Graham & Fiona's Xmas Message - 2023

Graham & Fiona's Xmas Message - 2023

 

We hope this message finds you safe and well and you have managed to emerge from the crisis and get some relaxing family time and hopefully managed a vacation or two.  

We wish you all a happy Xmas spent with your family and friends .  With our best wishes for a prosperous 2024 in what will still be challenging times.

We looked forward to a year of post COVID with a certain excitement having exited 2022 with no major incidents and minimal impact to our family life.  A lot more going on internationally that is very upsetting, leaving us with a feeling of what on earth can we do about it.

The first 4 months of the year sees pretty much all the family birthdays so the days are made up of celebrations and outings.  Devon reached the dizzy heights of 8 and Thea is now 4.

We are both well and enjoying retirement which gives us plenty of time for family, hobbies and relaxation.  The grandchildren continue to grow and are now both at school!  Each week we do various slots to drop off and pick up Devon and Thea as well as school holiday management.

We are still active volunteering with The Barn Theatre; Woodland Management in our local SSSI where we, mainly Fiona, walk Rosie every day.  Fiona also volunteers in the wood at the local Riding for Disabled, where the highlight of the year was a visit by Princess Anne.

Fiona continues to support many productions at the Barn Theatre.  She did two plays this year one, Good Grief, written by a friend which is a tragic and brilliant study of personal grief.  The other play, Constellations, was magnificent and went on to win the annual Hertfordshire Amateur Dramatics Best Production award.  The adjudicator compared it favourably to a West End production.

The annual festival did not happen this year as the year started with no Glastonbury tickets and a failure to get tickets in the resale.  So, for the first time since 2011 Graham didn't go to Glastonbury.  And, no tickets for 2024 yet!!   

With only weeks to Glastonbury at a late night chat at The Barn Theatre, Steve and Graham decided to go to the Isle of Wight festival the next week!!  Tickets were easy to come by and were eventually secured at a discount as they hadn't sold out.  Whilst not on the scale and freedom of Glastonbury it was a great weekend with some great bands.  Many more concerts followed over the year.

Two events we highly recommend and still running in London are Van Gogh The Immersive Experience and ABBA Voyage (make sure you buy dance floor tickets).

A few years ago we both attempted the 3 peaks challenge but did not start the final peak of Snowdon.  We were already drenched and the weather on Snowdon was extreme so we declined and committed to finish it another year.  2023 was the year.  Natalie convinced a team of 9 to do the challenge to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital in memory of Izzy Tyler, who lost her battle against cancer at the age of 9.  

In early September Graham, Natalie and Olivia with friends completed the challenge in roughly 30 hours, 80,000 steps and over £5,000 raised.

We went back to Wales later in the year for Fiona to climb the last peak of Snowdon and cross it off her bucket list.  In bright sunshine, freezing conditions and snow we summitted at 10:30 on Nov 11th.  Up and down on the Miner's track.

May saw Robert and Graham take on the London 100.  This time on a route out into Essex rather than the original Box Hill course.  Graham made the mistake of cycling his electric bike which meant pedalling a 25 kg bike with no assist for over 55% of the ride, great for going up hills though.  At the end of the ride both Robert and Graham had expended 5,000 calories.  No one can say that eBikes are a walk in the park.

Graham continues to play golf and squash with 2 league wins, a Hertfordshire final and Melbourne Club Cup amongst his tally this year.

We managed to get away on a few occasions throughout the year including our usual sojourn to the sun of La Gomera for 3 weeks in mid winter with Natalie and Thea.  This was followed by a road trip to Austria; Dorset with the grandchildren; Anglesea for Snowdon; and for Fiona Cornwall and Graham Edinburgh for the Fringe and Rome to watch Europe defeat the USA in the Ryder Cup.

Devon has been a star this year.  He has progressed to Green Belt in Karate and won the most improved student cup; taken up guitar and is progressing really well, leaving his grandpa trailing in his wake.  At school he scored full marks in his Maths SAT.  But then he went and spoilt it all by saying something stupid like "I support Arsenal FC"!  🤣

We had one large ash tree and one large oak tree, both over 200 years in age, impacting on the house.  After much consultation TPOs and monitoring it was agreed that the 2 trees be felled.  We kept the trunks and major limbs.  Graham has processed these into logs, shelves, benches and miscellaneous planks.  Once seasoned Graham will be producing product!!  A new skill and a whole new set of tools and gadgets.   Watch this space.............

Merry Xmas everyone

Graham, Fiona, Natalie, Olivia, Robert, Karen, Lyndsey, Devon & Thea