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| Completed on the outside |
It is hard to believe that in less than 3 weeks we will be travelling back to South Africa; our summer in UK is almost over. The weeks have whizzed by dominated by the renovations to our house which are nearly complete. The weeks of builders, dust and mess are drawing to a close and we are beginning to enjoy the extra space, bigger brand new bathroom and two loos.
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| Our beautiful new patio |
These additions came just in time for the welcome visit of Jonathan and Alyssa from America for a two week holiday. We had a great time catching up, visiting London and Cambridge together and even attending a wedding where we all got the chance to get the latest news from our friends whom we had not seen for quite a while. David and Jess came for a weekend as well to see Jonathan and Alyssa so we had a house full.
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| David and Jess |
David and Jess then delighted us by getting engaged with the wedding planned for next May. This followed hot on the heels of our other exciting family news which is that Fiona and Arran are expecting a baby next March so 2015 looks like being a busy year for the Ottaways.
We had a very enjoyable holiday whilst our builders decimated the bathroom and spent two days on the south coast with my brother, a weekend with the family in Bristol hosted by David and Jess and then five days in North Wales enjoying some wonderful scenery and historic castles, homes and gardens.
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Fiona and Sarah
enjoying the sun! |
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The little ones enjoying the
water feature in Bristol |
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David, Christopher and
Jess with the coffee |
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| Relaxing in Wales |
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Beautiful Bodnant
Garddens |
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Stunning flowers on
Anglesey |
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| Conwy Castle |
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| New bathroom |
We came home to find we had a partly finished beautiful bathroom but without a toilet! For the night we were left to use the builder’s loo in the front garden which was bad enough but at 3 a.m. it was made worse when tiptoeing into the garden and our neighbour’s security light come on to illuminate our path! Next day we had a loo but no door for a week or so but somehow we managed.
The bowls season also overwhelmed us for much of the summer especially during the long summer evenings when matches can be played. However we have just had our finals weekend, organised by Christopher, and the season is now officially over.
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| A family barbecue |
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| Three of our boys |
In between all of this we have had some lovely times with the family especially Sarah and her brood who live locally.
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| Keira and her Grampa |
Church has been enjoyable with a four week evangelism training course and the sermon series based on the Sermon on the Mount continues. Sarah did a terrific job with the ‘Do not worry’ verses. We have now just started Unleashed a series on ‘vision driven living’ to make us people of influence. So far so good but we will only get to a couple of these. The problem of our dual lifestyle.
We have also been delighted to welcome Melissa Hawksley from Fullies (our South African church) to work as an intern in the church here. She is staying with us and is an easy guest. The church is giving her lots of different opportunities and she is whole heartedly embracing every one.
