Weddings:

Gareth and Mat [Facebook photo] got married this year. We were invited to the evening party, which was great fun! Thanks for inviting us guys!

Funerals:

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to Matt Staples who passed away from a heart attack at the young age of 40 years old in July. He was the drummer for Bazooka Joe, as well as other bands like the Peppercorns, and he was also a friend. Here is his final drum solo that I filmed.

We also say a small sad goodbye to Bruce and Gabi's cat, Snoopy, who had a big personality and won't be forgotten.

Parties:

We held a celebration party for Josie on the 1st August, with a wonderful turnout of friends, family and children. Thank you to every one who came to this special occasion, as it meant a lot to us. It took place instead of our annual anniversary BBQ. This party was also to celebrate Josie's adoption that legally went through on 2nd April.

We celebrated Halloween and the start of Christmas [Facebook album] with Si and friends.

Babies and Toddlers:

Congratulations to our nearby neighbours Sarah and Mike for their baby Maisy, the Butterworth family for their baby Alex, Jen and Paul for their baby Gemma, and Wieslaw and Nadine for their baby Lara - as we now have a half Polish cousin for Josie!

I've made friends with so many mums and their children this year at Kindermusic, Filton Surestart and Handprints. I look forward to getting to know people better in the new year 2010.

Other events:

We had our first UK family holiday in July. We visited family friends Val and Dennis in Dollar and visited the local park. After 2 nights and travel recovery, we then travelled to visit step family Shona, Mark, and their sons Andrew (3) and Matthew (1) in Bonnybridge. We went to Blair Drummond Safari Park with them. The following day we picked up my friend Debs from school days and we all went to Deep Sea World for the day, as well as the Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh. Another fun packed day! The next day we travelled to Tullibody and stayed with friends Edi and Claire, and their son David (2). We visited the local shopping centre and went to an indoor sand play area, then went for a meal at Frankie & Benny's in the evening. Our final leg of the trip took us to Sheffield. We spent the day visiting the farm and gardens of Chatsworth house. There was just so much to see there that we really could have returned and spent another 2 days there! Beautiful fountains, unusual engineering structures. Not to mention how much Josie enjoyed petting a guinea-pig at the farm, so much so, that we got her a toy one!

We had our first family holiday abroad to Europe in September, after finally getting Josie's passport. The journey started in France with my God parents Gill and Den who live near the Anjou wine region. Josie became quite good friends with their dog Sandy. We had a relaxing time, and a lovely picnic by the lake on one really warm day there, and a trip to a tank museum, where Josie spoke her first 3 word sentence "No more tanks"! After a week of relaxation and recovering from a cold that we caught on the ferry over, we travelled up to Brussels for the weekend and caught up with Siobhan, Malgosia, Bernard and Chiara (1) who were all very kind to host us and let us stay over with them! It was so lovely for the half-Polish toddlers to meet. We also saw my dad and old friends Manu, Serge and their 2 daughters. Manu and her sister Claude and son made the effort to catch up with us at Planet Kids, a soft play area that Josie enjoyed. After that we travelled to South Belgium to stay with my friend Pascal, who I've known since my first gliding holiday. We visited some caves, war/ tank museum, an abbey with racing cars in the basement, a safari park and 2 Belgian playgrounds for Josie. No surprise that Josie was exhausted after all that! Our final leg of the trip took us to Dortmund in Germany to see cousins Danusia and Slawek, who I was reunited with after many years of not having seen them. Also my second cousin Marcin, who travelled over from Berlin to meet up. We saw his brother Wieslaw about a month earlier in the Summer, when he came over to the UK to do an English course, and travelled to Bristol to catch up.