SkyMacMate

Peter, load up SkyMacMate first then Skype after you plug in the usb phone, check skype preferences for usb device, then test call by dialling echo123.

The Sky 's the limit

Skype is now running under my new handle, but I'm still using the powerbook's internal microphone because SkyMACmate wouldn't load and hence the VoIP phone remains inactive. Unfortunately my new Skypeln number, which I need for Grandparents to be able to landline us, is not always available as my internet connection has a habit of timing out when left inactive for some time. This should be sortable by getting Will to change my settings up at the farm.

If I knew it would stay on permanently I'd consider a pc-less phone and an ethernet switch, but it would be better if the afore-mentioned phone had a video option independent of the Mac. Too much to learn in too little time!

That's more than enough for one weekend.... (Actually, until I can get to an Apple shop or the like to get some advice, that's more than enough until the Christmas holidays!) Your thoughts are welcome, of course, as the pressure is on to provide a permanent phone option for Jan's parents who are even less internet savvy than me.

Ta-ra all,

Pete

spanishrover

When trying to buy Skypepro or a Skypeln, I needed to put in my Skype password. I had automated using keychains, to the extent that I'd completely forgotten it since setting up Skype about two years ago. All efforts to remember it failed, and even trying to access it from within Keychains access required me to type it in! The problem is I changed to gmail without telling Skype, so when I ask for a password reminder they send it to my mac.com address which I can't access. If I plug in the new address, it says there is a mismatch....

The bottom line is I'm calling myself spanishrover from now on. Peterpoppet was soft anyway. I'll try and get a number now....watch this space.

Message from the Invalids

Mum and I went to the Horton Hospital in Banbury, yesterday, but Mum was not very happy at the surgeon's (Mr Keeler - call me Barry) comments. He is going to send a camera up inside Mum to photograph the right hand side of her gut.
(Pete knows all about that, too) The last time this happened was back in April, when the camera gave a clearance to the left hand side from any cancerous growths. That was worse than giving birth to five children, she says. Now it is going to happen again and she is terrified. It's alright having things done internally when you don't know what is going to happen, but when you do know what to expect ?????????
I think she is afraid of what they will find, as indeed am I. She says " if I refuse, they may write me off, but I feel like refusing"
I agreed but I said "it is up to you - it is your body and your life"
We went into Banbury today, but I was having difficulty in walking far. We bought some Christmas cards and some books, and we sent off a birthday card to Claire, as it is her 8th birthday on 27th. Jen says she likes photos of kittens and puppies and other small aminals, so I will ask Nic to help me out by searching around Sg for something that she will like
NIC. PLEASE NOTE.
What a miserable display, last night. They were too good for the team we put out and as for the poor goalie poor sod! Good old Peter Crouch, at least he did score one!
Bang go the sales of England shirts etc for Christmas, the toy shops say.
Well I will leave you to digest what I have written. Love to you all from Mum and Dad

Panic Over

Thanks, Steve, for reminding me that I needed to switch on the beast before it would charge. The key was on the hook and everything is OK now. I have put the new d/w in the garage, pending your visit at the weekend. Must be great to be in such demand !!, but with such a lot of people to look after.
I noticed a good tyre in the back garden, but I see I still have a full complement, so whose is it?
Yes I have to get my veins or arteries blown up with tiny balloons to enable my blood to surge around again. I hope I will be able to walk again, without pain and hopefully without a stick. I haven't got a date yet, but I will need a taxi, as it in the JR hospital in Oxford.
I'm taking Mum to the Horton Hospital tomorrow to see a Colorectal Surgeon who will inspect her to see how he can improve her living standard. He sounds Italian. Good luck with the bath, Steve. Love from Mum and Dad

Reality Check

Funny world, happen to be listening to DIRE STRAITS (Dad's message tiltle) on my new iMac.

Anyone know about game controls, I bought a logitech for my son to play his online Hotwheels. Can't get it to work though.

Peter, I skyed ya!

