Suddenly it’s December! Last night, Sue said “have you done the Christmas Newsletter yet”. You can probably imagine the rest of the conversation – hence here I am, once more trying to remember the past year. Somehow, it gets harder each year to remember what we’ve been up to. I think the years get longer but they pass by so quickly that you don’t notice what’s happening. Unfortunately, due to the new legislation, I can’t blame it on age – that’s discrimination!

We still have all five of us living in one house in Hatfield. I think it’s something to do with comfort but Sue thinks it’s because our delightful children are so happy to be with us. Then again, it could be because they can’t afford to live anywhere else!

So, what have we all been up to this year? (You’re asking me? I can’t remember what I did last week.)

I have been trying to persuade Sue to play bowls. Since we came back to UK, there’s no dramatics and she doesn’t do a lot, socially (not like Sue). However, whilst showing some interest, she always had an excuse why she couldn’t have a go. Most I overcame but her final one was a blocker. “I can’t bowl without the proper flat shoes” So, guess what I bought her for her birthday? Once she tried it, Sue got the bug and has been playing all year. Also, in February, Jo finally passed her driving test. Not that she couldn’t drive, just that her nerves went when it came time for the test. Since then, Ian often loses his car.

February also saw the end of my contract with Age Concern. I had hoped something else would come up but, with nothing in sight by the end of Jan. Sue suggested that I go to Cyprus in March and do some work on the house. There are all those little jobs that you can’t do in the summer because of the weather, like painting the outside. Just after I booked my flight, Age Concern offered me a part time job looking after “facilities”, which I accepted. So I still went to Cyprus but without the need to find a permanent job there (oh shucks!). I spent March in Paphos and Sue took a week to come and see how I was doing – and to give me a few more jobs. One job she wanted done was to cut down a tree in the front garden and she didn’t trust me up a ladder chopping down a tree unless she was there. No, she wasn’t going to catch me if I fell, just check the insurance policy while waiting for the ambulance! So after 5 weeks, I had paved the garden, removed a tree, painted (and in some cases repaired) most of the shutters and was ready to come back and earn some money.

Instead of that, I spent a good deal of April helping Nickie. She had been selected as the Conservative candidate for Hatfield East, which includes Hatfield House (about 80% of the area) and Essendon, where I go bell ringing. Unfortunately, the local party had a few seats they were trying to recover from Labour, so they couldn’t give Nickie much help. So, as my job was part time, I spent a lot of the rest delivering leaflets and canvassing. At the same time, Ian was still working at the St Albans constituency where he spent up to 9 or 10pm most nights controlling the election for 13 candidates. Quite often, we would get home from an evening canvassing to find that Ian was still at work. It was in April that Jo started a temp job “just for a few weeks” while she got her own business started. She’s still there now! April was also the start of the outdoor bowling season and, as assistant secretary to the outdoor committee, I found myself quite busy with that as well. Sue started bowling outdoors and so did Ian. As you might expect from a young man with a keen interest in sport, Ian took to the game and proved to be a very good bowler.

The start of May saw the local elections, with Nickie a bag of nerves all day. She did have some support from her University friend, Kat, and her boyfriend, Simon, taking the day out from training at Sandhurst. All the family were present at the count, with me working as a scrutineer. That’s someone who watches the tellers to be sure they don’t make any mistakes (at least for our party). In fact, I did spot one mistake which would have given Nickie’s main opponent a substantial bunch of votes. In the end, Nickie won by over 60% of the votes. At 22, she became the youngest ever local councillor and had her pictured in the local paper. She went on from there to having her picture in the nationals being congratulated by David Cameron at a gathering for all the new local councillors. At the end of May, Ian’s 3 month job, which had lasted 9 month, finally came to an end. His last job had been helping organise a dinner, with Teresa May as guest speaker. Sue, Nickie & I went to the dinner and were delighted at the thanks Ian got from both the Chairman of the association and from Anne Main, the MP for St Albans. In fact, after the dinner, he was surrounded by the people he had worked with, all thanking him for the work he and done and wishing him well for the future. He obviously made a big impression there.

In June, we made our family pilgrimage to Cyprus for two weeks. As I had been there in March, doing lots of work, we didn’t expect to do much more than sit around and chill out. HA! Wrong again. This time, we enlisted some assistance from our friend Allen and replaced the pergola roof over the patio. It had never been intended as anything more than a sun shelter but over the years the rain had rather spoilt the look of it, so a new roof, sealed to stop the rail, seemed a good idea. I also put up some guttering to gather some of the water from the main roof and direct it over the pergola, rather than through it. Apart from that, we did just chill out.

In July, I took my Mum & Dad to Worthing for a weeks holiday, then went to Abu Dhabi as holiday cover for my old colleague, Manoj, so he could take time to go back to India and get his son into college. Why do I get to go there in the height of summer (temperatures averaging 48C)? Not much to do except work and meet old friends in the evening for a drink. Yes, it was a hard few weeks!

I arrived back just in time for my niece, Julia, to marry Paul. The wedding was in a large country house in rural Suffolk (or it might have been Norfolk) and we stayed in a pub in the nearby village. In fact, the pub seemed to be filled with Dorringtons, especially next morning at breakfast. It was in August that Jo decided to accept the offer to make her temporary job a permanent part time one. This gives her an income while leaving her some time to continue building her business.

In October, Sue & I went to Cyprus (again) as we have done for the last few years, in time to celebrate our wedding anniversary. This year it was our 30^th, so we invited a lot of friends round on the Saturday night for a BBQ. On Sunday, our friends, Janis & Allen, had invited us for a quiet meal with them. When we got to the restaurant, we found most of the people who had been at the BBQ! So we had another party! On Monday (our anniversary) we managed a quiet dinner on our own. When we got back, the children had organised another party, inviting a lot of our friends. These included Anne & Norvelle and, as Norvelle is another KEO beer drinker, we managed to get a couple of cases from our local off licence. So we felt as if we were back in Cyprus.

To round off the year on a slightly disappointing note, both Ian & I failed to secure the jobs we were interviewed for in November (Ian two, me one). That leaves me still working part time and Ian not working at all. Perhaps the New Year will bring something better. My parents are about to move. I took then to look at a bungalow next door to my sister in Norfolk and they put down a deposit straight away. So fast, in fact, that the lady selling the property hadn’t had time to find herself a new home. She now has somewhere and they will be moving in January, having sold their current home to their neighbour. Seems strange because the reason we returned from the Middle East was to look after them and now they are moving 100 miles away. Oh well, that’s life. If it weren’t for the three lodgers, the bowls and the bell ringing, we might almost be tempted to move to Cyprus. Maybe one day soon.

So that's been our year. I hope yours has been as eventful and pleasant and that the next one will be as good.

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2007

David & Sue