This year, I have decided to post my Xmas note to my blog. I’ve sent cards to many people and in some cases included the blog address so if you are one of those, the following is my Xmas update.2010 was another big year for us involving a lot of moving around with some nice holiday excursions to help break it up. Summer was again spent in Hure, this time in more chaos than usual due to the massive work (we didn’t know how much it would entail) in the attic. We were lucky to have more friends and relatives come to share our summer in Southern France, but they had to suffer less than ideal conditions due to the work site we presented them with. We are always happy to share our life with old friends but our hospitality was a bit limited this year – buckets of dust ( rendering housework useless), holes in the ceilings, ladders in strange places. Still we hope the worst is over now.
We are going back to Hure for 2 days just before Xmas and again after Xmas. The actual big day will be spent at Clare’s new house in Valenciennes. Kate will be there too and we can all dote on the latest arrival to our family, Joshua Alan Smadja who arrived in mid November, taking Clare and Ilan’s family (in case you’ve lost count) to 4. Abby, Elliot and Isaac all seem besotted with him and he is a dear little chap.The other big family event this year was the marriage of David and Anita in Melbourne.
As a result of the combination of holidays, work in Hure, the birth of Joshua, I’ve spent little time in Australia this year which is rather sad. Still we explored a few parts of the world – India and Vietnam earlier in 2010 and Malta and Scotland in September. We also tripped off to Wales in early August to participate in the Borth festival with our old friends there. We went to the Australian War ceremony in the north of France in July and spent a few days oin Paris as well. We have passed through Hong Kong a number of times and accepted the hospitality of very kind friends here. Both Jack and I have some work here from time to time.
Of course all this travelling around meant we didn’t get to spend much time with our family and friends in Australia and when we were there Jack was struggling manfully to keep up the repairs in New Lambton. Still it’s now looking a lot more respectable and should see us out.
I have not included the names of all those people we shared our time with this year as I found it was becoming a sort of unending list where I feared someone would be omitted. But if you are reading this blog and are one of those whose lives touched ours this year, thank you for the privilege – and we hope to see you again soon. 2011 will see us in Kenya and Tanzania in February and of course, we’ll be back to Hure in the European summer. Otherwise, life’s mysteries await us. Life seems good so roll on the new year.
Our love and best wishes to all
Robyn and Jack (who shows no interest in bloging at all, so is cosigned without his permission. Oh well).
