Welcome to a different Christmas Newsletter, I was hoping by having a ‘blog’ newletter I would:
- Bring more people to my blog to catch up with the year’s news
- It’s easier and saves time!
- Save paper, as I always print the backs of the newsletters upside down and have to reprint (an age related condition)
So be prepared to read a) a short synopsis of the year or b) read through the year’s goings on in the blogs below or c) say bugger that and don’t read it at all!!
Whichever one you choose you might need to consider making yourself a cup of tea or for those with a stronger constitution and decide to choose b} you will may need something alcoholic!!
As usual The Trims have had a busy year, from January to May we were in Perth enjoying the fantastic lifestyle and weather, continuing with keeping fit with three cycle rides a week totally about 100kms, plus the gym and swimming. I must admit there is an ulterior motive for all this exercise, its called French food gluttony and wine!! We have to prepare for the six months in France and still we come back with an extra kilo or three. So guess what we are back in Perth doing all those things again, thank goodness we love it, as I write this Terry is out playing golf so we need to add this to our list of exercise.
We arrived in France in mid May and had a very hectic 5 months, we went to the UK three times (thank you Helene and Dudley for putting up with us), the first time was for my Uncle Peter’s 70th birthday which was amazing meeting all my Aunts, Uncles and cousins and renewing our communications (I hope). Then in July we went over for the wedding of (Bob and Kay’s son Neil to Vicky), both these young people hold a special place in our hearts as they have spent time with us in Australia a few times so it was great to celebrate their special day with them. Also we were amongst our friends and had a ball. (Probaly best not to elaborate on this for fear of incriminating the innocent).
Whilst in France we had many friends and family visit which was great including Terry’s brother Ray, his Dad and also our son Gavin who had been over for the wedding. We all had a excellent time including going to San Sebastian for tapas, as it is only about 2 ½ hrs from our house it is quite doable and of course gives Terry the opportunity to visit the Spanish border duty free and top up with Gin and also our latest discovery Chocolate Vodka, Chocolate and Mint Vodka and Toffee Vodka, all for medicinal purposes of course.
In July I attended a residential photography course for a week in Limoges and had an amazing time, our tutor was an English guy from Grimsby who was brilliant.
Then in August I went back to Australia for two weeks to look after Mum following open-heart surgery. Mum has been very poorly now for some years and was having 5/6 angina attacks a day and unable to walk far etc etc and all the cardiologists have always said it was too dangerous to operate. Then she saw a new one who was up for it, to cut a long story short, she had the operation and survived some horrendous complications including death twice and is now fantastic and looking forward to celebrating her 80th birthday in France next June. Amazing and each day she is getting fitter and back driving her car. For this we are thankful to the professional expertise of Sir Charles Gardener.
Back to France more visitors, this is one of the reasons we bought the house and choose this lifestyle to see our friends and travel. And travel we did, we met up with Helene and Dudley and “did” Rome, The Almalfi Coast, Pompeii for just over a week then we all flew to Geneva and spent a fabulous week at their lake house near Evian on Lake Geneva.
In October we packed up the house and left it in the care of my Aunty Diane and her partner Philippe, (they do a fantastic job, keeping an eye on the house, turning heating on and off, cutting the grass, spraying fruit trees and planting veggies) thank you thank you and thank you again.
Then flew back to UK to Helene and Dudley’s, we went to see Terry’s Mum and Dad and then off to Boston, New England and New York for 10 days. The Fall was amazing, great photo opportunities and a chance to see snow again (yippee!!!!), in fact because of the snow we left Vermont one day early (we don’t do cold) down to Rhode Island and New York and even though we did and saw more than the last visit to The Big Apple including a 3 hour bike ride round Central Park we still need to go back and see more. Including the Statue of Liberty where there is a 3 month waiting list to get tickets.
We arrived back in Perth at the beginning of November and the merry go round starts again. Although we are retired we have still written a course whilst in France and Terry has actually done a couple of days training, to be honest we are having trouble fitting it all in!!
Well that hopefully has got everyone up to date except to say we are looking forward to our fifth grand child in February, it will be Dominic and Annie’s second child.
We would like to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic 2011, maybe we will see you in France next year. See below for some of our latest photos.
Love Carol and Terry xxxx
