It's been a good year with nice surprises. Here is June and the castle that suddenly appeared
beside Virginia Water Lake, near us. Robin found it while
geocaching
with an American war veteran. We all thought it was real, despite the fact it was built
for the new Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe. But it vanished a few weeks later, so I guess it was
only cardboard.
June and Robin have one or two walks each weekend, many over 6 miles, and some include a geocache. Michelle and her hamster came on one. We see June's dad Jack, now 90, when he drives round to thrash Robin at snooker. Here they are when we took a day trip to Stourhead, in the west country. On the way we stopped where Jack once had relatives, down Cow Sh** Lane behind a farm.
On a few occasions we meet up with daughter Saskia to watch hubby Scott punish himself doing things like a Triathlon.
These include swimming, cycling and then running. Robin puts a
GPS tracker
on Scott, which makes it easier to see where he is and make sure we can wait near a pub he will pass. It is not difficult to find him at close range: his hair is often bright dayglow pink.
Our
holiday
this year was our favourite place: Giardino Naxos in Sicily. We saw our friends Enrico, Mathilda and
their boys, who live on the slopes of Etna. We also enjoyed the company of old friends David and Jeanette,
who sailed their boat up from Malta, on their way to Corfu and Greece.
Michelle now has three lodgers at her place in Coventry and even has some part time work teaching plumbing at the local college. Saskia is now a fully qualified management accountant and Samantha is still into Japanese lessons and watching Formula1. June remains at her day job in Axon, and we get to enjoy the occasional social event like a formal dinner dance, the annual party in Holland, or dining at the Black Rat in Winchester.
We continue with
the Italian lessons two nights a week, so Robin is able to complain politely if he finds a horse's head
in the bed at any hotel in Sicily.
He enjoys using solicitors to help his friend Trevor and the
NHSCare.info charity work.
Robin continues with the
GPS Software
business, but this year seems to have spent a lot of hobby time on
Robot Boats.
One sank to the bottom of Bray Lake, but we found it again with an underwater TV camera.
We look forward to visits to the sea side next year - mostly in the cause of science :-)
All our love and good wishes from the Lovelock Family.
Have a
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year !
(a printable version of this newsletter is
here)