Seasons
greetings to all our friends
I had hoped that this year would
be the one where everything had gone well and we had no bad news for anyone,
unfortunately it looks as if we will have to wait another year.
Last year I wrote the letter
early as I had to go into hospital before
Christmas. Everything went well and I was off work until
the middle of January, which was great; unfortunately I had a fair amount of
pain, so was not able to enjoy the time as much as I would have
hoped. Still Stephen and the boys looked after me and I felt very
pampered.
What we can say is that life is
never boring, or even quiet. We have had three trips to Cyprus this
year, sorting the house out and seeing all our friends out there. We
really do love the place, but it is also good to come home to all my books and
crafts etc. When we went out in the spring we decided to do
something extra, so we went off to Jordan for five days.
 |
| You just have to do it ! |
 |
| The "Treasury" - but where was Harrison Ford? |
 |
| The luxurious bar in the Movenpick Hotel |
We did a
couple of days at the Dead Sea, floating in the Sea, visiting the baptism site
and Roman Ruins and then stayed overnight in Amman (not such a great
place. However the high spot was the two nights we had at
Petra. We stayed at the Movenpick hotel which is just by the entrance
and had a fantastic time walking around the valley and the
ruins. Stephen had said that he felt it was a one-time only visit,
but by the time we had spent the day there he said that he wants to
go back as there is still so much more to explore.
It has been yet another unsettled
year work wise for both us. Stephen is still going through the tail
end of the re-structure after a new partnership was created with some other
Councils and IBM in order to provide some of the support services for each
organization. We hope that everything will settle down
soon. I have also had a re-structure at work, but luckily my post
was not affected. However my boss retired at the end of October and
I am acting up in the role of School Library Service Manager. I will
obviously apply for the post when it is advertised permanently, probably in the
new financial year.
Unfortunately this has been a
very bad year as far as family as concerned. We have lost three
close members in a period of six months and we really feel for their immediate
family who are left. With two of them at least it was a great shock, but the
third person had been suffering from cancer and had endured a great
deal. Please God we will not have such a terrible year next
year. We then had the awful decision to have Lucy our dog
put to sleep. Although it does not compare to losing a loved one it
was still bad as she had been with us for the last 14 years. I still
look before I walk on the dark carpet, in case I tread on her!
During the summer I was elected
as Vice- Chair elect for my professional group. This means that I
will be Chair in 2010 and will have to organize the theme for our conference as
well as a few other things. It should be fun,
although lot of hard work.
Also in the summer I attended a
reunion of friends from my college days in Manchester. It was 35
years since some of us had met and the amazing thing was how well we still got
on. It was a really enjoyable time and we have decided to try and
meet again, perhaps next year, with some additional people who were not able to
attend this time.
 |
| Nick and Chris "enjoying the breeze" |
When we went to Cyprus in the
summer we had the added pleasure of the boys coming to stay for a
week. Nick and Chris arrived with all their windsurfing kit and had
a great week enjoying the sea, sand and sun. We had lovely trips up
the mountain and some great family meals. Something we had not
thought to have again, since they both lead such busy lives. Nick is
still with Yamaha, lives in Slough with Louise (who is a secondary school
teacher) and is doing well. Chris is still working in Bournemouth,
loves it there and is now learning to snow board. They really enjoy
the more exciting type of hobbies.
At the moment, Stephen
and I are planning what we do for our holiday next year. Cyprus
obviously takes a lot of our leave, but we are trying to add in some other
excursions as well. At the moment we are thinking about going to
Rhodes as everyone tells us that it is well worth the visit and we can add it
on as part of the summer trip to Cyprus..
We still keep hoping that the
lottery will come up, so that Stephen can retire and build an
aircraft. He is still flying and enjoys it very much. It
gets him away from the worries of work and he visits some lovely parts of the
British Isles.
We are hoping for a quiet
Christmas this year after such a hectic time. I am part of a judging
panel for a book award and I have to read 44 children’s books between 6th November
and 21st January, as well as 39 picture books. It is
quite difficult even though some of the books are quite easy to
read. Hopefully all will go well.
Anyway I had better finish now,
or I will be sending this out in the new year
Have a great time in 2009