Dad, good luck with the leg op, would be great if it relieves the pain walking. It was great talking to Steve the other night. Don't thing it's sunk in with my kids yet what was going on. Can you image how we woould have felt at 4 years old, if the first time we saw a colout TV, your uncle was at the other end talking and waving clear as can be!

Technology!

Nic

DIRE STRAITS

1. I cannot recharge the "Henry' battery, so cannot get it out, nor move it from the garage.
2. Just taken delivery of a new Bosch dishwasher, which is outside the back door.
3 I am trying to unhitch the washing machine to make room for the d/w. I then intend to put the w/m in the garage and the d/w under the kitchen sink.
4 the man came yesterday to finish off the inspector's recommendations, so we have a new wah basin and new pump.

Well done

Peter! as Henry say's, to what ever we have to do for him.. bless.
It may be the case that you qualify for a free replacement battery so
Check your Battery Serial Number.
Both my machines have replacement new batteries even the one I got off eBay and also a few others I've worked on so fingers crossed.
Not only that but with the new operating system Leopard installed, it's like having a new machine, although you may need to max out your ram for the best performance.

I saw Cathy today who is back in London with her nose to the grindstone painting out her flat in Rotherhithe ready for her new tenants. I've offered to help and I'm replacing the bath and wash basin for her and putting some tiles up.

Dad has some news about an operation on his legs to relieve the pain that comes with walking so good luck with that ol' china. It's quite a straight forward day operation, but I'm not sure if you'll be able to drive yourself home my dear. You might be better off with Steve's taxi service LOL.

Aha! Success....

Push harder you fool....

Having gone through my photographic memory (ha,ha) I realise I bought the Mac in 2003 and not in 2000. I now have therefore established that my machine is an aluminium 12inch version (for which I plead I have no boxes or data in this country and even the Apple website identified my machine as a Titanium DVI) which is supposed to used airport extreme, so I tried again and have managed, with much sweating about irreversible damage and bent fixings, to push home the afore-mentioned aerial jack...with the end result that....it all works! We are wireless on the internet!

Unfortunately the battery is so knackered that the machine needs to be permanently plugged in, which rather defeats the object, but hopefully we can organise a replacement battery at some later stage. The good thing is I can now run my Mac and my school computer from downstairs wirelessly, if you don't count power cables (even though there are only a couple of useful plug points in the house!). In a short time we should get a USB phone and then we can Skype till kingdom come.

Thanks for the encouraging shove in the right direction Steve. I was sweating. It still beats me how the Apple site got me in to the wrong frame of mind....

How y'all doing?

Can you believe that Cathy left here last night, at 10.15pm in thick snow??. By the time I got home after showing her how to get out of the village, via The White Horse, the snow had given way to rain. I hope you got back safely, Cath. It was lovely of you to spend the day with us. Today a man called Steve is coming to fit the new wash basin, as the old one shows signs of someone dropping it Tomorrow, we have a new Bosch dishwasher being delivered by Argos, as I have a few gift tokens, courtesy of Goldfish !!
Love to all. Dad & Mum.

Airport card

Do you need this model Pete?

Powerbook Fixit

How to Fit Airport Extreme
There isn't a 12" Titanium Powerbook!
Make sure it's fitted the right way round eh?
I have the previous airport card but it won't fit your machine.
Probably most usb skype type phones will work but you need to download a program to make it run.
It's called SkyMACMate

Depressed:(

Well, I tried. I got hold of an airport express base station and an airport extreme card. The base station is no problem. However, because I have an old Powerbook G4 (DVI) titanium, I shouldn't need an airport extreme - it should have airport fitted. However, there is definitely no card in the slot and since my hard drive was replaced with a G4 PowerPC chip when it burned out, I assumed that it did a runner then and further assumed the extreme card would fit into the new PowerPC drive. Unfortunately, the aerial in the machine is the old one, for an airport card. I cannot close the battery compartment with airport extreme fitted and so it's back to the drawing board. I hope nothing is more busted as a result (some sites say you shouldn't do what I just did).

