Apr 19 2008
Christmas 2007
We finally moved to the ground floor flat in our house in Criccieth at the end of September when Carla went off to Manchester Uni to study maths. We haven’t sold Pine Trees yet but we have had a bit of interest, an offer even, but for a lot less than we put it on for originally. We’re loving it here but it’s still a tip as we try to store all the stuff we’ve accumulated over the years in a much small space than we had originally. I’ve installed 5 and a half metres of wardrobes, making the bedroom and dressing room very small and I’ve made my office from which I’m typing this now, under the new staircase. We bought a French dresser from my sister in London and somehow squeezed it into the car and installed it in our kitchen/dining area. When we first got here it was quite warm and we managed a swim in ‘our private swimming pool’ – i.e. from the beach.
We’re trying to simplify our lives and we’ve put our holiday flat in Porthmadog on the market and we’re also restructuring the business so we can have some leisure time. It’s on the market too.
We haven’t managed a holiday this year although Bill managed a few days cycling with his brother Chris and we’ve done some boating on Mike and Jo’s two boats, sailing in their yacht from Plymouth and cruising in their Dutch barge down the Thames. Hopefully 2008 will feature a bit more leisure time.
Doug and Jo have increased the size of their family and we now have a second grand-daughter, Esme, who is just 3 months old. James and Rachel are still in London but Rachel has been travelling about with her various art exhibitions. Nicola is living with her boyfriend Shaun in Wrexham and working for the NSPCC. Alisa continues her training in nursery nursing and hopes to be fully qualified by the end of 2008. Joanna finished her second ski season in Val d’Isere in May, got a job in sales in Crewe, went off for a month in Thailand. We’re hoping she won’t be living in Pine Trees for much longer! Carla didn’t get the grades she wanted but they still took her and she seems to be enjoying it.
One of the first things we did when we moved here was to celebrate Sue’s 50th birthday by inviting all the close family here for a weekend (or more). In the end we had 26 people here, mostly accommodated in this vast house. We’re hoping to do a lot more entertaining here in the future and trust our friends will consider coming to stay for several days at least in the coming months and years. There is so much to do here.