2006, how fast the first 6 years of the new millennium have passed! This year has been incredibly hectic. Our flagship museum, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (see www.glasgowmuseums.com), had been closed for 3 years for a restoration programme. Not only was the building refurbished, but new spaces were dug out of bedrock, and objects redisplayed in 'stories'. It's been an intense three years! You wouldn't believe how many words are in one museum - and I've had to read most of them. We reopened on time and on budget in July, and have had over 1.5 million visitors in 5 months, so very pleased. The Queen and Prince Philip paid us a royal visit in September and were most impressed.
So, apart from working, not really had time to do much. Only got out on my motorbike a couple of times this year. One of those was an Easter Egg run, when thousands of bikers get together and do a ride-out round Glasgow, ending up at Yorkhill Children's Hospital to deliver Easter eggs and other goodies. Fab feeling-riding with all those otehr bikes, the roads are yours, and people are hanging out windows and lining the streets waving at you. I did it this year with my brother Mark, and it was really exhilarating.
Out of the blue, during the summer, Fraser was made redundant. It meant a couple of rough months, but he's now working for the University of Paisley in the Estates Dept and enjoying that.
Travel wise, went to Gothenburg (Sweden) with two of my best pals in May for a long weekend and had a great time. Lovely city, friendly people. Fraser and I got away to Rhodes (Greece) for a week in September - fantastic weather, lots to see, and good food and drink. Very relaxing and just what we needed. It's great living in Europe and having all these other places only a few hours' flight away!
Last Christmas Fraser got me a ballon trip - something I've always wanted to do. Because of work I wasn't able to go up until September, but I was lucky with the weather and managed to get airborne on my first attempt. There were about 10 of us in the basket, a bit of a tight squeeze, but lovely to just drift along watching the world below us on a beautiful sunny evening. Getting it ready to go was hard work though, and involved singed arms!
We're busy getting ready for Christmas now and looking forward to it. I'm having the full two weeks off and Fraser's Mum will be with us. We'll spend Christmas Day with my family, and probably go up to Inverness in the Highlands to spend Hogmanay (what you guys call New Year's Eve) with Fraser's family there.
Hope to see some of you over here sometime!
Season's Greetings
Susan
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