Families & Farewell Party

This week Pete found himself back in Essex for meetings in London (and a bit of a drink with colleagues to boot). A full day on Wednesday was followed with an untypical back-ache on Thursday morning where Pete was unable to get out of bed and when he did could hardly stand. Fortunately it was short lived and by the afternoon (and some anti-inflammatory) he was mobile again, albiet a little stiff and careful to move tentatively - just in case. Over the next few days it appears to have gone, so not sure what happened there!

Pete stayed on in Essex and Julie came up by train on Friday, as our son Matthew was having a Going Away Party for the family to say goodbye before he jets off to Australia on March 9th. Not sure how long he'll be going for, but expectation is anywhere between one and two years. We had a really good night and most of Pete's immediate family made it along with Julie's mum & dad.

Matt has set up a blog for his travels and a link to it (http://mattrobdownunder.blogspot.com/) is in the side panel of this blog (probably more interesting that this). This is a diary for us and Matt intend to use his for the same, but it'll be interesting to see what he gets up to and a good reason for us to go to Oz for a holiday. More of his exploits as they progress.

We also had some good news about our daughter Gemma who has been made Artistic Director at the salon where she is a hair colourist. She recently gained her L'Oreal Colour Degree and has been promoted in recognition of the fact. Well done Gemma.

On our way home from Essex we stopped off to see our friend Mary in Basingstoke. We only stayed for an hour and saw her son Stephen and their new(ish) dog, a Collie/Staff cross. It was really good to see them, even for such a short period. The dog is called Kayleigh and is real bundle of energy that would benefit from a dose of Salcombe - maybe in the summer.