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December 20th 2020
Merry Christmas
Dear All,
I am sure that, like many of you, we will not be sorry to see the back of 2020. Alastair and Harry were sent home from Durham University in March and had to take their end of year exams from home. It was particularly tough for Alastair who missed all the fun of graduation and post-finals celebrations. I was in Norfolk enjoying a month’s break between retiring and returning and ended up working remotely from there until the end of the first lockdown. Tom had resigned his commission prior to starting graduate entry medical school at St George’s hospital in South London and so spent lockdown at home in Barnes, unable to see his girlfriend Yuri who lives in North London. Jonathan who is training in radiology in Nottingham, was kept apart from his wife Georgie, who was working for BBC Good Food in London. On the plus side, Harry, after a quick YouTube tutorial, became expert at cutting his brothers’ hair but wishes that Tom had taken a little more care when returning the favour – a slip with the electric clippers is now almost healed.
Things have a way of working out, however, and I am pleased to report that only Harry has had COVID (and had a mild illness) and the rest of us are well. We managed to keep in touch via family Zoom meetings and Georgie performed her job so well from home that she has been allowed to continue to work remotely; she has thus been able to move to Nottingham where she and Jonathan have bought their first house. Tom is enjoying medical school, even though much of the teaching is online, and managed to see plenty of Yuri between the first and second lockdowns. Alastair is in the process of applying for officer training at Sandhurst and, in the meantime, is working in an admin and clerical post at Charing Cross Hospital. Harry was delighted to return to Durham in October where he is sharing a house with five friends and enjoying a very sociable second year of engineering.
James is thoroughly enjoying retirement and, to his delight, has recently acquired a small field in front of the barn where he has been spending many happy hours preparing the land for spring vegetables. He is has also taken up cabinetmaking so when not ‘out standing in his field’ can be found covered in sawdust in his workshop. Having completed an oak dresser for the barn, he is now hard at work finishing a top-secret piece for Jonathan and Georgie’s new home.
With very best wishes from us all and hoping that 2021 will be a happier and safer year, Mary xoxo
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