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Christmas '98 Newsletter

My Family (by Eleanor) My Mummy looks after two babies three days a week. They are cousins. I like Sam best he is one, he can walk very well. I like him because he is sometimes a bit cheeky. Most of the time he is funny. He likes balls. The other one is called Jack. He is two, he can talk very well. He likes balls too. My Mummy has glasses to help her see, she still looks pretty, she is very nice. My Daddy likes playing games on the computer because he has got one in his bedroom. He sometimes plays with me and I like it he goes to work but I do not know what he works at or where it is. Julian is the oldest boy at home we sometimes play tigers. I like him because he plays sometimes with me he is very tall he is even taller than my Mummy. He goes to school on the train. Harry is nice he goes to the same school as Julian he lets me get in his bed sometimes. Oliver is not nice to me but I still like him and he walks to school.

Of course we can all deny everything! As you can see she is doing very well at school. Best of all she likes her Father "Gruzzle" (a name she got from a computer game) to play games chasing and getting her. She seems to instinctively have the right formula for attracting males to play with her. As for girls, she really does not have much time at all for them, especially if they are pretty or have nice clothes!

Tony was perhaps a little too efficient in organising the care and maintenance of the Reading Chapel. He was released from this responsibility and instead given the task of overseeing this work as Stake Physical Facilities Representative on the High Council for all 5 chapels in the local area. Fortunately he has some good local leaders co-ordinating the work for each chapel. It is interesting for him to do the job of the next level up having been there at the bottom for some time.

Tony had a few problems organising the church Young Men's summer camp, unfortunately the committee left too much to be done until just before camp started. It was a good thing that he had a lot of experience to draw on; repeating the same events again might not have been very original, but made for reasonably smooth running. Tony's parents came again, this time running the tuck shop. The major success of the camp was a superb incident hike, which a mini committee ran by themselves extremely well. Tony's main learning point this year was that if you ask the right people far enough in advance and keep well correlated on what they are doing you can get some great things organised. What is happening now as well, is that some of the youth from camps which Tony organised 12 years ago have now progressed to being adult leaders on camp themselves.

Margaret is now in her fourth year of Seminary, the last 2 years have been early morning. She works 3 full days a week childminding, is taking driving lessons and is a parent governor at Eleanor's school. Margaret feels as though the combination of all of these activities in her life is preparing her for a new career in the Circus - as one of those plate spinners who has to quickly move from plate to plate to keep them all spinning in the air at the same time. As soon as she successfully conquers one area of her busy life another area seems to cry out for immediate attention. The upside of all of this are the many benefits that come from studying the scriptures for a minimum of 2 hours a day along with an hour's teaching.

We gave ourselves some needless worry over Harry's secondary schooling, we sent his application in late, then the local education authority lost his form. It all worked out OK in the end though, Harry got a place at the same single sex school as Julian, they go there on the train together. We have had some problems with Harry getting himself into the wrong sets this term. This has highlighted the difference between the state and private schooling systems. It is too difficult a subject to put into a few lines, but it poses a question: Why does it seem that the positive relationships between child, parent and teacher existing in private schools (forced onto them by the commercial imperative) cannot be replicated in the state system?

Julian(14) gave Harry a full briefing on how to behave at his school, which things he should not talk about to avoid embarrassing him (in particular church and the scouting programme). However, a few secrets have been released as a result of Harry being at the school. Apparently Julian is known at school as "Mr. Librarian" (he has won a prize for two years running for being a pupil librarian). Recently he made a mistake in buying one of the latest PC games from a second hand shop for £12 (it needed a faster machine than ours to run it). Never one to sit around though, he has turned the mistake to his own advantage - he has a number of boys at his school who are interested in buying it from him for £20. While he makes a profit they will still save £15 on the retail price! Julian is continuing to grow up but not out, and has taken up playing basketball for the school team and badminton in an after school club, which he enjoys a lot. Julian is quiet but self confident, and is a big hit with all the girls at church, and very difficult to get off the phone once he starts talking to them. BT even asked me if we would like an extra line! He is said by some to be the Leonardo de Caprio of the Reading Stake.

