2005 Highlights

Top news was Jennie & Ian's wedding. This took place in August at St Chad's Church, Uppermill, Saddleworth, complete with choir and bells - a lovely service.

This was followed by a reception at the Saddleworth Hotel. It was a splendid event and everyone enjoyed themselves.

The couple honeymooned on a motoring tour in Europe, just managing to avoid the floods.


Jennie with her Mum, Dorothy and Dad, Rhys before setting off for the church.	Cutting the cake	First dance	Jean with Jennie & Ian in the evening

The rest of the year's news in chronological order:

Work has been continuing to tie us down despite our intentions to stop (or at least reduce). However we managed to get away to the Cotswolds at New Year. We stayed at Charingworth Manor intending to enjoy some dancing, but Jean's broken foot put paid to that! However we managed to win the treasure hunt (by car) and came away with a nice bottle of champagne.

In February we went out to see Samantha, Mike & Elizabeth in their new Alsace home near Strasbourg, but Rhys came back with terrible flu and was laid low for a couple of weeks. We flew out with Ryanair at a bargain price and found the experience entirely OK, and got cheap car hire from Hertz at Baden Baden - we booked their cheapest automatic but the only one they had in was a Mercedes E Class, so we had it for the same price - tough or what!

Elizabeth with Jean on a trip out in France

Although Jean had stopped working one of our agencies asked her to consider a contract in Liverpool and the client wanted her, so she's tied up there for a few months. Rhys did some consultancy work for a Call Centre organisation in the North West and then joined them as their interim Manchester Regional Organiser for a few months. We're also catching up on all the jobs on the house we've neglected for the last year and we've been down to Dorset to see Rhys' mother. Don't seem to be able to slow down!

Thomas and Jack are thriving, and Peter and Lianne are getting used to the new pattern of their life with Thomas in it. They went off to Cornwall for their holiday in the summer and enjoyed it - Jack probably enjoyed it more than Disney in Florida!

Jennie and Ian were spending a lot of time arranging their wedding and got it pretty much all as they wanted - only a few inescapable demands to cope with! They were planning an extended European driving holiday for their honeymoon and are having fun working out routes and places to go.

David & Lynne have been off to the Lakes for a few days break, and to the Isle of Wight for a holiday. They're having a conservatory built but despite supposedly buying 'the best', they're having a few problems with it.

Our main summer holiday this year was mostly in France. We started by taking the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam - cutting out the long drive south and channel crossing, and well worth the bit extra it costs. We drove over to Strasbourg for a couple of days and then went on to Annecy. Unfortunately it was raining there so we only stayed one night and moved on, promising to return when the sun came out. We went to Avignon and stayed at the Hostellerie Les Frênes (great hotel, great meals) in the suburbs of the city. In Avignon one is supposed to dance on the bridge and sing the song, "Sur le pont, d'Avignon, ...". We visited the bridge but didn't dance or sing the song. We were delighted with this part of France - Vaucluse and the Luberon mountains- and have promised ourselves a longer return trip sometime soon.


Jean on the terrace at our hotel in Avignon	The pool at our hotel	Jean 'Sur le Pont d'Avignon'

After a few days the sun had come out in Annecy and we returned to Lake Annecy, to Talloires, staying at Le Cottage Bise (also a good hotel with great meals). We enjoyed a relaxing few days there, tripping on the boat into Annecy and doing some walking.

This picture was taken at Cascade d'Angon near Talloires, Annecy, France in July 2005


Jean on the boat across Lake Annecy	The lakeside at Talloires, right outside our hotel	Jean rowing on Lake Annecy at Talloires

The next leg of our trip, after a hair-raising trip over a very high mountain pass complete with glacier, was to Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, where we stayed near Vitznau on the lakeshore. We did a trip up to Rigi on the world's first mountain railway but fortunately much updated since and now all electric, we took a day trip to Lucerne and we did lots more relaxing and eating some wonderful meals.


View of Vitznau from the terrace of our hotel room	Having breakfast on the terrace of our hotel overlooking Lake Lucerne	Jean in Lucerne with one of the famous covered bridges in the background

Driving back from Switzerland cannot be done easily in one hop so we overnighted at Le Château de Ligny, near Cambrai, on the way. This is a really terrific hotel, but it's a great pity it's not in a more desirable place - Cambrai is not really where you want to go for holidays, even to such a great hotel. Still, it's not far from Reims, where the Champagne region is centred, so I might have to develop a taste for the stuff!


The entrance to the oldest part of the Chateau at Ligny	The new part of the Chateau ('The Residence'), where we stayed	The tower in the old part of Chateau Ligny

October

Rhys has finished working (again!) but is getting stuck into some work on the house - finishing off the kitchen refurbishment and now down to decorating and tiling. Jean is still very busy in Liverpool with her catalogue company - coming up to a deliverable so pretty frantic. Everyone else seems to be carrying on nicely, so all's well at present, thank goodness.

December - Christmas

We had a delightful Christmas with David and Lynne in Droitwich, together with Jennie and Ian, and Dorothy, and all had a great time. This was a major milestone for us - the first time we've had Christmas with any of the children rather than the other way round. Click here for a copy of our Christmas Newsletter (in Adobe Acrobat).