Graham and Dylys' news in 2007

House

May saw our first anniversary at our house on Abbey Road. In the previous month, we had had a fence erected at the bottom of the garden. The garden overlooks the Bollin Valley park, and in the summer months, all is screened by the trees beyond our garden; but in the winter it felt much more exposed, so the fence serves to sheild us from the footpath in the park.

We had our bathroom suite replaced just before Christmas, as it was getting increasingly difficult to get a certain item to dispense water. It was not the best time of year to be without the use of a shower for a few days!

Holidays

We paid a flying visit to Cyprus (in every sense of the phrase) in March. The purpose was to visit Graham's brother and family who are posted there for four years. We took Graham's Mum, so that she could see her new grandson, nearly a year old, for the first time. We flew from Manchester on a Wednesday, arriving late evening. We had two clear days there, and were on a return flight in the early hours of Saturday morning. We stayed at a hotel in touristy Ayia Napa, whilst Mum stayed with the family. The weather was great: pleasant and summery, and the touristy areas were nice and quiet - as the holiday season did not properly start until Easter.

For our main holiday of the year, we booked a caravan at Bunchrew near Inverness for a week in June. In a notoriously wet summer, we did remarkably well. The Sunday was very wet, and we were stuck in the caravan apart from when we went to church; but for the rest of the week we were out walking every day and never put our cagoules on. The highlight was a climb up Ben Wyvis , from where we looked out over a fantastic inversion.

We made the usual couple of family visits to Cornwall.

Car

Our Nissan Micra has not proved itself quite as reliable as our previous model. It has occasionally become jumpy and the engine has cut out, particularly when driving in heavy traffic in hot weather. It caught us a couple of times this year: once on our way back from Scotland, when the engine malfunction light came on and in accordance with the owner's manual, we drove the remaining 130 miles of the journey at 43mph. Our local garage failed to diagnose the problem properly, so we suffered it again when driving down to Cornwall. A little garage in Cornwall identified a faulty camshaft sensor, and there have been no further incidents since that was replaced.

Jobs

Unexpectedly, Capital One announced that the Macclesfield offices where Graham was working were to be closed. This affected many people, leading to a protracted affair with a statutory 90 day consultation period. We could never wish for this kind of development, although Graham has gone through it all before: for several months we are living in a state of uncertainty about the future. Graham was formally made redundant on 21 October, and secured a new job with GPC Computer Software Ltd shortly beforehand.

Thankfully, Dylys' job with the Information Commissioner has proved to be rather more stable.

Church

Graham has continued in his role as secretary, and Dylys as deacon, at Bethel Baptist Church. We joined the church weekend away at Quinta Hall near Oswestry in April. We held a couple of community fun days on the local recreation ground in the summer.

Other activities

Dylys joined the local hospice choir. The choir have cut a CD, in addition to a few little performances, so let us know if you would like to sample the CD. Dylys also signed up for an art class at the local high school, and has been acquiring art materials, and producing paintings and drawings. Hopefully sometime we will get some work scanned and published on a web page not very far away!