News from Catherine GriffithsHere is an amended and updated version of my annual Christmas letter, which I normally punish close relatives with!! 2009 has been quite a momentous year for our family, the spectacular highlight being our daughter, Emma and Rich’s wedding in September, which surpassed all our hope
s, considerably assisted by the hot weekend that Emma managed to arrange (in spite of the disastrous summer). This was fairly important as they held their ceremony on our local beach on Anglesey, surrounded by their 150 guests. The readings and vows were beautiful and made the whole event very special. Smaller guests happily built sand-castles and paddled while the boring bits went on. Needless to say, we caused quite a stir amongst the holiday-makers on the beach. The rest of the celebrations took place over the weekend at a very comfortable Outdoor Centre, where the Monks and Griffiths stayed, and younger friends and Hughes cousins (Rich’s family) camped in the grounds. We were entertained by some excellent speeches, good food, drink and disco – and most sati
sfying of all, E+R managed it all on a shoestring (including a beautiful wedding dress from eBay!) and yet nothing was lacking. It was especially nice to have time to catch up with friends and relatives and actually enjoy the wedding at last, having found the preparation just a wee bit stressful… There was also a certain sea-kayaking theme to the wedding, with a cake that I made in the shape of a kayak, to complement the strip-cedar double kayak that Paul made them as a wedding present. On the Monday, we took the kayak for its maiden voyage, with Emma wearing her tiara!
This has been quite a year for weddings in the James Monk part of the family, with two of my nephews also getting married: Oliver and Shasha in China, Niall and Shima in N. Ireland. Both have since had wedding parties to enable family and friends to join in the celebrations. N+S had a lovely event in Bangor and also arranged good weather for the whole weekend. Needless to say, only Oliver’s immediate family manag
ed to get to the traditional wedding party held in Shasha’s family village, but we have all enjoyed the fascinating photos and descriptions. Charles and Liz have since been continuing their sabbatical world tour and are currently in Australia.
The other significant episode of the year has been my father (aged 94), James’s precipitous decline in health, resulting in a worrying stay on a cardiology ward just before E+R’s wedding, escape back home after 11 days with carers set up as a way of both helping Mum (Diana, aged 82) and reassuring us children that they could manage. Luckily, we have been able to convert the dining-room to a very comfortable bedroom for them both, even fitting in an invaluable hospital bed. Poor Dad has had a real roller-coaster, healthwise and, in my opinion, very nearly perished for the second time thanks to lack of proper monitoring of his drugs post-hospital. Now with two fewer drugs in his daily cocktail, he is fairly mobile again and mentally as alert as ever. Interestingly, the more people I have mentioned this to, the more I hear similar stories of elderly relatives deteriorating as a result of over-enthusiastic blood pressure treatment. Mum’s life has been somewhat curtailed in her role as full-time carer but she remains remarkably cheerful and upbeat, especially as her Bell’s palsy seems to have become irreparable and her wet AMD is always a worry. Sadly, neither of them were able to get to Emma’s wedding, which was especially sad for Mum as she was so looking forward to it.
This year we took Christmas to my parents which proved even more successful than I hoped. Although we were 9 extra guests in total, including Isabelle and Phoebe, their lovely cottage in Goring stretched quite easily and Dad and Mum just thrived rather than wilted at having us all around, and Mum sensibly accepted the fact that Paul was taking over the kitchen and became a guest in her own house. It certainly made it a very special Christmas for them both, especially considering Dad wasn't expected to live that long.
What else have we been up to? Paul and I find ourselves working hard (harder?) yet not managing to reap a decent return for the effort. We remind ourselves that money is less important and enjoy the freedom of being home-based. P continues to sell wildlife recording software, bespoke systems and making Greenland paddles. We have decided to look to our land and buildings for generating income and so P has also been working on the old dairy to prepare it for letting to holidaying sea-kayakers next spring. And we now have a building plot in the garden with full planning permission, which we hope to sell next year. And all this with the long-term aim of eventually selling up and moving to Menai Bridge, which we feel will suit our desire for a Straits view and better community spirit. As a first step in this plan, we have sunk our retirement savings in a small terraced house with the requisite view which we are renting out initially… to Emma and Rich! They have both got themselves excellent local jobs (E with Women’s Aid, R with Conwy Council) since the wedding and are thrilled to be living back in Anglesey. They are now saving madly to buy a smallholding, so we hope to have them as tenants for quite some time! The bonus is that Paul now has a reliable sea-kayaking partner in Rich, as I tend to be a warm water paddler only!
Workwise, I have been enjoying temping this year as a way of boosting our income without the commitment to continuous work. As it’s worked out, it gave me the flexibility to go down to M+D when they most needed me. I have mostly been based at the local hospital, which has been an eye-opener seeing behind the scenes… My audio-typing skills are quite accomplished now and so far I have an extensive vocabulary in orthopaedics, genetics, substance misuse, family planning and oral surgery! I’ve also become a facilitator for self-advocacy groups of learning disabled adults, which I love and would like to do more – both advocacy and support work would appeal.
Meanwhile, I have been working up the courage for a second knee replacement operation, only to find that my hip has also deteriorated, such that I am having this done next week. I suppose this time next year I may be beginning to reap the benefits of healthy joints at last but I don’t much relish the months in between (and nor does Paul either, I’m sure).
And what about our son, James? Well, he has been thoroughly enjoying life as a Law student at Liverpool Uni and now has (pecuniary) ambitions to become a corporate solicitor, realising just in time that it will involve hard work and good results if he is to succeed. He is enjoying his house share with 3 very tidy (male) medics and has even started DJ-ing on the university radio station, which even we enjoy each week via the internet.
Depending on how much my siblings decide to contribute to this blog, I will adjust my news to include other members of the James Monk branch of the family in future, so hopefully it won’t be exclusively cousin Catherine news for you all!
so we were able to start our sabbatical by celebrating their wedding in the village where Shasha’s parents live. An amazing experience - also described in our blog. (http://monks-retreat.blogspot.com/2009/10/update-wedding-etc.html photos added later at http://monks-retreat.blogspot.com/2009/11/photos-oliver-and-shashas-wedding.html ).
