Christmas 2015

Suddenly it is time to write the next Christmas newsletter – 2015 has flown by!

So what has happened this year?

Well, to go back to the end of 2014 – after much deliberation (and review of the air fares!) we decided not to spend Christmas in Australia but to stay in the UK.

 In fact Kevin was in Mumbai in December, arriving back on the 20^th just in time for Christmas. For the first time in many years we hosted Christmas Dinner in the UK. Mum and Dad, Sophie, Andrew, Kathryn, Caroline and Michael all squeezed into our little house and we had a lovely meal. Andrew and Kathryn brought the turkey over, ready cooked…

 We put candles on the Christmas cake for Kevin's Birthday!

On Boxing Day we did our customary walk in Dovedale…

 It was lovely to meet up with lots of Dad’s side of the family at Uncle Eddie’s 80^th Birthday on December 30^th.

Sophie went off to Switzerland to spend New Year with friends – ours was very quiet! Sophie is still teaching chemistry at Huntingdon and is enjoying life in St Neots.  She enjoys roller hockey and now thinks she might have a go at ice hockey! One of her contributions to the Christmas fayre was melting snowmen biscuits! And for some reason she has just bought a unicycle...

At the beginning of the year Kevin was still travelling to India every 6 weeks or so, for two or three weeks at a time. This was still to work on the same project in Mumbai – but that seems to have now fizzled out so the last trip was in June.

 I have now been in England for more than a year spending lots of time with Mum and Dad. We have quite a routine what with Wednesday (taking Mum for her hair appointment and then Sainsbury’s), Thursday (an evening at the pub with the Golden Oldies) and Friday (taking fish and chips around). And of course there seems to be a continuum of doctor, nurse and hospital appointments to help with! 

While Kevin was away I took Mum and Dad on several trips to Anglesey – it was lovely to visit all the usual haunts including Bodnant Gardens in the Spring.

In February we went down to Devon for a Valentine celebration (Our wedding Anniversary) – this was Liz and Pete’s “Christmas” as they had been in Australia (and Bali) for 5 weeks over Christmas.

I am sure it was too cold for this Sophie!!

 Sophie came to stay for her half term and one of the things we did was visit Hopton Hall to see the snowdrops – take note of the bird house in this picture! We have seen a lot of Sophie – I think she likes having her parents in the same country!

In March Liz, Pete and Lucas came up for Dad’s 88^th Birthday…

And then in April another trip to Anglesey and the gorse was superb…

Also in April Liz, Sophie and I went on another girls’ trip! This time to Cornwall!

In the May half term we again spent time with Sophie. We went to Bletchley Park and down to London and by chance met a friend (Leslie) from Abu Dhabi!

We also went over to Anglesey – Bodnant Gardens were again fabulous. We saw the outdoor art at Penmon.

Around this time we caught up with University friends Fi and Steve (30 years on?)

In June, Tom came over from Australia for a friend’s stag weekend – we were pleased that Aiden and Dan also came!

This almost brings us up to Anglesey and ‘Menai’!  This year Kevin and I have bought an Albacore {fairly traditional 5m long sailing dinghy)– and this was our first opportunity to sail it. Because of bad weather (or just because we could) Kevin, Sophie and I generally sailed it three up. The family had taken three Albacores...

And there turned out to be a fleet sailing each day!!

 We had 3 days cancelled because of high winds. Another day the wind was none-existent so the race around Puffin took 5 hours rather than the usual 2.  The holiday was another opportunity for a family get together. 

Caroline and John joined us for a few days…this was a re-enactment of a photo from when we were children!

Straight after Menai, Kevin, Sophie and I set off for Australia. The first week we hired a house at Newlands Arm near Matt, Nikki, Jasmine and Isabell. Tom and Aiden, Dan and Lizzie joined us for part of this time and we enjoyed various water sports – including stand up paddleboarding!

The second week we stayed with Dan and Lizzie in Melbourne when we enjoyed time with them, and Tom and Aiden. We also had the opportunity to catch up with friends Liz and Gary – and Geoff and Gillian who we haven’t seen since Hong Kong. Sophie also met up with her friends.

Nikki, as Pixie Violet, is organising children’s parties and does many markets, face painting and selling pixie goodies.  Matty continues working in outdoor sports. The girls are now 7 and 3. Jasmine is doing very well at school and Isabell is a little monkey!

Dan and Lizzie are now living in Melbourne although Dan’s work often takes him further afield.

Tom continues with his taxi firm and the house he built was finally completed and sold – he now has to decide what to do next. Aiden is now 15 and seems to have had a good year 9 attending lots of camps and even piloting an aeroplane..

We needed to visit Australia before November to finalise our Aussie Permanent Residency which had finally come through. We can now move to Australia when we like but we have no immediate plans to do so.

Sophie then had to go back to the UK for the new term but Kevin and I went back via Bali where we spent a week holidaying!

When we arrived back in the UK, Kevin and I went straight into house moving again. We had decided we needed a larger place than the rental and managed to find a lovely place in the next street! So we bought it! We moved in on September 13^th. We moved just with our trailer and the car – making a dozen trips or more as it was a matter of metres away from our previous place. The new place has plenty of space and a huge garden. 10 weeks on and we are about settled and have had our first visitors – Sophie of course, who helped us move, and Liz, Ella and Lucas. We had a Birthday dinner for Liz using Sophie’s raclette!
And look at the birdhouse!!

During the October half term Sophie again popped up for a few days and we went over to Anglesey to fetch the Mirror home - it had been left at the Cottage.

The Autumnal colours were spectacular!

At the end of November we set off for Australia again. Bec had asked me to look after Aiden and his half sister Montana while she and Adam were in Dubai/Abu Dhabi (at the time of the F1). We will be here for two weeks and hope to see Tom, Dan and Lizzie, and Matt and Nikki, Jasmine and Isabell too.

We will return home on December 6^th in time to host Mum and Dad’s Advent Lunch on the 12^th for 18 relatives and Kevin’s 65^th on the 13^th.

Not sure how we will celebrate this or even if Kevin wants to!!

The only other things to mention - we have spent many hours on Mum and Dad's allotment - digging, weeding, planting, weeding, harvesting, weeding...We have been very pleased with our crops - excellent potatoes, onions, tomatoes, beans, cauliflower...

I still spend a lot of time crafting and have been to two excellent crafty weekend retreats over the year - great fun!!

Best wishes to you and yours for Christmas and the New Year and have a wonderful 2016…

Sue and Kevin

xx