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CHRISTMAS 1991

We hope this letter finds you well.

As the year draws to an end we thought you might like to know what's been happening to us since last Christmas.

Michelle has been extremely busy.   Her year started with an operation for grommets, which went well despite all of Mandy's worrying.   It wasn't long before she was back to her lessons in swimming, gymnastics, tap, modern and ballet dancing, as well as going to singing group.   Michelle has gained 4 swimming awards - 25m, 50m, Grade 3 Water Skills, and Challenge 1; 2 Gymnastics badges (grades 6 and 5); and has taken Pre-Primaty Tap Dance exam passing with Highly Commended, and Standard I Ballet, passing with Special Merit.   In addition to the exams organised by the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance (the national body which monitors the dancing schools), she was also presented with a gold medal at the Judith Hockaday School of Dancing prizegiving ceremony.   Gold, silver and bronze medals were presented to each of the four branches of the school, and Michelle received the gold for the Stratton Branch.   Two very proud parents watched the presentation by Miss Hockaday!

School life continues at what seems a snails’ pace to Michelle but a speeding train to us; and during April/May she took her 'sevens test' - even though she was still only six!   In September she became a Junior; and she was promoted to Juniors in Sunday School also.   Recently she played a wolf in the school play, sang a one-line duet at Church, and played tambourine for Central Sounds.   The New Year will bring rehearsals for the Dancing School's production which will take place next March in the Wyvern Theatre.  

In addition to all the school and other activities she has also been busy trying to fit in swimming with Duncan, supporting the local ice-hockey team, and going to football.   During our holidays she went on a pony and made friends with a guinea pig and a dog.   She has lost three teeth during the year, and had her ears pierced (Mandy had hers done at the same time to be 'brave' for Michelle).   She visited Father Christmas at the beginning of December, and was even brave enough to talk to him!

Apart from being a taxi-service for Michelle, Mandy has been kept very busy running groups, attending meetings, doing lots of typing, and occasionally doing the housework!   Sadly she decided to give up being a leader at Youth Group; after nineteen months of hard work she felt it was time to finish as other work had become more demanding.   Central Sounds (the singing/music group at Church) has taken off in a big way over the past six months - the group now visits other churches, and are being used much more by Central Church.   The only mishap was that the group went to Avebury Chapel to help celebrate their Harvest Festival and nobody else turned up!   The group had arrived one month early.   Apart from visits to Avebury, Central Sounds have also been to Box and Christian Malford.   Also connected with church activities, Mandy maintains the church directory and pastoral lists on the computer.   There's been plenty of other typing too - Mandy has taken the minutes of a number of meetings which then have to be typed up, and is at present typing up the memories of an older member of the church.

Last April saw Mandy starting on a Spectrum training course for people involved with youth work.   Although there were only 12 sessions, it didn't end until November, so she found it quite a hard slog.   Hopefully some of the topics covered will be of use to Mandy in her work at Sunday School and other groups.

In September she started a lunch time singing group at Michelle's school for 7 and 8 year olds.   About 25-30 attend each week and usually manage to wear Mandy out!   After the first session one of the young girls had to be taken to hospital as she had hurt her ankle during one of the 'action' songs!   Despite this the children seem to enjoy the group and will be taking part in the school carol concert.

Duncan has been kept busy at work this year, so uses his time at home to relax, as much as Michelle will let him of course.   The cricket team did well in the Saturday league, and won the Thursday Evening League so have been promoted.   Duncan received a trophy for his efforts for the team.   He still enjoys supporting Swindon Town football, especially when they do well!  

DIY has never been Duncan's strong point.   As if to emphasise this point he managed to put a nail straight through one of the central heating hot water pipes whilst attempting to cure a squeaky floor board!   This was bad enough but it was a Bank holiday week-end and plumbers were in short supply.   Fortunately Mandy found a very good one (while Duncan went off to football for the afternoon) who, after three visits, managed to repair the pipe and replace the pump which decided to stop working after it's mistreatment.

In the course of his work Duncan has recently become a jet-setter.   He's been over to Jersey about 7 times for 2 or 3 days at a time in the past two months.   Hopefully there won't be many more trips as the work is almost completed.   October saw him have a new company car (or 'comfy-car' as Michelle calls it!).   It's a Renault 25.   The car has so many gadgets you almost need an 'A' level to use it!   It even has a synthesised voice to tell you if you have forgotten to turn off the lights, or if the petrol is low, or if a door is not quite shut properly, but, boy, does it make you jump when all of a sudden you hear a voice!   Duncan is still working at Wooburn Green, near High Wycombe and Mandy worries about him driving that distance every day, but would worry even more if the mortgage couldn't be paid!   In theory Duncan should work from home one day a week - but in practice that has hardly ever happened.

During May we had our usual week away in Wales and fortunately the sun shone on us for most of the time.   We also had a week of 'days out' during the August Bank Holiday week when we visited several local attractions.   These included the flight of locks at Devizes (where we also had a trip on a canal boat), the sculpture trail in the Forest of Dean (a 4 mile walk!!) and pebble picking at Ogmore-by-Sea in Wales.   The pebbles were later painted by Michelle and Mandy.   During November we managed to get away on our own for a couple of days while Michelle was looking after her Nanny Pam!

This year has seen Duncan’s father's 70th birthday and we took him (and mum) out for a meal at a local restaurant to celebrate.   We had an excellent meal and a very good evening, although he was to embarrassed to wear his 'I am 70' badge!

We have now really joined the video age as we bought ourselves a camcorder as a joint present for our 10th wedding anniversary.   So now we can bore people with hours of video tape instead of volumes of photo albums!   Mandy videoed the school Christmas play and is now busily copying it for as many parents as want a copy, she's charging a pound a time with all the proceeds going to school funds.   Richard Attenborough watch out!

Well its time to close now and hunt down those last few Christmas presents etc., so all that's left to say is have a happy Christmas and a safe new year.


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