Dear Friends
We’re trying to get ahead this year by putting pen to paper,
metaphorically speaking, in good time. So this is being written in the Bay of
Biscay, en route back from Spain
- of which more later... 2004 has been another major year of change for all
of us.
In January Jill and a group of 14 friends took one of their number
off on a surprise 50th birthday treat to Prague.
Apparently this went very well once she had recovered from the realisation that
her husband was not taking her shopping to NY!
In February we went skiing en famille for a week which was
great fun. The snow was good but the Sun was better – which made the girls very
happy. This was the last break before James got down to some really serious
studying for his finals (Economics & Management) at Keble. James also landed
himself a great job with a specialist management consultancy called OCC, where
he starts work in January 05.
In June James held his 21st party on the river at Oxford.
The picture on the left was taken before the alcohol consumption had got excessive.
We had a very stressful time during James’ finals whilst he gave us various
depressing blow by blow reports of how he had screwed up! This put us on real
tender hooks waiting for the results. Given this we were blown away when he
announced, while grinning from ear to ear, that he had got a 1st.
He also came 6th out of his class of 90. An absolutely fantastic
result and richly deserved given the effort and work he put in. Of course we’ll
not believe another word of his exam self post-mortems. In this respects he
is just like his mum, who I recall complaining about some Economics paper in
which she subsequently got 105%, a result which presumably only Economists can
award! Since his finals James has been travelling. He started with a US coast
to coast trek (by van) and then spent a few months doing Thailand, Australia,
Cambodia and back via Bangkok where he met up with his cousin Andrew who is
teaching English there. He’s now psyching himself up for a real job in Jan –
ho ho.
2004 was also the year in which Jill’s mum, Flo, had her 80th
birthday. Jill organised a big family party at our house and as you can see
it ended up being a great family get together.
Meanwhile Kiran has completed her first year at Imperial and
successfully been awarded her M.Res (Master of Research) with distinction. She
has now chosen her PhD project, which is researching into a virus known to cause
cancer, particularly in Japanese people. She’s well settled in London
and has just bought a great little maisonette next to Hyde
Park. As the Agents say it’s in need of complete refurbishment,
so Kiran, Dad and Mum have a big project for Dec/Jan. After which she will have
a 5 minute walk to her lab in St Mary’s. Its all right for some (spoken by a
30 year commuter)!!!
In April we had a great long weekend in the Cotswold’s with
friends; which reminded us of how beautiful and occasionally wet the UK can be. Shortly after this Jill
started having a few golf lessons. (If you can’t beat them…..). She has persisted
heroically but hasn’t quite broken through to religious conversion and regular
play; hopefully this will come next year. Jill was also re-elected unopposed
as Vice Chairman of Woldingham Parish Council.
You may recall that last year Greg had said he was considering retirement.
Well he finally went and did it. Having helped re-organise the Operations and
Technology Group he finally retired at the end of August! He’s now taking a
sabbatical year before deciding how retired he will stay. Meanwhile he is independent
Chairman of two pension schemes, which meant a brief return to school to get
a PMI Trustees Certificate, and provides some non leisurely activity. We celebrated
this significant milestone by doing the Coast to Coast walk in Aug/Sep. This
was a fabulous experience over three weeks, from St Bees Head in Cumbria
to Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire, covering
206 miles and 32,000’ of ascent, which we would recommend to you all (http://www.meekings.co.uk/photos/2004/C2C/index.html).
Spain has been a big feature
of 2004. You may recall last year we had no house license and therefore no legal
utilities. Well Jill spent the whole of February there chasing the relevant
authorities, and by the end we had legal water and electricity. This was cause
for a larger celebration than those of you in developed countries might imagine!
In May we were back and were burgled for the second time this year. We have
leant our lessons and installed three safes, security locks and grilles and
are now suitably security minded. During the summer both Kiran and friends paid
a visit and in Oct/Nov we spent 5 weeks there. We tried the long sea ferry to
Bilbao and drove through Spain.
staying at several Paradores hotels in old castles. The drive through Spain was great
but the ferry, or mini-cruise, as some refer to it was pretty awful with the
most uncomfortable beds in which we failed to get any serious sleep. Finally
in November we fired and hired yet another gardener. So two years from initial
handover we really now feel the project is finished; so in 2005 we plan to enjoy
it! As a prelude to more frequent visits Jill took Spanish lessons and Greg
was to be seen walking past St Pauls to work, iPod in ear, mumbling “¿Quanto
Es?” and “Es muy caro!”. It has to be said that we haven’t progressed that much,
perhaps a candidate New Year’s Resolution?
One thing is for certain, with Jill & Greg ‘retired’ and
Kiran and James working and living away from home, 2005 is going to be a different.
We hope all of you are as well, happy and prospering. Life seems so busy that
we are conscious that we do not see as many friends as often as we would like
but we do hope that this will change. We do think of you all! Anyway, we wish
you all a very Merry Christmas and an extremely Happy and Successful New Year.
If you are passing our way, or want to visit, please don’t hesitate to call.
We would love to see you.
Lots of love to you all
Visit our online 2004 photo album @ http://www.meekings.co.uk/photos/phalbum.htm