Christmas 2017

To our friends, wherever you may be…

In this year of political turmoil and upset and as we face an increasingly dangerous world we pray that you will all be safe and happy in the coming year.

2017 has been relatively quiet for the Beddow family. I continue with my usual retirement activities with a few changes. In the Spring I gave up being a school governor after 6+ years, as I could no longer stomach the pressures on children and staff in the relentless target setting / blame culture that is now education.

This has cut the committees I sit on by half, though I have added another one, secretary to the church fabric committee. This along with becoming Escomb’s safeguarding officer brings my church responsibilities up to seven. Singing in choirs and the resulting concerts and continuing with art classes and courses fills a lot of the week. I still found time for some interesting breaks – a weekend with Matt’s family and in-laws in February, in a wooden lodge in Derbyshire, began the year’s trips, followed by an art history holiday in Malta in April.

Malta must have more churches per head of population than any country in the world and we saw a fair few of them as most of the art is in the churches. Abigail, Joseph and I (with a short visit from Katy and her boys) hired a cottage in Somerset and I got to visit Bath for the first time ever. Then there was a week in a cottage in beautiful Donegal and a last minute week in Estepona, near Malaga, with Katy’s family. During the year I have made several short trips to Katy and Jo’s bolthole in the Lake District and was allowed to look after Matt and Karen’s three girls in the Wirral for 4 days in November. Now I am staying put till Easter, except for a 70 th birthday weekend in London in January with all three children. It will be the first time in years that just the 4 of us have been together. There have been a few visitors here too, most notably the Stafford family from the US; a get-together that was about 10 years overdue.

Matt

Matt reports that his three girls continue to thrive; Lily (7) loves swimming; Isobel (6) appears to be born for a career on the stage and Eve continues to excel at school and competes furiously. Karen’s blog – minitravellers.co.uk – goes from strength to strength and is nominated for more awards this year. Matt (with Karen) has now set up his own company, The Beddow Partnership, and is enjoying self-employment and less time on the train. Matt is keen to pass on his love of Africa to his girls. Their whole family, along with Katy, went to Rwanda in June to help with volunteer rugby coaching for Friends of Rwandan Rugby, a charity Matt supports. They had a wonderful time – the girl’s going to different schools each day in the rural district of Ruhango, and all helping to teach tag rugby to 7 to 10 year old girls and boys in the afternoons. The week ended with a rugby tournament and lots of singing and dancing. Afterwards Matt’s family spent another week touring the country. Matt says it was touch and go if they would ever come back!

Katy

This autumn Katy has begun a post-graduate course in Counselling and Inter- personal skills, part-time, at Leeds University. Jo continues to work under considerable pressure but the family business is taking on more work and is thriving. Samuel (11) continues to enjoy his piano playing and won the music cup in his final year at the junior school. He has made a good start at secondary school this term. Luke (9) plays the cello, after a fashion, and is proud to be in the A team for rugby. All their holidays have been to do with rock climbing.

Abigail

Abigail got promotion at her Waterstones’ branch in Trafalgar Square and is now Lead Bookseller. She has gone back full time. This week, because of manager’s illness, she was in charge of the whole store and survived well. Aissa continues to enjoy his role as chief sous chef at a hotel in the Intercontinental Group and is training to be head chef. Zara is about to leave her comfort zone for new adventures and is preparing to go to Qatar in the new year on a midwife’s contract. Joseph, now in Year 5 at school, still enjoys going with Abigail to the Comic Con events. This year he dressed up as Quicksilver from the X Men and Rimmer from Red Dwarf. He was proud to be the only one in this costume and delighted to meet the Rimmer actor himself. The family managed a camping holiday in the Dordogne in August and are now sold on camping.  Abigail has now been a vegetarian for 15 months.

Well that’s another year over….We look forward to hearing all your news.

A Happy New Year to everyone from the Beddows.