Welcome to John and Rachel Cecil's Home Page
It's been four years since we updated this web site and so it's high time something is done! We are working on it, but in the meantime here is our 2004 Christmas letter ...
It's time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to write our annual Christmas letter. We hope this finds you in good heart and body and well prepared for the trials and tribulations that 2005 will, no doubt, bring - but we hope the year will treat you well.
Some things never change - just like every year, this one seems to have gone by quicker than ever, and the cats have slept their lives away. Listo, our (ex) number one cat, finally succumbed to old age and died in March, but Penny and Tuppence are well and hopefully have many years of sleeping ahead of them.
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Our 20th Anniversary |
The big milestone this year was our twentieth wedding anniversary on 7th July. We decided to have a church ceremony - a celebration in the church Rachel goes to, in which we renewed the vows we made in our original Registry ceremony. It was a lovely occasion, and the sun shone on us.
Our travelling has continued, unabated. Our first trip of any consequence was in January when we went to Wageningen to see our adopted son, Quynh, for Chinese New Year. Quynh, from Vietnam, was doing a six-month course on development in less developed countries. On the way home we spent an evening with Roos' parents. We had hoped that Quynh could have visited us here at the end of his course, but when the time came, he just wanted to get back home to his wife, his daughter and his baby son. Immediately after getting back from Wageningen, Rachel was off to Rome for a few days to see friends. Late in March, Rachel had a reunion in the north, with the girls she met when she first started nursing in 1959. How time flies...
Our big holiday for the year was in May/June, when we went to Cape Cod, in the USA. After the horrific stories we had read about getting into the US, we were very pleasantly surprised and got through immigration (from the time we got into the immigration hall to when we got out to collect our luggage) in about five minutes. We stayed with friends, Brian, Christine, Maia and Julie Schmidt, who had bought a house for $1, but had then to move it. It was far larger than we had ever expected and, after they left, we had plenty of space to put up guests for a house party consisting of Colin, Roos, Mimi (5) and 'Becca (3), Elizabeth, Anne (sister) and Glyn, her husband. After a long weekend together, everyone went their different ways, except Roos and the grandchildren, who stayed on for a few more days. Early in our stay we had bought a couple of bikes for $60 each at a local fund-raising sale. These proved enormously useful throughout the three weeks we spent at the house. While Roos was there with the grandchildren, we mostly got around on bikes, with a trailer for the children. There is an excellent system of bike trails on the Cape, based on a disused railway line. We used the system a lot.
In July, we saw Elizabeth again, when she repatriated from America and spent a few days in UK, before going to the Dordogne to help her aunt run a gite.
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Becca and Mimi waiting to see what Mommy has bought |
In August, we spent a couple of days in Wales - Colin and Roos had rented a cottage in Abbey-cwm-hir, near Llandridnod and brought the family. We spent a couple of days with them there. The photo is of the girls and Roos at a lead mine near Aberystwyth. On their way back to London, they spent a night here. It was nice to see them again. Colin is still living in NJ, and working at Merck; he seems to be well thought of in the company and is generally enjoying life. The main downer in his life is the abysmal performance of the San Francisco 49ers. Like me, he has supported them since the middle 60s.
Our second holiday of the year was a two-week trip to France. We drove down to the Dordogne, where we stayed a few days with Mike and Sylvia, a couple who Rachel had got to know in Norway. While we were there, we saw a lot of Elizabeth, who is living nearby. We spent a night in the village (Tremolat) where she lives, at a very nice B&B. She seems to be very happy there, but recognises the need to come home soon to start a new career. On our way home we saw several chateaux in the Loire valley and visited the wine warehouse in Calais.
We seem to have had quite a number of visitors, but not as many as in past years. We had a young man from Japan staying here for a month, while he was studying English, and many visitors for shorter periods - from Italy, America, Austria and quite a number from here in the UK.
Life continues around us - births (to friends in Australia, to a nephew and to a cousin's son) and deaths (a cousin, but particularly sad was the sudden death of a friend in Norway). We continue to have busy schedules, enjoying ourselves both apart and together. Rachel is continuing her weight-watchers, her choir (at the moment she is practicing G and S's Ruddigore), her anthropological lectures, her art lessons (2 x 2 hours a week), the women's group she belongs to (aptly named 'Oh no, not that women's group'), walking with girl friends every now again, her Newcomers Club, cooking monthly drop-in lunches at the local church and three or four clients for reflexology most weeks. In between, she looks after the house. She is going to another reunion next week, this time in Norway, with her Norwegian midwife friends there. I have recently taken over the job of treasurer at the Newcomers Club and continue to play bridge, with varying success. I play about three times a week. I have just finished writing a manual for my old employer, FAO, on processing rubber. I am writing it in cooperation with a technical expert, Peter Mitchell, who has come to stay overnight on a couple of occasions to work on the document. I, too, do odd jobs around the house: I usually manage to keep things running smoothly, but we have not done anything major this year. I also help in the garden.
We plan to spend Christmas at home this year, by choice, rather than necessity. We will try to do a few Christmassy things and avoid the worst of the commercialisation that curses the festival. It would be lovely to hear from you over the holidays.
How to Contact Us
Telephone
| From overseas | +44 1865 724006 |
| In UK | 01865 724006 |