the Vincent-Jones family newsletter 2006

This year we've decided to go on the "information superhighway" with our little "newsletter" so that it can be more widely read - so many of our our friends and family have told us how much you like to hear "the news" from "our little family" each year. Apparently sitting by the fire on Xmas Eve reading it out loud has become something of "a ritual" in the households of many of our friends and family -

Overall it has been a good year with lots of "ups and downs" but the Vincent-Jones' have "emerged battered but un-bowed"!!!

Sadly the year has brought death and destruction to the household. Great Uncle Ralph's third wife's mother died after "a very good innings" at 102 in August - it was really nice to see so many of you at the funeral - the vicar and the Co-op did her proud. Taffy killed a robin that he caught, after Penny had worn it out trying to catch it, to stop Taffy eating it, in March. Penny was a silly girl and ripped the campervan roof off a couple of weeks ago - that was a shock - but we are over it now - we are just trying to find a "little man" to replace it for us. The highlight of the year was Tom and Katie's wedding (no not that Tom and Katie!).

Many of you will know that Tony has been ill this year - in February a nasty cold laid him out flat and he was still catarrhal in March. Piles once again reared their ugly head in June but after a visit to "our GP" things have settled down again (fingers crossed). Tony's charitable activities continue apace, with an autumn highlight being his tirade against government budgetary constraints and their effects on the voluntary sector at the annual VS do in, the delightful conference suite at Port Vale football ground. Andrew was terribly impressed and offered to poach Tony - which of course Tony outright refused - how could he "transfer loyalty" "at this stage in the game"?!
Of course Penny has got a new job. She has continued jetting around to conferences - Birmingham, Manchester, London, and Burslem! She has some "ladies' problems" "down there" but again "our GP" has "fixed her up".
As many of you know we like to think that in both our jobs we are making "a big difference" in the lives of those "less fortunate than ourselves".
"Our boys" Philip and Richard - both have, of course, "shot up", although Richard remains "the baby of the family" - although Tony always quips "I wouldn't like to change his nappy".
Richard now has so many holes that Penny said "he'd have to be careful people didn't think he was a sieve". Phil is now living in Hanley and Tony gave him one of his many guitars. He has a lot of mates - Boggy plays guitar in another "up and coming" local group and he and his girlfriend Sally are having a dinner party to which we are all invited - Penny can wear her new shoes at last!

Our cars - our 1998 Toyota Corolla 3 door saloon 1.3GL continues to perform its duties as the family workhorse, although it still makes that funny little noise when you let the clutch out - we'll have to get Adrian to have a look. Our much loved Nissan Micra 1.3GX moved on to pastures new this year, and is apparently doing sterling duty with his "new owner", taking him to and from work, and sometimes a trip down to Redditch to see his friends.

Taffy and Sampson- continue to give us lots of pleasure, although Sampson tends to dribble on the quilt when you tickle his tummy, and we are all heartily fed up with clearing up after Taffy has vomited in the washing machine. As many of you know we are "animal-lovers" - and its good to know we are doing our bit in the fight to prevent the extinction of the the domestic cat!

Travel
The highlight of our year has been the acquisition of a trusty Volkswagon T2-based campervan - it is the Autosleeper Trident conversion, with 1932cc, water-cooled rear engine - it's a little beauty and promises to take us "all over the place" over the next few years. So far we have been to Buxton, Alton, Preston and Skegness. We have also been to lots of other places including, Manchester, Kendal, Birmingham, Keswick, Preston, Southport, Crosby, Derby, Stone, Cheltenham, Glasgow, Formby, Kirkby Lonsdale, Warrington, Shrewsbury, Leicester, Poynton, Leek, Moira, Bedworth, Kidderminster, Cambridge, Harkstead, Middlewich, Northwich, Alsager, Alton, Whitchurch, London (not together) and many more - phew! We would have liked to go to New Zealand, but once again didn't quite make it - "ho-hum". Phil and his friend jetted off to "Gay Paree" for the weekend!!
Our sub-Arctic endeavours are still very much in our mind, we'll never forget

Artistic endeavours -
Penny's hankering after art classes still continues to "draw" her (Ed - "joke") and Tony's musical activities have seen him making great strides with his vibrato. As many of you know, Philip's "group" go from strength to strength and they may release a CD of their efforts in future - Phil says "It's all down to lots of practice".
Dancing - we we're able to dance for much of the year until Tony's rheumatics and Penny's hand injury put a stop to that. We'll never forget the night when she was dancing "Foggy Loggy" to "Much Swindon" and she dropped her "stick" during the sticking (Ed - sticking is hitting your partner's stick with your stick).

