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CHRISTMAS 2000

Here we are racing towards the end of another year, reflecting what has happened to us and trying to condense it all onto two sides of paper!

We celebrated the beginning of a new millennium in a rather quiet way compared to the rest of the world, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.   After eating a splended meal, we let off some fireworks, then drove up onto a hill that overlooks Swindon to watch the skyline as midnight approached.   The view was wonderfully colourful, with fireworks as far as we could see.   Just before midnight we lit our millennium candle, put on the car radio to listen to Big Ben chime, and opened a bottle of champagne.   The expectant atmosphere and view made up for the fact it was so cold up there!   As midnight struck we enjoyed the view even more as hundreds of rockets exploded.   Shortly after a smoke cloud covered much of our view so we headed down through Wroughton and back home.   It was a splended way to spend this moment in history.   On New Years Day we filled out a page of questions about ourselves and put them in a time-capsule; we collected a few things throughout the year to go inside, and it will be sealed at the end of the year.

Here are some of the other things we have been up to this year:

Michelle:   This has been a big year for Michelle, it being the year she left school and thus joined the adult world!   Michelle was woken up on her 16th birthday with streamers and spray string, which covered the bed by the time we had finished!!   After opening presents, we headed for the Millennium Dome in London.   This building has had some terrible publicity, but it is a unique and spectacular sight.   We didn’t manage to visit all the ‘zones’ inside, or take part in all the activities, but we had a wonderful day, and arrived home so, so tired!

    Michelle left school in May and took her last exam at the end of June, followed by a ‘Prom Night’ which was filmed by H.T.V.   She managed 10 GCSE passes of ‘C’ and above (equivalent to 10 ‘O’ level passes in old money!).   This was quite a relief because she needed a minimum of 5 ‘C’ passes to gain a place on the college course she wanted to join - a full time Dance Foundation course at Swindon Dance.   This course is greatly oversubscribed and the applicants have to endure two auditions, two interviews and a physiotherapy check up, before the successful applicants are chosen.   And of course achieve those GCSE grades.   Michelle was offered a place, and so since September has been dancing every week day, all day, from 9.00 am, followed by her dance lessons at the Judith Hockaday School (JHS) in the evening.   She is in heaven!!

Other dance activities this year have included three festivals (competitions), winning 9 medals and a cup, passed two exams (making a total of 56 dance exams passed), and finalist in both the Ballet Awards and the Grandison Clark Awards (3 dances).   Michelle also took part in three shows at the Wyvern Theatre; March was the JHS show, September saw a fundraising show, and in October the S.A.L.O.S. production of Mack and Mabel.   At the JHS prizegiving Michelle won the Determination and Achievement Award, and a runner up for Senior Tap.

The freedom from school and homework has meant Michelle has had a bit more time than she used to, so has recently started working for New Look at weekends (her favourite clothes shop!)

Mandy has had other people to worry about this year!   Mandy’s mum Pamela spent the first few months in two hospitals after suffering a major stroke the previous October, so Mandy worries about her and also for John who has had to take on the roll of full time carer for Pam.   Probably the worst time was towards the end of February when Pam went home but after only a few days fell and fractured a bone in her neck, amongst other things.   So back into hospital.   At the same time Duncan’s mother was in the same hospital, so Mandy was able to worry about and spend time with them both!   The same week Michelle was in the Cotswold Festival so organising hospital visits and festival timetables became a juggling act.   And to top it all, Michelle had a number of faints, and even managed to collapse whilst dancing on stage!

One way Mandy has found to relax is to work on our web site.   Duncan did all the difficult work of working out how to write the programs (html was new to him), whilst Mandy acted as ‘supervisor’, telling Duncan what she wanted it to be able to do.   Mandy spent any spare time this summer visiting local churches and taking photographs to go on the web site.   It has taken a lot of work to produce the web site as it now is, but well worth the effort.   At least whilst Mandy is working on the program it takes all her concentration, so she isn’t worrying about everyone else!

Duncan:   continues to work for Cap Gemini, and is temporarily based in Swindon.   His computing background helped him produce the template program for the web site, but only after some very frustrating times trying to work out how to achieve what Mandy was asking for.   But he succeeded in the end!   Duncan has managed to go to a few Swindon Town football matches, but did not play any cricket this year.   He did attend the Millennium and 50th anniversary dinner for the cricket club, held in November, when all current and past members of the team were invited along.   He had a thoroughly enjoyable evening listening and talking about cricket.

We were a bit spoilt for holidays this year, having three.   The first was in May when we spent the week in Bournemouth to coincide with the Dance Festival there.   Unfortunately two days before we were due to leave, Duncan had his leave cancelled so had to stay in Swindon whilst Mandy and Michelle went alone and tried not to miss him too much.

    A couple of days after Michelle’s last exam at school we spent five days in Disneyland Paris as a celebration of her finishing school.   We went by train and we were impressed with the Eurotunnel - just 3 ½ hours from London to the station at Disneyland.   Although it rained each day, we still managed to have a super time, even though we were very tired by the evening.   We stayed at a hotel on site and everyone spoke English - fortunately because we don’t speak French.   The ease of getting to France by train has prompted Mandy and Duncan to start French lessons (basic ‘holiday’ French) in the hope of returning there for another holiday.

Our third holiday was to our usual haunt in Criccieth, North Wales.   As usual we spent as much time as possible on the side of Snowdon, away from people and telephones, just enjoying the peace and beautiful scenery.

We wish you a Happy Christmas and a peaceful and healthy New Year.

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