Blundell Xmas Letter 1998
We have again had a very busy year with each of us being involved in many different activities. We have travelled just as much as earlier years, going again to Africa, the Far East and Australia, to the USA and to Europe, with the advantage of Peter's cheap travel concessions.
Alison and Peter's first trip this year was in February for a business trip for him to San Francisco accompanied by Alison. This was extended into the weekends before and after that meeting during which Alison had some time on her own seeing San Francisco again. A month later Peter was back in the US again when he went with the BA Bridge club for their annual match against Delta Airlines in Atlanta. Peter also went with the bridge club as non-playing captain to the European airlines annual championship in Rome.
Over the Easter weekend, the two of us drove to The Hague and Antwerp, visiting the beautiful gardens at Keukenhof near Amsterdam. In May, Peter had a business trip to Prague, so Alison came out with him for the preceding weekend. There we saw many of the old buildings in the city centre including the castle and various museums. We went to a concert in one of the beautiful old churches as well as a reception in the city hall.
In July, we flew to Australia for a holiday for two weeks with both Diana and Richard. Peter had 36 hours in Singapore with them both and then we all flew on to Brisbane for four days. Then it was on to Sydney where we stayed with Alison's cousin Alice and her husband Steve. Diana had just one day there before returning home to go on holiday with her friends to Crete for two weeks. The three of us stayed in Sydney for a week seeing the Blue Mountains, the Harbour Bridge and other sights of Sydney and a concert in the Sydney Opera house. On our way back, we stopped in Bangkok for twenty-four hours where we saw several amazing temples, traditional Thai dancing, and other Thai arts.
Later in August, just Peter and Alison again flew south to Cape Town. The places that particularly appealed were the beautiful flowers in the Botanical Gardens and the national parks, a small game park, the different historical parts in Stellenbosch, the whales at Hermanus, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, the penguins at Simonstown and Betty's Bay, Table Mountain and the Victoria and Albert Waterfront. In September, Peter went for another short visit to San Francisco, but without any sightseeing this time.
Peter and Alison went to Larnaca in Cyprus in October to play in the annual weeklong airlines bridge tournament. The flight out was exciting as we both had seats in the cockpit with a captain who explained all that was going on throughout the 2000 mile flight. Takeoff from a busy Heathrow and a visual approach into a beautifully clear Larnaca airport were the highlights. We hired a car for part of the time and saw many of the local sights. The best was Nicosia, where we saw the city divided by the United Nations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, the cathedral, old churches and historic religious icons. We went to the town of Limassol where we saw the historic old town, and the nearby ancient city of Kyrion. In Larnaca, we saw the ruins at Kition, the castle and the church of St. Lazarus.
In November, just Peter went to Geneva for one night to speak at a conference. In early December, he had another short trip to the US. He flew to Boston, had a day of meetings there, flew to Detroit for just eight hours for a visit with General Motors and then flew back home. It must have been Detroit because there were so many cars! Two weeks ago, we went to Calais and Boulogne to stock up on French wine, beer and other goodies for Christmas.