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2011 was our longest ever non-leap year, being 365 and a half days thanks to starting it in auckland and ending it in The Britain. In fact we ended 2011 in the way we began it – in the company of julie, andrew, katie and olivia.

after breakfast we went to their church for a new year’s family service.  then after lunch we drove back to Twyford and regrouped

we then spent this evening at Ruth and Steve’s house (one set of the girl’s godparents).  also present were Andrew and his two children who were great fun.

i didn’t take any pictures of ruth and steve.  but i will!

now we’re all back home and everyone is exhausted!

Jane up early running old routes round our old village, thank you note writing then off to Julie, Andrew, Katie and olivia’s for new year’s evening.

here’s jane, esther and katie playing boggle

I went out for an afternoon walk round the village and took some pictures of signs and postboxes

i actually managed to stay awake until midnight which is quite a surprise, being a northern hemispherical new year disliker (i’ve quite enjoyed the southern hemispherical version the last couple of years)

I’ll post a few pictures when I’m back on a computer tomorrow.

Happy new year!

another lazy morning in the hotel and grazing in the hotel buffet.  then there was some swimming for the girls whilst i went to mum’s house to sort out a few things on her computer. after a cup of tea at mum’s house we all headed south back to Reading

we got home late afternoon. esther skyped a friend in the village she’s seeing next monday and kezia and i played on the Wii.

this evening we went round to jane’s parents house for dinner

the girls went with jane’s mum to bell ringing practice at church

the only bad thing about the day was missing a facebook message from my cousin who happened to be travelling down the country today.  potentially we could have a coordinated ourselves and met up (which would have been great) but we didn’t manage unfortunately.

on thursday we woke up late and spent our time eating much of the breakfast buffet!

we then drove to trumpington (snigger) to get the park and ride bus in to Cambridge.

we spent the first hour or so in cambridge on the hop on hop off bus enjoying a guided tour of the town.

after a quick snack in a busy cafe we then split up for an hour of ‘free time’.  Mum went off with the girls for a look round some shops whilst Jane and I went to the bank to get her cash card working (second picture from the top – fanciest bank building i’ve ever been to).  I then whizzed off for a speedy haircut from an insane hairdresser and jane did some shopping.

we then regrouped, headed back to the hotel, had a swim, had some dinner in the hotel, watched some telly about flying birds and headed to bed.

on wednesday we drove up to leicester to meet my dad.  we met up at a nice little nature reserve place with a cafe for a coffee/hot chocolates etc.

then we drove via my grandma’s house to pick her up before heading to a restaurant for lunch and some good chatting

and some photos

here’s what we ordered

after all-too-short a time we said our goodbyes and drove over to Huntingdon to meet my mum at a hotel

we exchanged presents, the girls had a swim, then we had a lovely dinner in the hotel. 

[we’re staying in a hotel the next couple of nights. depending on connectivity, the next update may not be until Friday evening UK time.]

today was a day for catching up with great friends.  Firstly the Newells (above) who entertained us greatly (including a short walk round their local lake) and the exchanging of gifts (a great tie featuring sites of london)

we popped in to waitrose later in the afternoon as esther was desperate to visit.

and this evening we saw Ian and Carolyn for a lovely meal and equally lovely conversation

a great day!

thanks to Tony for the first and last photo of today’s update

we had a lazy breakfast then went over to jane’s parents late morning.

after lunch we loaded in to our various cars and did a bit of the thames path between hurley and marlow.

we finished our last walk of the thames path in henley and jane’s parents and jane’s sister have done a little bit more since

then it was back for more playing and food before we all headed home

today was also a good opportunity to grab some family pictures as it’s the last time we’ll all be together for a while (Jane’s going up to Binky’s house next weekend whilst i’ll be flying back)

Just a quick post today as it’s, well, Christmas …

We got up, opened some stocking presents then drove over to jane’s parents house to drop our car off and walk up to church.

Church was great and it was nice to see lots of friends again. And again, we were amongst the last to leave.

The rest of the day was spent opening presents and eating at jane’s parents house together with jane’s sister binky and family.

There’s a brief moment right now where some of the kids are being put to bed and the others are playing cards where I can write this. I’ll update with some photos in the next few days.

Happy Christmas

jane got up early to go for a run with her old running chum kim.  she was back by 8.30, and we were out of the house by 9.30 to pick up esther and go to our friends the Followell’s house (below)

we had a great time with them but had to leave after lunch to pick up kezia from her friend hannah’s house where she’s been having a sleep over.  they’d made t-shirts for each other which was really sweet

after a quick trip back to the house to organise ourselves, we then drove over to aldershot to see brother edd, jacqui, their new house, and my mum who is staying with them for christmas

it was great to see their new house and admire their excellent decorating!

it was also nice to see some old family crockeries, like these plates!

when we got home the Ports (whose house we are staying in) were online in new zealand so we skyped them and got to see lovely sunny new zealand skies.  and they got to see their cat!

one more sleep to go …