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Christmas '90 Newsletter

Well, Christmas comes round once again, and it's time for an annual letter. Lots more news this year, the first being the most obvious if you checked the postmark - we aren't in Munich with a job! This being the most interesting news I will tell you about it first of all. I wrote to companies in Germany and managed to arrange some interviews in advance, we combined a trip to attend the interviews with a journey to take Damion to our church's temple in Frankfurt (the one south of London is closed for refurbishment at the moment) and also with a holiday in Austria.

Through the church we made contact with a family where the husband worked in computing, they were kind enough to invite us to spend a week in their home, a nice apartment in a small town just to the east of Munich. We stayed there a week while I went to my interviews and we explored Munich. Afterwards we drove south through the mountains into Austria and then up the Ziller valley to Mayrhoffen, the place where we had our honeymoon and have had a subsequent holiday. After a nice week there we drove through the night back to England and a further week camping for me with the church young men's organisation.

Unfortunately the interviews did not result in anything, and on discussing it between ourselves we thought that it was probably for the better, our main reason for going was to earn extra money to help support Damion while he is serving his two year mission for the church (more on this later). Although the money would have been better there the extra would have been quickly eroded away through the higher cost of accommodation and schooling - which would not leave very much change from the extra salary.

The snag was that I am on a three month notice period, and I had given my notice in with the expectation of a job in Germany. When I asked if I could revoke my resignation my company dithered around for a week before saying no - ICL have recently been taken over by a Japanese company, and they were under tight budget constraints, they did give me a further three months to look for a job in England though. To cut a long story short, the three months are up - I am writing this on my last day in the office. The recession that we are currently in has made it very difficult to find jobs, I have had interviews with five companies, but nothing has materialised - so we have been faced with the unpleasantness of Christmas without a job. Very much at the eleventh hour though, one of the companies has finally come through with a very good offer just this very afternoon - to start the first day in January - talk about a last minute blessing! I did have the faith that something would turn up, but to have such a test of this faith was worrying to say the least!

Other news:-

I have not got a calling at the moment, having been released as young men's leader in the summer in expectation of going to Germany.

Margaret is having a quieter (sort of) time at church, she is the nursery leader for two hours every Sunday, looking after the children between the ages of 18 and 27 months (14 of them on a bad day). She misses Damion's help with the younger children at home, the four young boys really miss him because he was very patient with them and enjoyed playing with them a lot.

Kelly is in her second year at Hatfield Polytechnic, majoring this year and next in Linguistics and Spanish, for which she will be spending next June in Spain.

Damion surprised himself with his A level results - two B and two D grades. Money being a low priority for him he did not get around to finding a part time job in his last year at college, undoubtedly it helped that he had that extra time to work in. He is now serving a two year mission for our church in the south west of England, so far serving his time in Worcester, which is on the very edge of his area.

Kirstine has had an interesting year at work, she moved within her company to a branch at Newbury, a half hour's train journey to the west of Reading, with the carrot of training leading to becoming a deputy store manager. She got half way towards that appointment, but unfortunately her company, "Next", has been one of the victims of the recession, and had to cut back on training. She left there in the summer and has been working as a temp for an agency, doing different office jobs in Reading at a better rate than she was getting for her previous job and without the commuting. She is now planning to train to be a swimming coach and also to spend some time next year working in America.

Sam had an excellent start in his second year at senior school trying to emulate his elder brother's example of hard work at college, as well as taking over his bedroom. However, he had a slight relapse and was suspended from school for a week but says it wasn't him who set light to the paper towels, unfortunately they were his matches though! We still hold out high hopes for his continued improvement, all his teachers say what a likeable lad he is, but wish that he did not get swept along with the crowd.

Julian has done very well at school, he is very happy there, the atmosphere of a small school with only 40 children is very nice for him. He is now becoming much more aware of time, and looked forward to his 6th birthday weeks in advance, now he is saying that he just can't wait - only 3 weeks left to Christmas!

4 year old Harry has just started this term at nursery school every morning, he is still full of bounce, having a very big personality inside him. His major achievement has been to learn to ride a two wheel bicycle. Writing his name has been another accomplishment, unfortunately this has resulted in some large examples of his work appearing as Graffiti in thick red marker pen in various parts of the house!

Last of all Oliver, 2 in January, it was only in the summer that we felt that we had both fully recovered from the trauma of having a premature baby in special care for the length of time he was and him starting off life as a very delicate baby who we had to be so much more careful with, as well as him having asthma. It is only when it happens to you that you fully realise what a strain it is, and even so our experiences were mild compared to what some people have to go through. He is so enormous though, that it is hard believe that he was premature. He has just learnt to talk and repeats everything like a parrot.

My parents are also serving a mission for the church, they are working for 18 months in the Leeds area, it was very strange for me to go to help them pack up their belongings (they are hoping to rent their house while away) and then to drive them off for the start of their mission. It was very much like going round in a circle, not seeming to be that long ago that my father drove me into London to catch the train to go on my mission. I am sure that they are finding the whole experience very strange, not having left the same home for over 33 years, and then tearing up their roots and going away.

Happy new year to you, with love from us all!