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Christmas Letter 2003/4

 

 

Christmas Letter 2003/2004

 

 

Christmas in Europe

We spent the days leading up to last Christmas visiting Naomi and Ally and our granddaughter Arera in Milan then flew RyanAir from Milan to Perpignan via Wiesbaden in Germany for a few days with our amusing and very hospitable friends before going on to visit our flat in Argeles sur Mer. Having bought a small flat in the South of France, we have to go there, whatever the weather. However, we were fortunate in that respect, and we able to eat our Christmas lunch in the sunshine on the balcony. Anna arrived a few days later, and we spent the reveillon, or New Year’s Eve, at a big party in a local restaurant

 

The response to last year’s electronic Christmas letter was far more favourable than I had expected, with two people actually saying they liked the new format, and another two people wanting the printed form as they didn’t have access to the internet. Four positive responses out of 130 isn’t bad. So this year we have a web page again.

 

   Here's a picture of the pool visitors to our flat can use.

 

 

As usual, travel has been a big feature of our lives this year. Linda has been able to travel more, because she works only two days a week, leaving Thursday to Monday free for quick trips to Italy – and thanks to RyanAir, those trips are often cheaper than the rail fare to Sheffield, where Anna is doing her PhD. I have lost count of how many times Linda has been to Milan; once she went to look after Naomi who was feeling ill, and another time she just went to babysit, so mum and dad could get a bit of peace.  

Arera and her grandparents on the mountain in Italy that's named after her.

Summer in North America

Our main travel this year was to Canada, to visit friends whom we met in Barbados when Naomi was only 3 or 4 years old, and whom we had lost touch with within the last ten years, but had rediscovered thanks to the Internet. We hadn’t seen these friends for a very long time, so instead of sightseeing in Toronto we tended to sit at home with them and chat, catching up on nearly 20 years of news.

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