So, does anyone have a second hand airport card? They are long since discontinued. I have a brand new unused airport extreme card for swops. I assume airport will work with airport express. If not, perhaps it's time to buy a new Mac.

Can you believe that John Lewis don't sell a Mac compatible USB phone? Not that I need one just yet, but one day....

all is not lost

South London Emergency Boiler Repair

Skype Nic= chillycrab_156 Pete=peterpoppet

I've just spoken to Peter on Skype Video, although I couldn't see him he could see me! ..we're starting to get a community going here!
He says he's just off to John Lewis to get an Airport Express and a Airport Extreme card for his Powerbook so we can chat wirelessly.






Here's the Apple iSight webcam I use, which now are like hen's teeth as they've been discontinued, so if anyone sees one for under a £100 it's a bargain and to get it. There's a few on eBay but the ones on Amazon are going for big money.
Nic wants to get some video conferencing going now he's up to speed with the technology, and Peter's the same.

Jerry

Here's a picture of Henry's Cat who's taken a shine to yours truly.
He's only 140 cat years old!

iNic and iJen and iClaire and iDan

I.. got a message from our Nic on facebook

he say.."When we were in Oxford, (Dad's 80th) I was amazed at the ease which you all uploaded and swapped files. We shopped for a desktop and have bought an iMAC.

So far I've really only set up the kids profiles, they got software like imovie, iphoto, garageband and some other stuff, it's a lot of fun. Got a byuilt in camera too, so if you want to tell me how we might have teleconference, we can do that."


so we have just got off Skype Video chat, and this is a photo taken with me'iPhone and he's smiling all lovely.
Claire is having her birthday party tomorrow so he was telling me all about it and wants to know all about Will's and my trip of a life time next year to Mongolia. I said seeing as we're almost there, we'll pop in for tea.
Hopefully he and I can hook up tomorrow at 4pm GMT with the rest of the family and we can wish Claire a happy birthday in advance.
We were chatting for a whole hour and Skype video worked perfectly with no delays of any kind.

Apart from having a terrible cold.. that's all from me this evening but I loves you all

Yes, but - what is her name

Nice to read your blog Ruth; and how nice of you to say how much you liked having us for three wonderful weeks. We are the ones who should be saying that - you both spoiled us. Love to you both from Hugh and Margaret.

Are we not blessed

We are happy to tell you that we are both safely home after our lovely holiday with Julian and Ruth in Vaucluse, Provence.
It was sad to leave you, Ruth and Julian. as you had made our holiday so welcoming and we were too overcome to prolong our farewell.
Thank you Ruth for helping Mum with her hairdresser, her podiatrist and for arranging for her to have a facial. I realy appreciated your support in her attempts to gain weight, which, I am sorry to say, have not improved her body weight appreciably, perhaps just a bit!

Thank you to Julian for driving us to Avignon to catch the TVD train and for accompanying us to Paris to ease our cross over from Gare de Lyon to Gare du Nord, made even more exciting as you took us out to lunch in that beautiful restaurant opposite the station. Mum still cannot stop talking about the atmosphere, the service, the food and the shear opulence of a Saturday lunchtime in central Gay Paree. ( I had my longed for Boullaibaise fish stew am Mum had some lovely salmon. – Julian had a steak tartare.?

Mum is sorry she could not bid you a fonder farewell Julian, as she was afraid she would embarras you with her tears etc, It was sad to see you waving to us as we disappeared into the crowds catching the Eurostar, but many people were only too happy to help a couple of oldies to get on to the train and to help us to settle down with our luggage stored. In particular a young bronzed Iranian (we think) who lifted our luggage with ease and stowed away stuff into the overhead racks. I noticed that his itinerary was for him to catch the 8.30 plane to New York. I hope he made it OK.

