Amazing it is that an early night saved the house.

"You can come out now it's March"

You may never receive this!!

Thank you for spending time to let us know how you are managing. What it is, to have friends who will open their doors to a couple (three) of friends who have fallen on bad times. Good old Mourchon. At least you will have a lovely Christmas with carols and lovely food.
Shades of Mum's last Christmas with you, when we had such lovely food at their Chateau, especially on Boxing Day with champagne and caviar and the "game`" of finding the escaped "prisoner" who I think was you, Julian. I think you escaped far into the vineyards of the marvellous estate. I will never forget that holiday, especialy the drive through the snow at Vaison Les Romanes. All in the past now but you will have to try to forget this awful year, except for lovely Louis - the best thing for you both. I hope all thoughts of your mysterious illness have now evaporated.
Do you see anything of Gary and Sylvie, after they so kindly looked after Louis while Ruth had other things on her mind. I am glad you have decided on your new car. I suppose it was that modern Megane, which you finally decided on. I hope it does everything you require of it. I am so sorry about all your lovely books etc which went up in smoke....Lives are more important than treasures, thank God.
I am going to Wales this year after my lovely visit to see Nic, Jen and her lovely family, last year. Good news about Claire and Daniel, with their marvellous school results. Love to you three from Dad.

After the fire

Just to let you all know the insurance company is going to deal with everything including the clean up. Everything is covered and we will have the house 'as new' back in March 2012. I have my new laptop so totally Skypable at julianmerrow-smith or via Ruth (who didn't leave her laptop plugged in to the telly in front of the fire) at ruthphillips. The cause of the fire remains a little mysterious though not suspicious! We left washing to dry in front of the fire that though yellowishbrown did not catch fire, the sofas likewise. TV and ikea tv table with laptop etc a write off as were all our thousands of books, which we'd moved downstairs in the summer. The main thing that burnt were logs next to the fire but why or how they were set alight remains inexplicable even for the CSI guys from AXA. The fire was contained in the living room which fortunately has a steel and terracotta brick ceiling (unlike the wooden beams elsewhere. Although the burning was contained the heat and smoke has destroyed everything in the main house -- it is astonishing -- all the walls are brown and where the heat was extreme the electrical boxes have melted and the plaster has exploded off the walls. The three bedrooms will need re-plastering the ceiling in Ruth's room will need to come down and all the beds/ bedding/clothes/furniture will have to be be thrown out. The studio smells and needs cleaning but is otherwise fine, I'll wait for the clean up next week before going back to work as just being in the atmosphere for an hour is like smoking 20 Players Navy Cut. So Christmas in holiday accomodation and more disruption in a year pretty full of disruption. Ironically this all happened on the day we went to collect the brand new Renault from a garage in Aix -- so at least with the mini, we have a nice car each to drive around in. We were out for about 4 hours in the evening arriving home before ten, if we'd come back at midnight the house would no longer be there!

End of Term in Singapore

Well folks, all the waiting of the last 6 weeks is over and today the 45,000 primary school children sitting the Singapore equivalent of the 11 +, including our lovely Claire, got back their leaving exam results. So diligently and by the grace of God, Claire achieved her goal, scoring enough marks to get directly back into the Methodist Girls School where she has enjoyed the last 6 years and will starts secondary school there in January. We are all delighted because getting into one of the most popular single sex schools on merit is no mean feat and the competition for places is really very fierce her, needing pretty much straight A's in English, Maths, Science and Chinese to secure a place. If you get a chance to visit her Facebook, give her a big pat on the back, she is very proud of her A* in Maths which is awarded for marks over 90%.

Not to be outdone, dear Daniel also has his end of school report and we are very proud of him too and very pleased to see him moving in the right direction, with a nice high average and high scores in Maths and Science. He showed us what he can achieve when he checks his work properly. His teachers were very complimentary particularly for his Chinese which he has struggled with from time to time. We have 3 years before has to sit the end of school exam so we can enjoy the lull.

I took Claire off to Sumatra 2 weeks ago as she had already finished school whilst Daniel was still finishing up. We had a great 4 days and below are some of the pics. She looks so relaxed in the pics. Today she is more or less the same but with the addition of a big grin; enjoy.

love Nic, Jen, Claire and Daniel.

Check Smoke Detectors

further news from Ruth's Facebook "thank you everyone so much for your kind thoughts. we will find out tomorrow when we meet with the insurance expert (trust it to happen on a weekend) about what is and isn't covered. we should be fine though it will of course take time. the saddest thing really is the books, old first editions signed, poetry, all the classics, art books ...all things we had hoped to pass on to louis. but by then perhaps the book won't even exist..who knows?f ...oh and that beautiful cardigan karen knitted for louis and he only wore once...it seems clothes may or may not be recoverable but right now everything is black and very stinky. the cats are very confused but we go every day and feed and cuddle and hopefully they will still be there when we go back. louis misses them a lot i think."

Whoops in France

Well, that doesn't look very good.

smoke damage at Bédoin

Not sure of the details apart from everyone being safe but Julian Ruth and Louis have had a fire. from facebook.. " a fire in our house on friday night destroyed almost everything. except, miraculously, three people, three cats, two cellos, a dogon stool and three beautiful still life paintings....julians studio still in tact amazingly. meanwhile thank god for wonderful friends in beautiful places as it may be a long time before we can go home again and above all a child's smile which makes even a fire that destroys your entire home feel like nothing." domaine de mourchon

Thanks, Cathy

Thank you for phoning me to say you had arrived home at 19.40
It was lovely to see you three. Thanks, John for changing my light bulb. Thanks Kate for my farewell kiss!!!! and most of all to my darling daughter for giving up her precious weekend. It was fun to Skype Edmund way over there in Austria. Glad your arm is healing. I hope to see you at Christmas, when I have arranged my travelling to Wales. Love from Grandad.

John Kate and I

will be in Kings Sutton with Dad if anyone is up for a jolly?

Hurrah! Thomas is home!!

For a couple of days:)

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Steve Merrow-Smith

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News from Auntie Val

I heard this afternooon that cousin Georgina took her practical driving test today and passed. Big congratulations to Georgina from us all xxxx

love G&C