Saturday 19th April 2014

Today Gina and I visited one of the “Glorious Georges” exhibition, held at Kensington Palace, London. The story of the four Georges (I to IV) is currently being exhibited over three different royal palaces, with the one we attended dedicated to George II (1727-60); who at the age of 60, was the last British sovereign to fight alongside his soldiers, against the French, at the Battle of Dettingen, Germany in 1743.



The exhibition, though centred around both George II and his wife, Queen Charlotte, also included a history of the palace, brought to prominence by the dual monarchy of King William and Queen Mary. There was also a special display of royal dresses, ranging from Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Sunday 9th March 2014

This afternoon Gina and I joined many members from my Mother’s family, in wishing our cousin Susan a most happy, healthy & enjoyable 70th birthday.



We all had a wonderful time, the weather was glorious and there was lots of news to catch up with.

Saturday 8th February 2014

December 2013

This Christmas, we have been obliged for various reasons to spread our family gatherings over the month.


First we began with an afternoon tea party for Simon, Scott & Alex


This was followed by an evening meal with James, but even though Marc had to miss Christmas day lunch (due to illness), we managed to get both he and James together for another tea.

Sunday 24th November 2013


Today we had another family celebration, this time the wedding of my cousin’s daughter, Zara Lee to Avi Toltzis (from Cleveland, Ohio, USA).

Saturday 26th October 2013

Today we celebrated the recent 13th birthday of our nephew, Alex.

Tuesday 17th to Tuesday 24th September 2013

Gina & I have just returned from a (second time) holiday to the Gambia. The weather was very hot and humid, but quite usual for west Africa at this time of year.



View from our balcony, facing towards the sea.



Albreda village, on the Gambia river.



St. James (Kunta Kinte) Island.



Feeding monkeys in a nature reserve.



One of the smaller sized lizards that we saw.



A most colourful example of the local bird population.

We had a wonderful time, staying in a lovely hotel which was spread over many acres, and hosting varied wildlife such as families of monkeys and peacocks, which had taken up residence in the grounds.

Sunday 11th August 2013

This afternoon we had an early celebration for Marc’s birthday, later on this month, where we were also joined by Simon, Scott & Alex.
 
    

Taking advantage of a beautiful & sunny day, we all went out before tea for a walk to the local park & woods.

Saturday 27th July 2013

Today Gina & I were most fortunate to revisit the Queen Elizabeth stadium (Stratford), in order to see a Diamond League sporting event, held at the the same place as last years’ 2012 London Olympic games.



There was a welcome back from injury, but sadly no success this time around, for Jessica Ennis-Hill, who we saw compete in a few events.



We all cheered on Christine Ohuruogu, as she raced to win the womens 400m race in a world class 50 seconds.



Then we saw another great British Olympian, Mo Farah, storm onto a fantastic win in the mens 3,000m, in a personal best time.



Last, but by no means least, we saw Usain Bolt boost his ever growing athletics reputation, by being part of the winning mens 4 x 100m relay team in 37.75 seconds.