Steve had arranged for Mum to be collected by wheelchair and the Railway man wheeled her quickly out of sight, leaving me to grab a luggage trolley and to follow as quickly as I could. (Should have been me in the wheelchair!! ), but it was a service greatly appreciated and enabled Mum to see Steve, who, actually was not on his own as Cathy was with him, waving madly when she saw us. What a lovely surprise. It seams that she was in the middle of cleaning and clearing out the drosss from out of her flat in Moodkee Streett, soon to be helped by Steve, when he turned up from Kings Sutton, driving my Renault and he said get your coat on as we are going to meet Mum and Dad at Waterloo. She quickly got ready and it was an added bonus to see her as well as Steve.
We were soon on our way over Waterloo bridge, which was crowded with people returning from the Lord Mayor’s Show, Parade. The sky was full of exploding fireworks and the streets were full of cars and buses, as we made our way through Notting Hill and on to the A 40, heading westwards. It soon became necessary to break our journey and we were dying for a nice, hot cup of tea, so Steve pulled in to an American-styled diner, which he knew and we settled down for half an hour, enjoying a quick cuppa and a sandwich for Steve and Cathy. On to the M 40 and we were soon heading off junction 6 towards Bledlow, as we had told the girls we would be along shortly, to pay them a visit. We arrived just after 7, and they had a lovely log fire burning away and they all made us welcome. We were all impressed with the lovely little cottage where they live (Harry Enfield lives next door ). Pete. Jan and the girls made us very welcome and we all enjoyed a rest and a chat.
9pm and we were off home to K/S, where we had another cuppa, before Cathy and Steve moved on to Moodkee Street, where I am sure they must be very tired after all that driving etc.
it was so great to see you all and we are sooo proud of you all.

Still Kicking

A perverbial flurry of blogs. Where have we been? Great news for Julian and Ruth, great to talk with you the other day Julian. Peter, Jan, Jessica, Bethany and Amy Jo, we must get a call into you (before you all freeze solid on one of those those misty Narnian mornings you have in the Chilterns) and wish you a welcome return to England. Dad, Mum hope you have a easy journey home, hi to Cath & John, Thomas, Edmond and Kate. And Gemma, thanks for the facebook birthday greetings and Will and Dad, which rally (I googled and got a number of options), exciting stuff.

We've been up to our usual stuff. School is over for Claire, she's not back until new year. Daniel's got his end of year performance coming up and they both have birthdays over the next month, plus a touring holiday in Malaysia - not quite the Goby Desert.

I owe Julian the intro, so that will be my next entry.

Who's been to Dublin, Steve?

Ulaanbataar

Will and I are going on an incredible adventure next year...

We are called the MonGauloises and we are going to Mongolia on that rally..

I got confirmation last night and called Will to say and he could hardly speak with excitement!!!

I'll let that sink in and see you folks at Waterloo just after 5pm

HAVING A LOVELY TIME

We are having such a glorious restful holliday here at Hameau Cougieux; But all good things come to an end on Saturday as we return to cold,old Oxfordshire.
Mum has had her hair done and a facial, plus a good doing over to her feet by the local podiatrist. She is looking very good and she has been wonderfully spoilt by Ruth.
Julian has been treating us to his culinary delights, and the sun has been shing non stop ever since we arrived.
See you all soon,Ihope. Love to you all from Mum and Dad

HURRAH!!

Its so nice to see where you are! Yes it does look quite big, but as an experienced cottage dweller I know that alot of it can be very thick walls and very little interior space, like the Tardis in reverse.
Have we got the address, email it to us.
I hope all is going well with school for you all, has Amy got a place yet?
lots of love from west wales, Cathy

you what, steve?

Does anyone understand Steve's mysterious blog of the inside of a house which appeared for three minutes and then disappeared? We are discussing it round the breakfast table. Answers on a virtual postcard please.

Forty Green

Here's a couple of shots of our little rented cottage in Forty Green. Very quaint and not as big as it looks from the outside! The nearest part is the kitchen cum dining room with windows front and side, and the back door leading you in through the kitchen with a staircase up the back wall. The lounge occupies the bottom of the older part of the building and is about 8 feet across and despite having thee windows is quite dim and snug with a fireplace at the far end. The front porch is seldom used at the minute as the lounge carpet quickly deteriorates.

