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LATEST NEWS - DECEMBER
2002
October 21st was Catherine's
birthday - here she is opening gifts at her party and blowing out the candles
on her cake.
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Perhaps an even bigger
occasion to celebrate was when Clive finally got around to painting the
living room. We decided not to go for boring emulsion and instead went
for something 'bright'. I wanted to recreate a mottled effect I'd seen
in some celebrities home in a magazine so we chose a combination of paints
known in as 'Lady Glaze'. The man in the shop assured us the process was
very straightforward. Here's an enthusiastic Clive putting on the first
coat on the first wall.
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Sadly, enthusiasm waned
and the painters were called in to finish the job ten days later. Not a
bad effort really, except that the colour is highlighter pen orange in
daylight. Anyone coming to visit should bring sunglasses, if not
welders goggles. I think that's the end of DIY in the Richards' household,
although the finished result looks quite respectable in photos!
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Our next excitement
came when we decided to enrol David in the British School, Al Khubairat.
Here he is in his new unifom leaving on his first day, and in his PE kit.
I shed a few tears - mostly over the school fees.
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This is David's first
official school photo.
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The weather has cooled
off now and last month we went on our first family camp. Rather than driving
into the desert we took everything out on the boat and camped on an island.
The children loved it!
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This is the Mott MacDonald
attendees at the Poppy Ball - a big charity event held at the British Embassy.
I wore my wedding dress as it coincided with out 5th wedding anniversary.
Is it really only 5 years? Seems a lifetime......
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| During the Eid holiday we
went down to Liwa to stay on our friends farm which seems to spring out
of nowhere in the middle of the desert. These are their date palms and
shacks for the goats. |
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This is their
villa - 5 bedrooms and a majlis the size of a netball court.
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| The children loved
seeing the camels. |
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| And we had great fun
sliding down the dunes. |
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| I'm just a bit worried.
Catherine seems to be turning local. |
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| On December 10th I had some
surgery on my knee - an arthroscopy [keyhole surgery] on a damaged meniscus
- wear and tear he called it. A polite wayy of saying that I'm getting old
I guess. I don't have a photograph of the operation, although I do have
a 40 minute video. Everything went well and I was on crutches for a few
days. I'm walking now and he's promised me I'll be skiing by the 17th January
- otherwise it's going to be a bit boring for me loking out of a chalet
window for 2 weeks.
Well, another year is over
and we are getting ready for our Christmas Day celebrations. I'm working
Chrsitmas Day as usual but Clive has time off work and will be cooking
dinner for 20 [that's 9 adults, 6 children, 2 housemaids and a dog!] More
photos of that in the New Year.
That's all for now!
Lots of love from us all
Julie Clive David and Catherine
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