Happy Christmas from the Davies’ Dec 2024

The Christmas letter is a bit anachronistic, but it’s quite cathartic to go through the year and try and remember what we did. I’ve got them going back to the 90’s. Could stick them all together as a bit of an almanac… exciting or what.

Started the year with another trip to Spain in the camper. Before crossing the Channel, I had a trip around Southern England revisiting old friends, school friends of the 60’s, Bioengineering friends from the 70s, work colleagues from Kontron and Link in the 80s. I met up with Clive Harris who I was an apprentice with at GEC in Coventry late 60’s. We formed the seminal rock/folk group, “ElvinGrun”....groovy…. Meeting old friends is good and it doesn’t take long to snap back in to those times, although nowadays everyone is heavily disguised as old gits….photos on the web site.

In Spain I drove to Santiago de Compostella and did the Camino Ingles, a walk 110 miles from the north coast to the cathedral at Santiago. It rained every day, Spain has been a bit like that this year. I thought I’d drive down to Oporto, Portugal for a change, but it rained there as well. I need to go somewhere warmer and drier.

I arrived back in May and drove up to North Wales where Owen was holding his stag weekend….It was an activity weekend, with Owen and about 20 mates from school through to his current job at Mclaren, coasteering, scree-rallying and zip wiring. It was impressive how everyone got on.

YES, Owen and Emma had arranged to get married!!!

The big day was in June in good old Croxley, and a reception near their home in Wendover. It was a really good, jolly do. It was good to see so many of Owen’s and Emma’s friends having a good time together. Pat and I were really proud of Owen, and Emma looked wonderful, I was speechless! Pictures again on the web site.

We had a busy summer down in Topsham with Helen and Sam, Stanley and Henry, going up and down the cycle path to the Exmouth flat and paddle boarding at the beach. In September Pat and I went up through Wales for a tour of Anglesey. Excellent beaches and long walks, with the odd art gallery chucked in. On the way down, I met up with my brother who was walking the last part of his Offas Dyke Path (177 miles). I met up with him in Monmouth and we walked to Chepstow. The weather was fantastic.

Sadly as we left Chepstow, Pat received a call to say that her sister, Anne, at 73 had suddenly and unexpectedly passed away, from an aneurysm, just like their dad. It was shocking, especially for Pat and Anne’s son, James. It was of some comfort that she had been in one of her “full” life phases. Earlier in the year, she had visited James in Canada, she was at Owen’s wedding, Pat and I had just spent a weekend with her at the Shaftesbury Festival, and she had just finished helping with the Gillingham Walking festival. We had a celebration of her life with well over a hundred people, rounding off with a song from her Rokit singing choir. It was amazing.…...

Tidying up Anne’s estate, which was essentially, fairly simple, makes one realise how important it is to sort out one’s own affairs. I think Pat and I have a lot of work to do!!

So… as I always seem to say, it’s a narrow path we tread, make sure you tread it, but do it lightly.

Lots of pictures this year, have a look at the web site. There’s a “Where’s Owen” Mclaren photo (he’s the one in orange).

Roger and Pat Email daviesrv@hotmail.com Photos on www.3square.co.uk