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Christmas pages 2002 2003 2004 Family info 2001 2002 2003 2004 We had a great Christmas and enjoyed ourselves enormously. Just before Christmas Elliot passed his test (just after Christmas he wrote off the car!) and very shortly he is heading off for Australia. Oliver is enjoying his course in Penrith although the gales and winds in early Jan made life less pleasant. During the first weekend in November we became the proud owners of two juvenile chipmunks, Chocolate and Hobnob. The two female chipmunks are the latest addition to our menagerie and Rachael is very proud of her new pets. Steve is pleased to see them housed in the new cage which took nearly three days to build as it has to be pretty large and have an 'airlock' to ensure they don't escape when you feed them. They are undoubtedly very cute and also very lively! Oliver has started his university career at UKLAN and is enjoying it although it does rain a lot! Elliott travelled up to the Peak district to walk 50km as part of gaining his Duke of Edinburgh's gold award, has started his management training programme and now works one day a week at Jarrolds as well as Iceland. The summer was very busy Colette, Rachael and Judith were away at Guide camp, Oliver has been to Benidorm (The police are not pressing any charges and the bruises have healed up), and Helen and Steve had a wonderful if busy holiday in Barcelona. Meanwhile Elliot has been working hard earning lots at Iceland while Oliver prepares to move to university in the Lake district.. We have Just played host to Lara Petres the Spanish student that Colette stayed with around Easter time. It was a very busy week and Lara was a an excellent guest that will always be welcome to visit us. Thanks to a thoughtful Fathers day present we are now connected to Freeview and have the choice of at least three shopping channels all day every day. Seriously though it worked very straightforwardly and everybody has benefited from the additional channels.
emulate the This Spring, the girls have been to Guide camps twice since Christmas and Judith was a ball girl at Carrow Road mid March when Norwich beat Gillingham 3-1. In April Colette went to Spain on an exchange trip with the Hewett School. She stayed near Sagunto in the same region as Valencia with Lara and her family. The trip has reinforced Colette's decision to learn Spanish, so that she can return and do the girlie talk thing with Lara and her friends. Oliver has decided to go to University in Penrith which happens to be exactly 300 miles from Norwich by Road. Elliot is keeping his options open and Helen and Steve are busy at work and it seems at home as well. Living on a hill we are never concerned about floods, winds yes, but it would need over 150 feet of water to reach us. However in the first days of the new year we were much struck by one of the highest levels that we have seen on the Wensum in a very long time, and this can only mean misery for those living on low ground. Both Oliver and Elliot are well established in their weekend jobs at Tesco and Iceland respectively, although the hours are sometimes a little tiring. Meanwhile they are continuing to study for their 'O's and 'A's (honestly). Perhaps as the result of a 'dare' Elliot has had his head shaved resulting in a dramatic 'new look'. Colette has just taken to the slopes at ski school, so far no injuries, our fingers are crossed! In Switzerland the girls moved into a wonderful chalet in the mountains for ten days. they climbed the Jungfrau and sung at the top, visited a talented wood carver and an Ice Palace amongst many other activities. Rachael did very well in a pets portrait competition in June. She won a prize for her picture of the Guinea pigs and helped win a prize for her school as well. Over Easter Colette spent a week camping in the Lake District with friends from School. The trip which was organised by the Hewett School meant that they had to fend completely for themselves including making all their own meals and cooking them. Rachael and Judith are both delighted to have been in the team that beat the rest of the Norwich School Girls Five-a-side football teams in a knockout tournament with Judith getting all but three of the goals and Rachael in goal only allowing two in during the whole tournament. In the meantime with her Norwich City strip on Judith made it through to the Norfolk County Semi Finals, sadly the ultimate trophy slipped from their grasp, but it's still a tremendous effort. For her part Judith was awarded the Players Player trophy! At the end of August, Judith has been selected to receive special coaching at the football 'Centre of excellence'. Judith also took part in the Norfolk County games as well as lots of other activities including Cricket. In December Elliot returned from Russia and an exciting visit to Moscow and St Petersburg, At the beginning of December Oliver had an accident which wrote off the car, so the following week was spent choosing and buying a new one. In the same week Steve was away for a couple of days at a conference, Helen had a school governors meeting, and Rachael learned that she had won a prize to design a mosaic wall decoration for the new Surestart building that's just opened in Thorpe Hamlet. Elliot was preparing to leave to leave for Russia and Colette was rehearsing her part for the Mikado. This excitement packed week also saw Steve