Dear Friends
This is our first year of ‘retirement’ and we are just discovering that it keeps us busier than work, hence this rather tardy newsletter production. I even missed the xmas card deadline, but hey – better late than never. Personally I really don’t know how I found time to work in the old days!
In January James started real work for the first time at OC& C Strategy Consultants (http://www.occstrategy.com/). This was something of a shock to his system and he learnt the old maxim ‘there ain’t no free lunch’ quickly and now knows why he is paid so well. For his first assignment he was working in Farnborough and commuting daily from Islington, leaving at 0630 and getting home knackered at 2200! Meanwhile Kiran was embarking on her PhD. She is doing this under the auspices of Imperial College London, but she works in her lab at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, where she is researching into a retrovirus that particularly inflicts cancer onto Japanese people. Don’t ask me to go any further….. If you are interested go to this link, I end up with mixed emotions, humbled that one’s offspring have intellectually overtaken one, mixed with real pride, ahhh! http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/about/divisions/is/immuno/stmarys/htlv/default.html
In
February Jill & I went off for an extended trip to South Africa. We started in the Kruger National Park with a three day bush walk that was totally
amazing. There were eight of us staying in little A-Frame huts about an hours
drive through the bush from anywhere, right amongst the wild life. From here we
went on guided walks each day with two armed guides stalking the animals, which
is harder than you think. If you are in a vehicle they can’t see you and
typically just stand and stare. But on foot they smell you and run a mile.
Seeing wild animals up close from your car/jeep is one thing but being a few yards from a Hippo or White Rhino, or herd of Wildebeest with no intervening restraints is something else. The hairs stand up on the back of your neck as you maintain eye contact with animals that do the same with you.
We stayed in the park for a total of five days before flying down to Port Elizabeth and a leisurely drive down the Garden Route, staying at Vineyards, to Cape Town where we crowned the trip with a super luxurious few days at the Atlantic Suites. We did all the usual things in Cape Town including Table Mountain and a visit to Robben Island. I have many many wonderful photographs of this trip which was really special not least because of the humour and friendliness of the South African people.
No sooner did we get back from South Africa than Greg went off on a boys ski trip to Austria with Alan, Peter, and Ron. Greg really enjoyed the skiing and Jill appreciated not having Greg around the house for a week. Speaking of which although Greg is nominally retired he is Chairman of two pension schemes which keeps the little grey cells active and keeps him busy for a few days a month. Jill of course has now become Chairman of the Parish Council, and what with her voluntary work for Breakthough and the NHS PCT Trust she sits on has enough to keep her busy as well.
In March we went to see His Dark Materials at the National Theatre, this being a double bill, six hour, marathon of Philip Pullman’s trilogy. It was totally memorising and transported one to another world of ‘demons’ and ‘windows’ between worlds, and of ‘good and evil’. Quite the best theatre we have ever seen. An absolute must if you ever get the chance to see a rerun.
In April our nephew, Andrew got married in Thailand to his long time Thai girlfriend Kunyee. So the whole family went out to Thailand for the wedding. This was a most spectacular traditional affair which we wouldn’t
have missed for the world. Made even better by the very friendly hospitality of
our hosts; a very special wedding. 
Whilst all this was going on we had
helped Kiran buy a maisonette near Hyde Park, which to put it mildly was in
need of renovation. It had been lived in by the same lady since it was built in
the 70’s and nothin
g had
been changed. It was truly awful and smelt disgusting. Anyway Greg took on the
renovation project personally. This was finally completed in April when Kiran
was able to move in. It must be said that both Jill and Kiran also put in a
great deal of help, particularly on clean up, wall paper stripping, and
decoration. In fact it was heartening to hear Kiran complaining about the work
quality/ethic of some of her friends who she press ganged into a sort of
wine/painting party. Anyway you can see the before and after in these pics.
In June we had a lovely weekend walking
in Wensleydale with our friends Sue and Alan. It must have been nostalgic for
Alan sincehe was brought and went to school in Wensleydale. We had good weather
and it really confirms there is no place like the UK on a good day! Later in
June Greg did the round the island race on ‘Black Tie’ a fabulous Swan 47
recently purchased by our neighbour. The team acquitted itself reasonably well
with a 9th in our group, not bad for a first race, not as good as
last year in a different yacht. 
The
following week we sailed in the Swan Regatta and we’d prefer not to think about
our race position (http://blacktie.meekings.co.uk/)!
We hope to do better in Porto Cervo in 2006.
We have spent quite a lot of time in our house in Spain this year and have finally got it finished, the builders out, and the garden sorted. So we actually get to enjoy it. We had
several ‘visitations’ during the year. In January we entertained twelve of our Woldingham social bridge club for a few days (with the help of a couple of bedrooms from a friendly neighbour). We didn’t play much bridge but did have great fun which culminated in the most amazing home made Tapas. This created by the ladies, six of whom managed to create a sumptuous feast out of what looked like chaos and pandemonium in the kitchen for several hours in which copious amounts of Rioja was consumed . In May Greg had four friends over and they had a boy’s golf week while Jill topped up her tan. In the summer both Kiran and James had a week each with several of their friends over and finally in October James and Kiran came over for the weekend – we then realised this was the first time we had all been together at the villa since we bought it!
In the autumn Greg successfully raised Angel finance for a small software service company, Kleindahl, who specialise in analytics for assessing strategic business options in large companies. Hopefully this will get off the ground and complete early in 2007 at which time Greg will become Chairman of the company. Yet another distraction from retirement and the golf course!
Jill has had a bit of a tough time with ailments this year. She decided to have her feet ‘fixed’ and scheduled a double bunyonectomy for August. Leading up to this she developed a frozen shoulder which in the end she had manipulated under anaesthetic at the same time as her feet were done. She recovered well from the operation and her feet are now recovering and are much improved, however she is still having trouble with her shoulder. I think in some sort of sympathetic gesture Greg has a persistent Rotator Cuff Tendonitis which doesn’t want to clear up. Apart from this we are in great health and spirits!
Meanwhile Kiran and James continue to do
well. We all went to James’ graduation in May. James is now on his third
project at work, has settled in, and is enjoying working life. He also recently
moved to Belgravia, quite close to Kiran, and Victoria station and therefore
us! Kiran and James see each other socially from time to time which is nice to
see. Meanwhile Kiran frets about how well her experiments are going but since
we don’t understand them its difficult to know how big of an issue this is in
reality! They are both coming home for xmas and we look forward to listening to
them in bed together opening their stockings on xmas morning which at 22 and 24
they still appreciate, although I think they realise that father xmas doesn’t
come down the chimney!
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
Greg & Jill
Visit our online 2005 photo album @ http://www.meekings.co.uk/photos/phalbum.htm