Christmas Newsletter 2006

Hello and welcome to my fourth online Christmas newsletter. Please click on the hyperlinks to view photographs.

Our major focus in 2007 has been on renovating our house. As I write it is scary to think that we have already been here for over a year (we moved in on 18 November 2005). We are remodelling the rooms away from their historic configuration (built in 1864 as two symmetrical cottages) to optimise the use of space. The first phase in March involved creating a landing for all the upstairs rooms by removing a duplicate staircase. This provided opportunities to replace the upstairs bathroom, add a window, renovate two of the bedrooms and create a downstairs toilet in the space previously occupied by the staircase. We are in the middle of the second phase currently, adding en suite facilities to both the master and guest bedrooms, which should be complete hopefully early in the New Year. After this, we will be looking to remove the downstairs bathroom in order to open out the kitchen into more of a kitchen-diner, funds allowing. This should give us a great panoramic view across the countryside from the southern end of the kitchen. Not surprisingly, Kate took a year off from her music degree to oversee all of this.

The toilet has landed

On the family front, Maxwell started at the local grammar school in September. He travels in to Sandwich each day on the bus, which requires considerably more organisation in the mornings compared to previously. Harriet is in the final year of primary school. Both continue to study various musical instruments (violin, trumpet, piano) and are steadily becoming more independent as they grow up. Miscellaneous pets continue to be happy. We have not admittedly had much time for holidays this year with the ongoing house renovations, although we did spend some time in Geneva over the summer. Our neighbour took us for a helicopter ride in March and I was able to take some aerial shots of the locality.

View towards Pfizer & Sandwich		The neighbourhood

I completed the British Heart Foundation London to Brighton bike ride again in June, managing not to have an accident this year and taking a deserved but very bracing swim in the English Channel afterwards. I also celebrated my 40th birthday on 15 July by walking to the top of Ben Nevis. I continue to cycle as much as possible and hope to have completed 2500 miles by the end of the year. My stats for the last three years are captured below:

On the work front, I have been in my new job for over a year now, and things are going well as far as I can tell. I have had the opportunity to visit Japan twice this year, which was a new and fascinating experience for me, especially in the cultural and culinary senses. These trips entailed circumnavigating the globe, as on both occasions I had preceding meetings in the US and so this proved the most efficient way to travel. This meant that I had some time over the weekends to do some sightseeing in Kyoto and Tokyo. Pfizer is reviewing the organisation and costs of its business once again, however, so 2007 is going to be another year of uncertainty regarding our roles.

Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for 2007.

Stephen

Back to home page

Last edited 02/12/2006 10:31