Blundell Xmas Letter 2000
We have had several lovely holidays this year. In February, Peter and Alison started our travels with a weekend in Norwich. We saw parts of East Anglia that we had never seen before and enjoyed remarkably mild weather. Peter and Alison then went to stay with Alison's aunt in Harare, Zimbabwe. We spent some time at a safari lodge where we came close to and took photographs of elephants, giraffes, crocodiles, antelopes and many other wild animals. In some ways, Harare reminded us of the 1960s, with little traffic on the roads and the styles of the shops in the city centre.
March was a busy month for travelling. It started with Peter and Alison going with the BA Bridge club for their annual friendly match against Delta Airlines in Atlanta. Peter then led the bridge club as captain to the European airlines annual championship in Lisbon. His team led going into the final round and won their last match but were overtaken by Alitalia to come a very close second on the bridge equivalent of goal difference. He was asked to give the thank you speech to the organisers on behalf of all the competing airlines. He is now also the BA bridge club chairman. Two days later, Peter was off on another of his business trips to visit the Oracle Corporation in San Francisco.
In April, Peter and Alison took part in the Thames Valley League's annual bridge team tournament, hosted by BA. Peter's team came third this year. BA also hosted an inter-airline bridge tournament, which Peter's team won. Peter had not seen much of Lisbon when he was there playing bridge so Peter and Alison went there in May to celebrate Peter 50th birthday and our Silver Wedding Anniversary. The old town, castle and museums in Lisbon are very interesting as well as the palaces at Sintra. Peter and Alison have also had weekends away in Munich in May and Frankfurt in August. Alison and Diana spent a few days in the Lake District in June once Diana finished her exams. They had a good time but it would have been even better without rain. They might try again next year.
In June Peter had another business trip to the U.S., this time to Rancho Bernardo, up in the mountains 25 miles from San Diego, California. There was little time for sightseeing, except for a brief visit to a new Naval aviation museum and seeing the impressive scenery flying between Phoenix and San Diego. Peter's September business trip was to Sale in Manchester, so he spent the week watching the rain and staying with Diana at her flat in Liverpool.
In August, all 4 of us flew to Detroit, Richard just for the weekend and Diana for 6 days. It was lovely spending time with Diana and Richard, as we are not all together very often now. There, we all visited the US Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio and the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield village in Detroit. Peter and Alison then had a further week in South West Ontario and went to Niagara Falls and Toronto.
In October, Peter, Alison and Diana went to Denver, Colorado. Diana was with us for the first 4 days then Peter and Alison had a further four days. There was sunny weather and spectacular scenery. Highlights were the US Air Force Academy and Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs, the historic towns of Golden and Boulder and 2 brewery tours.
We have been busy at home during November because we have had to clear out our cellar. This was because we returned from our holiday in Denver to find that the cellar had become an unexpected paddling pool up to 5 inches deep for 2 weeks. The heavy rains in late October and November had raised the water table.