23 December, 2007
Dear All,
Caryl
and I hope this finds you and your family well.
We went
to Jamaica towards the end of last year. We had a good relaxing time and Cliff
did plenty of scuba diving.
The first
day back to work I found out that I no longer had my job. Not a pleasant
Christmas present and not what would be expected for someone having worked for
the company for about 39 years. I won’t add any more.
We
celebrated Hogmanay at a ceilidh with Caryl’s cousin Sandra and her 2 daughters
in Scotland. Many celebrations in Glasgow and Edinburgh were cancelled because
of strong winds but we were fortunate.
As I
mentioned last year Alice and Berney have moved to a new home in Otford, Kent.
They now have the long job of building a new garden. Alice received an award by
the British Iris Society for her contributions over many years. Berney
celebrated his 80th birthday and completed his Presidency of the
British Iris Society (he is now a Vice President). Berney’s health hasn’t been
that good this year and he has had two corneal eye grafts.
We went
down to Somerset in June to celebrate Caryl’s mum June’s 80th
birthday. We were joined by Caryl’s sister, Lisa, and her husband Max. We
stopped at Redlands B&B run by Brian and Elizabeth, former neighbours, in
Combe Florey. June had said she wanted to go to the coast and caryl arranged
for tickets on the steam railway from Bishops Lydeard to Dunster and Minehead.
We also had a long weekend in Dublin in February. Our other mini trip was up to
Chester for some early Christmas shopping (any excuse). We did have a couple of
long weekends near Banbury, when attended the celebration of the 50th
Anniversary of the Banbury Historical Society at Wroxton Abbey, and near
Stratford upon Avon.
I have
been keeping up with IT but I’ve also started another career as a massage
practitioner; a complete change of direction. I’ve done several courses and
obtained necessary qualifications. I’ll just have to wait and see if it works
out but if not it’s another set of skills. The family history research has been
a benefactor of my situation with a big expansion of the data. I’m currently
including the spellings of the name Bangham and Banghan as the ‘u’ and ‘n’ are
often misinterpreted.
Caryl’s
job at Surrey Fire Head Quarters has been made permanent.
We hope
all your wishes come true for Christmas and the New Year.
Sincerely,
Cliff
and Caryl Baughen
PS Don’t forget to let us know of any news