Upstairs, above the kitchen is the big girls room with a window looking out over the garden, and the bathroom cum toilet next door. Our room is over the fire place end of the lounge, with a little room for Amy between and an upstairs landing running along the back wall from the top of the steep stairs.

It's nice to have a decent area outside with trees and grass, a brook and a well - as I said it looks very quaint but you get a little mold around the windows and the old cottage walls loose heat quickly when you turn off the heating. The fireplace is most welcome at the weekends as we have a supply of wood with which to pollute the atmosphere. After three weeks sitting and sleeping on the floor we now have chairs to sit in front of the fire and enjoy a glass of wine as the nights close in. Ooo... We're not used to this....

happy days

Incredible weather, lunch outside, girlie treatments for maragret and me ("I've never felt so relaxed in my life" she said, her face glowing with exotic oils. It didn't do much for the hairstyle but there's always the foot treatment on wednesday to look forward to), a new 'tonnelle' and our continuing efforts to resolve our septic tank problems....life in paradise goes on.

Introducing Uncle Peter

I see that Grandad has already introduced himself, and Uncle Steve too (he’s my big big brother), so perhaps I should take a turn at a quick introduction. I’ll prepare something longer when I can find some photographs.

I am Uncle Peter and I am the youngest of your new daddy’s brothers and sisters, although this may surprise you if you a see a photograph of me because I don’t have much hair on my head. In Africa, people don’t loose their hair until they are old and wise. This isn’t always true with English people, but you can pretend I am old and wise if you like.

I am married to Auntie Jan and we have three daughters - Jessica who is sixteen, Bethany who is fourteen (although she is taller than Jessica and her mummy) and lastly, Amy Jo who is six.

Many years ago Auntie Jan and I left England and travelled to Africa. Jessica was three, and Bethany was just one and a half years old at the time, and of course Amy Jo hadn’t been born yet. The four of us went to live in Botswana, where Auntie Jan and I both worked as teachers. I am a science teacher, and at that time Auntie Jan was teaching music. She had a marimba and steel drum band at her school and sometimes we would go to listen to the band playing. We all loved the marimbas so much that we bought a set of four instruments for ourselves and have all learned to play them as a family! We like to play African tunes on them.

Africa was a wonderful place for Jessica and Bethany to grow up. In Botswana you can spend so much time outside because it is so warm for much of the year. There is a big black sky full of wonderful stars at night time, and in the morning they say you can see next week’s weather coming because the blue sky is so big. We loved to go out into the bush to look for African animals in our Land Rover and during the seven and a half years we spent in Botswana we saw lions, buffalo, rhino, elephants, wharthogs, zebras, giraffes, springbok, impala, cheetah, leopards and many, many more animals. We had porcupines living behind out garden wall and kudu used to jump into our garden to eat our vegetables and grass. This made us a little angry sometimes but you cannot be angry with kudu for long because they are so beautiful.

If you are good at sums you may have worked out that Amy Jo was born in Africa - but it wasn’t long after that we moved back to Europe. We lived for a year and a half in Portugal which we enjoyed very much, before we moved to Spain. We have lived for more than three years in Spain and have a small house there. Living in Spain gave us many chances to see your mummy and Daddy as it is easier to get to Avignon from there than from England. Once your mummy came to Valencia to play her cello there and we all met up and had a big paella near the sea front. Your mummy likes the sea and paella. Perhaps we can do this again sometime.

At the moment, although we live in Spain some of the year we have all recently returned to England so the girls can study for their exams. We may stay here a year or two, or perhaps even longer. We live in a little rented cottage near Chinnor, where I was born and where your Daddy Julian and I lived with our brothers and sister and Granddad and Nana for many years. It is quite close to Oxford, so we are not far from Uncle Steve and his family now. Perhaps you could come to England to see us all soon. We would like that very much. You would be a most honoured and welcome guest.

