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CHRISTMAS 1997

Christmas is nearly here so it is time to send you our good wishes and use this opportunity to tell you what we've been up to over the past year.

This has been a very busy and fulfilling year.   In March Mandy's nephew Gregory and fiancee Lorna arrived (from Australia) to stay with us for a while.   Gregory was able to celebrate his 21st birthday with us, which we hope he enjoyed.   Greg and Lorna returned to Australia in August.   Later in August Mandy's niece Charmaine also came to visit from Australia.   Charmaine only stayed a short while as she was pregnant and became very homesick.   Charmaine delivered her beautiful baby in November - a fair haired girl called Imajyn Faith Lea.

We had a wonderful holiday in Snowdonia in August.   It was brilliant to get away from people and telephones and televisions and work.   We spent most of the holiday trying to keep cool; we played in streams (the water level was very low this year) and climbed up a waterfall we had found on a previous visit.   We were able to find some alterations we had made to it when we were there the year before!

In September we attended the wedding of Antony and Melanie Williams (Antony being Duncan's 2nd cousin).   The news that the funeral of the Princess of Wales was to be the same day as the wedding gave us concern, but despite the sad events of the morning, the afternoon service took place in an atmosphere of happiness.   It was uplifting to see the love shared between these two.

We had a lot of rabbit goings-on this year.   First Liquorice died of old age.   Rover had had 9 or 10 anaesthetics this year and finally it was decided he'd had enough.   (Rover was chased by a cat and broke or dislocated his back toes - this needed emergency treatment and an anaesthetic every time the bandage needed changing.   He looked quite comical hopping around with one leg bandaged!)   Konijn became ill with a blocked intestine and couldn't be saved.   Then we woke one morning to find Chilli had been killed by a fox.   It was sad to lose Liquorice, but it was terribly upsetting to lose 3 young rabbits in the space of 6 weeks.   However, later in the year we visited a rabbit rescue sanctuary in Bristol and came home with Basil 'Baz' (a silver fox rabbit), Cauliflower (who nobody wanted because he was so old), and Buffalo Lillian 'Lil' (a lop ear rabbit) who was just 6 weeks old when we brought her home.   All rabbits had been taken in by the sanctuary due to neglect and abandonment.

As usual Michelle's life is dominated by School and Dancing.   She attends Greendown Community School (now year 9), where she studies hard (her excellent school report proves this).   Sometimes it feels like all Michelle does is eat, sleep, go to School and dance.   She has very little spare time, so school holidays have become very important to 'recharge her batteries'.

This year's dancing diary:
February:   Cotswold Dance Festival:   one 1st place and two 2nd places, and also won the trophy for the highest trio mark of the Festival.
March:   Ballet Awards in London and the Bristol Dance Eisteddfod.   Also took part in the Drama Production.
April:   Junior Gold Star Tap exam - Honours
May:   Grade VI Ballet exam - Honours.   Bournemouth Music Festival - one 1st, one 2nd, four 3rd places and qualified to dance in the Championships - 17 were chosen from about 850 competitors.
June:   Michelle was very busy this month - thank goodness day-school finished!   Pre-Elementary Ballet exam - Highly Commended, Pre-Elementary Modern exam - Honours.   At the Judith Hockaday School Prizegiving Michelle won the Intermediate Ballet, runner-up for Intermediate Tap, and Commended for Intermediate Modern.   As well as dancing at schoold fetes and a nursing home, Michelle found time to do a full week's National Summer School.
August:   almost managed 2 weeks off!
September:   Exams in Elementary and Gold Star National Dance - both Highly Commended.
November:   Regional heats of the Grandison Clarke Awards held in London.   Michelle danced in a solo (Commended), duet (Commended), trio (Finalist) and Group (Finalists).  
December:   The Grandison Clarke Award finals were held in London (other competitors travelled from as far away as Scotland and Devon).   The Group was Commended and Michelle and partners Hayley and Gemma won the Trio section with a super Romanian stick dance - this makes them the best in all of Britain.   The trio costume was a runner-up for the 'Best Dressed' award.   Michelle also danced in a charity event in aid of the Koalas fund (a children's charity) - she was in 4 dances and also played/danced the part of the Cat in the drama production of Cinderella.   Rehearsals have now started for the show next March at the Wyvern.

So far this year Michelle has had over 440 dance lessons, plus 5 full days of summer school.   Michelle eats, breathes and sleeps dancing.   And loves every moment.

Michelle does try to fit in other things:   in May she celebrated her 13th birthday with a party for 11 (21 were invited, so this low turn out was a bit disappointing).   We played a few silly games, had lots of food and drink, then danced until parents arrived.   Michelle and friends loved to see cousin Gregory eat a whole jam doughnut in one go!!

Mandy seems to spend a lot of time driving Michelle from venue to venue, as well as being costume and prop provider, hairdresser and make-up artiste.   In September Mandy started a course at College in word processing, because she wanted to learn to use the PC better and because she thought she had some spare time.   This has been a good confidence boost as it has shown her she actually knows a lot more than she thought she did!   Mandy completed the RSA stage I course in 10 hours instead of the allotted 60!!   She has now moved on to stage II, with exams looming in January and March - the first examinations Mandy has taken for 20 years.

Duncan is still working in Bristol as a computer consultant for Cap Gemini.   He still helps out with readings, vestry steward-ing and operating microphones at Church.   During the summer he still enjoys playing cricket, and again captained the Central Church team at the Swindon Churches Six-a-Side Cup.   Duncan has not managed to see Swindon Town football team play very often this year, but still follows them avidly on the radio or TV.   Duncan now spends a lot of his spare time either at the library or in front of the PC researching the family tree.   Perhaps if you know anything that might be of interest, or would like to know more about it, you would contact us.

As you can see, we've had a very busy year.   We send our thoughts and wishes to you as we wish you a very Happy Christmas, and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

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