becoming Stephanie for the day when he and all the staff at EDA took part in a Dress Up Day. In November Colette visited the world war one battlefields in Belgium. Steve organised a 41 Club visit to the new Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital and came away very impressed with pretty much everything except the poor transport provision. Elliot and Oliver have both been working lots of overtime, and Colette took part in her very last BOP dance display at the beginning of December. All the girls have joined the new Girl Guide choir and so far are enjoying the new team and new songs. Norwich City Girls have an unbroken run of victories much to Judith's delight. September saw us all back from our various holidays, Oliver in Newquay then Amsterdam at the end of July, Colette, Judith & Rachael in Switzerland with the Norfolk Guide Choir and Steve & Helen in Amsterdam at the beginning of August. Sadly Elliot has had to wait until Christmas for his visit to Russia. Amsterdam was great and a fantastically relaxing and fun holiday. Oliver went over by train with a group of friends and stayed in a couple of youth hostels (Bob's was the best), Helen and Steve flew from Norwich and stayed in a very nice hotel (the 'Clemens' and yes we can recommend it) just behind Dam Square. We had one of the most relaxing and enjoyable breaks that we have ever had. Amsterdam is everything you expect and more... Walks; canals; shops; churches; trams; walks; restaurants; bars; cafes; walks; coffee shops; museums; art galleries; markets; walks; parades; gay pride; street parties; prostitutes; sex; walks; cannabis; pickpockets (not us this time!); cats; and yet more walking. Steve took his pedometer and recorded that we walked over 40 miles in the week and enjoyed all of it despite the record temperatures which, just like the UK were in the 32-35°C range all week. There is so much shade everywhere that the sun does not have to be a problem at all, and of course many shops, art galleries and museums are air conditioned. The highlights were probably the Van Gough Museum which has a broad range of pictures from contemporaries as well as so many of Van Gough's, the red light district which is just fascinating, and in complete contrast the Bible museum! There just weren't any low points at all except perhaps the heat. Having completed his 'AS' level exams Oliver has now started his run into'A' levels at City College. This March he has been away in the Lake District on a Geography field trip, and in June was an extra (soldier) in 'The Lost Prince' to be broadcast early next year. Oliver has been bitten by the model car racing bug, and is building his second car, which he races on Sunday evenings. Having passed his driving test theory, he was very annoyed not to pass the practical driving test he took in early August. Elliot and Colette both did well in their SATS. Colette's school year started well and she is now House Captain and Leader of her Girl Guide patrol as well as a member of the Guide Choir singing all over the place. Sadly she missed out on a trip to the Netherlands last year because of the Foot & Mouth problems which prevented them travelling. Colette is now a member of her school council with special responsibilities for the playground and playground safety, she has also started wearing glasses for the first time. Elliot is well into his GCSE courses and is already getting good marks. In March he took off to the American 'Wild West' for a History field trip (in my day a trip to Colchester castle was the big history event!), and then in April was off on the first of 2 Duke of Edinburgh's Award trips. Elliot now has his 'D of E' Bronze Award and is looking forward to tackling a Silver Award. In June he did 2 weeks work experience at Iceland in the City centre and was invited to go back for Saturday work. He's very pleased about this as he was quite keen to drop his paper round but needed the money. Judith is a member of the Norwich City Girls football team, and both she and Rachael have both been away on a residential week at Wells next the Sea in North Norfolk. Both Rachael and Judith are now Girl Guides, and together with Colette all three girls have taken part in BOP (Body Of People) dance presentations throughout the year. Helen (now a governor at the Middle School) is in the lucky position of having both the headmasters of both schools that she works in, fighting for more of her time to support youngsters with learning difficulties. To relax she goes to Yoga (often with Colette) at least once a week. Work is always busy for Steve, March saw him in Rotterdam for an interesting conference on obesity issues, so you can expect to see less of him soon! Newcastle upon Tyne was the venue for another conference at the end of June, my how we travel the globe! Oliver is currently doing his final year of 'A' levels and Elliot his final GCSE year. Colette is now well established at her new secondary school and Rachael and Judith are well into year 6, that's SATS year, so we will be exammed out by this time next year. Judith's football career is developing well, having scored the first goal of the season for the Norwich City Girls team (as well as plenty more subsequently) and being named as woman of the match for her role in a school match in mid November. So far (Feb 03) the Norwich City Girls team are unbeaten this year and Judith earned the accolade 'awesome' from her coach.