I will write something more at a later date, and perhaps Jessica, Bethany, Amy Jo and Auntie Jan will write too. We would love to show you some photographs of our time in Africa one day. It will be great fun getting to know each other. Perhaps one day you can learn to play the marimbas with us too!

So, welcome to your knew family - we are all delighted that you are going to live with your new mummy and daddy because my brother Julian and my sister-in-law Ruth have so much love to give and I think you will all make each other so wonderfully happy. I truly hope so. God bless.

Uncle Peter.

At last...some news from.....abroad?

It's been a long time since I last blogged...a long long time, in fact, what with six weeks on the roam in England over the summer, then an instant change of life styles that has left us all in a whirl and without a ready means to communicate efficiently. Now though, we have easy access internet and are back to earth. Unfortunately no land line yet but we get a wireless broadband connection via the farm, for which we pay a small monthly charge, and are investigating a USB phone for skyping.

A very quick summary then. As you know we were here in England over the summer and I happened to get talking to a Head teacher at Princes Risborough who persuaded me to come and work for him. We turned our lives around, left for Spain, packed a few nick-nacks and, leaving our little Spanish house in the hands of friends, returned to a new start in teaching in the UK. Needless to say this has been a whirlwind introduction. I cannot belive we have already had a half term holiday, yet I am still constantly working late into the night in an attempt to keep my head above water and remain one step more organised than my classes.

By providence we have been able to rent a small farm cottage in Forty Green belonging to one of the Austin clan. For those in the not so sure bracket, Forty Green is an extension of Skittle Green next to Bledlow, and over the fields not far away is Henton. So it is a real return to pastoral England for us. We have three small bedrooms and very low ceilings. There is a large garden and an outhouse and a shed. We have a small brook running through the garden and a well with water in it. The house is surrounded by tall ash trees and hawthorn, and the approach down the lane is very much as one might imaging a 19th century country scene. The cottage was probably built around the turn of the century and has a slate roof and black ended square bricks interspacing the nice orange red ones like some of the buildings in Thame High Street.

Being now based in Bucks for living and working, the girls are attending the school where Jan and I both have work in Princes Risborough. Everyone is settling to a pattern and getting to grips with all the changes. It's been quite tough, but we have leaned to be resilient and to enjoy life in all its circumstances.

Due to the discovery of freecycle we now have a small sofa and two arm chairs and can entertain visitors. So if you are in the area and fancy a nice walk or a jar at the Lions, or even a nice walk followed by a jar at the Lions, do pop in!

I'll post a few photographs in due course so you all know the house when you see it. In the meantime we had better get on with creating an introduction of ourselves to our new to be addition to the family. What an exciting time!

Back from Dublin

not great photos but these leopard seals were impressive, hanging about
in the harbour for tidbits of fish.. not biscuits I noticed.

Introduction

And I am your new Uncle Steve although some people call me Stephen, especially my Mum. I am Julian's elder brother and Ruth's brother-in-law. 

I live in England right in the middle of the country in a city called Oxford. 

I live in an old house and share it with my daughter Gemma and her man who is called Clive. Gemma's brother William lives nearby and we like to get together sometimes to have some beer and to chat about all sorts of things.

I used to be married but Gemma and William's mother got very sick a long time ago and the doctors could not make her better.

Sometimes we visit her sisters who both live in London who have two children each. They even came on holiday to France with us and everyone got on very well especially in the swimming pool.

I've been to your house a few times to help with the getting it a bit ready and to look after the cats and also for holidays. 

I like to do painting but I'm not as good as your new Dad and I like to play music but not as good as your new Mum.

I live a short drive up the motorway from Grandma and Grandad and I like to visit them at the week-ends and sometimes I help with little jobs like cutting the grass and the odd bit of decorating.

They both met before I was born when they lived in Oxford too but that was over fifty  ago.

