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| We eagerly await the ceremony |
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| The happy couple Nick and Louise |
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| The photographer has finally got us all together |
Stephen has published a website about his uncle who was killed during the war. The domain name "HF694" was the registration of the aircraft. Stephen has been working on this for many years now and he has put in a tremendous amount of time and effort on the research.
Chris is now sharing a house with his partner Alex. She is a lovely girl and they are very happy. She moved to Bournemouth and got a new job, so that she and Chris could set up home. Work wise Chris is doing well, despite the downturn for businesses. He is doing contract work at the moment and it keeps him very busy. However he did get to Canada to go snowboarding at the beginning of the year and he and Alex are hoping to get away again at the beginning of 2011.
For me the year has been very busy, but at least I have been fit enough to get on with things. As I said last year, I have been chair of the Youth Libraries group, which represents children’s librarians, and part of this was chairing the judging panel for the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals. It was very hard work, but very rewarding. The award ceremony was held at BAFTA in June and the winning author was Neil Gaiman. We had James Naughtie from the Radio 4 to act as master of ceremonies, so it was quite overwhelming.
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| Margaret on the BAFTA Stage for the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway ceremony |
I also had to organize the programme for our conference in September and got invited to quite a few schools to speak to children about the awards. Last month I was in Belfast with several colleagues as part of a one day conference we were hosting for children’s and school librarians. It was great to go back and Stephen and I really want to go and revisit all the placed that we knew over 30 years ago. Can you believe that we have been married for 35 years!!
We have been out to the house in Cyprus again this year. Firstly we went in April, but unfortunately Stephen was ill and spent most of the week in bed. He then went out for a week in June to get some work done. We also went out in November and Stephen has started putting a roof on the upstairs veranda.
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| Veranda roof stage 1: Old timbers gone, new ones installed. (See 2011 for completion) |
The temperatures were still in the mid 20s so it was a very pleasant time. We also went out a couple of times and visited a monastery that we have never been to before. Unfortunately women are not allowed in the buildings, so we just walked around the grounds and admired the tremendous views out towards Larnaca and the coast.
It had been our intention to go out and about this year and visit all the people we want to see. However it has not happened, so now we will make plans to try and do it in 2011. We are also hoping to go somewhere a bit different for our holiday in the summer. Everyone says that Malta is really nice, so we are thinking of having a short break near Valletta. I just need to have a look on the web to see what is available (flying from Bristol of course).
Work has been hectic for both of us and it will not get any easier. We have just been reviews at my work and at least I still have a job. I have been put back to part-time working and we are going to stop supplying books to schools. However I will still be doing advice and training work. The next few months will be difficult as we get everything sorted out but I am relatively optimistic at the moment.
At the moment we are busily preparing for Christmas and hoping that the really bad weather misses us again, as it would make it difficult for the boys to get home for Christmas. Luckily Stephen changed his car this year and now has a Nissan X-Trail, which is 4 wheel drive, so we should be able to keep on the move. I think he was a bit put out to discover that it is the same colour as my Nissan Almera, but they look good together!!
Anyway, we wish everyone a very happy Christmas and a prosperous and healthy New Year,
