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CHRISTMAS 1998

We hope you have had an enjoyable year - we have certainly been busy this year, and fortunate enough to have enjoyed ourselves along the way.   So here’s what we’ve been up to.

Michelle has been keeping us all busy.   At the end of last year (but after last year’s letter was sent to you) Michelle and partners Gemma and Hayley won the Grandison Clark Duet/Trio section with a Romanian Stick Dance - this makes them National Champions, and they had their photograph on the front page of the Dancing Times.   At this year’s competition Michelle gained Commended for her solo, duet and trio, and went through to the finals with an Hungarian Group.

This year Michelle has competed in the Cotswolds, Bristol, Bournemouth and Rugby Festivals and has won 4 gold, 8 silver and 6 bronze medals, and a trophy for the Romanian trio.   She has also danced at the Ballet Awards in London.   The marks Michelle has achieved for her dances means she has qualified 19 times for the All England Dance Competition.  

Michelle appeared in the school show ‘Be Our Guest’, and at a Barnados/NSPCC Charity Gala at the Wyvern Theatre where Princess Margaret was due to attend, but in the event was not well enough.   She also danced at the Wintergarden Theatre in Bournemouth.   Michelle took part in a Drama production at the Arts Centre in Swindon.   At the Judith Hockaday School of Dancing prizegiving night she was awarded the Intermediate Ballet, Intermediate Song and Dance, and a third for Festival Work.

This year Michelle has taken 5 exams, including Higher 7 Classical Ballet in which she and her partners made history by being the first, ever, to take it, and they all passed with Honours.   The other exams were: Elementary Classical Ballet (Commended), Senior Bronze Tap (Honours), Senior Bronze National (Honours), and Intermediate National (Highly Commended).   She also attended a week’s National Summer School and a two day work shop studying tap, flamenco, jazz and ballet.   This year Michelle has had at least 525 lessons.   As you can see, this ‘hobby’ takes us all over the country.  

Besides all this dancing, Michelle also has to fit in going to Greendown Community School, where she progressed to year 10 in September, and manages to get excellent reports.   Michelle left the school orchestra in July, but has recently joined the trampolining club.   Michelle said she didn’t want a birthday party this year (the first time ever!) because her friends are now ‘too grown up’ to enjoy all the daft games we play, and too embarrassed to dance afterwards.   We couldn’t let her birthday go by un-noticed, so we asked two of Michelle’s friends over without telling Michelle.   She was quite happily watching the TV, when Danielle and Gemma walked in with sleeping bags and presents.   We sent out for pizza, hired videos and ate lots of junk food - just how a 14th birthday should be spent!

Mandy has found herself kept busy this year with college and family tree matters.   In January she took RSA Text Processing, and in March Word Processing, both Stage II, passing both with Distinction.   In September she returned to College to do two more courses - RSA Legal and Medical Word Processing; she took the Legal exam in November, and passed with Distinction.   Mandy managed to complete both courses and old exam papers in less than the time allowed for just one course.   The Medical exam will be in January; after that she’ll be studying MS Power Point.   Besides this Mandy has also typed three books for other people - a poetry book, a fiction book and a history booklet of Avebury Chapel.

Family tree matters have kept Mandy the busiest this year though.   After last Christmas Mandy’s father lent her his book/folder of the Lea family history he had put together over a number of years.   This book was full of photographs (including some well over 100 years old), keepsakes, certificates and information.   Mandy offered to copy the folder and for the next month the computer, scanner and printer didn’t stop.   However, it appears the more one finds out, the more one wants to know!   We joined groups on the internet for people interested in genealogy in Wiltshire, The Moonrakers, and also WessexPlus and the Ohio and Cuyahoga Roots groups.   Mandy is now in contact with Geoff, a fourth cousin once removed!, who she met via the Moonrakers, and has swapped lots of family information with him.   Recently Mandy has started copying out the Births, Marriages and Deaths from the Swindon Evening Advertiser, starting back in 1855.   This information will eventually be available to everyone via the internet.   Apart from this, Mandy’s time is spent driving Michelle around, sewing (costumes) and darning pointe shoes - they take her about seven hours because she’s not very quick at it.   Occasionally she finds time for housework.

Duncan has also been researching his family tree - even producing a book about the Tydeman branch; his main problem seems to be that he never has enough spare time to spend on this.   Roll on retirement… It seems people are either very enthusiastic about family history, or are bored by it!   Duncan continues to work for Cap Gemini.   In July he was named as employee of the month, which meant he went on a two day company get together as a reward, being spoiled with expensive dinners in an expensive hotel, and taking part in the various activities on offer.   His normally quiet job changed dramatically in April when he went to work on a client’s site, mainly in Swindon.   This meant he has had to put in many extra hours, not to mention weekends, and finds he is travelling to Reading, Bristol and Redditch.   Duncan has not managed to play any cricket this year, and only gone to a couple of Swindon Town matches.   As mentioned before, roll on retirement!

Because Michelle’s dancing does tend to dictate when we have spare time, we value our ‘family time’.   In June this year Duncan’s parents, Doris and Harold, celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary.   All the family had a lovely dinner out, then went back to their home for tea and a get-together.   It was a lovely day to remember.   There was also Tracy and Sam’s engagement in June, and Jo and Adrian’s wedding in October.

We had a brilliant holiday in Criccieth and Snowdon in August, where we played in the streams, walked up the mountains, ate lots of ice-cream and flew kites on the beach.   We had two days of awful rain, but the waterfalls were spectacular as a result.   We also managed to visit friends and family in Birmingham, Bourton, Badbury and Newbury, and go to Ogmore-by-Sea, Hengistbury Head, New Forest, the Forest of Dean and Salisbury.

Christmas is approaching fast.   Our thoughts and wishes go to you and we hope you have an enjoyable day, followed by a peaceful and happy year.


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