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We like this one! We went on holiday
to Turkey in September 2000 and did a sailing course (left the kids with their grandparents in Kent!) Had a great time, too - and so did we! We're unlikely to look this good again, so I reckon that this picture is going to stay on the site for a long time! |
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Here are the kids sitting on the stairs, back in
November, 2000. Stephanie is on the left, Anneliese on the right. We do normally choose Anneliese's clothes with a little more attention to aesthetics, but she was potty-training at the time, and we were getting through trousers rather rapidly! This is a historic view of the old stair carpet - thanks to Anneliese's attempts to iron the lounge carpet, the insurance people kindly replaced it back in January! |
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So, what are we doing?
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ANNELIESE is now 3 1/2 (doesn't time fly!), and is growing up rapidly. Both she and Steffi go to nursery
two full days a week now, and she seems to be enjoying it. Her reports still say that she's very quiet and doesn't say much for herself, and we still wonder whether we're both thinking of the same child! At home, Annie is anything but quiet - apart from when she's watching Tweenies and Teletubbies on Kids TV, she chatters away virtually non-stop! She's got a good grasp of the language, and has her own opinions on all manner of subjects (recent quote - "Daddy, what are you wearing!"), including what music we should be listening to! (If we have to listen to that 'Junior Choice' CD one more time, we' ll probably go crazy!) Annie has learnt to count quite well; she can count up to 13 with no problem at all (13 being the number of stairs we have, and have 'counted' our way down for ages now!). Her recognition of letters is coming on well too, in both upper and lower case, (although she absolutely refuses to remeber the letter R!) and she delights in being able to spot letters that she knows when we're out. Scary as it may seem, we've got to that stage already where we're applying for a place at Infants School for Annie for next September - she seems to be looking forward to the prospect already and was rather disappointed recently when we visited various schools to collect their prospectuses, and didn't stay longer!
STEPHANIE is also growing up rapidly - she was 2 at the end of July. Steffi's speech is coming on greatly
now - she's coming up with new words every day, and delights in using them. What's more, we can usually understand what she's saying, too! Annie of course is much more on her level, and they chatter away together all the time now indulging in whatever fantasy game they seem to be playing at the time(when they're not squabbling, of course!) Stephanie enjoys going to nursery, and we've got over the sobbing every time I leave her there now! According to her last report she gets on well with the other children in her class, and is very well behaved. However, at home.....! As Anneliese is coming out of the 'Terrible Twos' tantrums stage, Stephanie is firmly in it, and shows signs that she may possibly surpass her sister in this particular occupation. Stephanie too is developing her likes and dislikes; biscuits are a new favorite, and when given one (following a demand for same!) she will turn it over and over until she finds the chocolate, or, if there isn't any to be found, she'll disdainfully hand it back. I have a feeling that life is going to get interesting soon!
LYN has so far managed to avoid the massive redundancies which have hit the travel sector since
September 11th, and so still works at Port Solent. Due to various factors, there hasn't been the chance for Lyn to have an educational visit overseas this year (although the last day of our first Greek holiday this year was treated as such, and we had a look round a couple of nearby clubs) although the whole admin team did manage to get a team-building day out in The Solent in August, during which Lyn learnt how to tow a disabled yacht in fog!
NIGEL is still looking after the kids, but now has a part-time job as well, working two days a week for
Portsmouth Housing Association in their Gosport office, which is situated conveniently almost vertically below the flat! Despite this regular contact with the outside world, Nigel remains strange,and is still eagerly anticipating the first exclamation of 'Well, Bugger Me!' by a participant on the BBC's 'Antiques Roadshow' when told the value of their treasure. Nigel was lucky enough to do the RYA Competant Crew practical course in August, over the 2 weekends of the Americas Cup 150th Anniversary Regatta, and feels rather priveliged to have been out on the water so close to so many famous yachts (including, of course, the 3 J- Class boats and the historic Americas Cup boats)....and what a last-night party in Cowes it was!! Having succesfully completed the Day Skipper theory course last year at college, Nigel has rashly embarked upon the Yachtmaster theory course now, which makes his head hurt at times!!
We've managed to fit in week-long holidays this year, the first being another week on the Isle of Wight in
May. The kids enjoyed it sufficiently the last time (as we did too) that we decided to go back to the same place again, and someone certainly smiled on us, as we had a whole week of unbroken sunshine and lovely warm days. Being May, the sea was sadly too cold to swim in, and paddling soon turned the toes blue! However, some new adventures for the kids - riding on the top of an open-top bus from Yarmouth to The Needles was a big hit, as was the train ride from Ryde to Sandown. We took them to Blackgang Chine, and typically it was the swings and slides in the playground there that they enjoyed the most! Still, a good holiday!
We were lucky enough to manage to get a week away in July too, whilst the kids had their very own holiday
with Nana & Grandad in Kent. Seems as though it rained for much of the time they were in Kent, but we were blessed with wall-to-wall sunshine and daily temperatures of 38 degrees (this web design programme doesn't seem to have the 'degrees' symbol!!) in Greece. To be precise, we were on a flotilla holiday, sailing around the Ionian islands. Somehow, we ended up with a brand-new boat - we were the first people to use it - and we had an absolutely superb time. Beautiful sailing area, marvellous weather and good company, we didn't want to come home. We sailed to several islands (Meganisi, Ithaca, Cephalonia & Kalamos) and did the usual - beach barbeques, dinners at tavernas, swimming off the boat in over 100 metre depths - and were lucky enough to see dolphins, but not very close though! We're going to have to go some to beat this holiday!!
Having enjoyed that flotilla so much, we thought we'd see whether the kids took to sailing, and so at the end
of September, we took them off to Greece again. We'd arranged to have a room at Vounaki club for the week, but also to borrow a boat and to go off with the Galini flotilla, with the option of going back to the club if they didn't enjoy the flotilla. They enjoyed a couple of days at Kids Club at Vounaki, and then we went on board 'Salomé' ('Salami' to the kids!) a Gibsea 33 (this year's model again, as luck would have it!). The girls took to life aboard very well indeed, and so we had 5 days with the flotilla, visiting all different places from last time. The weather God smiled on us again, and gave us a nice sunny week, temperatures around 28 degrees and the sea was very swim-able! Swimming off the boat and messing around in the Avon went down very well indeed with the kids, and we didn't lose them overboard at all! Not as relaxing as the other flotilla by any means, but a good time was had by all!
Life continues to be as busy as ever - we didn't spend as much time over at the bungalow this year as we'd
hoped, but did manage to spend the weekend over there for Bonfire Night and had a few fireworks and a small bonfire - and we're also trying to research our family trees (some of the fruits of which have started to make their way onto the pages of this website)........and just occasionally we clean the flat, too! I know that we keep making vain promises to keep in touch more with everyone, but somehow there never seem to be enough hours in the day/days in the week etc. Oh well, at least there's this website!
Last modified: 26th November 2001
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