Happy new year from Spain

Hello all

I'm a little behind on the news as I don't get to see the web pages often enough at the minute. I'm hoping to go to collect the laptop in a day or two and then hopefully we will be back on line shortly after that.

Hope everyone has had a good start to the year. We are enjoying burning wood at the weekends but compared to gas heaters its expensive. The weather is a little changeable but the sun shines from time to time and some days are simply glorious. It's pretty cold today mind.

On December 19th a friend of ours from Africa, Bob Daniel, died after a long struggle with cancer. This was a sad moment and our thoughts and prayers are with Margaret up in County Durham. Bob was like a surrogate grandfather to our girls in Orapa and they will miss him as much as we will. He was a great Christain witness in his last months, weeks and even days, convinced of his place in heaven and keen to ensure he took as many after him as possible. He was a great cricketer too, a fast bowler of renoun and not one to mince his words if you missed a catch in the outfield. On the tennis court he was equally talented and played with and against me many times in tournaments at Orapa tennis club. He was a good lad and a dear friend.

As for everything else, we all seem fine save for the odd cold. School is back into the swing and the gilrs have their exam results back - excellent stuff. A real couple of chips off the old block, eh Jan?

Talk to you all on Skype soon I hope!