Yule Log 2008

Hello Friends and Family

Congratulations! You've made it to the Stibbard Hawkes blog. Because we are a household of screen suckers, it was inevitable that the Christmas letter would eventually go online - taking us with it. Expect not a single missive but a rolling series of posts to which we hope you will respond; your messages spicing up our festive season.

We'll kick off with a summary of the year just about gone:

JANUARY: As far as we can remember, nothing happened, except that we woke up one Sunday morning to find 5 men at the third-floor bedroom window. Bell-like clanging made us wonder if Father Christmas had arrived late, but it turned out to be scaffolders preparing for the long-overdue repair of our leaking roof.

To dispel the winter gloom, Alyson posted our details on a free home-exchange website citing just about every country on the planet as a possible destination.

FEBRUARY: Cameron had his fifth birthday making him, like Pinocchio, a Real Boy. Alyson and Trevor celebrated twenty years of fecund married life. We are fervently hoping for twenty more (though perhaps with a little less fecundity).


MARCH: We decamped to the stately splendour of Treowen to beckon in the spring among the Welsh daffodils.


Easter found us in Kew Gardens hunting for eggs

and in Legoland adding a few inches to the word's tallest Lego tower.APRIL: Duncan flew away to Tokyo to begin stage two of his gap-year travels with a month of intensive Japanese language tuition (stage one being his trip to Hyderabad last year). Read all about it at Mind the Gap Year.

Responses to our home-exchange advert began to trickle in from hopeful travellers across the Atlantic. One of these was the delightful Harriette, who offered us a week in the woods amidst the New England fall, and another in a 75th floor New York apartment overlooking Central Park. How could we say 'no'?





MAY: Duncan and his backpack hit Thailand and Cambodia, proving what they say about Englishmen, if not mad dogs. Whether on top of an elephant or on the summit of Fansipan, Vietnam's highest mountain, he never allowed himself to be separated from his Nintendo DS.




The rest of us embarked on our annual pilgrimage to Cornwall, Alyson's ancestral home. There we had a better week than ever beating the coastal paths and braving the icy waters. Cameron walked six miles and was very proud.

Always ready for pastures new, Trevor dusted off his suit and went for his first job interview in over forty years for the post of Associate Director of the sigma, a maths support CETL at Coventry University - and got the job! (A CETL, pronounced kettle as in "always on the boil", is short for a Centre of Excellence for Teaching and Learning)



JUNE: Duncan journeyed on through Lao and Vietnam, enjoying the hospitality of cousins Jodi, Bruce and Katrien in Vientiane while recovering from a bout of Montezuma's revenge. Back home, Lachlan took the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. This involved a very heavy backpack, very little sleep and a lot of tomato ketchup. Max ploughed through his GCSE exams and stylishly donned his first tux for the Year 11 Leavers' Ball.



JULY: Duncan reluctantly touched down in Blighty, disproving the adage that home is where the heart is, especially when it involves looking for a job to fund your forthcoming university studies. Max and Lachlan returned to Wasdale for their much-loved annual walking holiday.


AUGUST: After an epic journey by people-mover, plane, monorail, taxi, bus, foot, ferry and 4-wheel drive we arrived for our summer holiday in the remote forestry estate of Fronningen on the Norwegian Sognfjord, where Trevor worked as a student 50 summers ago.


There we had a wonderful 12 days with the Rumohr family: walking, swimming, boating, socialising, berry-picking, exploring the estate and soaking up local history.











On our return, Alyson at last received a diagnosis for her eye condition: thyroid eye disease with a probable overlay of myasthaenia gravis, and in her case seemingly unrelated to a thyroid abnormality. Not much to be done about either but it was a relief to have the veil of ignorance lifted after a two-year wait.

SEPTEMBER: Alyson's Melbourne aunt and uncle, Robyn and David, paid us a welcome overnight visit. The schools opened their doors: Max entered the sixth form; Lachlan began his second GCSE year; and Cameron started Year 1 (which inconveniently involves a lot more sitting still). Alyson was flooded with programming work. Trevor said a fond farewell to the University of Warwick, where he'd plied his trade since 1967, and decamped to a new life at the Coventry University up the road.

Not having a very big garden at home, we regularly take advantage of the many National Trust gardens within easy reach of Leamington.

That's Lachlan on the right flying a kite at Charlecote with the parterre above still in full bloom late in the month .






OCTOBER: In his father's footsteps, Duncan went 'up' to Cambridge, to begin his degree in Archaeology and Anthropology at Robinson College. Not forgetting his mother's dainty footsteps either, he soon joined the college choir, thus bagging a free formal dinner each week.

Leaving poor Duncan behind, the rest of us flew away for our state-side extravaganza: a week in a baronial house in Purdy's watching the leaves fall around the clapboard houses deep in the woods of Westchester County.








Then a short ride on Metro-North into Grand Central Terminal for another week in New York, New York it's a hell of a town; the dollar went up and the pound went down; we rode with the people in a hole in the ground, etc. Here is the view from our apartment on the 75th floor of the Metropolitan Tower (142 W 57th St), overlooking Central Park.
We hope you'll be able to read all about it in a separate post when we get to it.

NOVEMBER: We stayed at home and thought about New York a lot; Lachlan even wrote a book about it. Duncan wrote a great many essays and was elected editor of the Robinson College newsletter (PDF 1Mb).

DECEMBER: And here we are!! Another wet, grey, happy Christmas. Last weekend Mum and Dad went to a parents' lunch and concert at Robinson College, where Duncan and his choral crew looked surprised by the Sussex Carol but recovered themselves as the programme wore on. Cam was a nativity cow in his school concert on Wednesday and took us to the Clapham Terrace School Christmas Fayre last night. Next week will be full of Christmas music, socialising, and another gross of mince pies. Both Duncan and tree arrived today so we are six again (not including the tree).

Once again we wish you, our dear friends and family, a warm, happy, healthy Christmas and New Year. Please do click the Comments link below...

Lots of love
Alyson, Trevor, Duncan, Maxwell, Lachlan and Cameron
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