Shopping
Many of you will be surprised to know that we have changed our shopping habits quite a lot this year, we were regulars at Sainsburys for many years as many of you know, often "having a laugh" with the girls on the tills - we liked the "bargain fridge" and often bought yellow label items to "pop in the freezer". You may, therefore be surprised to hear that we go to Aldi in Tunstall a lot now. We "like the prices" and they have lots of things you can't get in other places, like "German ham"! Tony also likes the "bargain bits" - he recently narrowly missed getting an inverter for only £15.99 (Tony says - an inverter takes 12 volts DC car battery current and makes it into 240volts allternating current mains electricity) - which would have been very useful for the campervan. We also go to the fish-stall in Tunstall market a lot.

"Doing our bit" - we are now managing to recycle much of our household waste (ably assisted by Richard) and often drive specially to the recycling centre with a box of cardboard or a plastic bag of plastic bottles - we think it is so important to do your bit for global warming. We also get rid of rubbish using Freecycle. Along with global warming, we are very concerned about the awful state of affairs on the continent, as many of you know we both think that war is awful - those poor Iraqis - when will our leaders learn not to dabble in the affairs of others??!! We email "our MP" regularly, and he always replies!


"Our Garden"
As many of you know "Our Graden" is our "hearts delight" and is quite the littel "wildlife haeven". We have had lots of little visitors, amongst others we have had pigeons, sparrows, cats and rats visiting!! We have just "lived out there" this year, and it really has paid dividneds don't you think? We are thinking of doing an open garden for charity next year - we'll let you know when. Oh! and thanks for the busy lizzie cutting Marge it "settled-in" very nicely!

Socialising
This year's socialising has been dominated, as many of you know, by music-making - we are between us in lots of choirs and lots of "groups" and "combos" where between us we play as many as 11 different instruments! We also re-entered the thespian world this year with small but significant parts in the Penkhull Mystery play (Ed - it's a Mystery to me how they ever got the parts) - Tony was particularly striking as "Death's" assistant - many friends and family came to see us at various perfomances - to all those who didn't get to see us - sorry you didn't get to see us, maybe next year?
Our friendship with the Headmistress of the Burslem School of Art and her hubby has blossomed this year as we have found a new interest in common - music! - we have been encouraging their first steps on the "musical gang-plank" a lot, and they will make great strides when they learn to "let their musical hair down".
Tony and Penny's summer was dominated by lots of festivals, and so was Philip's and Richard's - although our taste in festivals is very different (as many of you know)!!!!!***???!!!
We are very grateful to our long-time "festival partners" S and M for all their support with Tony's condition. As many of you will know Tony met his all-time musical hero this summer and managed to take a picture of him, "it was almost as good as the time I met Jimmy Hendrix!" Tony quipped later.
We have seen a lot of Harold this year.
We have been very worried about Dave's wife - but you will be relieved to hear that things seem to be "on the up" for them now after a very difficult time. We have spent many hours on the phone and up and down the motorway.

Other news
Matthew is now wearing glasses and is becoming a beaver
Tom and Katie got married (not that Tom and Katie though!) - it was a lovely wedding. As did Diane and Linda - although the food wasn't very good. As many of you know, Tony was in much demand as the "semi-official, official" photographer! (Tony quipped- "I will really have to replace that instamatic"!!) - Congratulations to both the "happy couples"
Rachel is pregnant again!! Congratulations!!!
Tony's Aunty Sandy was 63!!! this year - we just don't know how she does it!
Doctor (no less!) Michael has got his PhD at last - what he doesn't know about synclinal folding in triassic sandstone bedding planes isn't worth knowing. Congratulations Dr Mike!


Well that's it from the Lady-Chairman and Chief Executive of "Vincent-Jones plc" for another year - Hope to see you in the New Year (and if we don't "same time same place next year?")