2008 Newsletter
I love this annual opportunity to look back over the last twelve months and pick out the highlights. It is scary how many things that were so big at the time, almost get lost in the depths of time. Once again the dogs take center stage (more information about them on their page), but we did find time to fit in a few other things!
We visited family in the US in late Summer. As is becoming customary, Brian went over for a month (in mid August) and I joined him at the beginning of September. Every moment with his mother has always been precious, but time is becoming all the more important now that she has reached the milestone of her 90th birthday. We had a wonderful party over the Labor (US spelling) Day weekend which saw much of the family descend on the New Jersey shore to celebrate this momentous occasion. The highlight of the party was the stories, songs and slide show which had been put together by Norma's children to celebrate her life in their own inimitable ways.
2nd NGS Garden opening - Aug 08
Before we left the US, we took the opportunity to visit my brother, Kevin, and his family in Washington DC. They were all well with Farah jet-setting across the world working on her lighting projects and Julian organising his birthday party that weekend. As usual, we also managed to visit a number of Brian's old school friends and their families.
We opened our garden under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme once again. We were very lucky with the weather and had two lovely days to welcome our 100 visitors. However, I have invested in a couple of gazebos to provide some shelter in case we are not so lucky in future years. This year Julie joined our wonderful team of helpers (Carol and Trudy, assisted by Chantelle) who help out making teas and taking the money, so that myself and Brian have the luxury of welcoming our visitors to the garden and answering questions about it.
European law means that despite being taken over by IBM last January, I do not become an IBM employee until Jan 2009. This means that little has changed in my life, but I will have a contract in January which gives my place of work as home. After having a one second journey to work for the majority of the last seven years, it now becomes official.
My hip operation was a resounding success and I am now totally pain free. I walk as if I had never had a problem with the hip and, now that I am able to exercise again, am getting much fitter. I achieved my aim of being able to run Oliver at Crufts, just five months after the operation and two months after returning to work. I will never forget the feeling of literally jumping for joy when I realised that I was walking normally again. That said, there is something to be said for Christmas shopping on crutches - it is amazing how crowds part to let you through!
Best wishes to you and yours for 2009.
Finuala