SPRING NEWS

After what has seemed like the longest winter yet, our garden is showing signs of spring at last, our magnolia and camelia are blooming (the magnolia starts pink but turns white, in the foreground) and even the girls have ventured out, here they decided to do some brief camping this afternoon. It's back to school for Anna tomorrow and work for Paul, but Abi has another week off and I'm still off, I'll be starting a new placement with the distric nurses (visiting patients in their homes) from the 2nd of May, with an exam and essay due in early June. Abi and I have been running as we are doing a 5km charity run for cancer research on 4th June, no problem for Abs but my legs don't know what's hit them!

Bonjour

Hi everyone.
We have just had a French exchange student staying with us for a week. Her name is Clarisse, she is 13 years old and from the Loire Valley. She arrived on a Saturday evening and stayed with us until the Friday. During the week she went to see some London sights, things like Madame Tussards, the Science Museum, Windsor Castle and even Twickenham Rugby grounds. Abigail will be going to France to spend a week with her the second week in June, and is very excited about it.
What made the week quite difficult for us was that she knew less English than we knew French. It was quite an eye-opener as to just how bad our French is, and we are determined to learn a little more.
The picture is of all the girls on Leith Hill, some of you might remember walking up Leith Hill, it's the one with the tower at the top. As you can see the day was a bit overcast, but we still had fun, and worked up an appetite for a pub lunch before going home.

KAREN PASSED FIRST YEAR

Yippee Karen passed - one year down just two to go!

Abby's party

Last week was a big week, Abby had her 14th birthday - can't believe she's already 14, makes me feel quite old. The picture shows Abby and her friends at the movies - they saw an 'unforgettable ' movie called Rumour Has It - I have a feeling I won't be waiting for the dvd release. After the movie they all came back to our place for pizza's and a pop culture quiz - set by yours truly. For the record Abby and her team mate won - but only by a single point! They also had a chocolate fondue - out first ever attempt at a fondue - unfortunately the chocolate was very strong but I think the strawberry, kiwi fruit and pineapple chunks were enjoyed by all. The chocolate sauce has been recycled this week as the main ingredient in some tasty brownies - so no waste of 4 bars of choc. By the way if you're wondering why there's some daft looking outfits - Abby wanted everyone to wear fairy wings or something sparkly - so there's the reason for the 80's style green and black polka dot tutu that Abby's wearing.

Just to get us started

I've been thinking about the best way to send pictures and stories to all our relatives and friends for a while now and with a quiet evening on my hands decided to set up a 'blog' just for us. Having to try and send pictures and updates to everyone just wasn't the simplest way to stay in touch - no promises that this will be any better - but it's worth a try. This way if you're interested in what we're getting up to you can just log on and get an update without us sending you loads of pictures of us that you're actually not that interested in and just take ages to download at your end - especially you South Africans that are still on dial-up, aargh!