Harry(12) has started life at Desborough School with lots of gusto. He is on the school rugby team and has almost scored a number of tries. He managed to lose his school locker key early in his first term and is sadly missed by some of the teachers at his old school. In particular Mrs. Beale enjoyed the liveliness which he brought into her classes, though she did comment that he sometimes distracted her too much! We received an interesting "New boys" questionnaire from Harry's school that asked us to report any bullying incidents. Harry was most insistent that we should not mention the little episode where an older boy tied him by his school tie to the inside of a train carriage before leaving the train. Harry said that he was laughing so much he could not stop him. The Dentist recently fitted Harry with a full set of fixed "Train track" mouth braces to eliminate the large gap at the front of his teeth and straighten them. The resultant discomfort led to an enforced short diet. This seems to have coincided with a growth spurt that has reversed the consolidation around his middle and catapulted him up to be taller than Margaret.

Oliver(almost 10) had an end of year school report in which the Headmaster described him as "A Super boy". (He does not wear his pants on the outside of his trousers in the approved super hero manner though). He did actually let his guard down at school to the extent of being awarded three minus house points. These were for minor misdemeanours that you would expect any normal boy to do, such as not getting his homework notebook signed or forgetting his Technology Apron. It is nice that he has relaxed just a little, though of course all of the reports from his teachers were exemplary.

Sam has gone to spend a year's working holiday in Australia, staying with his girlfriend and her family. It seems though, that the working part to the stay has not yet entered into the proceedings very much, though she is out working and he is staying at home keeping the family company. His girlfriend is good for him in that she managed to organise him into saving for his single ticket to Australia. She also tempers some of his dreams with a touch of realism - she pointed out that his plans for surfing in Australia could be hindered by his reluctance to have his head go under the water!

Kate Winslett (of Titanic fame) did not invite Sam to her wedding (she was married in the Church next door to Eleanor's school last month). She did use to knock on our door five or six years ago to ask for Sam, but it never came to anything, Sam did not like her - it just shows, you never can tell! Her parents still live under a ¼ of a mile away. Margaret clearly remembers her at Sam's school, as being a little girl with "that something" which made her stand out from the rest.

Kirstine is enjoying her second year of studies much more. She is still staying with Kelly and Tim in London. Having managed to get herself properly assessed and diagnosed as dyslexic she has got a grant for an up to date computer, which is soon to delivered. She has also managed to ease her way into a contract for a permanent part time job with the company she did temping work for in the summer. For this she commutes to work from London to Reading three times a week. Normally people commute in the opposite direction, but Kirstine has to be different! The biggest thing she seems to miss about being away from home is Margaret's cupboard of special cooking ingredients.

Damion's temping job continues; he does not yet seem to have chosen a permanent career progression path. The introduction of a steady girlfriend into his life has done wonders for his diet and complexion. Becky is a member of the church, and a dancer. She will be joining us over Christmas.

Kelly has progressed to a full time speech therapy job at Guy's hospital, which she enjoys much more than having to make lots of home visits. She is working with adults too, which she finds a lot easier than dealing with children. The children's side to her old job was mainly that of dealing with children who had speech impediments because of emotional and developmental problems connected to relationships with their parents. These were either rich people too busy with work for their children or poor people who did not have the capacity to follow through with the drills needed at home to overcome their speech defects.

Tim is doing well at work, he has a brand new company car for his efforts. We are expecting Kelly and Tim for Christmas. Unfortunately for him a bad back, which has been brought on by an enthusiastic career of Cricket and Football, has elevated him to the status of the company's Football team manager. Kelly and Tim enjoyed a holiday in America with Margaret's sister Jean and her family.

This year's Summer Holiday was a European adventure, we camped for a rainy week with Italian friends in the Italian Dolomite mountains, just over the border from the Austrian Tyrol. We abandoned this because of the weather (we would love to go back another time). Sunshine and warmth at the top of the Adriatic revived us before our next week at Bergamo in the old farmhouse home of another set of friends. We ended the holiday with a day trip to Milan and a visit to the Swiss temple followed by a fast drive home through France, Luxembourg and Belgium. We all shouted Hooray! when we drove onto English soil - there is nothing like an exhausting holiday to make one appreciate home! We do have some very happy memories of the holdiay to look back on. In particular there is the time we spent picking wild blueberries in the mountains near to Caserata Ragazoni and enjoying eating them with Yoghurt afterwards. Then there was the walk along the seafront at Grado, we started at the free beach where we enjoyed playing non-stop cricket with our friends. We moved along the grades of paying beach until we finally came to the area named "seventh heaven" which was a ridiculously priced zone of the beach where people had bigger and better loungers and umbrellas. I could not imagine paying for the indignity of spending time in such a place - having all the plebs like us gazing at you through the chain link fence!

Home decorating continues, a burst at the end of this year has just about polished off the upstairs attic bedroom and promises to have most of the Kitchen completed as well.