20/12/2006 by Andrew Smith.

This is the time of year when families like to send round “catch-up” letters to all the friends and family that they wish they’d been able to spend time with during the year. Ours is no exception; there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to keep in touch with everyone we’d like, so please don’t feel like we’re ignoring you! Next year we’ll be better… or at least we’ll try, and feel suitably guilty if/when we don’t succeed!!

So, 2006…

We’re still living in Bracknell (or West Ascot, as we jokingly call it!) and finding all sorts of interesting walks, farm shops and interesting ways of enjoying our semi-rural location. I’ve developed something of a fascination with mushrooms, and am trying to learn how to identify the ones you can eat (and, more importantly, the ones you can’t!).

We had a lovely holiday in Brittany, staying just outside the town of Huelgoat, and making a couple of lovely daytrips to the beach at Benodet. Amazingly, this was the first holiday we’d taken in seven years of marriage where we weren’t with family, friends etc for at least part of the time. I can certainly see us going back there in a year or two’s time: the countryside is beautiful, and we had a excellent time. We all got to practice our French, not least when I discovered that there are two villages within a 5 mile radius with the same name… and our gite was in the other one!

Jess and I also had a lovely trip up to Oban for her cousin Susannah’s wedding to Adam. The wedding itself was gorgeous, in a marquee looking down the length of a loch into the October sunset - truly beautiful. It was marvellous to catch up with so many assorted Elliotts and extended families; we took a day-trip over to the Isle of Mull and it felt like all the passengers on the ferry were related! We also took in a tour of the one of the smallest whiskey distilleries in Scotland… and managed to come back with a bottle (no longer full!) as a souvenir.

We also managed to catch up with Dean briefly, on a whistle-stop trip back to the UK from Canada. I really regret that Dean is one of the folk from whom time-zones and life complexities have kept us separated. Hopefully through the power of this new steam-driven online blogging technology, we can catch up a bit better with our friends all around the world… not just the ones within easy reach of Bracknell and Maidenhead!

Work is going nicely for both of us. I’ve been running CRfocus for nearly six years now, and we’ve had another productive year, with big plans for further improvements in 2007. For the past few months Jess has been working with a family, looking after Thomas (another one!) and his sister Emma after school. They are aged either side of our Thomas, and he plays well with each of them. In fact, he idolises the older Thomas, and sometimes gets upset when it’s time to come home!

Having had his third birthday in July, Thomas started pre-school in September, and loves his mornings doing painting, cutting and “bluing” (which we’ve taken to mean gluing, rather than painting everything blue!) He’s made some wonderful pieces of art through this first term, including one incredibly elaborate collage which we’ve been told he spent ages working our before he stuck it all down. Along with his fondness for singing and musical instruments, we think his artistic side is certainly coming through.

I’ve been playing loads of music this year, for shows from Sweeney Todd to Oklahoma!, and in lounge jazz and Afrikaaner-pop bands! I also spent one term with the Burnham Concert Band, before amdram committments got in the way… My new musical toys this year have been a “proper” jazz guitar and a soprano sax.

On the amdram front, it’s been something of a return for both Jess and I. At the start of the year, Jess was rehearsing to play Ado Annie in Oklahoma! while I was just starting on Offenbach’s lesser-known piece La Perichole. After that, we both sang Cole Porter songs in Grimmbourne and Jess set off playing Yum Yum in The Mikado. As we finish the year, I’m rehearsing for The Boy Friend while Jess is taking a well-earned rest… because…

Yes, I’m please to announce (to anyone who didn’t already know) that Jessica’s pregnant again, with a due date in the first half of June 2007. I know that children are all different, but if “Dinky-Donk 2″ turns out ANYTHING like Thomas, we’ll be heartily pleased; he really has been a huge joy this year.

I think that’s probably all I can write at the moment, and surely all you’ll want to read in one go… but please do pop back here from time to time. And, more importantly, drop us a line by phone or email. We’d love to hear from you, or even see you if our logistics can overlap!

So, all that remains is for Jessica, Thomas, “Dinky-Donk 2″ and I to wish you a very Merry Christmas and an enjoyable, interesting and productive 2007.

With all our love,

A, J, T & “Dinky-Donk 2″

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09/12/2006 by Andrew Smith.

Just in case anyone ever reads this blog, here’s some background…

I used to have a blog running directly from a server at home. I’ve been trying to run down this machine and move key applications away from it, in an effort to be less techy, both at home and at work. So far I’ve shut down my mail server and development web server, so I’d lost the original blog. Then I found that 1&1 have just started offering a blog via their web-hosting service, so I thought I’d try to start writing one again.

I’ve also got a blog on my MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/andrewsmith_uk) but this should become my main one…

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