Bulletin - November 26th 2007

  
 

It must be almost a year since our last bulletin, so this report is more or less a summary of 2007!

 

As always, the charity seems to take up most of our time. We are invited to give numerous talks to various groups and this is obviously very time-consuming. We also organise charity events (our ‘Regressive Meal’ in May was a great success, as was the mass balloon release in July), hold street collections, write quizzes and, of course, spend hours on record keeping and correspondence. Whoever would have thought that ‘Children of Fiji’ would grow from such a tiny beginning to such a huge operation!

 

We have also become involved with the GAP organisation, in that we are asked to give 2 briefings a year in Reading for those volunteers who are going out to placements in Fiji, and we also visit the students in their placements while we are in Fiji and remain ‘on call’ if they need any support or advice.

 

Of course much of January, May and June are taken up with exam marking. Most of this these days requires use of the computer – ranging from sending marks off electronically to actually marking scanned scripts on screen! How things have changed since we first started!

 

  

Nevertheless, we still manage to fit a few other ‘simply for pleasure’ things into our busy schedule. For example, in February we went to Pembroke Dock, where Margaret looked up her first school (now a council office building) and other old haunts. On the drive back we explored the beautiful Gower Peninsula. Later that month we also had a drive out to Ibsley, near Fordingbridge, for Margaret to look up another of her schools and the little cottage where she once lived. She must have been going through a particularly nostalgic period!

 

In March Pete organised a ‘surprise’ break to Cornwall. We’d spoken so often about going to the Eden Project, but had never made it, so this was our opportunity. We were quite impressed by the whole venture – and in the humid tropical dome we could almost imagine that we were back in Fiji! In fact, later in the year we went back to Eden Project with Susanne, Barry, James, Stephanie, Ella and Jade and all stayed overnight in St. Austell– a great time was had by all!

 

Later in March we enjoyed a ‘Mothers’ Day’ meal on a steam train, when we travelled along the East Somerset Railway and were given a chance to ride on the footplate.

 

We had several days away in Derby and Yorkshire, looking up old friends and generally exploring new places. We also had a break in Oxford and Swindon (shortly after the catastrophic floods that hit that part of the country). On our way home, we called at Avebury in Wiltshire.

 

  

We have had a few visits to the cinema and theatre. Productions that stand out in our minds include the film ‘Amazing Grace’, the shows ‘Evita’ and ‘Acorn Antiques – The Musical’ and (just as professional) the Knighton House School performance ‘Oceanworld’.

 

There are always village events happening in Cattistock and we like to support these whenever possible. In June we joined some other villagers on board HMS Cattistock in Poole for a cocktail party to mark the ship’s 25th birthday. We are both on the Gardens Walkabout committee, so we are obviously involved with organising this annual event in June and the other related events leading up to this day.

 

Because we are away from home so often (exam meetings, talks, family visits, Fiji trips), we decided to make our garden more manageable, so we have dug up our ‘so called’ lawn and replaced it with an area of patio slabs and gravel.

 

  
     

In August we took Ella and Jade to Eastbourne and London for a few days and had a wonderful time. We took them to Beachy Head and visited ‘Pooh Bridge’, as well as enjoying a boat trip along the Thames, taking in some of the traditional sights and enjoying some very good meals out. In one Indian restaurant in Covent Garden Ella wanted to know about Sikhism and ended up being given a demonstration of the 5 ‘K’s and a book to take home!

 

We have had 2 more visits to Tenerife, one in April and one in November. As always, we were able to completely relax during our week-long stays, and it was so lovely to be able to spend time with Zoe and Finley, both growing up so fast and giving us so much pleasure.

 

 

Beachy Head

London

  

   Finley is now walking and getting into mischief

Zoe going riding

             Stephanie dressing up!

On our way to Fiji in September we decided to have a stopover in New Zealand. Having left home fairly early on September 3rd to allow ourselves plenty of time to drive to Heathrow, park the car, check in and get through security, we then had a 12-hour flight to Hong Kong, a 2-hour wait there, and another 12-hour flight to Auckland. Neither of us can sleep properly on the plane, so we’d already had about 36 hours without sleep. In Auckland we had to wait about 5 hours for our flight to Christchurch, where we were met by a friend and taken along the scenic route to Lyttelton, where we were staying that night (now about 43 hours without sleep!). She took us to our hotel and we were dreaming of a hot shower and maybe having a little nap. We turned to go up to our room - ‘See you downstairs in 30 minutes for Happy Hour’, said our friend! After that there was another bar to try out … and another! Then it was a very enjoyable restaurant meal …. and yet another bar to finish off the night (51 hours without sleep now!). Finally we took our leave and headed for our bed. ‘See you at 8 am for breakfast’ was our friend’s parting shot!!

 

Never mind, we managed to get over the lack of sleep and had a brilliant week touring South Island. The weather was perfect and we couldn’t fail to be impressed by the magnificent scenery – snow-capped mountains, lakes, waterfalls, rivers, fields full of sheep, daffodils (in September!), sandy beaches and rocky cliffs. The people were very friendly and we had no problem finding good, reasonably priced accommodation wherever we went. We saw yellow-eyed penguins, albatross, fur seals and bottle-nose dolphins! The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly our excursion to Milford Sound – quite amazing! Although there must be so much more to see and we would love to go back again, we felt that we had made the most of our time on South Island and would definitely recommend it to others.

 

 

Now we are home from Fiji and home from our latest visit to Tenerife. Christmas seems to be hurtling towards us at break-neck speed, but there is still a lot to fit in before then. We are particularly looking forward to going to London in a couple of weeks for an overnight stay in a hotel and an evening out to see ‘The Sound of Music’ (a birthday present from the girls and their families).

New Year is going to be spent in London with some friends, so we are looking forward to seeing the fireworks and joining in the celebrations there. Then it will be 2008 and we’ll be off to Manchester and Harrogate for our January exam meetings …. and off we go again!