When I was little we used to go on the bus to Oxford from our little village to visit Grandma's parents who were my Grandma and Grandpa and your Dad's Grandma and Grandpa. When we wanted to visit Grandad's Mum and Dad we had to go to London to visit them, but we would usually try and see Buckingham Palace to see if the Queen was at home and to watch the soldiers. If she was at home there would be a big flag flying but we never saw her even when it was.

There are quite a few old people in our family and quite a few that live right across the world. But we do like to get together to remember each other's birthdays and things like that.

You may find that coming to a large family is a bit scary. But none of us are scary really and we hope you will get to know who everyone is eventually.

I hope we meet soon and I'm very much looking forward to that.

A Letter of Welcome

I am the grandad and my name is Hugh Merrow-Smith.
I am 80 years old and am Julian's Daddy and Ruth's father-in-law.
My wife, Margaret and I have been married for 53 years.
We have five children and 10 grandchildren.
Our children have now all grown-up and have childrenof their own.
Our eldest is Stephen aged 53 and he has two children,
Gemma, aged 30 and William, aged 27.
Our daughter is Cathy and she is 51 this year. Her partner is John and they have three children.
Edmund is 16 and Thomas is 14. Their young sister is Kate and she will
be 12 at Christmas. Your new Daddy comes next and with Mummy, Ruth,
they will be your new Mummy and Daddy as they do not have children of
their own at the moment. You will be their first, and very proud we
will all be when that happens. Next comes Nicholas, who is 46 and he
lives in Singapore, and is married to a Chinese lady, whose name is
Jen-Hwei. Their children are Claire, who will be 8 soon and
Daniel who will be 6 in December. Our youngest son is Peter, who will
be 44 at Christmas. He is married to Janet, who was born in Nigeria
and they have three children, all girls. The eldest is Jessica, aged
16, then Bethany who is 14. Their young sister is named Amy-Jo, and
she is 6. Amy-Jo was born in southern Africa in a town called Orapa ,
which is in Botswana.
We are a very happy family and we get to see each other as often as
possible. I am writing this from your new home in France, as Grandma
and I have been invited to stay here for a little while with your new
Daddy and Mummy. Today is a lovely sunny day and is what we call All
Saints day, or Hallowe,en.
We live in a small village in Northamptonshire, near to Banbury, where the Fine Lady
who Rides a White Horse, comes from. Our village is called Kings Sutton.
The last time we all got together was on the occasion of my 80th birthday at the
end of March, where we all had lunch in the old Oxford Prison, which is
where my father was Chief Officer, until he retired and where I lived in 1949.
I can show you lots of photographs of that day

saints

HAVING A LOVELY TIME IN FRANCE

The weather here is glorious and we are being spoilt by Julian and Ruth. Today Ruth drove us, in the Mini, to Vaison La Romain
as Julian thought it was Market Day - unfortunately, it was not, but we had a coffee in the sunshine in our favourite cafe and walked around the little town, before heading for Girondas, where we bought a few bottles of our Cote de Rhone, and headed back through countryside alight with autumn colours of red cherry trees and orange wine bushes. We arrived back, where Julian had prepared a lovely pumpkin soup with knobs of cooked duck, as it was 1st November and just past halloween.

We have been sitting out in the sunshine, reading books, but we have also been to Bedoin market and in to Avignon, to visit Les Halles, where we bought some fresh fish and a few steaks of beef filet, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Julian is a very good cook.
While we were in Bedoin market we also bought a great piece of cod, and ate some super filets of cod. We have been sleeping well and also eating well, washed down with lovely wine, and we have also managed a couple of short walks. Mum is enjoying being spoilt and our lovely daughter-in-law, Ruth booked a hairdressing appointment in Mazan and took her for a ride in the Mini for a girls day out! Ruth is lovely and she has taken Mum under her wing.
I don't know if any of you have had time to read my little piece about our family, as Ruth had asked us to, but she would love any of you to write a little piece about our family association, especially Jessica and Bethany, who could write a little about their experiences in Africa. Ruth's Dad and StepMother, and her step sisters have written some nice little pieces, and she would welcome some experiences of the Merrows.