Christmas 2014 - the round robin!

Dear Everyone,

As usual, I’m beset with great excuses why my Christmas cards are all going to be late, and this year’s excuses are no better than last year’s! Forgive me.

Anyway, it’s been a great year, especially for travel. At Easter, my mum, Lizzy and I followed Lottie on her Farnham Youth Choir tour to Ireland, which was great fun. It was only 4 days in Ireland, so mum decided we’d go and visit relatives in North Wales for a couple of days, to bulk out the holiday, and check out some graveyards. Well, SHE checked out graveyards, but Lizzy and I decided we could do without. I quite liked Ireland, although the Southern part isn’t very picturesque - I suppose I was expecting the same kind of scenery as in the “Visit Ireland” adverts! It was a great trip, and the choir was fabulous. They always are.

Sadly, however, that was to be Lottie’s last hurrah with the choir, as she decided, at the end of her school term that she was done with FYC. She’d struggled with the commitment during the year, while trying to get work done for her GCSEs. Since she’s now in two choirs at Farnborough 6th Form College, it’s not as if she’s missing out on choir fun. I know she misses the choir, but I don’t think she believes she’s made the wrong decision. A trip to Guildford Cathedral last Tuesday for their carol service convinced me. Anyway, she’s having such fun at school, meeting new people, making friends, partying, she wouldn’t have time to get to Frensham Heights for the weekly practice. And there’s a selfish part of me that’s kinda glad, because you know exactly who’d be busting a gut to get her there every week, don’t you!!

Her grades for GCSEs were great - I was happy, anyway. I can’t remember what they were, but I know there was an A for English Lit, and one for French, and probably one for Music. She’s doing all those plus psychology at 6th form for A levels. She’s also enjoying NOT talking to any of her peers from Hawley Place, if she doesn’t want to! She’s finding the increase, from 36 to 1500, students in her year to be beneficial.

Lizzy has buckled down a bit to actually work on her GCSEs for this year, having stubbornly decided she was as dumb as a box of rocks last year, and given up on work. And this is despite having moved in with Andrew nearly 2 years ago. I ended up having to be quite firm with some of the teachers, who will accost me in the carpark at school, and tell me how Lizzy’s not doing her work. I try to be politely firm, and point them in the direction of Andrew, but this doesn’t always work particularly well. Of course this is THE YEAR - I’m just hoping that she can get decent enough grades to get offered a place at Farnborough 6th Form, because I think she’ll find SO much to interest her there. It can be somewhat restricted in a school when you have quite such small year groups. Half the options I had at school are completely unavailable to Lizzy, and she’s far from a conventionally bright person. I’m not saying she isn’t bright, because actually, she is, but she doesn’t fit into boxes well. So a curriculum forcing her to take a handful of subjects she hates is just going to piss her off. I remember that for MY O levels, I simply chose those subjects I actually enjoyed, with little thought to whether they’d take me towards a career in the end. Despite the fact that Lizzy’s year is a dizzying 45 students large (percentage wise, that’s a massive increase over Lottie’s year), the choices have been limited or non-existent. So you can see why I’m rather looking forward to her being in 6th form. Hawley Place are doing their best, and the smaller class-sizes are great.

I did say travel had been a big part of the year, didn’t I? Of course there was the usual trip to France for Le Camping - not a lot new there, although it was a somewhat smaller group than usual this year - Jo, myself, Lottie and Lizzy. VERY relaxing. Good weather, great food (despite the fun day Jo managed to burn the potatoes!), and superb company. But THEN, at the end of summer, Ian, Lottie and I followed Lizzy on her school trip to the WWI battlefields. That was a great few days. We stayed in Lille, which is a lovely city, and took day trips out to see various battle sites. I loved the Canadian war memorial up on the hill at Vimy Ridge - really spectacular. We went into the trenches and tunnels. We visited Tyne Cot, which was just heartbreaking. In fact, all the graveyards were beautiful and sad. It really was an interesting trip. We also managed to bump into Lizzy and her group under the Menin Gate, where we’d listened to the Last Post and had a tear or two.

Because I get 2 weeks in Autumn half term, Ian and I went to Bruges with a couple of friends of ours, Jonathan and Nicole, and had a great time exploring the city. It’s really quite small, so one can easily explore it in a couple of days. We DID go to see the Basilica of the Holy Blood, and paid to look at the holy blood - can I just say EEEWWW!! But we drank loads of beer (trust me, Belgium isn’t known for its wine, and with good reason), ate much food, and did the canal trip. Climbed up the Belfry - sent a fat Englishman (in the sad absence of a fat American) up there, too! Oh, and may I say that Belgium chocolate is rather overrated? No? Tough! It is. But that was a great trip. My first time on Eurostar, too!

Trying to think of what else to mention. I’m going to have to go there, sorry. Look, this is the year I had my first breast scan, which went well, I thought, but I got called back in for more tests, where they showed me some interesting dots on the picture, and said they’d decided to biopsy them. So they did - much stabby! And when I went back for the results, they said that on a scale from 1 (you don’t have cancer - yay) to 5 (oh dear!), I’m at an interesting 3. Not good enough to be considered benign, not nasty enough to be considered VERY concerning, still enough to want to look a bit closer. So fairly soon in the new year I’m going in to Frimley Park, where they’ll do a lumpectomy, although in the absence of an actual lump, it’ll be closer to an areaectomy! Turns out there’s no such word. Clutching at silver lining straws, I figure if it’s something, well interesting wigs after chemo, and if it’s nothing, great, AND they’ll be keeping a very much closer eye on me than they would normally! Sorry to slip the potentially crappy into the letter.

By the way, my mum’s well. The family are well. And I’ve lost a ferret somewhere in the house. Better find her while I print this off...