Articles, images and general fact-nuggetry direct from the mind of Mick Horler
I hope you don't find the following offensive.
I hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas! By the time you read this me and Geoff will be sipping rather expensive champagne (it has By Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen written on the bottle) in Rio to celebrate Geoff's unexpected promotion. As we told you in our November letter he was interviewed by British Petroleum for the vacant Chief Executive Officer role and after a bit of a grilling (to be expected really) he only managed to get it! He's also been working hard over the autumn months finishing the patio (we were going to go to B&Q but with the promotion we went to the expensive part of Wickes) and spent any other spare moment finishing the decking next to the finished patio. The days of us using own brand treatments are long gone (thankfully!), Ronseal seems to give a very attractive and hard wearing finish.
Our youngest, Ovar, has just got back from Bandar Seri Begawan where he was cleaning pans for 6 months for a volunteer organisation that helps children. He had a wonderful time, saving many, many lives.
Our middlest, Ian, is still in Hayward's Heath where he's helping homeless people find work in the IT industry. He's starting at King's in September having done very well in his A-Levels last year (you were informed in our August 'Results' circular email that I hope you all received).
Our oldest, Utto, is unfortunately still dead from an exceptionally rare form of cancer. Thanks to everybody that attended his funeral and especially the wake, at least we can find solace in the fact that it spurred Geoff on to get that blasted kitchen floor finished (Habitat). The Sausage rolls were also excellent, surprising really as they were bought from Morrison's. We also have a daughter.
It's been quite a hectic 2007 with all the promotions, extensions of garden seating areas and deaths and we're hoping for a much quieter 2008 (don't we all). If the last month of 2007 is anything to go by however it'll be even more hectic than ever! We attended a Spanish property exhibition at the NEC, saw a show in the West End (Bourne Ultimatum) and went to Brantano. Our plans, as ever, are all over the place, who knows what the new year shall bring (apart from the usual M40 traffic jams). We do know, however, that one of our sons will be starting at King's, we will be going on holiday to The Indian Ocean and Ovar will be going to Kamchatka to help deal with the current humanitarian situation (saving kids) before starting at either Oxford (Bellsniff's) or Cambridge (Jesus's) in August (he's been accepted to both). We joked that he'll probably end up at Oxford (Child-sickness Medicine) to be close to our washing machine!
We look forward to seeing you all at our February party to celebrate the fact that our excrement doesn't smell.
Much love,
Geoff and Lyndaiasia Uealeiala