Apr 19 2008
Christmas 2005
This year started off well with a flotilla holiday in the Virgin Islands with our friends Francesca and Mark. Sue had never slept on a boat before and was unused to the motion and unaware of the danger this posed. It was rather choppy the first day and as she emerged from the cabin the stern dropped sharply and she was catapulted right across it landing with her arm on the rail. Fortunately all this resulted in was an enormous painful bruise. The white beaches, coral reefs and sailing were wonderful but Bill managed to dislodge some wax in his ‘good’ ear and was very deaf for the rest of the holiday.
Selfcateringhols did well in January, selling a 100 holidays. On the strength of that we took on a web developer. Unfortunately the rest of the year was not so buoyant and we have had to sacrifice our salaries to complete his one-year contract. The improvements that have been made have made it all worth while and we’re hoping for a good 2006 with minimal expenses to see us back on track. The addition of Skype to our methods of communication has shrunk the distance between Barcelona, where Dougal lives, and Wrinehill even further and we have also set up a routine of regular weekly meetings every 3 months. This enables us to see Gabriel and Olivier, our grandchildren regularly as well.
We also converted our house in Criccieth into two apartments this year and this proved to be more hassle than we had imagined as we had employed the services of an architect. The regulations, particularly regarding fire, are so strict now-a-days that he certainly earned his money. The end result is two lovely apartments, one of which, and we’re not sure which, we plan to have as our home when Carla leaves school in the summer of 2007. Then we can entertain friends and family by using them both or earn money from one when we’re not.
Between them the two business have used up most of our energy and time but we did manage a second week away in Tuscany with Bill’s brother Chris and his wife Vicky. We stayed in 3 of the properties that advertise with us, combining work and pleasure. This was a huge success for all of us, the real bonus being the personal contact we had with the property owners who also provided us with expert local knowledge. We ate extremely well, celebrating Sue’s birthday in style, and saw some amazing well-preserved ancient places and duomos (cathedrals) to choke on! Chris was the driving force behind the sightseeing.
All four girls have had major exams this year and Alisa, Jo and Nicola have left college. All of them did themselves credit with good results but none of the three older girls is yet set on a career although all are financially independent to an extent with jobs to earn their spending money. Carla is now doing A. Levels in the hope of studying maths at university. Jo had a very upsetting experience in that her boyfriend Russ, who was virtually living here with us, fell down a few steps in a nightclub in Scotland, banged his head and died a few days later. Jo had just finished with him a couple of weeks earlier.
We still grow most of our own vegetables and a fair proportion of our own fruit, and our own fuel for the open fire. Bill’s plan to have hens has been shelved until the position over bird flu is a bit clearer. Sue and Carla have recently been treading the boards for the BATS Christmas Cracker – a show with sketches and Carla managed to turn a few heads. Bill played in the local men’s double’s tennis league for the tenth year running, managing to come bottom in the third division for the second year running (normally he would have been demoted to the fourth which he’s played in for most of the time but an influx of new players kept him up there). The 3 older girls all went on holiday with boyfriends and Carla went on a gliding course with the RAF.