Introducing
the children to the delights of Paris in the summer seemed like a pretty neat idea. They get
to see some of the world’s most famous cultural (and commercial) works of art
and architecture, and we get a romantic holiday (we had found the Hotel that we
spent our honeymoon in on the internet and had decided to go back for our
break).
The
hotel
Roubaix
was much the same, run on a family basis with friendly and
helpful staff in the centre of Paris.
It was good value for money
25 years ago and it’s good value now, but nevertheless very clean and
friendly. We told the owners, who
haven’t changed, about our honeymoon, and on leaving they gave us a bottle of
champagne for a belated 25th Anniversary present! The hotel was just round the corner from the Metro, a Monoprix
store the Pompidou centre and a small park that was perfect for picnic teas.
Luckily
we had already walked up the
Eiffel Tower when Steve really got into the swing
of things by falling over, spraining an ankle and breaking a rib on the park
bench, which luckily broke his fall! This
was swiftly followed by having his pocket picked on the Metro and then falling
over and spraining the other ankle! Following that Helen had a run in with a 17th century,
stone bollard in Momartre. It all sounds disastrous but actually
apart from having some impact on the romantic aspects of the holiday it really
just resulted in outbreaks of hysterical laughter by the rest of the family.
The
children enjoyed the adventure and were pleased to have eaten in restaurants in
some of the poshest addresses in Europe including the Champs Elysees, the Eiffel
Tower, and Momartre. Sadly although we visited the
Moulin Rouge they were
disappointed that despite the tickets at £40.00 each to get in, we didn’t take
them to see a show.
Over
the fortnight we saw most of the sights Paris has to offer including the 'Paris
Plage' the beach that was made by the Seine and made the news around the world
when visitors bought Paris to a halt, the
Pere La chaise
cemetery, the Arc De Triumph,
the Louvre,
the St Martin
canal,
Monets garden at Giverny about 50 miles from Paris as well as the Paris call girls and
the trinket sellers at the Trocadero. Oliver decided to stay at home to feed the guinea pigs and fish. He had a great time, and apart from throwing barbeque for his friends (saves clearing up the kitchen), he managed to do a personal 'life laundry'. This resulted in a couple of black bags of rubbish and one could certainly notice the difference! He kept the house clean and tidy, and also remembered how the washing machine worked. He is available to house-sit for a consideration if you are looking for someone. We were all delighted when Oliver passed his driving test in mid November In early September 02 we visited the 'Bodyworlds' exhibition in Brick Lane in London. I'm not sure about any claims that it is art, but it is fascinating and was probably the most interesting morning we have spent in a very long time. There is more information about the exhibition and the 'plastination' of cadavers on the Bodyworlds website. The Christmas break already seems a distant memory even though we did have a lovely break and recharged our batteries ready for the new year. If you missed our Christmas message you can still catch it here. In the middle of 2001 Steve helped take a Middle School group to London for a visit to Tower Bridge and the London Dungeon. Everyone returned safely and Steve will be completely recovered quite soon At the end of July '01 Elliot received a French Award, Colette was presented with the Headmistress Award for contribution to sport and whole school life. Rachael was presented with a prize for a poem and illustration that she had had published, and Judith became the fastest girl in her year in the whole of Norwich at the Norwich schools athletics meet, she is also a member of the Norwich City Girls football team. We had an enjoyable if damp family holiday on the Thames in a narrow boat in August '01 and got back to learn that Oliver had obtained the GCSE's that he needed with pretty good grades, and he has now started his 'A' level course at City College. .Steve and Helen celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in September2001. They managed to escape for a 25th anniversary weekend on their own in Oxford. 'We had a really enjoyable time, spoilt only by the problem of finding anywhere to park the car. Oxford have come up with the wonderful idea of fining you £40 if you leave your car in any carpark including the park & ride for more than 24 hours! For a city that relies on tourism this seems to be a bizarre and somewhat arrogant attitude towards travellers who for any reason cannot use the railway. If you're thinking of going to Oxford in the car be warned'! Thanks to everyone who celebrated our twenty-fifth anniversary with us on Sunday 16 September 2001 (Yes we do know the actual anniversary was the 4th!). We had a great day of celebration at ‘The Cottage’. It was really good to see members of our family and so many friends with their own families, many of whom we had not seen for some time. Thank you everyone for some wonderful memories, splendid cards and marvellous gifts. To see us 25 years ago click here!
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This page updated 02 May 2005 |
