2024 started with a delayed Christmas celebration due to June testing positive with covid on
Christmas Eve, so we all went to Saskia & Gary’s place to celebrate in the New Year.
Samantha was made redundant in January after working at Nielsen for over 24 years and is looking
for a part-time job.
Samantha turned 50 in March and to celebrate, she and June went to the Maldives.
On the flight back from the Maldives we were on WhatsApp as cousin Becky was in labour. Baby
Theia was born the following day.
so turned 50 in March so we all went to a 70s/80s weekend in Somerset to celebrate.
In June, Robin & June went on
Holiday to Sicily
again, and Samantha also went for the first time as she wasn’t working.
June and Samantha are still keeping up their tennis and visited Queen’s Club and Wimbledon twice this year. We were lucky to have tickets for Both No. 1 and Centre Court due to rain both days. We visited Blenheim Palace to see their light illuminations and were joined by cousin Becky, Jordan and their new daughter Theia. Michelle is still in Coventry teaching electrical installations. Saskia and Gary have been working on their garden this year especially setting up a rose garden. Robin is still working on his Snoopy boat which didn’t sail this year. John Silvester, the founder member of Snoopy’s Team joker, passed away this year after a long illness. Sleep Well John.
We hope you kept safe this year, and that 2025 will be happy and healthy for you all.
With love from Samantha, June, Robin, and family.
from Robin: Well Done Samantha ! :-) Most of above is unchanged, including text & pictures. but
work was needed because of the terrible tools Samantha used ;-) Some of following is from end of my
full xmas24 newsletter
...
Making those "photo trail" videos, in 2023, became an obsession.
Some local friends may have been pleased that I "paused" the habit, briefly,
but others encouraged me. Failure of my Samsung pocket camera has not helped :-| The photo trails are certainly valuable as an "aid to my memory",
and a communication aid on a wide range of topics - not just Snoopy's Robot Boat - to my Worldwide network of friends;-)
There are many photo trail videos on
www.youtube.com/user/RobinLovelock/videos
,
and most include an amusing introduction, and end with what is important to me:
my thoughts on the UK DVLA and - MUCH more important - the prophetic words of James Lovelock.
Maybe I can JUST squeeze an extract in below :-)
Global Warming, The Revenge of Gaia, throwing mankind back 10,000 years, and James Lovelock ....
"We can't stop Global Warming. but we may delay it by a few decades, to give us time to prepare
for it's effects: vast areas of the World, including as close as continental Europe, becoming arid desert;
shrinking of habitable areas of the planet to much smaller parts of the planet, closer to the Poles.
The Earth will then only be able to support a small fraction of it's present population,
and there will be the need for massive migration. Places like the UK will remain temporate
a little longer, so will be an attractive destination. We need all World Governments to cooperate,
to prepare for this inevitability; also to agree things like reduced use of fossile fuels, to give us
a few more decades to prepare."
The above is not a quote, but how I remember what James Lovelock said in his book "The Revenge of Gaia... etc, etc ;-)
This has been on my
Grumpy page for years,
and is near the end of many videos on
www.youtube.com/user/RobinLovelock/videos
.
On a lighter note, here are several of our 2024 videos :-) ...
Holidays
in Maldives, Sicily, the
AMRA
BBQ,
and Blenheim Palace :-)
:-)