'God bless us, Every One'

 This is just a few photos taken over the Christmas festivities.

We had a wonderful time with Stephen and Lara in Plymouth, with several other members of our family

It was our first Christmas with our eldest grandson, Jonah



We wish you all a very happy new year

Around and about

We’ve been spending our time touring Cyprus in the last week.

Some of the highlights are:

-         visiting North Cyprus, illegally occupied by Turkey since 1974. This included the Monastery on the site said to be the burial place of one of the first Missionaries to Cyprus, Barnabus.

-         Malcolm visited the ‘Baths of Aphrodite’, where myth has it the Goddess used to bathe during her love affair with Adonis

-         Visits to the sites which were central to the life of the first President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios – his birth place (Panagia), where he was first trained as a priest (Kykkos Monastery), where he was Archbishop (Nicosia) and his grave, which has become a national shrine

And, just to remind us of winter, even though the temperatures have been about 20 deg C, up in the mountains there has been snow, and the ski slopes should open in January. (What? Ski slopes in the Mediterranean!)

Doing our bit to solve the Eurozone Crisis?

Having done a lot of travelling since our return to Britain, we have now flown to Cyprus for a two week holiday, and to find some warmer weather.

We are staying in Paphos on the west coast, and doing lots of touristy things.

For Irene it’s a pleasure to have a break from cooking and cleaning. For both of us it’s a chance to visit the country for the first time. So far we have visited:

-         the remains of Roman Villas with remarkable preserved mosaic floors.

 

-         catacombs used by early Christian Churches

-         where, it is said, St Paul was tied to a stone pillar to be flogged

-         the last local craftsman making chairs with seats made from rushes

Throwing parties, stones and leaves

As we get closer to Christmas, we are deep in the birthday season.

And on Sunday there were 2 for the price of one!!!

And they covered two extremes.

At one end it was Mark’s first birthday. Because he is so young he probably won't remember too much about it!! However, he did enjoy opening his presents, and eating some cake

At the other extreme it was Malcolm's 60th. Because he is so old he can't remember much about his previous birthdays, and seems to think he is only 25!!! Bless!

He (and Irene) thought he was being taken out for a quiet lunch with Rachel and family - to discover that the restaurant was full of a host of familiar faces. If Irene had known she would have made sure he was smartly dressed - just as well one gift was a new tee-shirt!!

Because Irene had to go out for the day on Tuesday, TJ kindly offered to look after grandad. They went for a nice walk to see the trains and go along the river, where TJ cleaned up the footpath by throwing stones, leaves and branches into the water.