. I’ve joined various orchestras and have also managed to do some chamber music. It’s been good to meet up again with old friends, and I’ve been very pleased to find many former colleagues scattered through the various ensembles I’ve been playing in. My ambition now is to get a small baroque ensemble going.