200403 Introduction

Hi, everyone, welcome to our website. If you’re visiting for the first time, we hope you’ll find something of interest among all the ‘stuff ‘on the site. If you’ve visited before, you’ll probably notice a few new items being introduced as time keeps marching on.

It’s almost exactly a year since we left the Bahamas, and we’ve settled back well into UK life. We weathered the winter without catching our deaths and are now enjoying the first signs of a new Spring – daffodils and crocuses are very special when you’ve lived without them for years!

Our general circumstances haven’t changed since we first got back. Mike is still working in London, ‘commuting’ to Halifax at weekends and travelling fairly regularly to Switzerland and Jersey on business. Hazel is still yo-yoing between home in Halifax, our flat in London and her parents’ home in Scotland, accompanied now by Honey, who made it home to us in time for Christmas – a bit of an old lady now, but still plodding on.

Christmas was a real family affair - in our own home for the first time in many years. Had a slight panic about where to squeeze in the Christmas tree, but with a bit of judicious moving of furniture, a suitable position was found. Everybody managed to squeeze in too and made the most of the ‘cosy’ arrangement.

We’ve managed to fit in a fair amount of travelling in the year since we got back. Mike and Hazel took part in a most enjoyable charity car rally through France in July, ending in Montecarlo and a night in the renowned Le Metropole Hotel, where the presentation dinner was held on the 10th floor terrace with breath-taking views of the old Casino against a full-moon rising over the Med! (Links under 'Our Morgans' or 'France'). We celebrated Mike’s birthday in September with a few days in Prague – vibrant again now since the fall of Communism. A business to trip to Paris at the end of October was stretched to a very pleasant long weekend, with Hazel fulfilling her ambition to get to the top of the Eiffel tower (too expensive last time she’d been there as a student!). Look for the links under ‘Prague’ and ‘Paris’ for pics.

Our big trip has been a long-planned trip ‘down under,’ finally achieved in February – a delayed celebration of our 30th Wedding Anniversary last year. We stopped off in Singapore on the way to catch up with several old friends and marvel at all the new high-rise that have gone up in the 10 years since we were last there. It was a thrill to see the famous sights of Sydney and catch up with friends there too. Tasmania really captivated us. We stayed a week there with our good friends Graham and Diane, who showed us the sights in the north of this beautiful island - such a wide variety of contrasting landscapes. The people everywhere were very friendly and the lifestyle very relaxed. We stopped over in Bangkok on the way back, but found it very hot, humid and hectic, constantly enveloped in smog. We were pleased to catch up with a couple of friends there, but glad to be on our way home a day early. Look for pics under 'Australia'.

John is well settled in his job now, still putting considerable mileage on his car at his employers’ behest (and getting recompensed for it), performing audits for clients within a wide circumference of Leeds. He enjoyed a trip to Taiwan in August, with his girlfriend, Laura, to visit her parents who are living there. Hopefully he’ll be putting his photos on the website soon.

Ruth has been inspired by her mum and dad’s trip to book her own flight to Australia at the beginning of May. Having had no success in finding the sort of job she would really like, and having parted from her boyfriend, she’s decided to take herself off and try something new. She’s got a 12-month visitors’ visa, which entitles her to work to support herself while she’s there, and is going to see how she gets on. She’s hoping to post regular news from there on the web, but on a different site. We’ll try to provide a link in due course.

Please keep in touch with us (click the ‘Contact Us’ button). We really do love to hear all your news. Hopefully we’ll get to see some of you again on our future travels, but in the meantime we can rely on the ether to keep us connected (isn’t technology wonderful?!!).